Center Stage With Mark Gordon

Neil LaBute talks about his latest film, "House of Darkness," a creepy, sexy, and sinister tale about meeting a random stranger at a bar and going home with them. House of Darkness opens in select theaters on September 9 and then streams on your favorite digital platform on September 13.

Bernardo Ruiz talks about his film KINGDOM OF SHADOWS which offers an unflinching look at the human cost of the U.S.-Mexico drug war.

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski talk about making their film "Big Eyes."

Justin Dyck & Keith Cooper came Center Stage with Mark Gordon to talk about their latest film Anything for Jackson, a family drama with a terrifying twist.

Ryan Spindell talks about his smartly-crafted horror anthology THE MORTUARY COLLECTION. Set in the phantasmagorical town of Raven's End, THE MORTUARY COLLECTION, follows a misguided young girl who takes refuge in a decrepit old mortuary. There she meets Montgomery Dark, an eccentric undertaker with more than a few skeletons in his closet. Montgomery chronicles the strange history of the town through a series of twisted tales, each more terrifying than the last, but the young girl's world is unhinged when she discovers that the final story...is her own. THE MORTUARY COLLECTION is currently available on VOD, Digital HD, DVD and Blu-ray. Written and directed by Ryan Spindell ("50 States of Fright," The Babysitter Murders), THE MORTUARY COLLECTION stars Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption, Thor: Ragnarok), Caitlin Custer ("Teen Wolf," "Swingtown"), Christine Kilmer ("Hollywood," "Shameless"), and Jacob Elordi (The Kissing Booth franchise, "Euphoria").

Alan Adelson and Kate Taverna came Center Stage to talk bout their latest documentary THE PEOPLE VS AGENT ORANGE The Agent Orange catastrophe did not end with the Vietnam War. Today, the world over, a primary chemical of the toxic defoliant controls weeds in farming, forestry, parks, playgrounds… It wreaks havoc on the human genome, causing deformed births and deadly cancers. After decades of struggle and tragic personal losses, two heroic women are leading a worldwide movement to end the plague and hold the manufacturers accountable. In France, Tran To Nga is suing the American chemical industry for poisoning her in Vietnam. In America, Carol Van Strum exposes the continuing use of toxic herbicides. Incriminating documents disappear. Activists are threatened. A helicopter technician secretly films the contamination of reservoirs, while a massive industrial cover-up goes on.

Svetlana Cvetko and David Scott Smith came Center Stage with Mark Gordon to talk about the new film SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT. The film follows three twentysomethings. They form a wholehearted ménage à trois, finding joy together by joining political protests, making art, and falling deeper into their unconventional love until one must return to Italy. Their experience threatens the delicate balance of their relationship in this film that sparks with the restless energy of the French New Wave.

Ben Hozie talks about his latest film PVT CHAT on Center Stage with Mark Gordon. Hozie states, "PVT CHAT is an attempt to understand this epoch's stimulation addiction and the philosophical ramifications of this stimulation transaction economy. It is also an attempt to bring film eroticism into the 21st century ----> I wanted to film masturbation and fantasy in a way that I've never seen at the cinema: raw, honest, and un-glamorous. Sex in cinema is often just cheap titillation or a quick stop-gap in between plot. I wanted to film sex in a way that reveals something about its ordinary everyday-ness. This couldn't have been achieved without Peter Vack (Jack) and Julia Fox's (Scarlet) cinematic courage. The film was entirely funded by money I received when my mother passed away in 2017 ---> thus in some ways it is also a movie about its own making and by extension is a movie about mourning. It deals with heavy thematics but I wanted the film to also be buoyant ---> it is ultimately a romance and a salvo against

Marijnke de Jong and Robin Lutz discuss their latest documentary M.C.ESCHER: JOURNEY TO INFINITY M.C. Escher: Journey To Infinity is the story of world famous Dutch graphic artist M.C Escher (1898-1972). Equal parts history, psychology, and psychedelia, Robin Lutz’s entertaining, eye-opening portrait gives us the man through his own words and images: diary musings, excerpts from lectures, correspondence and more are voiced by British actor Stephen Fry, while Escher’s woodcuts, lithographs, and other print works appear in both original and playfully altered form. Two of his sons, George (92) and Jan (80), reminisce about their parents while musician Graham Nash (Crosby, Stills & Nash) talks about Escher’s rediscovery in the 1970s. The film looks at Escher’s legacy: one can see tributes to his work in movies, in fiction, on posters, on tattoos, and elsewhere throughout our culture; indeed, few fine artists of the 20th century can lay claim to such popular appeal.

