LEDA

The Myth Comes to Life as Contemporary Folk Horror in this new and bold reimagining of the Greek myth Leda and the Swan.

Five years in the making, LEDA completed in 2022 as a multi-genre film that straddles MYTHOLOGY and FOLK HORROR with a technical excellence that is unique and cutting edge.

Shot in spectacular STEREO 3D, Leda is available to deliver in 3D as a Bluray 2D/3D unit, as well as a standard 2D DVD.

Winner: Audience Choice Award, Festival of Cinema, New York

Winner: Best Cinematography, Austin Arthouse Film Festival

Winner: Best Art/Experimental Feature, Another Hole in the Head Festival

Winner: Independent Music Awards

Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces and impregnates Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. The subject owed its sixteenth-century popularity to the paradox that it was considered more acceptable to depict a woman in the act of copulation with a swan than with a man.

In this re-imagining of the tale into a contemporary Folk Horror re-telling, Leda lives alone in a family estate. Haunted by a divine presence and recurring memories, she begins to lose touch with reality and time. Her dream-like world spirals into a nightmare of madness as her belly begins to grow.

Director Samuel Tressler IV took on this ambitious production on numerous fronts. Not only is the film in black and white, but it is wordless with cinematography by Nick Midwig (Mars) that will be studied for years to come . The result is an Arthouse cross-over from Ancient Myth to Folk Horror/Thriller.

“Tressler’s film is a captivating fever dream that uses music, sound effects, and startling imagery to weave its magical spell.” – John Seal, Berkeleyside.

There is something nearly museum quality about this film. Highly Recommended” – Jason Zimmerman, The Sound View

The ensemble cast includes Adeline Thery (Are We Not Cats) as Leda / Mother, CC King (The Murder of Nicole Brown) as the Young Leda, Douglas Cathro (A House of Sparrows) as the Father and Nicolle Marquez (The Geometries of Desire) as the cousin as well as others.

2022 / 75 Minutes / English / Black and White / A Film by Samuel Tressler IV

HOW TO ORDER:

Public Performance and Digital Site Licenses are available through Soundview Media Partners. To inquire or to place an order, write to info@soundviewmediapartners.com or simply choose from the options below:

License Options

For group screening prices, please inquire.

In-home/personal use copies are available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3FZoaom

WATCH THE TRAILER

Margaret Fuller: Transatlantic Revolutionary

DSL’s available now. DVDs w/PPR available late June 2023.

Monumental writer in the age of transcendentalism, groundbreaking feminist, critic and parlor conversationalist, Margaret Fuller was the foremost female intellectual of the mid-Victorian Age.

As the first American front-line international war correspondent, she covered the Italian Risorgimento and she herself tilted towards a global utopian revolution.

Margaret Fuller is brought to life through the intimate revelations of award-winning biographers and is animated with a rich period tapestry and an authentic musical score.

The film brings Margaret Fuller out of historical obscurity, exposes her inner life, bridges the gap between her time and ours, and illuminates the gender divisions she challenged in an effort to highlight her achievements.

Margaret Fuller became a member of the elusive Cambridge, Massachusetts intellectuals; the Harvard student’s boy’s club that included Ralph Waldo Emerson, and James Freemen Clark to name just two.

Ralph Waldo Emerson called Fuller “The Greatest Conversationalist that America had”.

Family circumstances had her move to Boston where she became an influential leader and teacher of women’s group.

This film has huge potential in Women’s Studies, History, Sociology, Journalism and Philosophy American Studies and English.

What’s truly fascinating is the growing number of Fuller enthusiasts emerging from affinity groups not usually drawn to the humanities, but who identify with Fuller’s struggles as a woman who overcame economic odds and gender discrimination to create work of true importance.  

With her brilliant, socially awkward demeanor, she has a potential following among women who self-reference as nerds, first and second-generation female immigrants who are facing obstacles and limitations in their culture’s patriarchal societies.

Those who use social media and other means to combat inequality may find in Fuller a salty heroine.

2021 / 40 minutes / color and Black & White / English / A film by Jonathan Schwartz

HOW TO ORDER:

Public Performance and Digital Site Licenses are available through Soundview Media Partners. To inquire or to place an order, write to info@soundviewmediapartners.com or simply choose from the options below:

License Options

In Home/Personal Use Copies available at https://amzn.to/40z6zfy

WATCH THE TRAILER

Nobody Famous

Her name is Susan Taylor. She goes by Pie and she travels on the folk wind…

NOBODY FAMOUS is the story of Susan Taylor and The Pozo Seco Singers.

The Pozo-Seco Singers were an American folk band that experienced national commercial success during the 1960s. Comprised of Susan Taylor, Don Williams and Lofton Kline, the trio hailed out of Corpus Christi, TX, but once they signed to Columbia Records, their music went national. They are perhaps best known for their 1966 hit “Time“ but that was just one moment in their acclaimed history.

