Bayview Entertainment doubles up on May 30 with their latest release announcement that two new films will be making their Blu-ray debuts on that end-the-month street-date Tuesday.
First up is award-winning cinéma verité/guerilla filmmaker Carl Bessai’s Evelyne, which is based on the actual experiences of Bessai and his co-writer, Rumbie Muzofa, who also stars as the title character.
Bessai, a documentary filmmaker by trade (film school and real-world filmmaking) has ventured into dramatic feature films now and then and brings that sense of realism; improvisation to his non-doc productions. Such is the case here as we are introduced to Evelyn, an East Africa immigrant and single mom, who — like many women in an alien environment — is in a vulnerable position when it comes to men who would take advantage of her situation.
Her “boyfriend,” Hali — the father of her child who she thought was dead — (played by Kareem Malcolm — Game of Love, Love at Sunset Terrace) is both domineering and abusive. This also applies to her would-be employers, who have promising jobs (with benefits for themselves).
When Hali insists that they get back together again, Evelyne elects to make a run for it with her daughter, Amandine (Neemah Muzofa in her film debut), and impulsively responds to an apartment for rent advertisement that is beyond the meager savings she has.
It is a dream. Clean, safe … a haven to raise her young daughter. But she will be evicted in no time. However, a savior, in the form of mild-mannered Gary (played by Bessai) — the lonely guy who manages the complex — senses her plight and does a most unexpected thing … he does the morale thing; the right thing and finds a way to give Evelyn and Amandine the space and the time to find their way forward.
If you want a feel-good indie story — from an award-winning filmmaker at that — then Bayview Entertainment’s Evelyn on May 30 will be exactly what you are looking for … on Blu-ray no less.
Also making its Blu-ray debut on May 30 is the down under vampire tale, So Vam, from teenage writer/director Alice Maio Mackay.
Kurt (played by Xai in his film debut) is a flamboyantly gay high school teenager, who suffers the slings and arrows of his classmates. High school can be so miserable, especially when you have just one friend, Katie (Erin Paterson), and the rest of your classmates are either bullies or mean girls — indeed, there’s a trio of harpies who give new meaning to the word B***h (yes, with a capital B).
On one particular night, Kurt is ambushed by what we at first think are high school miscreants, but it turns out that these are creatures of the night led by Landon (Chris Asimos) and it looks as though Kurt’s high school miseries are about to be a thing of the past as he’s tonight’s meal!
That would make Mackay’s So Vam a very short film, Kurt drained dry in the first act. Interrupting the attack are April (Grace Hyland) and one of her fellow clan members, Harley (Ethan McErlean), who are also vampires. They rescue him and suddenly Kurt has new friends and a hunger for taking on bullies and high school mean girls.
April’s clan, of which Kurt is now a member, has “feeding rules” — leave the innocents alone and feast only on the mean ones! But then there is Landon, who would like nothing more than to finish his kill … and he may just have the “bait” (remember Katie) to take a bite out of Kurt!!
First time filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay delivers a genre film — a sort of “Lost Boys” vampire tale — with a social message. So Vam is certainly worth a look on Blu-ray this coming May 30 from Bayview Entertainment.
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