Braden R. Duemmler came Center Stage with Mark Gordon to talk about his first feature film, WHAT LIES BELOW, an eerie tale of family, love, and trust. The film follows Liberty, a socially awkward 16-year-old, who returns home from two months at camp to find her mother living with John Smith, a charming and intelligent man with perfect teeth and a chiseled body. His good looks captivate Liberty, but she soon realizes a deception lurking behind the man who may be too perfect to be human.

Seth Savoy is a Cajun American film director and screenwriter from Little Rock, Arkansas. He studied filmmaking at Columbia College Chicago. There he made multiple award-winning short films that screened at more than 65 film festivals around the world. In 2015, Seth took his script “The Echo Boomers” to the Sundance Film Festival and won an independent pitch competition that caught the industry's attention. Five years later, he directed “Echo Boomers” with two academy nominees, Michael Shannon and Lesley Ann Warren, and established his niche of fun and flashy filmmaking with strong political commentary.

Jacob Chase came Center Stage with Mark Gordon to talk about his latest film about a boy and his scary friend Larry. Watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQwiqhdMQ7g&feature=youtu.be

Darren Lynn Bousman has been terrorizing audiences ever since he directed SAWII. His current film, DEATH OF ME, follows a couple whose beautiful island vacation turns into a nightmare when discovering a mysterious video of one of them killing the other. DEATH OF ME is currently streaming on Prime Video. WATCH THE TRAILER: https://youtu.be/mxKoOGstEmo

Malcolm Goodwin & Victor Hawks talk about their inspiring new film BE THE LIGHT, a musical/family drama about the power of love, faith, and redemption, follows a down and out girl who tries to make amends with her dying father. For more information about the film visit www.bethelightmovie.com

Mark Johnston and Mark Ryan discuss WINE AND WAR, a documentary about the history of winemaking in Lebanon and the resilience of the Lebanese entrepreneurial spirit seen through the lens of war and instability. The film will have its virtual theatrical release at Laemmle Theaters on October 9th and available at www.wineandwar.com. All proceeds from the film's release will be donated to CAP-HO www.capho.net, a charity providing medical care to children without insurance at the St. Georges Hospital in Beirut, hit hard by the August 4th explosion in the Lebanese capital.

James Keach talks about his latest film, TURNING POINT: A GUEST FOR A CURE, which follows a group of scientists searching for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease. For more information about the film and where you can watch it visit www.turningpointmovie.com

Sherrida Woodley talks about her award-winning novel Quick Fall of Light. Set during a bird flu epidemic, a woman vows to protect a passenger pigeon whose secret existence will determine humankind's future. The book's inspiration came from her experience working in a pathology lab in the mid-1990s. She saw how environmental destruction and extinction of endangered species could lead to the release of pathogens and viruses deadly to humans.

Award-winning documentary filmmaker and journalist Eric Merola talks about his latest film, THE ANDORRA HUSTLE, a documentary about a private bank closure in Andorra, meant to destroy the Catalonian Independence Movement. THE ANDORRA HUSTLE left dozens facing prison time for money laundering crimes that never existed and scores of innocent families losing their life savings. For more about the film, visit www.andorrahustle.com

Award-winning filmmaker, Dan Partland talks about his latest film #UNFIT: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DONALD TRUMP. The film features a group of mental health professionals who have studied Trump's behavior over the last several years and present a compelling case that Donald Trump is a malignant narcissist and unfit to be President of the United States of America.

Brandon Christensen talks about his latest film, Z, which follows a family who finds themselves terrorized by their eight-year-old son's imaginary friend. Z is streaming on www.shudder.com and available on VOD, Digital HD, DVD, and Blu-ray on September 1, 2020. Be sure to lock the doors, look under the bed, and check the closet to make sure an unwelcomed guest isn’t watching with you.