New Strains MEMORY, the L.A.-based manufacturing and now distribution firm featured in Filmmaker‘s 2016 25 New Faces list announced today the release plans for New Strains, a microbudget, camcorder-shot pandemic comedy from a pair of filmmakers, Artemis Shaw and Prashanth Kamalakanthan, also featured on our list. The film will screen at the Roxy Cinema in New York (June 13), Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg (June 15 & 16), and Los Angeles’ Now Instant Image Hall (June 21 & 22), with a North American digital launch to observe on Friday, July 19.
In New Strains, a pandemic — not essentially COVID-19 — strands a pair, Kallia (Shaw) and Ram (Kamalakanthan), who’ve determined to trip in New York on the house of Kallie’s out-of-town uncle. When the federal government institutes a lockdown, poisonous conduct patterns between the 2 emerge — conduct that may very well be the results of simply the enforced closeness, or one thing extra…. The movie was made in a defiantly DIY style, utilizing an previous camcorder, improvised dialogue and no crew. In her 25 New Face profile, Natalia Keogan wrote, “Wryly funny and cuttingly satirical, New Strains has the rare distinction of being a pandemic film that actually feels authentic to the moment in which it was made.”
Previously for Filmmaker, the couple penned a debrief on their journey to Rotterdam, the place the movie received a particular jury award, and I interviewed them on how they used generative AI to create their poster.
