At long last, we have dates!
It's official: YESTERDAY WAS A LIE opens Friday, December 11, 2009. It will be released on DVD in the spring.
This has quite literally been a six-year journey of blood, sweat, tears and joy. After winning two dozen awards on the festival circuit and being named one of the ten best festival films of the year by Film Threat, YESTERDAY was picked up by E1 Entertainment this past summer.
Lately, we've been hard at work recutting and remixing the movie into its final incarnation -- including an all-new song on the soundtrack -- and we're finally done. There's a red carpet premiere scheduled for Monday the 7th, followed by the theatrical opening that Friday.
For more information -- including the pending DVD release -- check here. Details will be posted as we get them. Showtimes will be available as we get closer to the opening.
See you at the theatre.
It's been a seemingly endless road, but tonight, we can finally announce a deal that we've been working toward for a long, long time:
YESTERDAY WAS A LIE is being released!
E1 Entertainment (formerly known as Koch) has officially purchased the distribution rights to the film. We couldn't be happier.
A big congratulations to everyone involved. E1 is a great company, and we're proud to be with them. Their marketing department really "gets" the film, which is critical; the fact that they're willing to put their name behind a modern black-and-white noir about quantum mechanics speaks volumes!
There's still a lot more to do. We're currently working on the final cut of the movie, including a brand new song for the soundtrack. We'll keep you apprised of the film's release schedule as decisions are made over the coming months.
I'd love to breathe a big sigh of relief, pop open a bottle of champagne, and relax... but not yet. Back to the editing room! :)
Just a quick note! If you're in L.A., be sure to come see Chase Masterson performing live as part of the Universal "Celebrity Band Saturdays" concert series. Her show is July 18 at 9:15 pm.
More news on the film soon...
YESTERDAY WAS A LIE is now on Apple's movie trailers page! Check it out:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/yesterdaywasalie/
Of the countless independent films released every year, Apple chooses only a select few to include on its official site. It's quite an honor.
As of May 15, we are the tenth most popular trailer on their site (above a number of high-profile upcoming studio releases). Thanks to everyone for all the interest and attention the film has gotten recently.
Congratulations to the entire cast and crew of YESTERDAY WAS A LIE for winning "Best of Show" (that's the top prize) at the 2009 Accolade Film Awards! This is what the judges had to say:
"YESTERDAY WAS A LIE successfully merges an interesting plot into a film noir and sci-fi crowd-pleaser [with] a notable performance by Kipleigh Brown. James Kerwin delivers a film that will entertain both young and old."
Nice!
Great news to start off the new year! YESTERDAY WAS A LIE was just named one of 2008's best films on the festival circuit by Film Threat, and one of the ten best films of 2008 by Uncapie at Nuke the Fridge.
We're thrilled to announce that YESTERDAY WAS A LIE has been selected as the closing night film at the Beverly Hills Hi-Def Film Festival. The new cut of YESTERDAY will have its Los Angeles premiere at the gorgeous Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills, screening in beautiful high-definition as it's meant to be seen!
January 4, 2009
5:00 pm
The Fine Arts Theatre
8556 Wilshire Blvd.
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
For a full schedule of festival screenings, click here.
Hope to see you there!
Happy holidays, everyone! I wanted to take some time to let our audience know where the film stands at this point.
We've gotten a lot of emails lately from people following the progress of the film online. The question is almost always the same: When/where can I see the film in theatres and/or buy it on DVD?
The straight answer is: We don't know yet. YESTERDAY WAS A LIE is currently only screening on the festival circuit; keep an eye on the "Upcoming Screenings" page of our website for information on future festivals. We've had distribution offers -- some from very good companies -- but as of the present time, it's really a rights issue. YESTERDAY features numerous songs -- mostly jazz -- on its soundtrack; these songs are owned by various publishers. We got the rights to use the songs in the film; however, upon getting a wider release, we must re-negotiate for what are called broad rights.
