Los Angeles (Special to ZennieReport.com) – Lucy Kerr’s FAMILY PORTRAIT gets a distributor. Factory 25, the celebrated Brooklyn-based independent film distribution company, announced today the acquisition of world distribution rights on writer/director Lucy Kerr’s award-winning feature directorial debut FAMILY PORTRAIT and releases the film’s theatrical trailer.
FAMILY PORTRAIT world premiered at the 2023 Locarno Film Festival in the Concorso Cineasti del presente section, the festival’s slate dedicated to discovering the cinema of tomorrow, where it took the Boccalino d’Oro for Best Director for Kerr. It will begin its theatrical run at Metrograph theater in New York City on June 28, with further engagements and a digital release to follow.
What’s FAMILY PORTRAIT About?
Set at the dawn of Covid, FAMILY PORTRAIT follows a sprawling family gathering to take a group picture as Katy (Deragh Campbell, Kazik Radwanski’s ANNE AT 13,000 FT., Nathan Silver’s STINKING HEAVEN) searches for the matriarch that can’t be found, desperately weaving from one family member to the next.
Beginning on an idealistic summer day, the FAMILY PORTRAIT progressively descends into a realm where time and space lose their grip, transforming the family portrait into a solemn and enigmatic ritual of transition.
The feature film teases the line between non-fiction and narrative filmmaking, using intimate Steadicam cinematography, intentionally daunting sound design, and an all-enveloping mounting frenetic energy to create a wholly unique and emotionally powerful cinematic tableau.
Film Critics Love FAMILY PORTRAIT
Embraced by critics upon its premiere for its confident grasp of elusive form, The Hollywood Reporter called the film “quietly disquieting” and “an intoxicating portrait of sorts — or more like a series of fragmented snapshots where Katy and her loved ones keep coming together and breaking apart, like photos assembled into a collage without ever forming a full picture.”
Screen International called Lucy Kerr’s movie “a low-key fever dream of casually confining domesticity” with Siddhant Adlakha writing that FAMILY PORTRAIT “captures the unspoken dread of the early pandemic” in his review for Truthdig, further stating that “the more the movie withholds, and the more it forces us to engage with the character’s despondency, the more psychological dimensions it reveals. The movie’s allure lies in its imagining of horrors and conflicts yet unseen.”
In addition to the film’s winning reception at Locarno, FAMILY PORTRAIT has received accolades from the Black Canvas Film Festival (Best Director), the Hainan Island International Film Festival (Best Picture, Best Actress, and the Best Artistic Contribution), the Austin Film Society (Feature Film Grant), FIDLab (AirFrance Prize), and the New Horizon Award from the U.S. In Progress event in Wroclaw, Poland.
Who Is FAMILY PORTRAIT Director Lucy Kerr?
Lucy Kerr, the director of FAMILY PORTRAIT, is Houston-born and New York-based. She was one of Filmmaker magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film of 2022 and a graduate of CalArts film and video program.
Inspired by familial pain and the feeling of loss that reflects what was felt by many during the pandemic, in the world of her film —which was shot in Hunt, TX, along the Guadalupe River— when grief is denied, mourning transforms into a melancholia that begins to undermine the sense of “reality,” ultimately leading to a divergence beyond the territory of the living.
About The FAMILY PORTRAIT Cast
Chris Galust (GIVE ME LIBERTY), Katie Folger (DAY 5), Rachel Alig (FIRST BLUSH), Robert Salas (CASSANDRO), and Silvana Jakich (WHAT HAPPENED AT 625 RIVER ROAD?) round out the cast alongside Campbell. The film is produced by Megan Pickrell and Frederic Winkler, co-produced by Rob Rice, and executive produced by Kerr for Conjuring Productions, her production banner, and Brittany Reeber. Lidia Nikonova lensed, Karlis Bergs edited, the sound department was comprised of Andrew Siedenburg and Nikolay Antonov, and production design was done by Tim Nicholas.
The deal was negotiated by Grady for Factory 25 and Kerr and Pickrell, with the support of Lights On.