Share
DADDY
Now part of the New Triptych Feature

DEDALUS

Included in Top 10 lists of The Advocate and Gay City News
NewFest Special Mention

Premiering October 20 on Streaming Platforms
including Apple TV, Amazon Prime, OVID.tv & Kanopy!

Interviews available with Director & Cast
 
DEDALUS is a fiction triptych portraying community, love, and loss.

In rural Iowa, a grocery cashier watches helplessly as classmates conceal their act of sexual violence against his teenaged step-sister. Will she keep the child? A hustler tricks for food, shelter, and intimacy during a winter in New York City.  A young woman takes him in, but nothing satiates his unrequited love for an older gay client. Mortality compels a father to leave his home in Los Angeles and move in with his daughter.

Jonah Greenstein's gorgeously shot feature debut laces loneliness with beauty to create a film of startling cinematic intimacy.

The film was developed in collaboration with the communities depicted and thus shaped a story that transcends the individual and embraces collectivity. Greenstein used both professional and non-professional actors cast through an open call throughout regional school and community theatre programs in New York and Iowa, as well as the same gay chat apps that inspired film.

Greenstein’s style is marked by an ensemble of richly detailed characters, minimal dialogue, and a reliance instead on complex, nuanced imagery that emphasizes characters over plot, as well as the use of a small, intimate production crew (one crew member and Greenstein).

Parts of the film are a modular series of encounters while others are entirely unscripted. Greenstein’s experience editing vérité documentaries has taught him to continue the writing process through post-production, continually building and rebuilding story structure and meaning that is informed by the footage. His editing style has been called "balletic" by The New Yorker.

DEDALUS stars stage actor Thomas Jay Ryan, known for his work with theatre directors Richard Foreman and Ivo van Hove, and filmmaker Hal Hartley's "Henry Fool," and its sequels "Fay Grim" and "Ned Rifle." Ryan has been lauded by the New York Times for "meticulous, almost formal, yet ungovernable" performances.

 
"An impressive debut."
– Roger Walker-Dack, Queerguru

"Reminiscent of Shame and Eyes Wide Shut."
– David Reddish, Queerty

"Greenstein shows the ways in which an intimate encounter with a stranger can make all the difference."
– Jose Solís, The Film Stage

Dedalus
A film by Jonah Greenstein
92 minutes | color | 2020
VOD Launch Date: October 20, 2020
Filmmaker Biography

JONAH GREENSTEIN is an independent filmmaker. He earned his BFA in film from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. DEDALUS is his feature directorial debut. In 2019, he became one of the youngest contributors to the Whitney Biennial, as the editor of TRIPLE CHASER, a collaboration between Forensic Architecture and Laura Poitras, narrated by David Byrne. His other collaborations with Poitras include RISK (Cannes '16), featuring Julian Assange, and installations at Manifesta and at the Whitney Museum. He edited Jenny Perlin's short documentaries DOUBLEWIDE (Berlinale '20) and FORTITUDE. He was associate editor on the Emmy-winning CRIME + PUNISHMENT (Sundance '18). His work with Josh Begley – CONCUSSION PROTOCOL and BEST OF LUCK WITH THE WALL – has screened at MoMA, IFC, and Pink Floyd's live show. He was assistant editor for Richard Mosse's THE ENCLAVE (Venice Biennale '13), and he frequently works with Art21 .


Cast Biographies

ALEXANDER HORNER had no acting experience when writer/director Jonah Greenstein discovered him and cast him as the unforgettable, haunted lead in part two of DEDALUS.

THOMAS JAY RYAN
is an American stage and film actor. He may be best known for his starring role in 1997’s HENRY FOOL. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ryan attended
Carnegie Mellon University and has worked in such theaters as Guthrie in Minneapolis
and Yale Repertory in New Haven. In addition, he has worked with avant-garde playwright
Richard Foreman and played roles ranging from Dracula to Degas. He has supporting roles in a variety of films, including STRANGE CULTURE, TEKNOLUST, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, THE BOOK OF LIFE, DREAM BOY, and the sequels to HENRY FOOL, FAY GRIM AND NED RIFLE. He played pioneering gay activist Harry Hay in the initial
production of the play THE TEMPERAMENTALS in 2009 in New York. In 2016, Ryan played Thomas Putnam in Ivo van Hove’s production of Arthur Miller’s THE CRUCIBLE at the Walter Kerr Theatre on Broadway. Recently, he reunited with van Hove for WEST SIDE STORY, also on Broadway.

ASHLEY ROBICHEAUX is a choreographer, performer, and teacher based in Los Angeles and Nashville. After studying dance at NYU, she joined the cast of SLEEP NO MORE. From 2011-2017, she presented her own works at venues including The Irondale Theater, National Sawdust, Gelsey Kirkland Theater, and Peridance Capezio Center. In 2017, she was an artist in residence at "The Hollows", where she created an immersive mixed media performance,
MATTRESS. She has worked as choreographer and movement coach for musicians such as Maggie Rogers, Lennon Stella, FKA Twigs, Billie Eilish, and Avril Lavigne, and was the assistant choreographer for the MUSE Simulation World Tour 2019. Her commercial work has represented brands including Gucci, Tatras, and TNT.


Poster Art

Raymond Pettibon and Marcel Dzama, courtesy of David Zwirner
 
For press inquiries and screening links contact either:

Kelly Hargraves: Kelly.Hargraves@firstrunfeatures.com

or Julianne Augustine: Jaugustine@firstrunfeatures.com


Email Marketing by ActiveCampaign