Set
to premiere at the inaugural IndieCork Film Festival in County Cork,
Ireland on October 19 at 7pm, Sodium
Party
is an experimental non-linear thriller set between both modern day
and the protagonist’s childhood.
Claire
(Slaine
Kelly)
is a girl whose childhood was sheltered by a controlling mother.
After the deaths of her parents, she leaves for college and the life
she never experienced. A new world opens to her as she meets Danny
(James
Corscadden),
a college student obsessed with photography, who is as taken with
Claire as she is with him. He introduces her to a life that she never
had, where they go to parties, and experiment with all there is to
experiment with. But just as life seems to be going her way, Hannah,
an imaginary friend from her childhood, begins to appear and haunt
Claire, and her life begins to unravel in front of her eyes as
the past refuses to stay in the past. A tale of death and life,
rebirth, childhood, control, betrayal, kidnapping and the possible
supernatural, Sodium
Party
breaks down the standard film form to become something truly unique.
Sodium
Party
is for audience who enjoy the work of filmmakers such as David
Lynch (Mulholland
Drive),
Richard Kelly (Donnie
Darko),
or
Adrian
Lyne (Jacob’s
Ladder),
as well as those who enjoy an engaging and non-traditional story that
will keep them guessing. Audiences will be left stunned and
stimulated by the end of the film, unwrapping its many layers. The
film is designed to stand up to multiple viewings, with new pieces of
the puzzle coming to light on each viewing. The poetic narrative has
elements of fantasy or fairy tale.
Filmed
digitally over an intense 17 day shoot in South Dublin/North Wicklow
in 2010, Sodium
Party
is an independently financed film and the first feature production by
Weird Pretty Pictures, with co-funding by Mick
Berry
(Psychosis)
and assistance from New Decade’s Ciarán
O’Connor
(Trafficked).
Part of the film’s funding was raised through IndieGoGo. Even with
its modest budget, the variety of the characters to the scope of the
locations makes the film an immersive and intense experience.
It
is the feature directorial debut of Michael
McCudden,
an Antrim-born filmmaker who graduated from the National Film School,
Dun Laoghaire, in 2002 with a Masters in Screenwriting. The
award-winning writer/director has entertained audiences both at home
and abroad with his shorts, including ‘Wilde
Things’,
‘One
Up on Two’
(2nd place for Best Irish Short in the Galway Film Fleadh) and ‘Maybe
If You…’.
His script “Highway
to Nowhere”
is currently in Pre-Production with New Decade Film and TV with the
support of the Irish Film Board.
Sodium
Party
was written after the birth of Michael’s first child, with the
intention of leaving something behind that showed his daughter a
little of how he sees the world. The project’s origins are in
random super 8 home movies, whose content force a viewer to layer
their own perception onto the images. The story is about the story
itself, whose telling becomes part of its direction. Initially an
experimental found footage film, it was decided Sodium
Party
should utilise the beautiful Irish scenery and marry it with a
European narrative style. This narrative style evolved from the early
drafts as was the original 'home movie' intention.
Producer
Alison
Scarff
ushers in a new generation of filmmakers by running the massive
production at the young age of 21. Alongside her producing partner
Richard
Waters
(also 21 at the time, and editor of the film), they were responsible
for the co-ordination and running of such a major operation for such
a limited budget. Following the completion of
Sodium Party and
owing to a particularly successful working relationship, the two
joined star Slaine
Kelly
as producer and director respectively on the romantic comedy The
O’Briens,
which went on to win the Outstanding Achievement in Filmmaking award
at Newport Beach Film Festival 2013 and is currently set for wide
release on DVD.
Starring
Dublin born actress Slaine
Kelly
(The
O’Briens, Psychosis, Comedown, The Tudors)
in her first lead feature role as Claire, the London based actress is
a regular on the TV screen and has recently come off of a successful
theatre stint. She stars opposite James
Corscadden,
making his debut appearance as the enigmatic and cheeky Danny. A
student of LAMDA at the time of filming, James has received rave
reviews for his theatre work in London, with Sodium
Party marking
his first foray onto the silver screen.
Melissa Nolan (winner
of the 2012 Attic Studio Film Festival Award of Best Support Actress
for ‘Falling’
and star of successful short I
Shagged Ronaldo)
appears as Helen, Claire’s angrily troubled mother. Newcomers
Bronagh
Sheridan
and Caoilfhionn
Hanton
play young Claire and her imaginary friend Hannah, respectively. The
Waterford based girls were both only twelve when filming took place
and were a major find by the production. Michael
Liebman
(WAZ,
Game of Thrones)
plays Charlie, Claire’s domineering father, and is a regular
collaborator with director Michael
McCudden.
Sodium
Party
is set to intrigue audiences on October 19 at 7pm at the IndieCork
Film Festival.