Happy Slapping (film)

Last updated
Happy Slapping
HAPPY SLAPPING official movie poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byChistos Sourligas
Written byAndrew Farrar, Christos Sourligas
Produced byDebra Kouri, Christos Sourligas
Starring
  • Jesse Comancho
  • Alex Harrouch
  • Laurin Padolina
  • Jaa-Smith Johnson
  • Erica Deutschman
Cinematography Luc Montpellier
Edited byJoseph Bohbot, Tony Asimakopoulos
Music byTim Rideout, Annakin Slayd
Production
company
One Man Band Films
Distributed byVideo Services Corp, Cinemavault Releasing
Release dates
  • August 2011 (2011-08)(Montreal World Film Festival)
  • September 2, 2014 (2014-09-02)(North America)
Running time
75 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$250,000

Happy Slapping is a 2011 Canadian drama film about disaffected youths, teen angst and bullying. Its title is derived from the "happy slapping" fad which began in Britain where teens assault strangers on the street, film the encounters on their smartphones and circulate them on mobile phones or post them on user-generated websites. Filmed in Montreal, the film was written and directed by Christos Sourligas and co-written by Andrew Farrar (aka Annakin Slayd) [1] and was shot by the actors on iPhones making it the world's first feature film shot entirely on smartphones. [2] [3]

Contents

Plot

Five suburban youths embark on a night of violence in the city, attacking unsuspecting victims while recording the assaults on smartphones. They seek out fame by creating an evening so shocking that their camera phone footage will turn them into instant Internet celebrities. After they are rivaled by another gang and intimidated by their online idol, they are forced to take their mischief up a notch if they want to make a name for themselves.

Production

The film was directed by Canadian filmmaker Christos Sourligas, and written by Sourligas and Andrew Farrar (aka Montreal rapper Annakin Slayd), [4] [5] who has a cameo in the film as one of the victims. Main production was in 2010, but some scenes were added in 2013 to accommodate the "selfie" craze. [6] [7]

The actors acted as cameramen, resulting in a "run and gun" documentary feel. It was described by The Hollywood Reporter as a film that resembles The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity due to the shakiness of the shots; [8] filmmakers tell of crew members having to run behind walls and other items to avoid being caught on film. [9] [10]

Reception

Happy Slapping had its world premiere at the 2011 Montreal World Film Festival. [11]

Related Research Articles

Happy slapping was a fad originating in the United Kingdom around 2005, in which one or more people attack a victim for the purpose of recording the assault. Though the term usually refers to relatively minor acts of violence such as hitting or slapping the victim, more serious crimes such as the murder of a retired care worker, and sexual assault have been classified as "happy slapping" by the BBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angelo Tsarouchas</span> Canadian comedian

Angelo Tsarouchas is a Canadian comedian, actor, and writer living in Los Angeles. He is known for incorporating Greek culture into his stand-up comedy routines, and has been called the "King of Greek Ethnic Comedy." He organized World Dafni Day, a celebration of Greek diaspora from Dafni, his father's birthplace.

Laurence Charlotte Leboeuf is a Canadian actress.

The Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Director is an annual award given by the Vancouver Film Critics Circle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kevin Tierney</span> Canadian film producer (1950–2018)

Kevin Tierney was a Canadian film producer from Montreal who co-wrote and produced the most popular Canadian film of all time at the domestic box office, Bon Cop, Bad Cop, for which he earned a Golden Reel, the Genie Award for Best Motion Picture in 2007. He is a former vice-chair of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television and former chair of the board of Cinémathèque québécoise.

<i>Smash Cut</i> 2009 Canadian film

Smash Cut is a 2009 Canadian slasher film directed and edited by Lee Demarbre, and produced by Robert Menzies. Starring David Hess, Sasha Grey, Michael Berryman, Ray Sager and Herschell Gordon Lewis, the plot follows a struggling filmmaker who finds that practical effects are much easier to come by.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Canning</span> Canadian actress

Sara Canning is a Canadian actress. She co-starred on The CW television series The Vampire Diaries as Jenna Sommers, and appeared in the 2009 feature film, Black Field. She starred as Dylan Weir in the Canadian television series, Primeval: New World, and as Dr. Melissa Conner on the Global medical drama Remedy. Canning appeared in the 2017 theatrical film War for the Planet of the Apes. She is also known for her role as Jacquelyn Scieszka in the Netflix TV series A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Ricardo Trogi is a Canadian filmmaker, director and actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaniehtiio Horn</span> Canadian actress (b. 1986)

Kaniehtiio Alexandra Jessie Horn, sometimes credited as Tiio Horn, is a Canadian actress. She was nominated for a Gemini Award for her role in the television film Moccasin Flats: Redemption and she has appeared in the films The Trotsky, Leslie, My Name Is Evil, and The Wild Hunt, as well as the streaming television horror series Hemlock Grove and the sitcoms 18 to Life, Letterkenny and Reservation Dogs.

