The Nightingale introduces Follow Focus, a new process-oriented screening series that rallies audiences and resources behind a moving-image maker as they complete a feature project. The Chicago event is Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Nightingale, 1084 N. Milwaukee, 7 p.m., $15.
Designed to expand viewership into the production stage, Follow Focus invites audiences to observe a director's process, collaborations, and inspiration. Their inaugural featured project is The Ladies Almanack, written and directed by Chicago-based filmmaker Daviel Shy and produced by NYC-based artist, Stephanie Acosta.
The Ladies Almanack is a feature-length experimental narrative film shot on Super 8 and based on the novel of the same title by Djuna Barnes. The film is a kaleidoscopic tribute to women's writing through the friendships, jealousies, flirtations and publishing woes of authors and artists in 1920s Paris.
The Nightingale will host four screenings during the course of the next year, each one in a different season and highlighting a different element of the process ending with a rough-cut screening in Fall of 2015. The production of a commissioned art object will also raise funds for the film. Admission price at each of the four screenings includes part of a limited edition, risograph-printed Ladies Almanack Tarot Deck designed and illustrated by Jess LeMaster. Attend all four screenings for a complete 24-card set.
The Winter Screening will include a treatment presentation by director Daviel Shy, exclusive trailer release, and dramatic readings from The Ladies Almanack 1928 original novel. Reception with artists to follow the screening.