That's the stage we're at now. Believe me, music rights are a complex and tricky maze to navigate, and this could take a while. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, we just found out that we have another festival screening in L.A.! This will be the Los Angeles premiere of the new cut of the film, and it'll be in gorgeous hi-def at the wonderful Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills. We'll let you know the date and time as soon as we find out; it'll be around the last week of December / first week of January.
The YESTERDAY WAS A LIE 2009 wall calendars are now available! Click here to check 'em out. They're reasonably priced, and the proceeds go to Helicon Arts Cooperative (a 501(3)(c) non-profit arts corporation) to help fund our film festival run. Happy new year!
We're happy to announce that YESTERDAY WAS A LIE will be screening at the upcoming El Sawy Intl. Film Festival in Egypt. Check Africa -- our fourth continent -- off the list!
We're proud to announce our 45th festival screening (and the third continent on which YESTERDAY WAS A LIE will have screened) -- CamboFest: Film and Video Festival of Cambodia, December 26-28.
From all we've heard, it's a great festival in a country that really needs legitimate, high-quality arts festivals. They're enthusiastic about YESTERDAY and have given us some wonderful feedback about the film. We're happy to be invited to be a part of it.
We're proud to announce that the new cut of YESTERDAY WAS A LIE will be screening at the prestigious Barbados International Film Festival in December. This will be our second screening outside the United States. I was gonna say "We'll have screened on three continents now," but then I found out that Barbados is technically still considered North America.
We just found out that YESTERDAY WAS A LIE won the "Best Feature" and "Best Cinematography" prizes at the Fargo Fantastic Film Festival in Fargo, ND! Sweet!
Congrats to Chase, who won the Best Producer trophy for her work on YESTERDAY WAS A LIE at the LA Femme Film Festival this past weekend!
Meanwhile, we're hard on work on a (slight) re-edit of the film. Exciting. The new, improved cut will premiere at the St. Louis International Film Festival next month.
In case you didn't hear... YESTERDAY WAS A LIE won Best Fantasy Feature and Kipleigh won Best Fantasy Actress at the ShockerFest science fiction film festival this past weekend! Sweeeeeeet.
MIN: Do you believe that the only way to get an original idea made into a film any more is to form your own production company outside the umbrella of a major studio?
JK: The short answer is "yes." If you're a more powerful writer/director it's different. But often even established directors -- Lucas, Rodriguez -- will work outside the "system" some or all of the time, because it really is the only way to bring an unadulterated, uncompromised vision to the screen. Whether that vision ultimately "works" or not is up to individual tastes, obviously, but at least it's your vision and you take responsibility for how it plays to people. My favorite director, Stanley Kubrick, literally exiled himself from Hollywood and all the b.s. that comes with "the business."
Filmmaking is a collaborative medium in the organizational sense, but I believe it is very much an auteur-based medium in the artistic sense. It's important to surround yourself with loyal people who have great artistic sensibilities themselves. You always listen to what they have to say, but ultimately you have to make your directorial choices yourself. Some people mistake that for an ego thing, but it's not; it's an efficiency thing.
MIN: You were recognized for your theatre directing two years in a row by Back Stage Magazine critic Paul Birchall.
JK: It's nice to be recognized critically, of course, because it means my work has resonated with someone. As for why it resonates… Who can say? All I know is that I'm an unapologetic perfectionist, down to every detail of every beat. It can be annoying to the crew and cast, but hopefully they realize that's what sets a given project apart. I take my time and don't churn out a lot of material -- I'll wait years between projects sometimes -- and I think that "pondering" about a project, as Terrence Malick calls it, is where a lot of the real directorial magic happens. Ultimately, I direct films and plays that I would want to watch myself. Scorsese says a film's director is simply its first audience member, and he's right, of course.
I do see certain patterns in the material I've chosen over the past few years. In theatre, I've been drawn to scripts that may seem difficult or dense to stage. People rarely choose to mount, for example, Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis, or the untitled play which Hamilton believed is his lost Cardenio. They have reputations as being "lesser" pieces. But they really aren't -- Cardenio, for example, is beautiful and haunting and rich but it's misunderstood. So I try to take a piece like that and get to its essence. Tell it in an original way that maybe nobody's thought of before, but in a way that most directly and fully gets to the marrow of the material. A script is an eggshell, and it's the director's job to crack it and get to the good stuff inside. It's different, of course, when you direct a film you've written yourself, like YESTERDAY WAS A LIE. Then your challenge is to retain objectivity and insure that the story communicates universally, which is where many up-and-coming writer/directors tend to stumble.
