Chattanooga Film Festival’s Second Wave Includes ‘The Leech’ and ‘Night Shift’!

The Chattanooga Film Festival returns for its ninth consecutive year this summer, June 23 through 28, in virtual form. As with their first wave announcement, wave two once again showcases eclectic programming dedicated to the weird, mind-bending, and indie side of genre filmmaking.

Highlights for this round includes opening night feature The Leech, from filmmaker and CFF alumni Eric Pennycoff (Sadistic Intentions). The Christmas set horror-comedy stars genre favorites Jeremy Gardner and Graham Skipper. Closing out the fest will be the world premiere of Greg Swinson and Ryan Thiessen‘s intense sounding thriller Night Shift.

The fest adheres to tradition this year with the return of the secret screening. There’s only one this year. This Secret Screening will allow CFF 2022 VIP Badgeholders to be some of the first to experience one of the year’s sure-fire home runs for genre film fans. So steeped in mystery and majesty is this year’s secret screening that the festival has begun releasing a series of codes and clues surrounding the screening. Film fans can email their guesses to secrets@chattfilmfest.org. The first lucky fan to guess the screening will win a badge to attend CFF 2023.

As usual, CFF’s shorts blocks are a veritable smorgasbord of quality short cinema sure to impress and occasionally bewilder. These shorts blocks are being presided over by fan favorites and CFF alumni Andre Gower and Ryan Lambert of THE MONSTER SQUAD. The shorts lineup for 2022 includes more than 70 short films, comprising six feature-length blocks packed with new work from returning filmmakers Izzy Lee, Chris McInroy, and Beck Kitsis.

Read on for CFF’s second wave of programming:

FILMS

A PURE PLACE

Award-winning director Nikias Chryssos (DER BUNKER) follows up on his success with the story of a young and feverish boy named Paul who must challenge the obsessive community that surrounds him in order to free his sister from the nefarious conspirations of the cult leader, Fust.

CRYO

Trapped in an underground facility, five scientists wake from cryogenic sleep with no memory of who they are or how long they’ve been asleep. They soon make a shocking realization: a killer is hunting them down there, and may even be hiding among them.

GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY

After having her identity stolen, a woman, and her son’s pregnant girlfriend, bond together on a surreal journey as they attempt to track down the perpetrators.

MAKE POPULAR MOVIES

A self-important filmmaker aspires to change cinema. An actress and actor languishing in commercial hell gets cast. Through this journey they find fame and emotional destruction. Hooray for Hollywood! A slapstick absurdist film about how people create and view movies in the 21st Century.

MODEL OLIMPIA – North American Premiere

A mother has designed an unconventional plan to change her son’s disturbing obsessions.

MOTHER MIDNIGHT

Twenty-something Jiwon attempts to deal with the loss of her mother and her father’s worsening drinking. Faced with a violent neighbor threatening the family, and complicated love life, she accepts the aid of a local shaman.

MYSTERY SPOT

A number of lost souls find refuge in a small motel in the middle of nowhere, its only distinguishing characteristic being the ruins of an old Mystery Spot—a long-dead roadside attraction with strange metaphysical powers. Nathan and Rachel find solace in one another, both attempting to escape dark pasts that seem to be using the Mystery Spot to go from being painful shadows of their lives to very real entities of the present. Everyone at the Mystery Spot will be affected by its unique properties, but only some will survive its reality-shattering implications.

NIGHT SHIFT – World Premiere – Closing Night Film

After a break-in occurs during her first night on the job, the lone night shift janitor must fight to survive when she becomes the target of the masked intruders.

PHANTOM PROJECT

In filmmaker Roberto Doveris’s heartwarming LGBTQ+ Chilean comedy, we follow Pablo, a young actor who dreams of starring in a movie, but to pay the bills, he has to work as a simulated patient in medical schools and bizarre alternative therapy sessions.

PUSSYCAKE – North American Premiere

A struggling all-girl rock band goes on tour and discovers their worst problem is not just being forgotten by their fans.

SECOND SUN – North American Premiere

A film about the life of a modern Siberian Tatar village on a forgotten stretch of the Silk Road.

