Another Chris Carter-directed Ten Thirteen Production exists in the world, and more from it has seen the light of day, just as Carter reached his 70th birthday. See previous reporting here and here. Frankly, it looks like a perfectly good movie that should have a wider release — but it is facing the harsh uphill battle that self-financed independent productions have in order to get a wider distribution.
Official synopsis of Queens For A Day:
A right wing newscaster finds herself catapulted back into 1950s Queens New York, forced to live her own mother’s life. The America she finds, and the cramped existence she can’t escape, are a horror fable odyssey – especially since she is now raising herself as a child she doesn’t particularly like.
Trailer:
It looks like a mix of a comedy and horror. What I particularly like is that it’s not just the 1950s: there appears to be scenes from the life of the mother character across many decades, with a lot of work costumes, make-up, sets and photography that looks excellent!
Material from the movie itself, from behind the scenes and from premieres can be found in the movie’s Instagram, Carter’s own Instagram + this Facebook reel from the Calgary International Film Festival.
After its world premiere in Canada festivals in Edmonton and Calgary in September, the movie will be shown at the Whistler Film Festival in December 2-6 — appropriate, for a British Columbia production. Chris (director) and his wife Dori (writer), along with cast Erin Boyes and Andre Joseph, and producer Grace Gilroy were in attendance at the announcement (see also Pique News Magazine article):
Carter did an interview on the Edmonton Journal on September 17 (also a bit about Darin Morgan’s episodes and Coogler’s X-Files project):
My parents never drew Social Security, so they never really got to see my success. So anything I do makes me think of them. And for both my wife and I, this was a trip back for us, and it’s very personal to her. But as you might imagine, I was with her every step of the way through the rewrite process and the prep process. So this has a lot to do with us personally.
What’s always remarkable is you write a script and you’re wedded to it, in love with every scene, and it just falls away so easily. I think we cut about half an hour out of the film.
It was monumental what [Erin Boyes] had to go through, but a lot of my job – and it’s not always this way – was putting her on the map in I think five distinct time jumps. You become her navigator as well as director.
Carter and Erin Boyes did an interview on Canadian TV on CTV News on September 22:
Carter did a panel conversation at the UCLA School of Film, Theatre and Television on October 9 (Instagram announcement).
The movie had its US premiere in a week of special screenings in Laemmle Theatre in Los Angeles, over October 16-22.
Chris and Dori did a Q&A moderated by The X-Files‘ own Annabeth Gish (Monica Reyes), where several alumni also attended (Glen & Darin Morgan, Kristen Cloke, Jeff Cahn). This was reported in an extensive article in Gold Derby and another on IGN, plus photos on Instagram.
It is a personal story:
There was a question the other night about why divide us when you have an opportunity with a movie to unite us. But as harsh, dramatic, and angry as that conversation is, it speaks to the world I want to live in. By the time the movie is over, we have a character who has found her soul. That is what I am looking for in the world — a little more soul.
But it is also very much political:
We did not want to hit people over the head with it, but that is really the reason we wanted to make this movie. It is not just to tell a good tale, but to raise our fist in the air. We are angry, and we are living in a world we do not want to live in. This is our response to that.
It would have been hard to make this in the United States. It probably never would have been made if we had not self-financed it. People would have objected because of the politics. Everyone is scared right now. I am scared, too.
Rod Serling’s approach with The Twilight Zone was an inspiration:
I just read something really interesting about Rod Serling, that he kept trying to write things that they wouldn’t let him put on television. And he finally figured out for The Twilight Zone, if you write things allegorically, you can actually put things on film that you wouldn’t be able to do.
This story owes to Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where Scrooge gets to see the past and present and the future, and what Jerri sees is the future that changes her life.
And as a self-financed completely independent production, it has not found a distributor yet (which, incidentally, explains the small marketing and artisanal feeling of the poster):
Tell your friends and spread the word. We are trying to get the movie distributed, and it is a dance. It is a business and a courtship, and I am learning it as we go. We did film festivals, and word is out. There is interest. It is a movie that needs somebody who is as passionate about it as we are. I do think social media can be a superpower. If you land properly somewhere, it takes a spark, and that can create a blaze. I am excited about independent film right now.
For the time being, there is only one professional review listed on Rotten Tomatoes (at Movie Jawn) and several user reviews at Letterboxd. Overall impression is good, praising the acting and production values and how the script makes you think about the past and the present. “Equal measures social commentary, horror movie, and fairy tale”. Certainly the reception doesn’t look heavily divided between awful and masterpiece.
Let’s hope that a distributor picks it up, hopefully not just in the USA but elsewhere too, so that the rest of the world can see this!
Here is the movie’s second poster:
Tags: chris carter, queensforaday
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