MIN: What do you think is unique about your style that separates you from the rest of the field?
JK: I would say that if my work resonates with an audience, it's because it deals with universal themes that are timeless and timely. I try to tackle projects that are strong character pieces, yet which also pose greater, fundamental questions about the nature of reality and existence -- things that border on the metaphysical. My stories rarely have storybook endings, and I think that touches people. Who hasn't been in pain at one point or another?
Joseph Campbell once said that one's psyche is easily torn apart in this day and age because the modern world has lost contact, psychologically and spiritually, with the symbols of our collective unconscious. And that's not just new-age mumbo-jumbo. Anyone who has truly studied quantum mechanics, probability, causality, nonlocal entanglement -- all these wonderful innovations in modern science, such as the work being done by Dr. Dean Radin in the field of consciousness -- cannot fail to be struck by the inherent complexity and beauty of creation. But you have the secular humanist movement hell-bent on convincing people that there is nothing to believe in. You have quasi-scientific "skeptical" groups who actually aren't scientists at all. They're just fronts for atheists -- guys like Randi, Hitchens, and Dawkins... idealogues devoted to labeling as a "fraud" anything they can't explain with their obsolete ideas of what science is supposed to be. Most of these organizations aren't even accredited, because they don't practice legitimate science -- they reason backwards from their conclusions. And they tear people's souls out.
If I could go off on a little bit of a tangent... I'll bring it back around to the film in a moment. In my view, materialism -- the whole anti-spiritual movement -- is junk science. Jung called it "fashionable stupidity." It's actually fascinating to me. There have been dozens of scientific studies published in accredited, peer-reviewed scientific journals which demonstrate the statistical likeliness that there's something "spiritual" or "parapsychological" at work in our universe. Decades ago, Sir Fred Hoyle calculated that the odds of there not being an outside intelligence are 1 in 10-to-the-40,000th-power. I'm not a gambling man, but if I were, I wouldn't take those odds! His opponents call that "Hoyle's Fallacy," but that strikes me as an underhanded attack because I'm not convinced there's any fallacy involved from a statistical point of view. Lee Smolin's done similar work in which he's calculated that the chance of the universe randomly developing the way it has is about 1 in 10^229. Which means that, mathematically, it is basically statistically impossible that there's no higher power. Schrödinger, the discoverer of quantum mechanics, figured out almost 100 years ago that the materialist worldview is simply ridiculous from a mathematical perspective! Yet atheists continue to push their one-sided agenda, in the disguise of "science." Randi issued a challenge years ago, saying he'd pay a cash prize to any scientist who could statistically demonstrate the existence of supernatural phenomena in a scientific journal. Well that's happened dozens of times, but he always finds an excuse not to award the prize. And Dawkins, for example, is often touted as an authority because he was Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford. But if you dig a little bit you'll find that his position was a pre-condition of an endowment given to the university by Microsoft billionaire and fellow atheist Charles Simonyi! I recommend Davies' The Mind of God, Radin's The Conscious Universe, Robert Wilson's The New Inquisition, Alister E. McGrath's The Dawkins Delusion, or Dr. Francis Collins' The Language of God for more information on this.
It's sad, really -- and this is the ultimate puzzle for me. Why are there people -- otherwise educated people -- who continue to believe in the fairy tale of materialism despite the mountain of statistical evidence to the contrary? I think the average guy just thinks he's being "smart" by being anti-spiritual -- he probably doesn't know the real research, because the secular humanist movement has done a damn good job of suppressing it. But guys like Dawkins, Randi, and Hitchens... These are educated guys. Do they honestly not realize they're wrong? Yet they continue to persist. My theory is that they do it because, if they accepted what modern science has revealed to us, they would have to surrender at least a part of themselves to something greater in the universe, which they are deathly afraid of doing because it means they are not in control.
