FADE Chicago Theatrical Premiere on May 2-8 at the Facets Cinematheque

A dark drama set in a world without sleep, FADE is a chilling exploration of what happens if our bodies refuse to shut down -- and the resulting effect on those closest to us. Arthur Dichter (David Connolly, 13 Conversations about One Thing), is suffering from a rare genetic disorder called fatal familial insomnia, which typically manifests itself in adulthood, and causes increasing insomnia, panic attacks, phobias, hallucinations, and ultimately, dementia and death.

Tormented by wakefulness, Arthur wanders the streets, finding new ways to keep his body moving, even self-mutilation. He's lost the ability to communicate, keeping a journal to express his private thoughts with no intention of sharing it with his wife Anna (Sarah Lassez, The Blackout, Mad Cowgirl). His doctors wonder if he's suicidal. Anna denies it, knowing he is in a waking nightmare where delusions and reality become more and more indistinguishable. As his disease gives way to despair, loneliness and alienation, he and Anna hang on to their last shred of hope until the bitter end. Writer-director Anthony Stagliano’s film examines issues of identity and marriage in the face of impending doom.

FADE was written and directed Anthony Stagliano and also features performances from Michael T. Weiss (Pretender) and special guests Devon Odessa (My So-Called Life; Mad Cowgirl) and Anthony Drazan (director and screenwriter of Hurlyburly). The film also features music from improvisational legends AMM, Art Bears, Ginnungagap, and original music by Cameron Presley (Upsilon Acrux) and Hollis Lee (Midnight Sun).

FADE is David Connolly’s final performance; Mr. Connolly passed away tragically in the fall of 2006.

YOUNG YAKUZA Opens Theatrically

March 14-20 - Chicago, Facets Cinematheque
April 4-10 - Los Angeles, ImaginAsian Center
April 18-24 - New York, ImaginAsian Theater

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL Official Selection

Filmed over an 18-month period, "Young Yakuza" explores the Japanese crime underworld, through the portraits of two figures: 20-year-old Naoki, a new recruit of the Kumagai crime organization, and his boss, confronted by new social trends which are gradually edging out the yakuza gangsters.

Because cameras are traditionally prohibited from this world, the director had to establish a climate of trust with the clan he filmed. He and the gang boss were able to agree on certain rules: "I came to Mr. Kumagai with a set of rules and principles so that the project could be completed. We agreed that I’d refrain from filming their illegal operations, as our point wasn’t to conduct a TV investigation but rather, make a film" said director Limosin.

PIOTR UKLANSKI'S 'SUMMER LOVE' STARRING KAREL RODEN & VAL KILMER OPENS THEATRICALLY IN FEBRUARY -

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL OFFICIAL SELECTION

An allegorical Western, Summer Love literally begins with a bang. With the audience still sitting in darkness, a shot rings out. A man appears on-screen… dressed in black… bleeding… dying. It is THE STRANGER (Karel Roden), a harbinger of death, a nameless catalyst foreshadowing events to come.

As the film unfolds the characters are introduced not by name, but by what they represent. THE WOMAN (Katarzyna Figura) is a fading beauty who can’t quite conceal the scars of her past. THE SHERIFF (Boguslaw Linda) is an alcoholic, lovelorn shell of a man who is literally mutilating himself over losing The Woman. THE BIG MAN (Krzytof Zaleski) is a fat, jealous cohort of The Sheriff who lusts after The Woman.

One day, The Stranger comes to town on horseback with THE WANTED MAN (Val Kilmer) who he retrieved at the site of a massacre in the film’s opening scenes. The Stranger has come to collect the bounty money. He winds up getting roped into playing The Sheriff’s sadistic gambling game and loses The Wanted Man to the gloating Sheriff. Fed up this self-destructive ploy, The Woman storms out of the saloon. Later that night, The Woman in a state of desperation seduces The Stranger. All hell breaks loose after their night of passion. A posse is formed under the Sheriff’s inept leadership and an epic manhunt ensues.

Told in a highly visual style, Summer Love recounts a tale of love, pain, redemption and death. On a surface the story is as old as time: Man looses Woman...Woman wants a new life…Stranger comes to town. Summer Love relies less on dialogue than upon on fast paced, meticulously composed images. They lead the audience into the hearts and minds of the characters creating the visual tableaux that tell their stories.

THEATRICAL DATES:

LOS ANGELES: February 8-14, Laemmle's Grande Theatre

SEATTLE: February 8-14, Grand Illusion Cinema

CHICAGO: February 22-28, Facets Cinematheque

PORTLAND: March 7-13, Clinton St. Theater

CINEMA EPOCH TO RELEASE TAKASHI MIIKE'S 'DEMON POND'

Cinema Epoch has acquired DEMON POND, a stage play by Takashi Miike, for DVD release in May.

DEMON POND, by prolific director Takashi Miike, captures the popular Kabuki-esque play of the same name that he staged and directed to sold-out audiences in Japan. The sparse, almost minimalist production, dramatically recounts a mythical fantasy based on a traditional fairytale by Kyoka Izumi. In it, Miike weaves the modern-day story of a man searching for a friend who has mysteriously disappeared, with a magical tale involving strange creatures, a heartbroken princess, and a pact that can't be broken. Conflicts between faith and skepticism, and between social obligation and personal desire drive the narrative toward a dramatic conclusion where the worlds of the real and the surreal inevitably collide.

Takashi Miike, who has proven himself a master of multiple genres as a filmmaker, expands on his talents with this dazzling stage production. He has adapted the traditional fable faithfully, while updating the tale with humor and wit, a truly exceptional experience.

The DVD release will include special behind the scenes footage of Miike directing the stage play.