Susan Taylor was the lead singer. She is best known as Taylor Pie, but with her overly friendly, always smiling, and lighthearted humorous persona she prefers to simply be called “Pie”.

When The Pozo-Seco Singers were signed by Columbia Records, they joined a folk force of artists that included Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Barbara Streisand and more. “I felt like I’d made it to the top of the mountain,” says Pie reflectively.

This film is really about Pie and the folk wind she’s traveled on.

Taylor “Pie” (born 1947) hailed out of Jacksonville, Texas, and is most well known as Susan Taylor, a founding member of the Pozo-Seco Singers, whose recording of Michael Merchant’s song “Time” topped the charts in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles at number one. After the group disbanded, she helped launch the country music career of fellow Pozo, Don Williams. In the 70’s she formed a group called The City Country Band with Richard Frank in New York City. Bette Midler used one of her songs, “Back in the Bars Again” in her “Clams on the Half Shell Review”.

After moving to Stockbridge, MA, Susan took the name Taylor Pie as her professional handle and wrote “Full Grown Fool” with Allen Reynolds which became a country hit for Mickey Gilley. “Just Like Angels,” penned with Dickey Lee, was nominated for a Gospel Dove Award. Tanya Tucker, The Oak Ridge Boys, Don Williams, The Forester Sisters, John Connely, Terri Hendrix, Valerie Smith, The Tuttles, The Lewis Family, Cluster Pluckers and others have recorded Pie songs.

In 2015, Taylor was inducted into the National Traditional Country Music Assn Hall of Fame.

The Cast of Nobody Famous includes:

  • Taylor Pie
  • Don Williams
  • Kathryn Harrison
  • Jan Collins
  • Ron Shaw
  • Jerre Haskew
  • Ruby Lovett
  • Michael Merchant
  • Allen Reynolds

Nobody Famous on the festival circuit includes

  • WINNER: Best Music Documentary Feature, Seattle Film Festival
  • WINNER: Best Documentary, New Jersey Film Festival
  • Official Selection: Nashville Film Festival
  • Official Selection: Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival
  • Official Selection: Sweden Film Awards
  • Official Selection: Festival of Cinema NYC

A few stats worth noting…

  1. “Time” #3 Easy Listening 1966
    • The 51-week charting “Time” was actually the B-Side of a 45.
  2. 8 Songs in the US Pop Charts
  3. “I Believed it All” #8 Easy Listening 1967
  4. “I Can Make it With You” #32 US Pop 1966

2020 / 69 minutes / Color and Black & White / English Language / A film by Elizabeth Ahlstrom

HOW TO ORDER:

Public Performance and Digital Site Licenses are available through Soundview Media Partners. To inquire or to place an order, write to info@soundviewmediapartners.com or simply choose from the options below:

License Options

For group screening prices, please inquire.

In-home/personal use copies are available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3pk99FV

WATCH THE TRAILER

They Survived Together

“I had my red hat. It was like… like something that kept me safe.”– Hanka Neiger Ablin.

Winner for Best Historical Documentary, New York Emmy’s 2022 following its WNET-NY Broadcast Premier (Dec. 2021). They Survived Together is a true story of endurance, unity and hope…

“Horrifying eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust eventually lead to an inspiring story of one family banding together to survive the evils of Nazism. [An] extraordinary story of strength and courage.” – Irv Slifkin, Film Critic

“They Survived Together” is the incredible, true story of the Neiger family as they desperately tried to stay alive… and together… as a family with four small children, escaping certain death at the hands of the Nazis.

When Nazi soldiers forced them from their home in Krakow and into the harsh life of the Ghetto, the elders of the family made a vow… they would somehow escape together and survive as a family.

How the family escapes is extraordinary. Their trek to freedom involved forged documents, help along the way from non-Jews who risked their lives to protect them, and a difficult journey to Hungary where they they ended up imprisoned. Ultimately, the Niegers beat the odds and became the one of the few families to survive the Holocaust intact.

  • Broadcast Premier via WNET NY (Dec. 2021) resulted in an EMMY Nomination (results coming October 2022)
  • Winner: Best Documentary Feature – Chicago Indie Film Awards
  • Winner: Best Directors – Euro Film Festival Geneva
  • Winner: Best US Documentary – International Golden Age Festival
  • Winner: Best Documentary Feature – SoCal Film Awards

2021 / 75 minutes / Color and Black & White / English / A film by John Rokosny.

HOW TO ORDER:

Public Performance and Digital Site Licenses are available through Soundview Media Partners. To inquire or to place an order, write to info@soundviewmediapartners.com or simply choose from the options below:

License Options

For group screening prices, please inquire.

In-home/personal use copies are available on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3GHH7vD

Watch the trailer

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