SECRET SCREENING

Though the CFF Secret Screening has long been a sacred tradition of our festival, this year’s truly takes the cake. We’re so excited about this one we’ve decided to shroud it even more in mysterious ass mystery than our past secret screenings. Yeah, we know there was that one time we made y’all join a cult before we started the movie, but it was obviously totally worth it! We’ve already begun dropping cryptic hints and badly rhyming clues for eagled-eyed festival attendees, and we’ve set up the email address secrets@chattfilmfest.org if you’d like to venture a guess as to what this year’s secret screening is. The first person to email us with a correct answer will get a free VIP badge to CFF 2023. This screening is open to VIP Badge Holders only

SELF PORTRAIT

Director: Joële Walinga | 2021 | 68 mins | Experimental | Canada

A portrait of humanity as captured by its surveillance cameras.

THE ATTACHMENT DIARIES

Two troubled women on the edge see their lives intertwined when they embark on a vicious crusade of revenge, fueled by shifting passions and haunting secrets.

THE LEECH – World Premiere – Opening Night Film

A devout priest welcomes a struggling couple into his house at Christmas time. What begins as a simple act of kindness quickly becomes the ultimate test of faith once the sanctity of his home is jeopardized

THE UNSETTLING

Abena and Kwame are struggling to recover from a devastating tragedy. They travel to Los Angeles for a vacation that they hope will help them find their way back to one another. Instead, during an awkward dinner with estranged friends, Vivian and Anthony, Abena is increasingly terrorized by an evil possessing the house. As her terror grows, it ultimately engulfs all four with horrifying consequences.

TRUE BELIEVER – World Premiere

Siblings discover family secrets at a quirky cabin in the desert.

WOLKA – North American Premiere

Anna gets paroled from a Polish prison after fifteen years behind bars. Once free, Anna has but one goal – to find a woman whose name is Dorota.

ZERIA

Gaspard is the last man on Earth. Zeria, his grandson, is the first human to be born on Mars. Gaspard tells him about his life, his fears, his loves… in the hope Zeria will come to see him before he dies… Zeria would be the first human being to return to Earth without having ever known it…

EVENTS

THE LEECH – Live Commentary Track

Help celebrate CFF 2022’s opening night film as we join THE LEECH’s writer/director/producer Eric Pennycoff along with the film’s stars Jeremy Gardner, Graham Skipper, Taylor Zaudtke, and Rigo Garay for a cocktails (or mocktails!) encouraged live commentary track that will provide fun and fascinating insights into one of our wildest 2022 offerings.

CFF Presents: A Magical Ass Evening with Shane Brady

Not only is Shane Brady a talented actor/writer/director, he’s also one of the most gifted

magicians working today. Though his magic skills are on full display in his new film BREATHING HAPPY, making its world premiere at this year’s fest, Shane has a hell of a lot more tricks up his sleeve (sorry, we couldn’t resist). Along with his lovely assistant—acting CFF Mayor David Lawson Jr.—Shane has graciously offered to regale CFF 2022 VIP Badge Holders with some of his signature magical badassery.

The Best Films Never Made Podcast

CFF is pleased to welcome filmmakers and film historians Stephen Scarlata (JODOROWSKY’S DUNE) and Josh Miller (SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1 and 2) for a special live episode of their acclaimed podcast in which the duo explores the most legendary movies NEVER made. Laugh and learn about the weird and wild world of cinema that almost was!

The Return of the Monster Squad

Our ride-or-die homies for life, Andre Gower and Ryan Lambert, stars of earth’s finest film, THE MONSTER SQUAD, make their triumphant return to CFF. They’ll be acting as hosts for our Dangerous Visions and WTF Shorts blocks and leading Q&A sessions with this year’s attending filmmakers. This year’s CFF shorts RULE so we hope you’re ready to ROCK UNTIL YOU DROP.

THE THIRD SATURDAY IN OCTOBER, Double Feature w/ Live Cast & Crew Dispatches

We’ve got your Saturday night all planned out for you: Join us on the official CFF 2022 Discord Server for a Double Feature Picture Show of the wildest order; we’ll be watching filmmaker Jay Burleson’s THE THIRD SATURDAY IN OCTOBER PART V! Immediately followed by THE THIRD SATURDAY IN OCTOBER PART I (trust us, this is the order in which you want to experience them). Throughout the watch party we’ll be getting live dispatches and updates from the cast and crew’s private screening, and we honestly can’t wait to share in celebrating this fantastic pair of films with you.

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