Cast: Shinji Takeda ("Taboo", "Pulse"), Tomoko Tabata, Ryuhei Matsuda ("Taboo"), Yasuko Matsuyaki ("Hula Girls," "Another Heaven"), Kenichi Endo ("Big Bang Love", "Great Yokai War"), Kitaro ("Samurai Fiction"), and legendary actor Tetsuro Tamba ("You Only Live Twice").

CINEMA EPOCH AND INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL FILMS TO DISTRIBUTE JAPANESE SEXPLOITATION FILM "THE BITE"

Cinema Epoch in partnership with Independent International Films will distribute the lost Japanese grindhouse classic.

Directed by Hiroshi Mukai (Tokyo DeepThroat), The Bite takes a scandalous, peek into a steamy life of hot young gigolo. Watch as seduces beautiful Japanese girls then makes love to them as they are secretly watched by the rich clients of his high society madam.

Featuring some of the most stunningly gorgeous Japanese babes ever on screen, the Bite, will excite the senses with steamy sex, clever twists and unexpected turns. Sink your teeth into The Bite.

THE BITE will be released on DVD April 1.

CANNES FESTIVAL'S "AVIDA" DEBUTS ON DVD IN APRIL

Benoit Delepine and Gustave Kervern, co-directors of MIFF 2005 cult favorite Aaltra, return with Avida, another eye-popping dark comedy. The loony French filmmakers appear in leading roles as two of the three men whose plan to kidnap a wealthy woman’s dog goes horribly awry. Instead of nabbing the dog, the “kidnappers” are forced to help its owner, Avida, carry out her death wish. In a cinematic universe all its own, Avida features stunning black-and-white cinematography that highlights the filmmakers’ penchant for politically incorrect, scatological tableau sequences that both offend and amuse. As Variety put it, “Somewhere between Monty Python, Jacques Tati and a slideshow of New Yorker cartoons, this critique of life’s cruel inconsistency confirms the French co-directors’ gift for reinterpreting surrealism in a humorously modern key.”

Features a cameo appearance by Claude Chabrol and stars popular Jean-Paul Gaultier model Velvet D'Amour

THE "SLAVE WIDOW" IS COMING SOON!

Mamoru Watanabe's cult classic comes to DVD on April 1.

Slave Widow is an early masterpiece by director MAMORU WATANABE, considered by many as the pink genre's greatest aesthete, as well as one of its hardest working practioners with over 300 films to his name from his debut in 1965 with Whore to 2004's Tokyo Desire. Slave Widow also boasts two of the eroductions' greatest stars of the day: NORIKO TATSUMI, best known for Atsushi Yamatoya's surreal Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands made the same year, and MASAYOSHI NOGAMI, star of many a film from the Sixties pink film's most important director Koji Wakamatsu. Also look for a young NAOMI TANI. Brand new digital transfer from the original 35mm film elements.

CINEMA EPOCH TO RELEASE OMNIBUS FILM "TEN NIGHTS OF DREAM"

"A hundred years ago, the author Soseki Natsume challenged us all by saying 'I am an ambitious man who wants the people of 100 years hence to solve my riddle,' (Quoted from a letter to Sohei Morita on 22nd October, 1906.) The resulting omnibus film, 'Ten Nights of Dream,' brings forth an amazing labyrinth of entertainment brought to life by a selection of Japan's greatest living directors of film. Their bold interpretations, imaginative presentation and fantastic visuals actually solve Soseki's century old riddle and present their audience with a beautiful world of immortal fantasy as so keenly depicted in Soseki's masterpiece, 'YUMEJUYA.'"

Directors:

Akio Jissoji ("Tokyo The Last Megalopolis", "Rampo Noir")
Kon Ichikawa ("The Burmese Harp", "The Inugamis")
Takashi Shimizu ("The Grudge", "Reincarnation")
Atsushi Shimizu ("Eko Eko Azarak", "Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: The Wish")
Keisuke Toyoshima ("Tales of Terror from Tokyo")
Suzuki Matsuo ("Otakus in Love")
Yoshitaka Amano ("Final Fantasy", "Vampire Hunter D" etc.) & Kawahara Shinmei
Nobuhiro Yamashita ("Linda Linda Linda")
Miwa Nishikawa ("Wild Berries", "Sway")
Yudai Yamaguchi ("Battlefield Baseball", "Cromartie High School"

CINEMA EPOCH ACQUIRES CANNES FILM 'YOUNG YAKUZA'

U.S. distributor Cinema Epoch has acquired distribution rights to the Cannes Film Festival official selection YOUNG YAKUZA directed by Jean-Pierre Limosin.

Filmed over an 18-month period, "Young Yakuza" explores the Japanese crime underworld, through the portraits of two figures: 20-year-old Naoki, a new recruit of the Kumagai crime organization, and his boss, confronted by new social trends which are gradually edging out the yakuza gangsters.

Because cameras are traditionally prohibited from this world, the director had to establish a climate of trust with the clan he filmed. He and the gang boss were able to agree on certain rules: "I came to Mr. Kumagai with a set of rules and principles so that the project could be completed. We agreed that I’d refrain from filming their illegal operations, as our point wasn’t to conduct a TV investigation but rather, make a film" said director Limosin.

The film screened out of competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival and was produced by Celluloid Dreams' Hengameh Panahi and Christian Baute. Director Limosin's previous films include "Novo" and "Tokyo Eyes."

The deal was negotiated by Cinema Epoch heads Gregory Hatanaka and Eunseon Ha and sales company Dreamachine's Alessandro Raja.

"We are excited to be able to present to the audience this intense and extremely candid look into this secret society," says Cinema Epoch president Hatanaka.

Cinema Epoch will open the film theatrically early next year.