Cucalorus Film Festival to spotlight Wilmington works, and a local 'Ted Lasso' connection

Since it started in 1994, Wilmington's Cucalorus Film Festival has brought dozens of independent features, documentaries and short films to town each year from all over the world for what has evolved into five days of screenings, parties and fringe-fest-style performances.

It all continues this year for the 29th annual Cucalorus, which runs Nov. 11-15. But what makes Cucalorus truly special, one of the most Wilmington of weird Wilmington events, is how it incorporates work by local artists and filmmakers into the schedule right alongside the guests from out of town.

This year's offerings of Wilmington work, or work with local connections, is especially robust.

"It's pretty awesome," said Cucalorus director Dan Brawley. "It's just a reflection of what's going on, but also very symbolic of where we are as a film community."

For this story we're going to focus on some of the programming created by your friends and neighbors, some of whom still live here, others who will be coming back to Wilmington for the fest.

'A Song for Imogene'

Last year, Cucalorus kicked off its opening night by packing out Thalian Hall with a screening of "The Devil's Stomping Ground," a found-footage horror flick by Wilmington filmmaker Jon Landau.

This year marks the second straight year that a Wilmington-made film will open the festival, with "A Song for Imogene" from locally based production company Honey Head Films certain to pack the historic hall to the rafters once again. It screens 7:30 p.m. Nov. 15.

The story centers on a rural woman trapped in a toxic, abusive relationship, and the harrowing lengths she must go to escape its confines. Starring Kristi Ray and written and directed by Erika Arlee, both of whom are Honey Head co-founders, Cucalorus will mark the Wilmington premiere of "A Song for Imogene," which has already seen success at several other festivals.

Notably, "Imogene" screened in June at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, which was founded by actress Gina Davis to focus on films that tell women's stories. It also won best feature film at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in August.

"I'm really excited," Arlee said. "We kind of forget that not that many people in Wilmington have seen it. It's pretty amazing to think about how far we've come."

Arlee and Ray have been working on getting "Imogene" made for several years. In early 2022 they began raising money based on a "proof of concept" trailer, and shot the film last year.

Now that's complete, and getting kudos, Arlee said Honey Head is both seeking distribution for "A Song for Imogene" while using it as "a calling card" film for the next movie they want to make, a feminist, post-apocalyptic thriller.

"We're the little indie that could," Arlee said.

If you miss the film Nov. 15, "A Song for Imogene" screens again 10:15 a.m. Nov. 16 at Jengo's Playhouse.

'Last Straw'

Back when Alan Scott Neal was going to film school at the University of North Carolina Wilmington in the late 2000s, he was a Cucalorus regular.

"I think of one of my favorite Cucalorus experiences (was seeing Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' brutal, intense) 'Dogtooth' at Cucalorus' in 2008," Neal said. "That movie kind of changed a lot for me as a filmmaker. I was in my final year at school. Opened the doors to what a movie could do and sent me down a rabbit hole of movies that push the envelope."

Now, more than a decade later, Neal who works in casting in New York, is bringing his first feature film to Cucalorus. "Last Straw," an indie horror "stabfest" director Neal calls a love letter to such auteurs as John Carpenter and William Friedkin, screens 7 p.m. Saturday at Thalian Hall.

"I'm so excited to bring a feature back to where I trained. To where I struggled. To the same theater where I used to sit and watch movies at Cucalorus and Cinematique," Neal said.

"Last Straw" stars Jessica Belkin ("American Horror Story," "Pretty Little Liars") as a waitress who has to fight for her life after the late-night diner where she works is invaded by masked assailants. It premiered earlier this year at a horror festival in Spain and has also screened at festivals in Austin and Los Angeles.

The movie co-stars L.A.-based former Wilmington actor Taylor Kowalski, with whom Neal has made two short films, both of which screened at past Cucalorus festivals.

"I was dead set on shooting ('Last Straw') in Wilmington," Neal said, but for various reasons he wound up making it in upstate New York. Either way, Neal said, the movie "had its genesis in Wilmington," and his Port City connections helped him raise the money to fund it.

