THE SONG OF SWAY LAKE
announces upcoming Fall screenings.
(LOS ANGELES, CA) - October 6th, 2017. Following its world premiere at the LA Film Festival, and selections at the Norwegian International and Si
Upcoming Screenings:
Oct 6: Tucson Film and Music Festival (Tucson, AZ, USA) • Opening Night Film in the presence writer-director Ari Gold and composer-producer Ethan Gold.
Oct 12: Laughlin International Film Festival (Laughlin, NV, USA) • Opening Night Film in the presence of writer-director Ari Gold and composer-producer Ethan Gold.
Oct 15: Woodstock Film Festival (Woodstock, NY, USA) • Official Selection, in the presence of writer-director Ari Gold, actors Rory Culkin and Jason Brill, Composer/Producer Ethan Gold, and producers Zak Kilberg, Michael Bederman, Iz Web, and Anne Bernstein.
Oct 20-24: Seneca Film Festival (Watkins Glen, NY, USA) • Official Selection.
Oct 18-28: Twin Cities FilmFest (Minneapolis, MN, USA) • Official Selection.
Oct 26: Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival • Opening Night Gala Screening in the presence of writer-director Ari Gold and some cast & crew TBA.
Oct 2017 to Jan 2018: Oaxaca FilmFest World Tour • Various countries.
More to be announced soon!
This lush drama about a young jazz record collector going back to his family’s summer lake home to reclaim a rare 78 record, stars Rory Culkin (Signs, Scream 4), Robert Sheehan (Misfits, Peter Jackson’s Mortal Engines, Geostorm), Mary Beth Peil (Tony-nominated for this year’s Broadway hit, Anastasia), and the late Elizabeth Peña (Lone Star, La Bamba).
The film features an original score and songs by multi-instrumentalist and music producer Ethan Gold with vocal performances by Brian Dennehy, John Grant and The Staves.
The Song of Sway Lake is directed by Ari Gold; Written by Ari Gold and Elizabeth Bull; Produced by Michael Bederman, Zak Kilberg, Allison Carter, and Ari Gold. Original Music and Songs by Ethan Gold, performed by John Grant and The Staves. Starring: Rory Culkin (Ollie), Robert Sheehan (Nikolai), Mary Beth Peil (Charlie Sway), Isabelle McNally (Isado
To find out more about The Song Of Sway Lake, upcoming screenings, and the filmmakers please check the official website: www.SwayLake.com.
Follow the Film on Facebook: www.facebook.com/Swa
Follow the Film on Instagram and Twitter: @SwayLake
Follow Director Ari Gold on Instagram and Twitter: @AriGold
HASHTAGS:
#TheSongOfSwayLake #SwayLake #AriGold #RobertSheehan #Ro
The Song of Sway Lake
LOG LINE
A young jazz collector plots to rob his wealthy grandmother of a rare 78 record, but his plan is derailed when his accomplice falls for the glamorous matriarch.
SYNOPSIS
“The Song of Sway Lake” is a lush romantic drama about the vanished grace of America, and the spell cast by the melodies of the dead.
It’s summer on Sway Lake, the most glamorous lake in the Adirondacks - former playground of the jazz-age New York aristocracy. Music collector Ollie Sway recruits his only friend, a rowdy Russian drifter, to help him steal a 78 record from his own family’s estate. Ollie believes that this mysterious piece of music - recorded at his grandparents’ wedding by Cole Porter’s lover - was hidden for him by his father before his suicide. He believes possessing the record will change his life.
The boys’ mission should be as easy as meeting a pretty girl on the water, but the arrival of the beguiling matriarch herself, Charlie Sway, changes everything. For Charlie has her own plans. And this song that hasn’t been heard in half a century may possess the answer to the deepest riddles about love and death - for whichever of these three lost souls will be the first to find it.
MUSIC
Listen to "The Song of Sway Lake", the original song composed by Ethan Gold: https://www.dropbox.com/
Ari Gold
Director/Co-Writer/Producer
Photo Credit: Louis Oberlander
BIOGRAPHY
Ari Gold is a student-Oscar-winning writer, director, and artist whose films are linked by musical and environmental themes. He directed the cult comedy "Adventures of Power" ("One of the funniest films in recent years" - NY Magazine), and dozens of award-winning shorts and videos that have been presented everywhere from Sundance to Karlovy-Vary. He also directed the Woodstock award-winning short film "Helicopter”, about his mother’s death, which he is now expanding into a feature film with psychomagic advice from Alejandro Jodorowsky.