<i>Coteau rouge</i> 2011 Canadian film

Coteau Rouge is a 2011 French-Canadian (Quebec) film written and directed by André Forcier and produced by Les Films du Paria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Country Cinema</span>

North Country Cinema is a Canadian media arts collective based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

<i>Felix and Meira</i> 2014 film

Felix and Meira is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Maxime Giroux, and starring Martin Dubreuil, Hadas Yaron, and Luzer Twersky. It is about an improbable affair between two Montreal residents - one a married woman from a devoutly Jewish family and community, and the other a single French Canadian man with his own family issues.

The Toronto International Film Festival Award for Best Canadian Film is an annual juried film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to a film judged to be the best Canadian feature film.

John Dunning was a pioneering Canadian film producer from Montreal who co-founded the Canadian film production company Cinépix and produced early works by notable Canadian directors David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman. Dunning launched Cinépix with partner André Link in Montreal in the early 1960s. Their biggest commercial success—and the first Canadian box office hit—came with Reitman's Meatballs (1979).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caitlin Cronenberg</span> Canadian photographer

Caitlin Cronenberg is a Canadian photographer and filmmaker, known for her celebrity portraits and editorials. She is David Cronenberg's daughter and Brandon Cronenberg's sister.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Tabarrok</span> Film producer

Nicholas Tabarrok is a film producer who started his producing career with smaller unusual films, made in his native Canada. Later, larger budget films were made in America, or funded by Americans.

<i>Corona</i> (film) 2020 Canadian thriller drama film written and directed by Mostafa Keshvari

Corona, also known as Corona: Fear Is a Virus, is a 2020 Canadian thriller drama film about a group of people stuck in an elevator during the COVID-19 pandemic. The film was written and directed by Mostafa Keshvari, and made in part to address xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

<i>Black Bodies</i> (film) 2020 Canadian short film

Black Bodies is a 2020 Canadian short film, directed by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall, and produced by Tamar Bird and Sasha Leigh Henry. Inspired by a real-life incident when Fyffe-Marshall, Komi Olaf and Donisha Prendergast were travelling in California, and a woman in the neighbourhood called the police on them because she wrongly believed they were burglarizing their Airbnb rental, the film features Olaf and Prendergast performing spoken word pieces about the trauma of being victimized by anti-Black racism.

The Borsos Competition is the main awards program for Canadian feature films screening at the annual Whistler Film Festival. Introduced for the first time in 2004, the juried competition presents six awards annually to honour films, actors, screenplays, directors, cinematographers and editors in Canadian cinema. Initially, only films that were having their world premieres at Whistler were eligible for the competition, although this requirement was soon dropped as the festival had difficulty attracting entrants who were willing to forego the major film festivals such as TIFF or the FNC, and thereafter films selected for competition only had to be a regional premiere within the Western Canada region.

References

  1. "Hab at Heart - Annakin Slayd" . Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  2. "Happy Slapping: The Movie Shot Entirely on an iPhone". CBC Connects. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
  3. Vlessing, Etan (August 26, 2011). "Canadian 'Happy Slapping' Feature Shot Solely By Actors Using iPhone4". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  4. Fontaine, Hugo. "Hab at Heart - Annakin Slayd". Canadiens.nhl.com. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  5. Kelly, Brendan. "Annakin Slayd back with another great hockey video/anthem, this one for Team Canada". Canada.com. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  6. Brownstein, Bill (August 29, 2014). "Filmmakers pick up the phone for an update of Happy Slapping". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved 25 February 2015.
  7. Dimonte, Terry. "Blog: Terry and Heather talk to Annakin Slayd and Christos Sourligas about the new film Happy Slapping!". Chom.com. Retrieved 2015-04-08.
  8. Vlessing, Etan (August 26, 2011). "Canadian 'Happy Slapping' Feature Shot Solely By Actors Using iPhone4". The Hollywood Reporter.
  9. Brownstein, Bill (August 24, 2011). "Montreal film proves the iPhone can do just about anything". National Post. News Media.
  10. Kemp, Stuart (September 9, 2011). "Screen Talk: Slap on the Back". The Independent (UK). Archived from the original on September 29, 2011.
  11. Punter, Jennie (August 2, 2011). "Montreal fest sets its slate" . Retrieved 25 February 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)