Chicago-based filmmaker Michael Glover Smith has earned acclaim for his indie dramas, including Mercury in Retrograde and Rendezvous in Chicago. Spinning off his 2022 feature Relative, his latest film Hekla stars Elizabeth Stam as we witness a day in the bustling life of a Chicago actress. Ahead of a world premiere on March 6 at the George Lindsey UNA Film Festival in Florence, Alabama, we’re pleased to exclusively premiere the first trailer for the film that also features narration by Wendy Robie (Twin Peaks) and a cameo by internationally renowned photographer / filmmaker Sandro Miller as himself.
Here’s the synopsis: “Hekla, a determined Chicago actress, races through auditions, breakups, and self-doubt over the course of one chaotic day, risking her heart and career to claim her voice and step fully into the artist and woman she’s meant to be.”
“Hekla is the fulfillment of a dream born in my head in 2016,” said director Michael Glover Smith. “While holding auditions for my second feature, the Roxane Mesquida-starring Mercury in Retrograde (2017), I conceived the idea of creating a project about a day in the life of an actor. I wanted to make a movie that would simultaneously be a love letter to Chicago’s theater and film communities as well as an exploration of the inner world of a single artist: going inside their brain, showing their ‘process,’ and the difficulty they have in achieving a balance between their personal and professional lives.”
He adds, “After making my fourth feature, Relative (2022), with the brilliant Elizabeth Stam, I decided to refashion this script as a vehicle for her, inviting her to board the project not only as lead performer but also co-writer and co-producer. The result is the deepest collaboration I’ve ever had with an actor, yielding the kind of intense, Gena Rowlands-esque performance that every director dreams of eliciting. Because the title character has a larger-than-life comedic persona, I also decided that the film’s visual style would need to take its cues directly from the flamboyant Hekla, intermixing different aesthetics in a wild and unpredictable yet always purposeful manner. Hekla was self-financed primarily through the sale of my condo. As a filmmaker, I’ve never had more skin in the game.”
See the trailer below.
The post Exclusive Trailer for Michael Glover Smith’s Hekla Captures an Artist’s Day first appeared on The Film Stage.
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