Neal said he's especially gratified to share the feature in Wilmington with longtime collaborator Kowalski, who was a regular on stage and in several independent films during his time in town.

"He gets it. He's interested in pushing the boundaries in the same way I am," Neal said. "I'm so glad we were finally able to make the feature we always said we would."

'For Nick, From Dad'

This deeply personal documentary feature directed by UNCW alum Nick Damore has been written up by People magazine.

The film is about the filmmaker's father, Leo Damore, a New York Times investigative journalist and best-selling author who killed himself in 1995 when his son was 10. The heartbreaking title of the film is taken from the label on a cassette Damore's father left him, a cassette Nick didn't listen to until he was 18.

The film tells Leo Damore's story, including how he wrote a revelatory book on the famous Chappaquiddick case involving Sen. Ted Kennedy, but also focuses on Nick Damore's efforts to come to terms with his father's death.

"When someone takes their life, they may think they are releasing their family from a burden but they fail to see they are also shackling them," Damore told People. "It leaves things so unresolved that it leaves a chasm. So these projects are my attempt at feeling whole and hoping to understand things better. It's when we don't address what happened that it lingers."

"For Nick, From Dad" is screening twice at Cucalorus: 4:15 p.m. Nov. 15 at Jengo's and 1:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in the Thalian Hall studio.

'Ted Lasso' in Wilmington

Former Wilmington resident and filmmaker Erica Dunton, whose father Joe Dunton used to run a camera shop on 23rd Street, has shot a number of projects in town over the years, including the feature "To.Get.Her," which played at Sundance.

Erica Dunton has directed episodes of Wilmington-shot show "The Summer I Turned Pretty," as well as episodes of acclaimed Apple TV show "Ted Lasso." Thanks to her connections (she returns most years for Cucalorus), festival fans will get a sneak peak at a new feature co-starring "Ted Lasso" actor Cristo Fernández, who plays "futbol boy" Dani Rojas on the show.

"Sisters," a touching comedy from director Mar Novo, centers on three Mexican-American sisters who reunite after years of estrangement to complete a pilgrimage through rural Mexico in honor of their grandmother. Fernández plays a local with a dark past who helps the sisters.

Fernández, Dunton and some actresses from the film will be in attendance for a Q&A after "Sisters" screens 7:45 p.m. Nov. 17 at Thalian Hall, and 4:30 p.m. Nov. 19 in the Thalian Hall studio.

More highlights

Wednesday's opening-night party at Hi-Wire Brewing will feature music by Wilmington songwriter extraordinaire Sean Thomas Gerard, among others.

Enduring festival favorite Dance-a-Lorus, featuring collaborations between Wilmington dancers, filmmakers and choreographers, is 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 at Thalian Hall.

Robot just wants to party, and that's cool, right? Wilmington actor, singer, comedian, writer and etc. Patrick Basquill's performance-art robot band "Real Life Party" must be seen to be believed. Believe it, and see it, 8 p.m. Nov. 16 in the filmmakers' lounge (passholders only).

People like plants, and Cucalorus is sensitive to that. To wit: the Plant-a-Lorus plant workshop, 2 p.m. Nov. 17 in the filmmakers' lounge (passholders only).

There are about 91 short films in this year's Cucalorus, many of them made by Wilmington filmmakers and artists. Just for starters, they include "Wild Dream," a music video by Wilmington native and singer Leigh Jones, who will also be serving as an emcee for the festival, and "Bent Antenna," a stop-motion animation from Wilmington musician and filmmaker Justin Lacy.

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Want to go?

What: The 29th Cucalorus Film Festival

When: Nov. 11-15

Where: Thalian Hall, 310 Chestnut St., and Jengo's Playhouse, 815 Princess St., downtown Wilmington

Info: Passes start at $150. Tickets to individual events start at $15.

Details: 910-343-5995, full schedule at Cucalorus.org.

This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Wilmington works featured at 29th Cucalorus Film Festival