The fifteenth anniversary of the beloved Decrease East Facet Movie Pageant (LESFF) has a star-studded lineup. IndieWire can announce that LESFF 2025 will open with the New York premiere of Pete Ohs’ “The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” Could 1. The competition will conclude Could 5 with Lola Rocknrolla’s true crime documentary “The Huge Johnson” about drag queen Dean Johnson.
“Our Opening and Closing Night time movies are proof that indie filmmaking packs a punch,” Roxy Hunt, LESFF Co-Director and CEO of BFD Productions, stated. “Pete Ohs and Lola Rocknrolla are true badass filmmakers, telling tales which are daring, authentic, and unapologetic. At a time when Hollywood is taking part in it secure and overlooking daring, visionary voices, unbiased movie is the place genuine tales have the liberty to interrupt via. LESFF has all the time been about championing that spirit, and this yr isn’t any totally different.”
“The True Great thing about Being Bitten by a Tick” had its world premiere at SXSW. The movie stars Zoë Chao, Jeremy O. Harris, Callie Hernandez, and James Cusati-Moyer a as good friend group whose weekend retreat goes unsettlingly incorrect after an ominous tick chew appears to unravel actuality.
In distinction, “The Huge Johnson” tells the story of late NYC legend Dean Johnson, who was a drag queen, rock star, activist, and enigma, per the logline. “A towering determine within the underground scene, Johnson’s stunning, unsolved demise stays a thriller. Was it homicide? Was it an accident? One factor’s for certain: Dean modified New York ceaselessly,” as the outline reads.
“’The Huge Johnson’ is thrilled to have our New York premiere on the LES Movie Pageant,” director Lola Rocknrolla stated. “Dean Johnson lived most of his grownup life on the Decrease East Facet and I lived on Ludlow Avenue for the higher a part of a decade. Roxy Hunt and Tony Fortress are one of the best competition curators I’ve ever labored with they usually actually care about conserving movie and tradition alive. That is our neighborhood, that is our competition and we will’t freakin’ watch for it.”
LESFF will happen Could 1 to five, and could have screenings at Village East by Angelika and DCTV’s Firehouse Cinema. Buy tickets to the Decrease East Facet Movie Pageant right here.
This competition additionally marks the launch of its first-ever Keep Indie Venture, a direct pipeline for unbiased filmmakers to get their initiatives made. Launched in collaboration with BFD Productions, the initiative connects unbiased filmmakers with improvement, financing, and manufacturing assist to greenlit indie movies. The primary Keep Indie challenge to be a part of the competition is function “Not One Drop of Blood,” which had its world premiere at Filmfort (Treefort Music Fest, Idaho) earlier than screening at The Florida Movie Pageant. It would have its New York premiere at LESFF out of competitors.
“Not One Drop of Blood” is produced by LESFF co-directors Hunt and Tony Fortress, in addition to LESFF Board Member Sarah Wharton. The function documentary movie is directed by Jackson Devereux and Lachlan Hinton, and follows the decades-long thriller of unexplained cattle mutilations in rural Oregon. The doc was primarily based on Anna King’s NPR reporting; King produces the movie that was financed and produced in partnership with BFD Productions, Northpoint Put up, and Copperline Artistic.
“With the Keep Indie Venture, we’re serving to tear down the most important roadblock indie filmmakers face — getting their movies made,” Tony Fortress, LESFF Co-Director and COO of BFD Productions, stated. “It’s not sufficient to only have fun unbiased movie; we have to actively construct a pipeline for daring, risk-taking storytellers to get their work out into the world. By pairing the competition with our manufacturing firm, we’re giving filmmakers actual sources, actual funding, and actual momentum. Nevertheless it doesn’t cease at making films — we’re right here to verify they get seen. Getting indie movies into precise cinemas, on the massive display, the place they belong—that’s what it’s all about. Watching films collectively, at the hours of darkness, the best way they had been meant to be skilled. That’s the magic. That’s the mission.”
Extra Keep Indie Venture options within the works embody narrative movie “Our Our bodies and Different Shames,” written by Malka Wallick and directed by Jenny Lester; and documentaries “The Ark,” “Hoop Like This,” and “Credible Concern.”
“Our Our bodies and Different Shames” stars Alysia Reiner, Micaela Diamond, Gideon Adlon, and Malka Wallick as childhood finest buddies who’re compelled to confront their previous when one is identified with breast most cancers.
“The Ark,” which is directed by Jeremy Chilnick and Viacheslav Rakovskyi, facilities on a younger Ukrainian household who, within the midst of warfare, transforms their farm right into a refuge for 1,000 displaced animals.
“Hoop Like This” is directed by Shubhangi Shekhar and follows one of the best Indian basketball gamers from across the globe as they be a part of forces to compete on the earth’s highest stakes basketball match on ESPN to show to the world that brown males can bounce.
“Credible Concern,” directed by Gabrielle Ewing, is about an opportunity pairing between Yojana, a Guatemalan asylum seeker, and Amy, a DC lawyer, throughout a seven-year battle for justice inside America’s damaged immigration system.
The complete LESFF program shall be introduced quickly.