Joel Potrykus | |
|---|---|
 Joel Potrykus at the 2012 Belfort Entrevues Film Festival | |
| Born | July 10, 1977 Ossineke, Michigan, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter |
| Website | www |
Joel Potrykus (born July 10, 1977) is an American film director and screenwriter. His feature film debut Ape won the Best New Director prize at the 2012 Locarno Film Festival, [1] while his follow-up feature Buzzard won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2014 Ljubljana International Film Festival. [2]
Potrykus was born and raised in Ossineke, Michigan, [3] then moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan to study film at Grand Valley State University. Later, he earned his MFA in screenwriting from Emerson College. [4]
A stint as a stand-up comedian in New York City led to the inspiration for his first feature film, Ape . [5] While spending a year as a temp at a Michigan mortgage company led to the inspiration of his second feature film, Buzzard . [6] The book Walden by Henry David Thoreau was the influence for Potrykus' 2016 feature The Alchemist Cookbook , which builds on his themes of slackers and loneliness. [7] [8] His fourth feature film Relaxer , is a modern interpretation of Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel. [9] He's been the subject of retrospectives at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2015 [10] and at the 2016 Valdivia Film Festival. [11]
In 2024, his fifth feature film, Vulcanizadora , premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, taking home a Special Jury Prize for actor Joshua Burge. [12] Chase Hutchinson of Collider said of the film, "There is no film you’ll ever see like it as it patiently builds to a terrifying explosion and then keeps going from where most would stop, leaving us to pick up the pieces that are forever shattered." [13] The film had its International premiere at the 28th Fantasia International Film Festival on July 19, 2024. [14]
He currently teaches filmmaking at Grand Valley State University. [15]
In 2016, Vimooz called Potrykus "The New King of Underground Cinema". [16] Vague Visages credits him as the originator of the new genre, "metal slackerism". [17]
Potrykus has cited the following directors and films as having an influence on his work; Alan Clarke's Made in Britain , Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man!, Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver , Vincent Gallo's Buffalo ’66, Rick Alverson's The Comedy , Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie , Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law, Sam Raimi's Evil Dead , F. W. Murnau's Faust and James Nguyen's Birdemic; [18] as well as the films of Michael Haneke, Kelly Reichardt, Jean-Luc Godard and Quentin Tarantino. [19] [20]
Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky was a Soviet film director and screenwriter. He has been widely considered one of the best directors in cinema history. His films explore spiritual and metaphysical themes and are known for their slow pacing and long takes, dreamlike visual imagery and preoccupation with nature and memory.
Arturo Ripstein y Rosen is a Mexican film director and screenwriter. Considered the "Godfather of independent Mexican cinema", Ripstein's work is generally characterized by "somber, slow-paced, macabre melodramas tackling existential loneliness", often with a grotesque-like edge.
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996. It focuses on niche, low budget movies in various genres, from horror to sci-fi. Regularly held in July/August, by 2016 its annual audience had already surpassed 100,000 viewers and outgrown even the Montreal World Film Festival.
The International Federation of Film Critics is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the world for "the promotion and development of film culture and for the safeguarding of professional interests." It was founded in June 1930 in Brussels, Belgium. It has members in more than 50 countries worldwide.
The Festival du nouveau cinéma or FNC is an annual independent film festival held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring independent films from around the world. Over 160,000 people attend each year. One of the oldest film festivals in Canada, it is an Academy Award-qualifying festival for short films.
Vanaprastham: The Last Dance is a 1999 Indo-French psychological drama period film in Malayalam-language that was directed by Shaji N. Karun. It was produced by Pierre Assouline and co-produced by Mohanlal. The screenplay was written by Karun and Raghunath Paleri based on a story by Assouline. It features Mohanlal in the lead role, with Suhasini Maniratnam, Mattannur Sankarankutty Marar, Kalamandalam Gopi, Venmani Haridas, and Kukku Parameshwaram in supporting roles. The film's music was composed by Zakir Hussain.
Sion Sono is a Japanese filmmaker, author, and poet. Best known on the festival circuit for the film Love Exposure (2008), he has been called "the most subversive filmmaker working in Japanese cinema today", a "stakhanovist filmmaker" with an "idiosyncratic" career.
Achero Mañas is a Spanish film director and former actor. He made three successful short films before winning recognition and several awards for his feature film debut El Bola.
The 11th Cannes Film Festival was held from 2 to 18 May 1958. The Palme d'Or went to The Cranes are Flying by Mikhail Kalatozov.
The 14th Cannes Film Festival was held from 3 to 18 May 1961. The Palme d'Or went to the Une aussi longue absence, directed by Henri Colpi and Viridiana, directed by Luis Buñuel. The festival opened with Che gioia vivere, directed by René Clément.
The 38th Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 20 May 1985. The Palme d'Or went to the When Father Was Away on Business by Emir Kusturica.
Praise is a 1998 Australian drama film directed by John Curran and adapted by Andrew McGahan from his novel of the same name. The film stars Peter Fenton and Sacha Horler and is about two outcasts who fall into an unlikely relationship.
Ape is a 2012 American independent black comedy film written and directed by Joel Potrykus, starring Joshua Burge as Trevor Newandyke. The film was a precursor to Potrykus's later film, Buzzard, which also starred Burge.
Albert Serra Juanola is a Spanish independent filmmaker and manager of the production company Andergraun Films, set up by Montse Triola primarily to produce Serra's films. He is best known for his films Story of My Death (2013), The Death of Louis XIV (2016), starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, and Pacifiction (2022).
Radu Jude is a Romanian film director and screenwriter.
Relaxer is a 2018 American comedy film written and directed by Joel Potrykus. It stars Joshua Burge, David Dastmalchian, Andre Hyland, Amari Cheatom, and Adina Howard. Set in 1999, it tells the story of a man playing Pac-Man in a living room. The film premiered at the South by Southwest on March 9, 2018. At the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival, Joshua Burge won the Best Actor award for his work in the film. It was released in the United States on March 22, 2019.
The Alchemist Cookbook is a 2016 American horror film directed by Joel Potrykus. The film was released on the 7th of October 2016 in New York City. The film follows an outcast who isolates himself from society to practice alchemy, but as his mind deteriorated his chemistry turns to black magic
Duane Graves is an American film director, writer, producer, cinematographer and editor who has produced a body of work spanning multiple genres. In 2023, Deadline Hollywood announced he was named one of Coverfly's best up and coming screenwriters. His career began with the documentary Up Syndrome, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2001. A portrait of his childhood friend born with Down syndrome, Up Syndrome won numerous awards, including the National Media Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2002, and the Grand Prize at the 2006 Movies Askew Film Festival hosted by Clerks (film) director Kevin Smith. He formed Greeks Films with film school peer, actor and filmmaking partner Justin Meeks in 2001.
Vulcanizadora is a 2024 American black comedy thriller film edited, written, directed, and starring Joel Potrykus. Calling it his "most personal and bleakest work", the film follows two friends, played by Potrykus and Joshua Burge, who travel into the Michigan woods for a dark mission that goes awry. Bill Vincent and Solo Potrykus also star. It premiered at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival.
The 28th Fantasia International Film Festival was held from 18 July to 4 August 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.