Congrats to the our friends and creators of "Eve of Understanding."
DEBUT AWARD-WINNING INDIE FEATURE RELEASED ON DVD BY
VANGUARD CINEMAA happy announcement. Eve of Understanding will be released on DVD next Tuesday, March 25, 2008 by Vanguard Cinema. he film will be available for rental on Netflix, Hollywood Video, Movie Gallery, and other independent video stores across the country. Additionally, it is available for purchase on Amazon.com, Barnes N Noble, direct from the filmmakers on their official site, and additional online outlets.
Eve of Understanding can now be pre-ordered or added to your Netflix queue. It will also be available for rental at Hollywood Video and Movie Gallery, as well as a lot of indie video stores across the country.
Written and directed by Alyson Shelton and Produced by Jen Prince, Debut Feature Captures One Woman’s Tragically Humorous Journey into Her Family’s Past.
Jen Prince (producer) hails from San Antonio, a UT Austin alum whose Texas roots show in the material she selects to produce. With an emphasis on regional filmmaking and celebrating the creative talent and resources of Houston, Austin and Dallas, Jen returned to Texas to shoot her debut feature Eve of Understanding. The film had it’s Texas premiere at the inaugural AFI Dallas International Film Festival and was one of three narrative films to receive recognition from the festival, bringing home a Special Jury Prize in the Texas competition. Eve of Understanding recently garnered Best Feature Film Awards at the Beverly Hills Hi-Def Film Festival and the Female Eye Festival in Toronto, and lead actress Rebecca Lowman has been awarded Best Actress awards for her breakthrough performance at three festivals. Writer/Director Alyson Shelton is an alum of the Northwestern University programs in Theatre and Creative Writing for the Media and Jen Prince and Alyson Shelton are graduates of the USC graduate film program.
Written and Directed by Alyson Shelton and Produced by Jen Prince, Eve of Understanding follows Donna, a woman trying her best to cope with her mother's recent passing, which is made all the more complicated by the bad decisions Donna has made in her own life. As she delivers the last notes and tokens there were left behind, Donna finds she can no longer hide from herself. Rebecca Lowman's strong, finely textured portrayal of a survivor anchors a film that is both hilarious and heartbreaking. Eve of Understanding addresses the lies people tell themselves to survive and how those lies imprint themselves on their loved ones - indelibly.
“I love the main character Donna,” expresses Shelton, “because she rushes headlong through life unsure of her purpose, but with passion, and at the end it becomes clear what her purpose was all along - to find herself. I think it's something we can all identify with, but it's more than that. Donna's sent, by her deceased mother, to drop off tokens to Eve's loved ones. A reverse scavenger hunt of sorts. We're captivated by the twists and turns Eve creates from the grave. Eve couldn't truly love Donna in life, but in death she gives Donna the gift of honesty and full disclosure.” After their Midwest Premiere at the Waterfront Film Festival, the filmmakers received letters from survivors expressing their gratitude for the film's honest treatment of the aftermath of abuse.
The haunting original score is by Peter Senchuk, a graduate of the film scoring program at USC. Peter was named a Silver Medalist for “Best Use of Music in a Feature Film” for the Eve of Understanding score at the Park City Film Music Festival, Park City, Utah. It features vocals by Rebecca Lowman (DONNA). Shelton wanted the score to have a confessional, intimate feel and chose to have the actress actually sing on the score.
Eve of Understanding is a low-budget film following a unique process. In May 2005, Jen Prince, Alyson Shelton, Cody Shelton, Elizabeth Santoro, and Rebecca Lowman set off from Los Angeles, CA in a cargo van and Alyson’s Honda Accord on a 3700 mile journey that would take them to Katy and Austin, Texas and Sedona, Arizona.
With an emphasis on encouraging regional filmmaking, additional cast and crew were hired locally. “ Making Eve of Understanding independently with a core group of collaborative filmmakers allowed us the freedom to follow Alyson Shelton's unique structural vision and tackle some alternative content, “states producer Jen Prince.
“Alyson looks deeply into characters and trusts them, there is a raw and unflinching quality to her voice that impresses audiences and draws them in. She is a writer/director to watch.” Prince and Shelton are continuing their partnership beyond Eve of Understanding and are in post production on an epidosic internet series they’ve created, “Slug” and in development on their next feature and a documentary television pilot.
Mastered to HD with a 5.1 soundtrack, Eve of Understanding was awarded Best Feature Film at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto, where it was the opening night film. Eve of Understanding is also the winner, Best Feature Film at the Beverly Hills Hi- Def Film Festival and was named one of the top ten finalists at the Fylmz competition in Nashville. Rebecca Lowman was honored with Best Actress awards at the Boston Film Festival, the Fylmz Film Festival Nashville, and the Breckenridge Film Festival in Breckenridge, Colorado. The score was awarded a Silver Medal for Best Use of Music in a Feature Film at the Park City Film Music Festival. The film has also previously been exhibited at the Sedona International Film Festival, the MethodFest in Calabasas, CA (where Rebecca Lowman was nominated for Best Actress), the Waterfront Film Festival in Saugatuck, Michigan, Dances with Films in Los Angeles, the
Rhode Island International Film Festival, FAIF in Los Angeles, 28th Annual Festival of Women and Cinema in Florence, Italy, the Southern Fried Flicks Film Festival in Georgia and has upcoming screenings in Chicago, Florida, Wales and Spain.
To order your copy, check out these links:
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Amazon.com•
Barnes N Noble.com•
Netflix•
Vanguard Cinema
(distributor)
