Press Release: CLANDESTINE at Atlanta Film Festival
CLANDESTINE
A film by Gideon C. Kennedy & Marcus Rosentrater
Screening: Sunday, April 18th at 4:40pm
at the Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
Local Filmmakers Bring Film Home After International Premiere
If you had walked into the Highlands video store Movies Worth Seeing in 2004, chances are filmmakers Gideon Kennedy or Marcus Rosentrater would have been your helpful clerk, organizing titles or studying their future career on the countertop T.V.
It was here, in fact, in Anne and Jerry Rubenstein’s decades-old neighborhood institution, where the two met each other, forming a collaboration that has produced three short films, six commercials, three special event videos, and one music video under their production company, Climenole LLC. Their works have played in over 30 cities worldwide and have won several awards.
Now, in what they consider their homecoming, their latest short, “Clandestine”, a documentary/fiction hybrid made entirely from ephemeral materials, will have its Atlanta premiere at the 34th edition of the Atlanta Film Festival this April.
The two began work on “Clandestine” in 2005, after first being given the idea by another Atlanta filmmaker, Matthew Owensby, then a video store clerk at that other Highlands film hub Videodrome. Before “Clandestine” would be completed, Kennedy and Rosentrater finished another short film, six commercials and a music video. But, in March of 2009 an inquiry about the project from the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) would crack the whip. The two would race to have the film completed in time for its world premiere at IDFA, the world’s largest documentary film festival, in November of 2009.
Since then, “Clandestine” has shown at the Cinequest Film Festival in California and the Thin Line Film Festival in Texas. It is currently on tour around the country with the Black Maria Film + Video Festival, where it received a Jury Prize (1st Prize).
Clandestine will play as part of the Atlanta Film Festival on Sunday, April 18th at 4:40pm and Wednesday, April 22nd at 2:20pm. Kennedy and Rosentrater are expected to be joined by family, friends, fans, and supporters for the screening and Q&A at the April 18th screening.
About the Filmmakers
Gideon Kennedy, a native to Atlanta, has had roots in the Southern film community since he operated Georgia State University’s Cinefest Film Theatre in 2001 and 2002. After graduation, he went on to manage Landmark’s Midtown Art Cinema during its first years of operation, running projection and assisting in film selection. After moving to Mobile, AL in 2005, he continued pursuing his passion for cinema, helping to open a single-screen independent arthouse cinema, organizing a variety of film screening events, and acting as programming director for the inaugural South Alabama Film Festival. Additionally, Gideon has served on numerous juries and film selection committees, including the Slamdance Film Festival in Park City, UT and the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers.
Marcus Rosentrater moved to Atlanta from his home state of Colorado in 2004. His first stop off of the plane was Movies Worth Seeing, where he submitted his application for employment. Working at Movies provided Rosentrater with a connection to the Atlanta film and art community. Besides his collaborations with Kennedy, he worked together with fellow Movies employee Ron Hughes designing the website and brand for Hughes’ newest endeavor, the photography exhibition space Composition Gallery. With Will Sanders, another Movies alum, he started editing films for local film collective Big Party High 5.