Four (2012 film)

Last updated
Four
Four Official Poster.jpg
Theatrical Poster
Directed byJoshua Sanchez
Screenplay byJoshua Sanchez
Based on Four
by Christopher Shinn
Produced by Christine Giorgio
Starring Wendell Pierce
Emory Cohen
Aja Naomi King
E.J. Bonilla
CinematographyGregg Conde
Edited byDavid Gutnik
Music byBryan Senti
Release dates
  • June 15, 2012 (2012-06-15)(Los Angeles Film Festival)
  • September 13, 2013 (2013-09-13)
Running time
76 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Four is a 2012 American independent feature film written and directed by Joshua Sanchez. It is based on the 1998 play of the same name by Christopher Shinn. The film stars Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja Naomi King and E.J. Bonilla. [1] The film premiered at the 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival where its ensemble cast won the top acting award. [2] E.J. Bonilla received an Imagen Award nomination for his performance and Wendell Pierce received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance.

Contents

Cast

Production

Four took over five years to make and the film started several times before it was actually made. [3] Sanchez met Christopher Shinn in 2003 while he was working for an online magazine and was assigned to interview Shinn. [4] Sanchez had read all of Shinn's plays as research for the interview, which is how he first came to read Shinn's play, Four. [4] Sanchez wanted to option Four right away, but another filmmaker had already optioned it. A year later, the other filmmaker did not renew the option on the play, so Sanchez stepped in.

To raise money for the film, Sanchez and his producer, Christine Giorgio, were among some of the first artists to use the crowdfunding website, Kickstarter in December 2009. [4] They successfully raised nearly $20,000 for their initial campaign. [5]

Film director, and playwright, Neil LaBute, executive produced the film along with renowned photographer, Allen Frame. [6]

Themes

The film is a requiem for loneliness, conformity and desire quietly hidden in the everyday norms of suburban American life and touches on several cultural boundaries, including sexuality, class and race. Three of the film's four main characters are people of color.

About Four Sanchez said:

I've had so many people in the business tell me that people here and abroad do not want to watch serious films about people of color. It’s really fucked up. I think it’s changing...because people, real moviegoers, are sort of starved to see their lives reflected back to them in the cinema. [4]

Release

The film was released on September 13, 2013. [7]

Reception

Accolades

AwardDateCategoryRecipient(s)/Nominee(s)Result
28th Annual Imagen Awards [8] August 16, 2013Best Actor/Supporting Actor - Feature FilmE.J. BonillaNominated
28th Independent Spirit Awards [9] February 23, 2013Best Male LeadWendell PierceNominated
Urbanworld Film Festival [10] September 24, 2012Best Narrative FeatureFourWon
Los Angeles Film Festival [11] June 24, 2012Best Performance in the Narrative CompetitionWendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, Aja N. King, E.J. BonillaWon

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zach Braff</span> American actor and filmmaker (born 1975)

Zachary Israel Braff is an American actor and filmmaker. He portrayed J.D. on the NBC/ABC television series Scrubs (2001–2010), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 2005 as well as for three Golden Globe Awards from 2005 to 2007. He starred in The Broken Hearts Club: A Romantic Comedy (2000), The Last Kiss (2006), The Ex (2006), and In Dubious Battle (2016). He has done voice-work for Chicken Little (2005), Oz the Great and Powerful (2013), and the Netflix series BoJack Horseman.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Roday Rodriguez</span> American actor

James Roday Rodriguez is an American actor, director, and screenwriter. He is best known for starring on the USA Network series Psych as hyper-observant consultant detective and fake psychic Shawn Spencer. He most recently starred in A Million Little Things, which debuted in 2018, playing Javier "Gary" Mendez.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wendell Pierce</span> American actor and businessman (born 1963)

Wendell Edward Pierce is an American actor and businessman. Having trained at Juilliard School, Pierce rose to prominence as a character actor portraying roles both on the stage and screen. He first gained recognition portraying the role of Detective Bunk Moreland in the acclaimed HBO drama series The Wire from 2002 to 2008.

Evan Mather is an American landscape architect, urban designer, and filmmaker. He is primarily known for his work in the genre of web film specifically the reconfiguration of personal histories and exploration of memory landscapes.

The most successful web-stream films, of course, are made with the format in mind. American film-maker Evan Mather's work, such as Icarus of Pittsburgh (2002), is a good example: densely packed with visual and aural information, his films seem made to be watched intently, in isolation and cocooned by headphones.

Edward Joshua Bonilla is an American television and film actor. He is best known for his role as Rafe Rivera on Guiding Light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kickstarter</span> US-based crowdfunding platform

Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of February 2023, Kickstarter has received US$7 billion in pledges from 21.7 million backers to fund 233,626 projects, such as films, music, stage shows, comics, journalism, video games, board games, technology, publishing, and food-related projects.

