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| Tadeo Garcia’s “Greasepaint” plays June 1 in the Chicago Horror Film Festival. |
A group of suburban kids finds the body of a dead clown and take it home to play with.
“To adults, this is a dead thing, but to the kids, it’s something more special. It’s like that saying, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” said Tadeo Garcia.
Garcia is the director of “Greasepaint,” a short film playing June 1 in the Chicago Horror Film Festival.
Garcia’s native Orland Park served as the fictional town of Happy Hills, the setting of “Greasepaint.” “I liked the contrast with the dark story and the perfect setting that the neighborhood offered, with its nice track housing, winding streets, and manicured lawns and trees,” Garcia said.
Garcia’s Iconoclast Films is prepping for final reshoots May 29-31 for their feature “On the Down Low.”
Garcia, partial owner of the Mellow Yellow restaurant in Hyde Park, financed the $15,000 Super 16mm feature along with his family.
“On the Down Low” tells the story of two men from rival Latino gangs who fall in love and eventually face the brutal consequences of their relationship.
“I wanted to explore how gangbangers deal with this history of homosexuality,” Garcia said. “I tried not to stereotype too much with the gangbangers.”
Principal photography for “On the Down Low” was in summer 2002, with an earlier round of reshoots in December. The May reshoots will add scenes fleshing out the leads’ family relationships.
“Down Low” is based on a short film called “Broken Warnings” that Garcia made with “Down Low” screenwriter Roger Domian and DP Christopher Buzek. The three also collaborated on “Greasepaint.”
“Broken Warnings” won best drama at the Planetout.com festival in LA, and also played the Minneapolis Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the Chicago Latino Film Festival.
Garcia plans to wrap post on “Down Low” this August and begin festival submissions (a rough cut is already complete). He’s working on another script with Domian, and is also considering scripts by other writers for his next production.
Local film producers and independent DVD distributors Gatlin Productions organized the Horror Fest. The festival features 20 short horror films, including three works by Lincoln Kupchak, visual effects editor for “The Deep Blue Sea,” “Collateral Damage,” and “Holes.”
The Chicago Horror Film Festival runs from 5 to 11 p.m. Sunday, June 1 at the 3 Penny Cinema, 2424 N. Lincoln. For more see www.gatlinsdomain.com.
For more on Iconoclast Films see iconoclastfilms.com. ? by Ed M. Koziarski, edk@homesickblues.com
