Walking to Werner

Walking To Werner

2007-06-23T19:11:00.000-07:00

For booking email Adam Sekuler at
adams@nwfilmforum.com

Walking To Werner Synopsis

2007-06-23T18:57:00.000-07:00

This is not a film by Werner Herzog... It's about a guy that walks to him... 1,200 miles from Seattle to LA.

In winter of 1974, German film director Werner Herzog (FITZCARRALDO, GRIZZLYMAN) walked from Munich to Paris to see his dying friend, film critic Lotte Eisner, hoping that by making the journey on foot he would somehow force her to stay alive. In summer 2005, hoping simply to meet the man who had inspired him to make movies, actor/filmmaker Linas Phillips made his own pilgrimage, walking1,200 miles from Seattle to Herzog’s Los Angeles home. Braving freeway traffic, weather, the California Highway Patrol and his own self-doubt, Linas fulfills a dream that parallels the filmic dreams accomplished by his hero. But as one marginal roadside character after another shares a story with him– redemptive, tragic, funny – they begin to steal focus from Linas’ obsession with Herzog. There is Scorpio Johnnie Angel, who began walking thirteen years ago inTallahassee, Florida, when his wife and daughters were killed in a convenience store hold-up. Eli, a nursing student, walked from Los Angeles to the Oregon Coast, intending to kill himself but finding a new start instead. Brian, an itinerant chainsaw carver in the Redwoods, tells the story of how he murdered his girlfriend’s brother eleven years ago. Punctuated by Herzog’s voiceovers, these stories and Linas’ own spiritual battles make Walking to Werner as much a testament to human vulnerability and redemption as a chronicle of the 1,200-mile quest to meet the legendary director.

Festival Screenings:

2007-06-23T18:52:00.001-07:00

Winner:
Special Jury Prize, Seattle International Film Festival '06
Best Director, Northampton Film Festival '06
Best Feature, Newburyport Documentary Film Festival '06

Official Selection:
Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival '06
Independent Film Festival of Boston '06
SilverDocs Documentary Film Festival '06
Jerusalem International Film Festival '06
Edinburgh International Film Festival '06
Austin Film Festival '06
Mill Valley Film Festival '06
The Hof International Film Festival '06
Museum of Television and Radio Documentary Festival '06
Edmonton International Film Festival '06
Olympia Film Festival '06
Big Sky Documentary Film Festival '07
Goteborg International Film Festival '07

Press Quotes

2007-06-23T18:42:00.000-07:00

“A stirring collage of unwelcoming freeways, poignant road kill, eloquently pathetic passers by, potential epiphanies, and Phillips’ beaming indomitable face pressing onward... [Walking to Werner) partakes of the audacity, madness and ‘ecstatic truth’ of the geniuswho inspired it.”
-Peter Keogh, The Boston Phoenix 4/14/06
“In this day and age, I feel there are very few films that actually have enough grace to possess life-changing power, but Phillips’ film [Walking to Werner] has had just that.”
-Paula Nechak, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/19/06
“Phillips acquires a portrait of life on the fringes that is touching, unsettling, a bit giddy and a bit frightening.”
-M. Faust, Art Voice 4/06

CREW BIOGRAPHIES

2007-06-23T18:27:00.000-07:00

LINAS PHILLIPS, DIRECTOR

A graduate of New York University’s Experimental Theater Wing, Linas Phillips started out as a live performer of experimental theater and alternative comedy while living in New York City. Linas’ day job for over 5 years was babysitting special needs kids, with whom he started making short videos. Since then he has made several short video projects, including "Salome Duoba" ,a documentary about his 93-year-old Lithuanian grandmother which he directed, shot and edited.

He is currently working on a new documentary entitled, Great Speeches From a Dying World, featuring a cast of homeless people performing famous speeches from history.

DAYNA HANSON, PRODUCER

Experimental stage director and 2006 Guggenheim Fellow in Choreography, Dayna Hanson was Co-Artistic Director of Seattle-based dance theater company 33 Fainting Spells from 1994 until 2006. Hanson co-directed the 16mm short ‘Measure’ (2001), the first dance film ever to be selected in the New York Film Festival, and ‘Entry,’ winner of Best Experimental Short award at Seattle International Film Festival in 2003. ‘Measure’ is featured on First Run Features’ ‘Dance for Camera’ dvd. From 1999 until 2003, Hanson was co-curator of New Dance Cinema, the Pacific Northwest’s only dance film festival. Her latest work for the stage, ‘We Never Like Talking About the End,’premiered at On the Boards in December 2006. Her newest short, ‘Rainbow,’ premierd at Seattle International Film Festival in June 2007, which she is developing into narrative feature film.

BEN KASULKE, CAMERA

Ben Kasulke graduated from Ithaca College with a B.S. in Cinema Production,including advanced study at the Filmová a Televizní Fakulta Akadmie Muzickych Umní, Prague’s National Academy of Film. His professional experience includes employment with The Image Treasury, Negative Cutting and Conforming, Raindance Film Festival, and the Olympia Film Society. Ben has been the staff director of photography for The Film Company, an award winning Seattle based non-profit film studio, since its inception in 2005. He is the recipient of the KodakVision award for his cinematography on Lynn Shelton’s Grand Jury Prize winning “We Go Way back” at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival. Most recently, Ben was the cinematographer for Guy Maddin's latest film, 'Brand Upon The Brain!'.
JUSTIN HUBBARD, MUSIC

Singer and guitarist for the band, Turpentine Brothers, Justin Hubbard was deeply inspired by the solitude of Linas's raw footage. He and the Turpentine Brothers, (Tara McManus and Zack Brines) also contribute 2 songs from their album, "We Don't Care About You're Good Times". To hear them go to www.turpentinebrothers.com or www.myspace.com/turpentinebrothers

PRODUCTION CREDITS

2007-06-23T18:24:00.000-07:00

Directed by Linas Phillips
Produced by Dayna Hanson
Starring Linas Phillips
With voiceover by Werner Herzog
Featuring Robert Dillard, Dennis Deacon, Charles “Eli” Fellowe, Robert Miles, JodiWalton, Michael Lowery, Brian Paulk, Scorpio Johnnie Angel, Vanessa Spurlock, Dennis Deacon, Perry Frohlich
Camera: Linas Phillips and Ben Kasulke
Additional Camera work: Alan Caudillo, Dayna Hanson, Henry Mumford
Editor: Linas Phillips
Assistant Editor: Dayna Hanson
Original music by Justin Hubbard
Additional original music by Josh Hager
Additional music by Lou Reed & Neil Young
Sound design: Dave Howe, Scott Colburn
Motion effects & Titles: Brian Short
Post Production Facility: Modern Digital

contact:
(for Booking)
Adam Sekuler at adms@nwfilmforum.org (206) 329-1193

(for publicity)
Linas Phillips at linasphill@aol.com (718) 637-4711
www.myspace.com/walkingtowerner
or Dayna Hanson at dh@daynahanson.com

Stills from Walking to Werner

2007-06-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

*Click Images to Download High Resolution JPEGs*

*Click Images to Download High Resolution JPEGs*