LOS ÁNGELES // Damian John Harper // Germany // RT 97 min
Friday 10/3 // Doors Open 8:30pm // Film starts @ 9:00PM
Mateo, 17, and his family prepare for him to leave their small Mexican village for Los Ángeles, like so many before him. In addition to the family savings, he needs the local gang‘s support to ensure a safe passage and help on the other side. At first, Mateo is willing to do anything to join the gang, that is, until the leader demands that he kills a rival gang member. Mateo refuses to carry out the murder and the gang leader seeks bitter revenge.
(Tickets give you free access to opening night party @ Lot45 sponsored by Hotel BPM *** MUST RSVP)
DIRECTOR’S BIO
Damian John Harper was born in 1978 in Colorado, USA. After receiving his degree in Anthropology with Magna Cum Laude he worked as an Ethnologist in Southern Mexico before studying film directing at the Munich Academy of Film and Television (HFF). Harpers’s graduation short film TEARDROP strikingly shows the state of American Youth with a gang initiation ritual entirely shot from the POV of the main protagonist. TEARDROP won numerous awards in over 50 festival competitions around the world.With his debut feature project LOS ÁNGELES Harper revisits the Mexican community in which he used to live as a young Ethnologist. LOS ÁNGELES was a quarterfinalist at the prestigious Academy of Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in
Screenwriting and also selected for the Berlinale Coproduction Market.
Main Cast
Mateo Bautista Matías
Marcos Rodríguez Ruíz
Lidia García
Daniel Bautista
Donaciano Bautista Matías (Chamoy)
Valentina Ojeda
Main Crew
Directed and Written by Damian John Harper
Produced by Jonas Weydemann and Jakob D. Weydemann
Co-Produced by Frank Evers, Helge Neubronner and Andreas Eicher
Commissioning Editor ZDF: Katharina Dufner
Production Manager: Linda Ramos
Cinematography by Friede Clausz
Production Design by Adán Hernández
Costume Design by Abril Alamo and Felicitas Adler
Sound Design and Composition by Gregor Bonse
Edited by Lorna Hoefler Steffen
FILM WEBSITE
http://www.losangeles-film.com/index.html
AWARDS
Best First Feature Award 29th FIC Guadalajara
LA Muse Award 20th LA Film Fest