“Loves Her Gun” is one of the most soothing examinations of fear you’re ever likely to see.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times (chosen as a critic’s pick)
99 minutes
Directed by Geoff Marslett
Written by Lauren Modery, Geoff Marslett and Geoff Lerer
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Loves Her Gun was shot in Brooklyn, New York and Austin, Texas (and a few highways in-between!). The entire project was a wonderful experiment in which all the events, scenes, and character developments were tightly scripted…but in an effort to keep the portrayals as natural and real as possible…all of the dialogue was improvised by the actors themselves. In a further effort to keep the film believable we made the cast toob and work and play music and sleep in the RV. We even went so far as to use live rounds when filming most of the gun firing.
Allie leads an unfocused life with no job and a lame boyfriend. So it’s no surprise when she hops on the next bus (well more of an RV full of karate rockers) to Texas after being attacked on the streets of New York. Seeming to improve as she settles into the slower-pace of Austin, her fears continue to haunt her. She quickly falls into Texas gun culture as a means to feel safe. She walks the fine line between reasonable self-preservation and paranoid withdrawal. Can she maintain healthy relationships, or will the weapons she uses to protect herself cause her problems worse that the ones she was fleeing?
• WINNER of the juried Louis Black Lone Star Filmmaker Award at SXSW 2013
• “Loves Her Gun is one of the most soothing examinations of fear you’re ever likely to see. Adopting an appealingly low-key approach to a high-stakes subject, this gently observant drama from Geoff Marslett takes its sweet time introducing the girl to the gun, but when it does, we’re all but guaranteed to care.” – Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times (chosen as a critic’s pick)
• “An essential film about women and violence” – Gayle Trotter, Think Progress
• “Almost documentary like realism” – Michael Nordine, The Village Voice
• “As both a life-in-Austin indie and a piercing social commentary, Loves Her Gun is gripping and thoroughly entertaining cinema, the sort of unnervingly real, thought-provoking movie that does the Austin film industry proud.” – Don Clinchy, Slackerwood
• “Her own descent into violence is so unsensationalized that it comes as a shock to see where it leads, at the same time that director Geoff Marslett and his co-writer, Lauren Modery, make it feel inevitable.” – Elise Nakhnikian, Slant Magazine
• “the film isn’t about guns; it’s about people, and Marslett seems to know them rather well. Certainly he knows how to elicit unscripted scenes of bristling realism from talented, undersung actors. But he also knows that community is where the interesting stories, and maybe the solutions, lie — a notion that both Rick Santorum and Hillary Clinton could get behind.” – Ted Scheinman, Los Angeles Review of Books
• “Marslett has a real feeling for this place and these people; his Austin party scenes are seductive and atmospheric” – Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
• “Top 5 from SXSW Film” – Chris Vognar, The Dallas Morning News
• “Like Allie’s current plight, the film has a sort of meandering feel that fits just right without making it seem like the story is going nowhere. Her natural progression through various situations, good and bad, registers as real” – Annette Kellerman, Ain’t It Cool News
• “3 1/2 Stars” – Don Simpson, Film Threat
• “One minute she’s thriving and you’re thrilled for her, but slowly the darkness creeps back in and you’re begging her to make the right decision rather than lose herself to the memories of the attack.” – Perri Nemiroff, Shockya
• World Premiere at South By Southwest Film Festival, Austin, Texas in March 2013
• One Week Run at Cinema Village, New York, NY, January 10, 2014
directed by Geoff Marslett
written by Lauren Modery, Geoff Marslett and Geoff Lerer, dialogue improvised by the cast
produced by Geoff Marslett and Robert Howell, Melissa Dalley, Lauren Modery and Geoff Lerer
director of photography Amy Bench
editor Ian Holden
production designer Javier Bonafont
original score by Hanan Townshend
sound design by Robert Kellough
post production supervisor Jeremy Gruy
and songs by:
The Karate Kids, Ben Weaver, Marianne Dissard, The Silos, Howe Gelb, Leo Rondeau, Peter Wagner, Knifight and Nicole Atkins
starring:
Trieste Kelly Dunn (Cold Weather, Banshee)
Francisco Barrerio (We Are What We Are, Here Comes The Devil)
Ashley Rae Spillers (Saturday Morning Massacre, Slacker 2011)
Melissa Hideko Bisagni (Medicine For Melancholy)
with:
John Merriman (Pitstop, Gretchen)
Heather Kafka (Lovers of Hate, Texas Chainsaw Massacre)
Chris Doubek (Lovers of Hate, The Happy Poet)
Jennymarie Jemison (The Quiet Girl’s Guide to Violence)
for complete credits go to our IMDB PAGE.
Slackerwood’s Texas Film Roundup
El Universal’s article on Francisco Barreiro (in Spanish)
Daily Texan article on co-writer Lauren Modery
Slackerwood’s feature piece on supporting actress Heather Kafka
Indiewire’s profile on director Geoff Marslett for the 2013 SXSW film festival
Indiewire names Loves Her Gun one of “The 10 Films to See At SXSW 2013”
SXSW filmmakers in focus piece on director Geoff Marslett
Ain’t it Cool News gives Loves Her Gun a very favorable preview
Film School Rejects calls Loves Her Gun one of the 15 most anticipated films of SXSW 2013
Filmmaker Magazine names Loves Her Gun one of the 25 picks for SXSW 2013
Indiewire showcases Hanan Townshend’s Score for Loves Her Gun
