Before Ned Rifle (presumably) hits fall festivals, the latest picture from Hal Hartley will come to us via less-than-usual distribution, premiering this July 4 on Fandor. Don’t take the method as a bad sign, though: judging by its trailer, My America not only takes a form that will befit smaller screens, but, through its 21 monologues, should also provide fascinating, occasionally lacerating glimpses of the United States’s many forms.
Today, The Film Stage is proud to present an official poster, which one can see right below. After you’ve had a look, check back on My America‘s Fandor page for the imminent premiere — after all, we don’t think you’ll want to miss out.
Synopsis:
“Who are you, America?” To mark its fiftieth anniversary, the prestigious Baltimore, Maryland theater Center Stage asked fifty celebrated writers to create monologues answering that question, then entrusted independent film icon Hal Hartley with filming the results. This feature version draws on twenty of those wildly disparate explorations. Their voices include a beauty pageant contestant who’ll never win a prize for brains; a U.S. soldier stationed in Afghanistan; a man talking about his crack-addicted sister, and another whose selling of “ten dollars of pot” led to a life in prison; a minster whose views on gays differ from his congregation; a crusty dowager worried about her coddled descendants; and a 1960s-bred free spirit still flying the freak flag decades later. There is room for an absurdist historical lesson as well as an entirely sung baseball anecdote. By turns angry, comic, political and poetical, MY AMERICA is a smorgasbord of distinctive character snapshots offering plenty of virtuoso acting and idiosyncratic style.
Any thoughts on the poster? Are you hoping to see Hartley’s project?