In YESTERDAY WAS A LIE, the character of Hoyle is going through just that -- refusal to acknowledge the interconnectedness of consciousness, even when she comes face to face with it in the shape of the Singer, because it means she's not in charge -- it means she can't make choices without consequences. It's one of the things that causes her depression.
So in conclusion, I think the stories I tell fill a certain void for audiences left by an increasingly anti-spiritual society -- a certain hunger for material that asks and honors transcendent questions.
MIN: You have been both a successful director and a college instructor. How rewarding is it to be able to pass your experiences on to the next generation of filmmakers?
JK: I've really only taught a little bit. I did some cinematography lab instruction at T.C.U., which is where I went to film school, and I've done a couple lectures elsewhere. Whenever I hear that one of my films or theatre adaptations is being studied in a drama or literature course somewhere, that's always very flattering and I'm glad that people are getting intellectual stimulation from my work. The most important thing, for me, is not just to create "entertainment," but to create pieces which are intelligent and spark discussion, debate, analysis, etc. Those are the films that are truly lasting. Kubrick had a quote (about 2001) which has always resonated with me: "I have tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing and directly penetrates the subconscious with an emotional and philosophic content, just as music does. You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning." For me, making movies like that is the best way to pass on your experiences.
MIN: YESTERDAY WAS A LIE is an interesting combination of detective drama and science fiction. What inspired you to write this type of film?
JK: I went through a couple of rather painful romantic break-ups with which I had a difficult time coming to terms; a difficult time understanding "why." That's the most basic, fundamental premise of this film, but that's really oversimplifying it. YESTERDAY WAS A LIE is very hard to describe because it crosses a lot of genres -- character drama, thriller, detective mystery, film noir, science fiction. And at the same time, it's not really any of those.
It started with an image in my mind. It was of Bacall playing Bogart's role -- a female noir detective, lonely, wandering the streets. I honestly have no idea where it came from -- the Jungian "collective," I suppose! Which is pretty appropriate considering the fact that the various lead characters are all representative of Jungian archetypes. It gives the story a universality -- a weight and a timelessness. The film is set in a nebulous reality where people use cell phones and computers but sometimes dress and talk like they're in the 30s or 40s. It's a world where Hoyle and Dudas are stuck in their pasts, unable to get over their feelings of pain and guilt, so everything surrounding them is a manifestation -- a projection -- of that.
Ever since I was little, I've had a fascination with science fiction. Not cheesy, B-movie science fiction, but the intellectual kind. So I've naturally been drawn to that genre as a director. It's funny, because sci-fi has this bizarre reputation among some "serious" critics as being a red-headed stepchild or something. In reality, it's the most creative genre there is, and the best for storytelling because it posits the hypothetical. The most successful directors are often sci-fi directors, at least for significant portions of their careers. And something like 17 of the top 20 grossing films of all time are sci-fi. So it's not just a genre; it's the genre. Maybe everything else is the red-headed stepchild!
MIN: When someone produces a film like this one hours of research is required to achieve the proper feel and timing. Did you lock yourself away for months watching old movies or do you feel you already had a working knowledge of exactly what you wanted to do in this film?
JK: I actually had relatively scant knowledge of noir, and I was still, late in pre-production, locked away watching old movies! I became a huge noir fan. One thing I realized is that we have an idealized concept of what noir films looked like back in the 40s, but that doesn't always jibe with reality. Recent neo-noir movies like Shadows and Fog, The Man Who Wasn't There, and Sin City are crisp and stylized, but much of that "look" simply wasn't achievable back then with the film stocks. So while my cinematographer (Jason Cochard) and I made the conscious decision to pay homage to noir classics like The Big Combo, Out of the Past, and The Big Sleep, stylistically we went for a look that's a bit more romanticized. Panavision contributed a fully Panavised Sony F900 to the effort -- the camera used in Sin City -- and the footage looks beautiful.
What I find fascinating is how much of the noir look can be achieved with relatively few resources. Much of the visual language of noir came about as a result of D.P.s -- particularly John Alton -- having small budgets and few lights. No matter how limited your resources, you always have the tool of shot composition to paint a truly beautiful picture, if you just take the time and care to do it properly.
