The suburbs are often touted as nice, normal places, when really they are anything but. They always a feeling of falseness, of artificiality and a forced kind of community that is anything but, and a place that is so easy to be lost in. No wonder American films, in particular, have shown the true weirdness of these spaces and the affect they have on the people. Then there's the road trip - while common across cinemas, the vast distances in North America lend itself again, to the weirdness that comes from isolation. And these two worlds seem to collide in Theodore Schaefer's Giving Birth to a Butterfly. After its premiere in 2021 at Fantasia, we're glad to see that Cinedigm has picked it up for release.
Cinedigm announced this week the acquisition of Theodore Schaefer’s hauntingly surreal debut feature Giving Birth to a Butterfly for release as a streaming exclusive on the company’s indie discovery platform Fandor and has just dropped the first trailer. The eccentric fantasy-like drama first premiered at North America’s largest genre film festival, the Fantasia International Film Festival, and is set to open in select U.S. theaters this May—including playdates in New York and Los Angeles—before digitally premiering on May 16.
After having her identity stolen online, Diana Dent leaves her family and goes on a road trip with her son’s pregnant girlfriend to track down the perpetrators. The mismatched travel companions form an unexpected bond as they concede to the hardships of their own lives, and their hunt for answers becomes a surreal journey of self-discovery and empowerment. Starring Annie Parisse (Friends From College) and Gus Birney (Dickinson), Constance Shulman (Orange Is the New Black), and Paul Sparks (Boardwalk Empire).
Giving Birth to a Butterfly will have a limited run at US theaters in early May, followed by an exclusive streaming release on Fandor starting May 16th. Check out the trailer and new poster below.