Marfa Girl

Marfa Girl
Directed by Larry Clark
Produced by Win Craft
Adam Sherman
Written by Larry Clark
Starring Drake Burnette
Lindsay Jones
Adam Mediano
Jeremy St. James
Cinematography David Newbert
Edited by Affonso Gonçalves
Distributed by Larry Clark
Spotlight Pictures
Release dates
 November 20, 2012 (2012-11-20)
Running time
 106 min
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2 million

Marfa Girl is a 2012 drama film written and directed by Larry Clark, and released on his website. The film follows a group of young people living in the West Texas town of Marfa. It won the Marcus Aurelius Award for Best Film at the 2012 Rome Film Festival.[1]

Plot

The film follows Adam, a directionless 16-year-old living in the working class town of Marfa, Texas, and his sexual relationships with his teenage girlfriend, twenty something neighbor, aggressive local artist and high school teacher, while an unhinged, misogynistic border patrol agent watches over the neighborhood. What ensues is a web of sex, drugs, and violence as the Latino skater punks adjust to their gritty, aimless life in the dead end town.[2][3]

Cast

Production

Marfa Girl was shot exclusively in Marfa, a small town in Presidio County, Texas. The town had previously been used as the filming location for the critically acclaimed 1956 film Giant, which was also the last movie to star James Dean.[4] Clark cast a mix of professional and non-professional actors for the roles in Marfa Girl.[4]

Release

Marfa Girl premiered at the 2012 Rome Film Festival where it won top honors. On November 20, 2012, Marfa Girl was released on Larry Clark's website priced at $5.99 for one-day streaming access.[1] There are no plans to release the film in theaters or on DVD.[5] Clark has said that this online-only distribution was a way of bypassing "crooked Hollywood distributors".[1] Past films by Clark, such as Ken Park, have had difficulty in distribution because of their subject matter.[6]

On May 19, 2014, Spotlight Pictures announced that it had secured worldwide rights to distribute the film on all platforms;[7] subsequently streaming access to the film was removed from Larry Clark's website.

On October 14, 2014, Breaking Glass Pictures announced they acquired North American distribution rights from Spotlight Pictures. [8] Breaking Glass Pictures released Marfa Girl theatrically and on VOD on April 3, 2015. The DVD release will start June 23, 2015.

Critical reception

Despite winning the award for best film at the Rome Film Festival, the major critical attention directed at Marfa Girl has generally been more lukewarm in its enthusiasm. Boyd van Hoeij of Variety praised the cinematography while directing criticism at the acting of some cast members and the generally shallow plot, mentioning that "the sex and nudity are as plentiful as the plot and teen characters are thin."[2] Jordan Mintzer of The Hollywood Reporter praised some aspects of the dialogue and cinematography, but said that the cinematography was "nothing new" and looked at times as if "it was ripped out of a Levi's ad."[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Brooks, Xan (19 November 2012). "Marfa Girl triumphs at Rome film festival". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  2. 1 2 van Hoeij, Boyd (12 November 2012). "Marfa Girl". Variety. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  3. 1 2 Mintzer, Jordan (11 November 2012). "Marfa Girl: Rome Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Five Questions with Marfa Girl Director Larry Clark". Filmmaker Magazine. 14 November 2012. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  5. ↑ Jagernauth, Kevin (12 November 2012). "Exclusive: Clip & Behind The Scenes Photos From Larry Clark's 'Marfa Girl'". The Playlist. Indiewire.
  6. ↑ Needham, Kirsty (4 July 2003). "Police quiz critic after raid". The Age. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
  7. ↑ "Spotlight Adds Larry Clark's Marfa Girl to Cannes Lineup". 19 May 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  8. ↑ . 19 May 2014 http://www.indiewire.com/article/breaking-glass-pictures-acquires-larry-clarks-award-winning-marfa-girl-20141014. Retrieved 8 April 2015. Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

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