The School of Cinematic Arts and Cape Cod Films
invite you and a guest to a special preview screening of

AMERICAN PRIMITIVE

Directed by Gwen Wynne
Written by Gwen Wynne and Mary Beth Fielder

Followed by a Q&A with members of the crew

4:00 P.M. on Sunday, December 6th
Norris Cinema Theatre/Frank Sinatra Hall


FREE TO ALL USC STUDENTS, FACULTY, STAFF & ALUMNI

MAKE A RESERVATION

Everybody in Dennis, Cape Cod thinks that Harry Goodhart (Tate Donovan) is quite the catch. Harry, a handsome Englishman, has just moved to this seaside destination with his teenage daughters, Madeline (Danielle Savre) and Daisy (Skye McCole Bartusiak). Madeline and Daisy, however, are determined to keep their recently widowed father away from the swarm of female suitors, such as the beautiful journalist, Joy (Stacey Dash), and the manic matchmaker, Mrs. Brown (Anne Ramsay). That is until one night, when Madeline's new high school friends give her a taste of a racier Cape Cod. They take her to a notorious underground disco in Provincetown. Through the throngs of drag queens and gay men, Madeline sees her father dancing with a man. The double shocker is that the man is Mr. Gibbs (Adam Pascal), recently introduced by her father as his new business partner and who just moved into the back of their house.

Gwen Wynne (Writer, Director, Producer)

Gwen Wynne, a filmmaker and theatre director, began her career on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre scouting for new plays. From there she co-founded and served for six years as Artistic Director of The No-Neck Monsters Theatre Company in Washington, D.C.; its mission was to challenge audiences with the essential questions of our time.

Presently, Ms. Wynne is leading Cape Cod Films, LLC and Cape Cod Films Ltd; these companies have been created to champion emerging filmmakers and tell stories that are often suppressed in our culture. She is producing Pam Tom's Brushstrokes in Hollywood: A Portrait of Tyrus Wong and Turning The Map about Col. Andrew Croft, famous Arctic explorer, WW II hero and spy that Ian Fleming based his character James Bond upon. Ms. Wynne received her M.F.A. in Film and Video Production at the USC’s School of Cinema-Television.

As a filmmaker, Ms. Wynne has served as Development Director and 2nd Unit Director for the ABC network documentary film, The Story of Mothers and Daughters, which aired in the spring of 1997. One of her primary responsibilities was to oversee ancillary product creation for the network documentary. At USC's School of Cinema-Television, she directed and edited many shorts as well as co-taught intermediate editing and assisted in teaching an advanced directing course.

James Egan (Producer)

Award Winning Writer/Producer James Egan is the CEO of Wild at Heart Films, founded in July 2000 to create "Media that Makes a Difference". Cultivating outstanding properties and partnering with emerging artists and filmmakers was a company mission clearly realized when first time director Gwen Wynne brought James the script to her powerful family drama, America Primitive, and asked him to produce it. 
 
Egan executive produced and financed the critically acclaimed independent film Jackpot, winner of the John Cassavetes Award for best low-budget feature at the 2001 Independent Spirit Awards. Written and directed by Mark and Michael Polish, Jackpot was distributed by Sony Pictures Classics and premiered in the fall of 2001. His Award winning film, Angels in the Dust was directed by Louise Hogarth and co-produced with Participant Media. Angels in the Dust was theatrically released by Cinema Libre in 2007 and won the Amnesty International Varno Prize for furthering human rights.

He is currently co-executive producing Kimjongilia with Mike Figgis, a documentary by first time French director Nancy Heikin that has been selected to compete in the Sundance Film Festival 2009. Wild at Heart has just completed production on the documentary film The Defector, directed by three-time Oscar Award winning director, Mark Harris.

Egan, who is a member on the national board of the Wounded Warriors Foundation, is working with entertainment professionals to train wounded members of the military aiding them in finding careers in the film and television industry. On November 15, 2007, the Forget-Me-Not Media Training Center officially opened in San Diego. Twenty wounded veterans graduated from this year's 2008 inaugural class.

James is a resident of Palm Springs and screenwriting Professor at the USC Graduate School of Cinematic Arts.

Chris Chomyn (Director of Photography)

Chris creates compositions that convey the subtext of each moment and draw the audience into the story. His painterly approach masterfully integrates light, shadow, color and movement to bring the director's vision to life, enhance the performances of the actors and seduce the audience into surrendering their subconscious. In his capable hands, locations become characters and characters become real. Chris' commitment to excellence and love of story make him the ideal creative collaborator.

Chris currently holds a faculty appointment as Senior Lecturer at the USC School of Cinematic Arts where he has been teaching cinematography and visual communication since 1997. A list of some of his previous films include Flying By, Mr. Sadman, Sea of Dreams, Lockdown, Phantasm IV, Phantasm III and Bubba Ho Tep just to name a few.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
 
American Primitive addresses a seminal American issue of the early twenty first century: the place of family and same sex relationships in our culture. I find it encouraging that the issue has finally become a civil rights conversation revolving around citizenship and the rights of gay partnerships and their children. In American Primitive I try to create a story that ultimately underscores the complex meaning of love and friendship and family.
 
After my mother died, I found myself in a situation where there was no vocabulary for discussing what it was like to grow up in a gay household. Indeed, it was rare to know anybody else in similar circumstances. One found oneself very much alone. Indeed, being a girl compounded the problem as there were very few female points of view presented in popular culture in the 70s. I was very much drawn to films and always hoped to find answers or comparable emotional stories to reflect upon.

Paying homage to and being inspired by Ingmar Bergman, Francois Truffaut and Tennessee Williams, I have fictionalized the situation I found myself in hoping to support others experiencing challenging upbringings in a homophobic world. And, of course, I hope the story thoroughly entertains as it unfolds before us.
 
1973 is also central to American Primitive's story.  The film's path parallels a country's loss of innocence and a time period in which American society was redefining its national identity as well as its personal views. Gender and sexual identity preoccupied the citizens of America. Like many in the country, our heroes, Madeline and Harry, daughter and father, find themselves tackling ideas of sex and identity -- topics that seemed to be on the tip of everyone's tongue in the early 70s but were actually still taboo in both traditional familial and personal settings.  
 
In 2009, we are still not out of the woods.


ABOUT THE SCA ALUMNI SCREENING SERIES


To view the calendar for the Alumni Screening Series, click here.

This screening is free of charge and open to all USC students, faculty, staff and alumni. The theater will be OVERBOOKED to ensure capacity and the RSVP list will be honored on a first-come, first-serve basis, with no reserved seating. Please bring a photo ID or print out of your reservation confirmation, which will automatically be sent to your e-mail account upon successfully making an RSVP through this website. Doors will open at 3:30 P.M.

ABOUT PARKING

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is located at 900 W. 34th St., Los Angeles, CA 90007. Parking passes may be purchased for $8.00 at USC Entrance Gate #5, located at the intersection of W. Jefferson Blvd. & McClintock Avenue. We recommend parking in outdoor Lot M or V, or Parking Structure D, at the far end of 34th Street. Please note that Parking Structure D cannot accommodate tall vehicles such as SUVs. Free street parking is also available along Jefferson Blvd.