Noticias

UK-based genre specialist Devilworks has added five titles to its slate ahead of next month’s American Film Market.

Devilworks is attending the first Las Vegas-based AFM in-person, and will be based at the Palms Casino Resort Fantasy Tower.

Its new titles include An American Masquerade, an Australian road movie that sees two failed actors transport drugs across the American West. The film is directed and produced by Jasmine Jakupi and Addison Heath, and stars Dylan Heath, Yoji Yamada and Elissa Dowling.

Also from Australia is Tim Pine’s Spithood, in which a patient escapes a mental asylum and begins a killing spree.

Filmmaking pair Addison Heath and Jasmine Jakupi are set to unleash another blood-spattered adventure in the form of crime/horror mash-up My Cherry Pie.

Billed as Chopper meets Friday the 13th V, the film stars Sotiris Tzelios, Dylan Heath and Tim Jason Wicks as three Melbourne criminals whose car breaks down as they attempt to flee the city, leading to an encounter with the ominous Crow Family.

What begins as a seemingly well-intentioned invite from the leader of the family (Glenn Maynard) soon unravels as the trio realise they face an evil beyond anything they have encountered in the underworld.

My Cherry Pie was written by Heath, who is producing alongside Jakupi, and Dylan Heath with support from Black Forest Films.

The micro-budget film, which was shot across two weeks between Melbourne and Stawell last November, is the sixth film Heath and Jakupi have collaborated on.

It comes after they...

Dylan Heath and Lola.

Filmmakers Addison Heath and Jasmine Jakupi were two days away from flying to the Us to shoot crime comedy An American Masquerade when travel restrictions scuttled that plan.

Frustrated after spending nearly $10,000 on new camera equipment, they decided to write and direct Good Girl Lola, a fast-turnaround, found footage/horror/comedy/Western, with Covid-19 as a kind of unseen monster.

To circumvent the safe distancing rules, they are filming virtually all the scenes in the living room of the Melbourne house they share with Addison’s brother, actor/producer Dylan Heath.

It’s a 10-day shoot, probably followed by two pick-up days. Dop Jakupi, who is using Blackmagic and GoPro cameras and green screen, tells If: “Even in quarantine we can still be creative.”

Partners in Black Forest Films, they are editing in-house and will engage a post house to complete.

In a case of art imitating life,...

Addison Heath is a multi-award winning writer, director and editor from Melbourne, Australia. After returning to Australia from a trip to Japan, he developed his early interest in filmmaking by creating the early shorts Brethren and Drive-By which got him noticed in the underground Australian film community. Moving on by directing full-length efforts Under a Kaleidoscope, Mondo Yakuza and The Perfect Nonsense, he honed by his skillset and his reputation for relentless and confrontational genre-bending efforts which pegged him as one of the most intriguing artists to watch in the scene alongside his jointly-owned production company, Black Forest Films.

Jasmine Jakupi is a multi-award winning production designer and producer born & raised in Melbourne, Australia. Whilst studying her Bachelor of Design (Interior Design) at Rmit, Jasmine started to focus on the medium of film. She is since known for her multi-faceted work on feature films Under A Kaleidoscope, Mondo Yakuza & The Perfect Nonsense.

Stars: Saya Minami, Kenji Shimada, Kaori Kawabuchi, Kei Miura, Nozomi de Lencquesaing, Yoji Yamada, Sawa Masaki, Yasunari Kondo, Ten Miyazawa, Yûki Kuroda, Dylan Davies Tanaka, Dylan Heath, Ayumu Kawashima, Yumiko Dunk | Written by Bill Clare, Addison Heath, Dylan Heath, Jasmine Jakupi | Directed by Addison Heath, Jasmine Jakupi

I’ll be honest, I’m a Huge fan of writer/director Addison Heath’s work – from his script for Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla; to his fantastic directorial debut Under a Kaleidoscope (which I reviewed back in 2014 when it screened at that years MonsterFest); to his most recent film, the superb genre-bending Monda Yakuza; I have enjoyed each and ever one of his movies to no end. So how excited am I for with his latest opus, The Viper’s Hex, another film inspired by Far East cinema? Let’s just say a Lot!

Whilst his previous film, Mondo Yakuza, was clearly inspired by...

Stars: Kenji Shimada, Glenn Maynard, Skye Medusa, Cris Cochrane, Kristen Condon, Vlady T, Saya Minami, Tom Liddy | Written by Addison Heath, Glenn Maynard, Kenji Shimada | Directed by Addison Heath

A brand-new take on the Japanese Yakuza films of the 1960s, Mondo Yakuza is clearly inspired by the nihilistic work of Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) in particular. The film tells the story of Ichiro Kataki (Shimada), a violent Yakuza gang member travels to Melbourne, Australia after his beloved sister Yuko is brutally murdered by a group of criminals. Hell bent on vengeance he teams up with Cassidy Arizona (Skye Medusa), a lady of the night with a vendetta of her own…

Seijun Suzuki’s prolific work in the yakuza genre was marked by a few things: his visual flair, the often avant-garde nature of his movies, sheer coolness… and actor Joe Shishido; who appeared in a number of Suzuki’s movies,...