Desperately Seeking Studio: Antonio Campos’ Afterschool

Despite the accolades (awards, festival prizes, and critical praise), sometimes a film with seemingly bright future in terms of an eventual theatrical release may have fallen through the cracks. “Desperately Seeking Studio” is our way of bringing attention to a film that has yet to be picked up for distribution. This month we put the focus back on: Antonio Campos‘ Afterschool.

Having already been to Cannes on two previous trips with his short films The Last 15 (which I was rattled by in a good way – watch it here) and Cinefondation winner Buy it Now) Antonio Campos got to make his third trip out with Afterschool in the Un Certain Regard section in 2008 and the film would appear at TIFF and the New York Film Festival in the fall. Kudos came in the shape of nominations at the Gotham Awards for Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You and Breakthrough Director and was followed by the Award Independent Spirit Awards’ nomination for Best First Feature. So it has been more than a year since its film festival circuit debut and the film has been picked up in multiple territories….so why are buyers stalling for the U.S market? 

I would categorize this as the best film essay on the youtube generations’ desensitized status and the reason why it hasn’t received enough love from U.S distributors might have more to do the uncomfortable POV that Campos places the viewer in rather than the unpleasant subjects of the film (violence and pornography). Personally I was transfixed by film’s compositions, the film’s denouement and the visually treatment of themes and this total immersion into the main character’s world. Campos handles the teenager’s inaptitudes, the disconnect and alienation of this character and his lack of adult supervision with brio. 

The Hollywood Reporter’s Deborah Young review of the film thinks that “mainstream auds, who have put up with a stubborn stream of long takes and offscreen framing devices, will probably throw in the towel….the [film’s] gruesome scene is filmed in long shot, apparently through the lens of a hand-held DV cam, so is hard to decipher. But that is the point (shades of Michael Haneke and “Cache”), as Campos deliberately mixes up film and reality.”

If I would have to find a home for this film – I think Strand Releasing, The Cinema Guild, and/or Oscilloscope Laboratories could handle the charge. Have any of you seen this film? What were your impressions?