Below the Fold: The Pulitzer That Defined Latino Journalism is a 2007 American documentary film written and directed by Roberto Gudiño to chronicle the story of the Mexican American journalists of the Los Angeles Times who responded to negative portrayals of Latinos in the newspaper by publishing the newspaper series "Latinos". The newspaper received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for the series. Filmed on locations in Arizona, California and New York, the project debuted at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival in October 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benh Zeitlin</span> American filmmaker (born 1982)

Benjamin Harold Zeitlin is an American filmmaker, best known for writing and directing the 2012 film Beasts of the Southern Wild, for which he received two Academy Award nominations.

Emory Isaac Cohen is an American actor. He made his feature film debut in Afterschool (2008). He is best known for his roles as AJ Cross in Derek Cianfrance's film The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), Tony Fiorello in John Crowley's film Brooklyn (2015), and Homer in the Netflix series The OA (2016).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aja Naomi King</span> American film and television actress

Aja Naomi King is an American actress. She played Michaela Pratt in How to Get Away with Murder. She began her career in guest-starring roles on television, and starred as Cassandra Kopelson in The CW medical comedy-drama Emily Owens, M.D.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melissa Pierce</span>

Melissa Pierce is an American entrepreneur and documentary filmmaker. As of 2012, she is the Chief Operating Officer of the technofashion startup Everpurse. She previously filmed the documentary Life in Perpetual Beta, and runs technology and leadership events. She is based in Chicago, Illinois.

America ReFramed is a weekly independent documentary series broadcast on World Channel. Since 2012, America ReFramed has broadcast over 120 films by independent filmmakers. The series is co-produced by American Documentary, Inc. and the WORLD Channel. America ReFramed films feature personal stories that have a strong social-issue focus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival</span> Film festival in California

The Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival is a film festival with a focus on independent films held annually at L.A. Live / Staples Center and additional cinemas across Hollywood, California. HRIFF guests have included Pierce Brosnan, Hilary Duff, Harry Dean Stanton, Martin Landau, Joe Mantegna, Josh Brener, Frances Fisher, Neil Breen and Uwe Boll and many other Hollywood celebrities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliza Hittman</span> American film director

Eliza Hittman is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer from New York City. She has won multiple awards for her film Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which include the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award—both for best screenplay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elisabeth Holm</span> American film producer and screenwriter

Elisabeth Holm is an American film producer and screenwriter. She produced the 2014 film Obvious Child and was formerly the film program director at Kickstarter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillip Rodriguez</span> American documentary filmmaker

Phillip Rodriguez is an American documentary filmmaker and veteran content provider for PBS.

Felipe Bustos Sierra is a Chilean-Belgian film director, producer and editor based in Scotland. His debut feature-length documentary, Nae Pasaran (2018), won the Best Feature award at the 2018 British Academy Scotland Awards, where Bustos Sierra was also nominated for Best Director (Factual). Bustos Sierra is also the founder and creative director of Debasers Filums, an independent film company based in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

<i>Women Is Losers</i> 2021 American film

Women Is Losers is a 2021 American drama film written and directed by Lissette Feliciano. Starring Lorenza Izzo, Bryan Craig, Chrissie Fit, Simu Liu, Steven Bauer, Liza Weil, Cranston Johnson, Alejandra Miranda, Shalim Ortiz and Lincoln Bonilla, it follows the life of a young woman from her formative years to adulthood in 1960s San Francisco. The film's title is derived from a Janis Joplin song.

The PBS Short Film Festival, previously known as the PBS Online Film Festival, is an annual film festival focused on independent short films, hosted by American public broadcaster PBS. The festival began in 2012. In 2020, the name changed from the PBS Online Film Festival to the PBS Short Film Festival. In 2021, the festival replaced online voting and popularity awards with a jury prize, selected by a jury composed of filmmakers, producers and PBS executives.

References

  1. ↑ "'Four: Review". Variety. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  2. ↑ "'2012 Award Winners". Los Angeles Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2013-07-07. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  3. ↑ "'Meet the 2012 LAFF Filmmakers #3: "Four" Director Joshua Sanchez"". indieWire. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "'Meet the 2012 LAFF Filmmakers #3: "Four" Director Joshua Sanchez"". Mary Literary Quarterly. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  5. ↑ "FOUR by Joshua Sanchez and Christine Giorgio=". Kickstarter. Jan 25, 2010. Retrieved 2013-05-08.
  6. ↑ "Hot summer night: Joshua Sanchez on Four=". British Film Institute. Oct 20, 2012. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  7. ↑ "'Controversial Award-Winning Film - FOUR - Embraced by AMC Theatres". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2013-07-21.
  8. ↑ "Nominees for the 28th Annual Imagen Awards Announced". Imagen Award . June 2013. Archived from the original on 26 November 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  9. ↑ "Independent Spirit Awards 2013: Winners List". The Hollywood Reporter . 23 February 2013. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  10. ↑ "'Four' wins big at Urbanworld film fest". United Press International . 24 September 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  11. ↑ "Winners Announced for 2012 Los Angeles Film Festival". Film Independent . 24 June 2013. Archived from the original on 7 September 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.