Programme

Pearblossom Hwy

Mike Ott, USA 2012, 78’

"What else am I? What else can I say. I’m a trouble maker. I’ve always wanted to be a rebel," says Cory, one of the three protagonists of Pearblossom Hwy, directly into the camera. The other protagonists are Anna, an illegal immigrant from Japan who is selling her body to make money to get back home, and Jeff, Cory's homophobic brother, a former soldier who now lives day-to-day. In the  style of New Wave filmmakers, the director draws on sensitive moments from actors’ lives (meeting your father for the first time, a grandmother sick on another continent), so we are never sure if we are watching reconstructed reality or the director’s vision. Ott warns us that his  film is about the abandoned youth in the small towns of America and the fallacy of the American Dream, and most importantly, the truth that lies somewhere in that porous theshold between fact and fiction.

Mike Ott

Mike Ott studied art history at the California Institute of the Arts. He began his directing career by making music videos for bands such as Pretty Girls Make Graves and The Blood Brothers that premiered on MTV and MTV 2. He is inspired by the French New Wave. Pearblossom Hwy is the second part of his desert trilogy. Presently, Mike teaches film directing at the University of Southern California (USC).

Filmography

2006 Analog Days

2010 Littlerock

2011 Kid Icarus (dok. / doc.)

2012 Perblossom Hwy

2014 Lake Los Angeles  

Cast & Crew

director Mike Ott
screenplay Mike Ott, Atsuko Okatsuka
cinematography Mike Gioulakis
editing David Nordstrom
music María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir
cast Atsuko Okatsuka, Cory Zacharia, John Brotherton
producer Molly Hansen, Mike Ott, Athina Rachel Tsangari
production Haos Films, Small Form Films
sales Small Form Films
language English, Japanese
coloration colour
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