MOM
"Try is a young man who enlists the help of a ramshackle agency of detectives to track down his biological mother. His search leads him from his hometown of White Dog to the big city, meeting various dubious characters along the way. Try's drunken, charismatic case manager Arden leads him through urban landscapes in search of a mysterious woman named Judy Curtains, who seemingly holds the key to his identity. As Arden slowly begins to uncover his client’s true motives, he suspects that Try may not be who he seems. Twisting the sleuth genre into an offbeat noir about adventure, family, and the desire to belong, MOM is the directorial debut of prominent queer poet/writer Lonely Christopher."
—Filmatique
"Lonely Christopher's first feature MOM is a fascinating entry into a genre I will call the spiritual detective story. The young protagonist of the picture has engaged an organization called Responsible Research to find his birth mother, and the search sends him on a series of adventures that brings him closer and closer to a possible resolution. But the real journey of the film is one from innocence to experience, and Christopher uses the structure of a police procedural to dramatize the universal sensation of having one's mind blown by encountering a larger, more complicated world. This is an open ended film in the best kind of way."
—Tony Torn
"Really important. The best and smartest film I've seen in the last decade (at least)."
—Samuel R. Delany
Written and Directed by Lonely Christopher
Cast:
Joseph Huffman
Gore Abrams
Melinda Prisco
Alejandra Bufala
Paul Lazar
Janet Hubert
Michael Potts
with Mink Stole as Woodrow
Extras:
"Indie Memoir" by Lonely Christopher
Cinema Lonely: the Film Projects of Lonely Christopher
Watch:
Amazon Prime (Stream, Rent, Buy)
CRAZY HOUSE
After the suicide of his best friend, a teenage boy is forced to reckon with his guilt in a sexually charged psychodrama inside a haunted house.
"I think we made a unique film. I think we made an intensely personal film that manages to balance genuine emotion with elements of genre and abstraction. Our inspirations came from all over the board, Gus Van Sant, David Lynch, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Derek Jarman, and Dario Argento, to name a few. This is a film that explores extreme emotions in a visceral way. Oh, and it has crazy lighting and a dance sequence."
—Aaron Mirkin
Written by Lonely Christopher
Directed by Aaron Mirkin
Cast:
Connor Jessup
Eric Osborne
Matt Landry
Debra Drakeford
Greg Gale
Extras:
WE ARE NOT HERE
A series of disturbing, impressionistic vignettes center around abduction and revenge as everyone waits for what a new road into town will bring.
"Though it is not as specific a form as a sonata, fugue, or cannon, I do believe the structure of the story is comparable to that of some classical music. With the road sections acting as prelude and coda, the scenes with characters acting as individual movements with a recurring theme, and the shed/lake/forest as interludes. The idea of utilizing musical structures within filmmaking is something that has interested me for some time. Multiple stories within a film are not uncommon, but they usually have very clear connections between the stories or characters. The ambiguity of the relationship between the scenes added to my interest in adapting it into a film."
—Aaron Mirkin
Written and Directed by Aaron Mirkin
Based on "The Relationship" by Lonely Christopher
Cast:
Sam Earle
Myles Erlick
David Fox
Aidan Greene
Ron Lea
Tony Rosato
with Julian Richings as Monday
Extras:
Lonely Christopher in Conversation with Aaron Mirkin
Watch:
Dramatic Short
2013
PETIT LAIT
A stubborn horse appears in a family's kitchen and won't move as childhood whimsy is interrupted by sudden violence in this French language short.
"I was impressed that they built a whole set and got a real horse that they then had to pretend to shoot in the head. The horse, of course, was a professional and not actually harmed. He did shit on the floor, though."
—Lonely Christopher
Written and Directed by Francois Choquet
Based on "Milk" by Lonely Christopher
Cast:
Laure Calamy
Jacques Herlin
Baptiste Morrisseau
Olivier Rabourdin
Timothe Vom Dorp
Alison Wheeler
Extras:
Watch:
