July 5, 2006

A "PRAYER" IN BEVERLY HILLS

and other updates

"War Prayer," a short film inspired by a Mark Twain short story, premiered at the Beverly Hills Film Festival in April 2006 and amazingly won a Best Director award for Harold Cronk over directors of full-length feature films. Since then, this intense and experimental film has quickly gone on to win multiple awards, including Best of Show twice. The screenplay was adapted by Old Fashioned Pictures' Rik Swartzwelder and is one of many projects on which Cronk and Swartzwelder are currently collaborating.

"Michigan Sky," the first film released in the trilogy of HD shorts directed by Swartzwelder and produced by Aaron B. Smith of Dusk Films, premiered before a packed house at the Waterfront Film Festival in June 2006. The other two films in that trilogy, "Loaded" and "Art Appreciation" will roll out to festivals later this year.

"Secret of the Cave," a feature-length family film shot in Ireland during the summer of 2005, recently completed post-production and should be announcing a release date soon. Swartzwelder served as a script doctor on that project.

So far in 2006, Swartzwelder has also taught his annual directing workshop at Calvin College (he's been invited back again for 2007), continued as film curator for Platform Arts/Florida, and had a hand in multiple other narrative and documentary film projects and film festivals, including a workshop on "shameless self-promotion without losing your soul" at the Damah Film Festival in Culver City, California, May 2006.

Over the past few months, however, Swartzwelder has placed the most serious focus on the finishing touches to his romantic comedy screenplay that is currently under option and that he is attached to direct as his feature film directing debut. Additional information on that project should be right around the corner...

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A graduate of The Florida State University’s Graduate Motion Picture Conservatory, Rik Swartzwelder is an award-winning filmmaker whose work has screened at over 135 film festivals, internationally, and garnered over 45 major awards—including the “Student Emmy” for his highly acclaimed master’s thesis film, “Paul McCall,” and the Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival for his multiple award-winning 35mm short, “The Least of These.”

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