Pretend We’re Kissing to Screen at Indie Series

;Pretend We're Kissing at Canadian Indie Series;

(March 6, 2015 – Toronto, ON) There has been significant discussion over many years — decades in fact — about the key weakness in the Canadian film industry, distribution. Small films with small budgets can’t expect to be given the same screen time a huge Hollywood blockbuster will get given the investment the theatre chain pays in renting the film from the distributor. Even relatively successful Canadian films never seem to last very long on the big screen. There have been various attempts to put bums in seats, none of them successful no matter how dedicated the small band of advocates are, most if not all surviving as non-profit corporations funded largely by the whims of various levels of government and various government agencies. Yet, years later not much has changed. Now comes a new attempt and this one has promise of success because it is being initiated by a theatre chain.

It`s called The Canadian Indie Film Series and it`s a curated series of Canadian Independent films that will enjoy a sneak preview on the first Wednesday of every month at 18 Landmark theatre locations in Canada. Each movie will then be available that month in select partner cinemas.

The Canadian Indie Film Series started earlier this week with the Canadian Screen Award nominated feature film The Valley Below. It screened on March 4th at 18 Landmark Cinemas across Canada and will go on to play for week long engagements in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Ottawa and elsewhere. Between March 4th-7th, the cast and crew will travel to Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and Hamilton for special appearances and Q&A’s

The second film in the series is the debut feature film for Canadian actor-writer-direct Matt Sadowski, Pretend We’re Kissing. Chosen to be the closing film for the Canadian Film Festival in Toronto, it will screen there on March 28. A few days later, on April 1, it will screen as part of The Canadian Indie Film Series in Landmark Cinemas locations across Canada.

The film follows Benny and Jordan, two regular, everyday people who have a whirlwind weekend romance. Dov Tiefenbach (Harold and Kumar, Sympathy for Delicious) plays Benny, a nebbish character who struggles to make a real romantic connection and Tommie-Amber Pirie (Michael: Tuesday and Thursdays, Bitten) is Jordan, a girl hell-bent on proving magical love can exist. Benny`s roommate Autumn, is brought to life by Zoë Kravitz (Divergent, Mad Max: Fury Road), an unemployed, bi-sexual hippy who is also a self-diagnosed agoraphobic.

Click here for more about Pretend We’re Kissing and for a link to a trailer for the film. Click here to learn more about the Canadian Indie Film Series. If enough people see these movies the concept will grow and if it becomes successful other chains may copy the idea and if that happens we may finally have a viable, sustainable Canadian film biz.