LOADING
Directed by Nicholas Clark, Dylan Frederick | 83 minutes | 15+ | Victorian Premiere |
1:30pm Friday, 15 May | Balam Balam Place - Cinema 3 | Buy Tickets | Buy Passes
Slamdance 2025's Grand Jury Prize winning doc that asks: what happens when theatre kids turn conservative and stage their own modern-day witch hunt?
Brian Clowdus ran a thriving theatre company until he got Cancelled because of Woke. It’s the same with his cast of performers, all of whom feel rejected from the scene for their right-wing beliefs. At a derelict cabin in rural Georgia, they channel their hurt the only way they know how: through a disastrous immersive reimagining of the Salem witch trials, that other time “cancel culture” got out of control.
Directors Nicholas Clark and Dylan Frederick capture the pain and pride of the creative process through an uncomfortably 2026 lens. You will question the OH&S standards of actors being hanged and burned by a tiny and ill-prepared crew; you will see Stanley cups emblazoned with the words ‘Liberal Tears’. But at the same time, Clowdus and his circus are too human to dismiss - American Theater demands that you take your seat and simply observe, refusing to cringe away.
Screens with THE STENCH OF ETERNAL BOG (2025, dir. Rory Pippan and David Tse, 8:35)
A portrait of a decaying Australian town and its inhabitants.
SIMILAR: American Movie, Waiting for Guffman, Eddington, Arthur Miller's The Crucible
"If you were riveted by the Willy Wonka ripoff event in Glasgow, you will love this." - Jules Caldeira, Film Inquiry
"Excellent verite documentary. In fact it feels like an essential text to witnessing Trumpian MAGA culture." - Alexei Toliopoulos, Letterboxd
Country: United States
Year: 2025
Language: English