Movie shot for $1,000 to play at Method Fest
By Michael Knox, mknox@modernfilmzine.com
Shot for about $1,000, the ultra low budget “My Sixteenth Summer,” marks the film debut of director Savvy Lorestani’s who will screen the movie March 29 at the 11th Annual Method Fest Independent Film Festival in Calabasas, Calif.
Filmed in Atlanta, Ga., “My Sixteenth Summer” is a coming of age story about the ups and downs of being 16-years-old in suburbia, according to a news release. The movie centers around Samir (Ali Degan), an Iranian-American teenager, he struggles with all the pressures, highlights and disappointments of adolescence.
Samir’s summer is looking pretty bleak, according to the news release. His spoiled sister is back from med school, and his fresh off the boat parents get more foreign every day. and it looks like he’s about to lose the girl of his dreams…to his best friend. In response, Samir ditches his high school friends and starts hanging out with a couple of twenty-somethings. But as Samir exchanges his adolescent woes for a look at the quarter-life, he starts to see that the other side of twenty isn’t all its cracked up to be…And that maybe being sixteen isn’t so bad.
Method Fest is known for showcasing true discoveries alongside work by well-known directors, like The Visitor (2008), Waitress (2007). Named after the Method form of acting, this festival celebrates character and story-driven films featuring strong acting performances. This year’s festival takes place March 26 – April 2.
“My Sixteenth Summer” is already receiving good feedback from the press.
“A triumph of substance…Savvy Lorestani’s intimate and no doubt personal ‘My Sixteenth Summer’ feels very much like the work of a young master–parts early Linklater and Lucas…,” said Jonathan Hickman of EINSIDERS.COM. “A small film that will hopefully launch a big career, ‘My Sixteenth Summer’ is a movie worth remembering.”
Steve LaBate, associate editor for “Paste Magazine” agreed.
“Subtly funny and alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking, ‘My Sixteenth Summer’ is a classic coming-of-age tale,” LaBate said in a news release. “First-time director Lorestani has a knack for understated realism, and imbuing potentially mundane, everyday moments with a quiet, honest beauty and irresistible charm.”