...is too late.
YESTERDAY WAS A LIE took home not one, not two, but three trophies at Visionfest in New York this past Sunday night: Best Director, Best Screenwriter, and Best Cinematographer! Pretty sweet. We also won Best Film Noir at the Route 66 Film Festival.
Next up: our screenings in northern California at Movies On a Big Screen (October 3) and ShockerFest (October 4), followed by the LA Femme Film Festival in Los Angeles (October 19). Hope to see you there.
We've just received word that YESTERDAY WAS A LIE has been nominated in two categories at the 2008 ShockerFest International Film Festival in northern California -- "Best Fantasy Feature" and "Best Actress in a Fantasy Film" (Kipleigh Brown). Our screening takes place on Saturday, October 4 at 7:30 pm at the Galaxy 12 Theatre in Riverbank. We'll be there for the closing ceremony and afterparty the following night, October 5.
Our New York premiere is tonight! Chase is there representing. Wish us luck!
Our latest review... this one from Collider.com. Enjoy. :)
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Even at initial glance, YESTERDAY WAS A LIE offers something with truly distinct visual flair and no small amount of intrigue. Joyously anachronistic, writer/director James Kerwin's world should delight film fans new and old with a neo-noir sci-fi detective flick in high-contrast black and white. The mood and the style is all there; rainy streets and smoky clubs, long trench coats and tilted fedoras, nighttime and city lights and beautiful women with dark secrets.
But at its core, YESTERDAY WAS A LIE is something else altogether, making it one of the true joys of the festival circuit right now. Somewhere between a requiem to a lost love and a metaphysical poem, LIE plays with some very big ideas in a way undaunted by its indie budget.
The story begins with Kipleigh Brown's Hoyle, designed by Kerwin as Lauren Bacall in a trademark Humphrey Bogart role of a down-on-her-luck hard-drinking detective with just the right connections on both sides of the law. She's stumbling onto an investigation that proves to be a lot bigger than she had originally thought; one that calls into question the very nature of reality.
There's a surreal nature to Hoyle's character that Brown manages to balance nicely. On the one hand, she has to play with a determination while, on the other, we're meant to feel the imbalance of her in the role.
Genre fans are no strangers to Chase Masterson (best known for playing Leeta on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) who also serves as producer on LIE. Her performance is really something special here, bringing her considerable singing talent into front-focus with her undeniable charisma and putting forth the perfect rendition of a sultry lounge singer. Masterson's vocals alone could make a noir worthwile but her chemistry with Brown is really something special; halfway between a conscience and a spirit guide, Masterson's singer is the other side of Hoyle's same coin.
There are number of other nice acting touches that add some recognizable genre talent without ever coming across as gimmicky including Peter Mayhew sans Chewbacca-makeup and the voice of NPR host Robert Siegel, among several others.
The real star of LIE, though, may be Kerwin himself. The film is so clearly a personal effort on his part that the end result winds up midway between metaphysical poetry and a love song imbued with thoughts and feelings to which any film fan can relate. This is unquestionably the work of an auteur and I'm very anxious to see where Kerwin's next project may bring him.
YESTERDAY WAS A LIE is now touring festivals around the country and is well-worth watching out for to catch on the big screen. Rarely do you come across such a modest production so balanced in heart, soul and mind, not to mention a sizable amount of style. For noir fans, sci-fi fans or just plain film fans, LIE absolutely delivers.
-Cal Kemp, Collider.com
Ken Hulsey, Monster Island News: Playing a lounge singer in a production like this almost seems like typecasting due to your present singing career and love of the songs of the 30s, 40s and 50s. Do you feel like this is the part you were born to play so to speak?
Chase: I knew when I read the script that if I got to do this role, it would be one of my favorite roles, ever. I had, just that week, specifically prayed to be involved in a really quality project, and I truly believe this was an answer to that prayer. This role resonates with me on so many levels, the music actually is just one of them -- the type of music it is has always been my favorite, even while I was growing up, which wasn't exactly a popular choice. But more than that, the things that Singer says to Hoyle are deeply ingrained in me, they always have been. Singer has a sense of playfulness and yet a strong truth, an honesty, an integrity and vital understandings that I feel blessed to get to play. This kind of role doesn't come along very often for any actress. It's a huge treat.
