Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Backstage have partnered for The Business series in celebration of the 2015 Film Independent Spirit Awards. It Felt Like Love is nominated for the JOHN CASSAVETES and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY awards.
A screening followed by a Q&A with writer/director Eliza Hittman and lead actor Gina Piersanti.
Moderated by Bruce Fretts, Closer Weekly Magazine.
Synopsis
Eliza Hittman's powerful debut feature tells the story of Lila (Gina Piersanti, in a stunning debut), a fourteen year old spending a hot summer in a blue-collar Brooklyn neighborhood far removed from the bustling city. Awkward, lonely, and often playing the third wheel, Lila is determined to emulate the sexual exploits of her more experienced best friend. She fixates on Sammy, a tough older guy, when she hears that "he'll sleep with anyone." Deluded in her romantic pursuit, Lila tries desperately to insert herself into Sammy’s gritty world, but in doing so she puts herself into a dangerously vulnerable situation.
Trailer:
Panelist Bio
Eliza Hittman is an award-winning filmmaker, born and based in New York City. She received an MFA from CalArts, School of Film / Video (2010). Her critically acclaimed debut feature film It Felt Like Love premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in NEXT section and the International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Tiger Competition in 2013. It was voted one of the Top Ten films at Sundance in Film Comment by Laura Kern. Her short films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Oberhausen Kurzfilmtage, the British Film Institute, BAMcinemaFEST, and the Guggenheim (Bilbao) and more. She was recently named one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Indie Film. She currently teaches Directing at Columbia University, School of the Arts.
Moderator Bio
Currently Senior Articles Editor at Closer Weekly Magazine, Bruce Fretts has written for The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, Emmy Magazine, Vulture.com, Playboy.com and Digital Spy. You can read his movie reviews at FrettsonFilm.com.
