Opening in U.S. Theaters This May, Followed by an Exclusive Streaming Release on Fandor May 16
Starring Annie Parisse (“Friends from College”) & Gus Birney (“Shining Vale”)
Cinedigm announced this week the acquisition of Theodore Schaefer’s hauntingly surreal debut feature GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY for release as a streaming exclusive on the company’s indie discovery platform Fandor and has just dropped the first trailer. The eccentric fantasy-like drama first premiered at North America’s largest genre film festival, the Fantasia International Film Festival, and is set to open in select U.S. theaters this May—including playdates in New York and Los Angeles—before digitally premiering on May 16.
Described by The Austin Chronicle as “a strange and fragile story of family, identity, and the unlikely directions of a search for self,” GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY “mixes melancholy and anxiety with a Lynchian touch” (The Film Stage) and “takes place in a parallel universe that looks and acts like suburbia, just ever so slightly off” (The A.V. Club).
After her identity is stolen, a suburban mom (Annie Parisse, “Friends from College”) and her son’s pregnant girlfriend (Gus Birney, “Shining Vale”) begin to bond and transform during a dreamlike, visually immersive road-trip journey to track down the perpetrators. Dynamically shot on pastel-hued 16mm film, this poetically empowering cult classic in the making is also an intelligent meditation on the faceless underbelly of American life.
GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY is co-written by Schaefer and Patrick Lawler, and co-stars Paul Sparks (“Boardwalk Empire”), Owen Campbell (X), Jessica Pimentel (“Orange is the New Black”) and Judith Roberts (You Were Never Really Here). The film was produced by Schaefer (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) and Daryl Freimark (A Bread Factory: Part 1 & 2), with Dweck Productions’ Hannah Dweck (Berlinale 2023 selection The Adults) and Vanishing Angle’s Benjamin Wiessner (Thunder Road) acting as Executive Producers.
“I’m honored that Giving Birth to a Butterfly will be added to the stellar slate of films Cinedigm and Fandor have been curating,” said director Theodore Schaefer. “It’s clear they have an incisive, discerning eye into the American independent landscape and I can’t think of a better home for our film.”
“Tapping into a nervous dream logic that still resembles the mad world we exist in, Giving Birth to a Butterfly is one of the most cine-literate American debuts I’ve seen in a while,” said Aaron Hillis, Director of Programming for Cinedigm. “Ted Schaefer is clearly a movie nut who understands both the mechanics and pleasures of genre storytelling.”
The deal was negotiated by Brandon Hill, Director of Acquisitions, on behalf of Cinedigm and Benjamin Wiessner of Vanishing Angle on behalf of the filmmakers.
5/1, 5/2, 5/3, 5/5 — Brooklyn, NY (Spectacle Theater)
5/4, 5/6, 5/7 — New York, NY (Roxy Cinema New York)
5/9, 5/10, 5/11 — North Hollywood, CA (Laemmle NoHo 7)
Director in attendance for all screenings, more dates to come!
GIVING BIRTH TO A BUTTERFLY
Genre: Drama/Mystery
Country: USA
Runtime: 76 min
Year: 2023
Language: English
Rating: NA