MIN: Did you get a chance to compose any of the pieces you perform in Yesterday Was a Lie or did you at least hand pick some of the music?
CM: The instrumental music in Yesterday Was a Lie is being composed by Emmy Award-winner Kristopher Carter. None of the vocal pieces in Yesterday Was a Lie are original, they're all classics, as it should be. I think the music will add a great deal to the film. James hand-picked the vocals, I think they're perfect. Because they truly pertain to the action of the film. You'll see.
MIN: I found it interesting that you are listed as one of the film's producers. Is this your first time working behind the camera? Do you have aspirations to someday take the reigns as a director yourself?
CM: While it's true that I'm the producer on Yesterday Was a Lie, I didn't go into this project intending to be. I was cast in November 2005, but our line producers dropped out, and the film was pushed. While we were trying to figure out what to do, I basically just said, "Hey, I can do this." I had produced before, although not on this thorough a level. It's not brain surgery, but it is lots of hard work; so far, it's working very well. But, as far as directing, I have way too much respect for fine directors to ever feel like I'd want to tackle that. I do love producing. Even as high as the pressure can be sometimes, it's worth it. I want to find directors, and James Kerwin is the finest example, who deserve their work to be known, and I'll help make sure it happens.
We're thrilled to announce the New York premiere of YESTERDAY WAS A LIE at the gorgeous Tribeca Cinemas in Manhattan as part of Visionfest. The festival runs September 17-21 and we'll have more details to follow. Keep your ears to the ground.
Hot on the tail of our screenings at San Diego Comic-Con and the West Hollywood International Film Festival, YESTERDAY WAS A LIE has been reviewed by Film Threat, one of the most prominent cinema review magazines in the world. Let's just say the review does not disappoint. We got 4.5 stars -- a rarity for Film Threat -- and a stellar write-up. Please check it out here!
Reminder: Our next screening is at at the Laemmle Grande in Los Angeles on August 16 at 8:30 pm as part of the Downtown Film Festival.
Also... just been notified that we'll be screening in the Wildwood By the Sea Film Festival in New Jersey and the Route 66 Film Festival in Springfield, IL (where YESTERDAY will be receiving the Film Noir Award). We have several more screenings coming up as well, in Washougal, WA; Kissimmee, FL; Atlanta, GA; and Estes Park, CO. As always, keep your eyes on our website for a full listing of showtimes.
Just got notice that YESTERDAY WAS A LIE has another Los Angeles screening coming up... We've been accepted into the Downtown Film Festival, which runs August 13-17! They'll be announcing the date and time on their site in the coming weeks.
Also, just FYI, the time of our screening at the West Hollywood International Film Festival has changed from 4:00 to 4:30 pm. Still Friday, August 1.
YESTERDAY has two screenings this weekend in Texas at Lazy Dragon Con. Check their website for times.
Last but not least... Don't forget to check out our screening and panel with Kipleigh, Chase, Peter, Andrew, Jason, and myself if you're going to Comic-Con next weekend! (Tickets for the con are already sold out.)
All for now...
We're pleased to announce that YESTERDAY WAS A LIE will be published as a new graphic novel -- a black-and-white, sexy, edgy take on the film -- by Wandering Sage Publications next year!
Keep your ears to the ground for more news about the graphic novel in the coming months.
Just found out we're having another Los Angeles screening... this time at the West Hollywood International Film Festival! As of now, we're scheduled to screen at 4:00 pm on Friday, August 1, at Regency Theatres' Fairfax Cinema (7907 Beverly Blvd.). We'll keep you updated with any new developments.
Check out this week's issue of Back Stage magazine! There's an excellent article in it about Chase Masterson and the production of YESTERDAY WAS A LIE.In case you can't grab a physical copy, here's a link to the article on the Back Stage website:Enjoy!