Ari’s most unusual distinctions include winning High Times Magazine’s "Stoner of the Year" award, and being enshrined in the Guinness Book of World Records for commanding the largest air-drum ensemble on earth. His next major project, currently in development, is an action-adventure series.
Rory Culkin
(Ollie Sway)
BIOGRAPHY
Known for his roles in SIGNS and SCREAM 4, Rory Culkin has also played in acclaimed indies such as Ben Howe’s GABRIEL, which landed him a Breakthrough Actor nomination at the 2015 Gotham Independent Film Awards. Other film credits include JACK GOES HOME, INTRUDER, THE ZODIAC, DOWN IN THE VALLEY, LYMELYFE, TWELVE, HICK, IGBY GOES DOWN and ELECTRICK CHILDREN. Rory was nominated for a Spirit Award for Best Supporting Young Actor for his role in YOU CAN COUNT ON ME and he was part of the cast of MEAN CREEK which won a Spirit Award for Best Ensemble Cast.
Rory will next be seen in COLUMBUS opposite Parker Posey and John Cho for Kogonada which premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. He’s just wrapped LORDS OF CHAOS where he plays the lead opposite Emory Cohen and Jack Kilmer for Jonas Åkerlund and UNCHAINED opposite Adrien Brody, John Malkovich and Antonio Banderas for Paul Solet and Millennium Films. Rory is currently shooting The Weinstein Company/Paramount Network series Waco opposite Michael Shannon and Taylor Kitsch where he portrays David Thibodeau.
Robert Sheehan
(Nikolai)
BIOGRAPHY
Robert Sheehan shot to fame in the BAFTA award winning MISFITS (for which he was also BAFTA nominated for Best Supporting Actor), and is now starring in the epic MORTAL ENGINES (2018) for MRC/Universal, with Peter Jackson producing.
He has recently completed GEOSTORM for Warner Bros. and BAD SAMARITAN for Electric Entertainment. He made his acting debut in Aisling Walsh’s acclaimed feature film Song For A Raggy Boy. Since then, features include Ghostwood (Maxim Pictures), Summer of the Flying Saucer (Magma), Season of the Witch (Atlas Entertainment), Cherrybomb (Generator Entertainment), Killing Bono (Cinema Three), The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Constantin Film), The Road Within (Amasia Entertainment), Anita B (Jean Vigo Italia), The Messenger (Gateway Films), Moonwalkers (Partizan), Jet Trash (Aimimage). Television includes Foreign Exchange (Magma Film/9 Network Australia), Young Blades (Insight/PAX TV), Bittersweet (RTE), all three films in the BAFTA award winning Red Riding trilogy (Revolution Films/Channel 4), multi IFTA award winning Love Hate (for which he was twice nominated for Best Actor) for RTE/Octagon Films, The Borrowers for Working Title/BBC, Me and Mrs Jones for BBC/Hartswood Films, The Accused for BBC and, most recently Fortitude for Fifty Fathoms/Sky Atlantic. On stage he has appeared at the Old Vic Theatre in the title role in The Playboy of the Western World, directed by John Crowley and as Richard III in Trevor Nunn’s The Wars of the Roses.
Mary Beth Peil
(Charlie Sway)
BIOGRAPHY
Mary Beth Peil was nominated for a Tony this year for her performance on Broadway in ANASTASIA (Tony, Drama Desk, & Outer Critics Award Nominations). Her additional Broadway credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses; The Visit; Follies; Women on the Verge…; Sunday in the Park…; Nine; The King and I (Tony nomination). Her Off-Broadway work include many productions with Atlantic Theater (ensemble member and Obie winner); Cheever Evening, Later Life (Playwrights Horizon); First Ladies Suite (Transport Group); Sylvia (MTC); Hedda Gabler (NYTW). Regional: Hartford Stage, La Jolla Playhouse, Arena Stage, About Face, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, Kennedy Center. TV: “The Good Wife” (Jackie); “Dawson’s Creek” (Grams); “Law & Order: SVU”; “The Fringe.” Film: The Contest, Mirrors, Plagues of Our Fathers, The Reagans, Stepford Wives II, Odd Couple II.
Elizabeth Peña
(Marlena)
BIOGRAPHY
Elizabeth Peña's love for the arts came naturally, as her father was a well-known playwright, actor, director and novelist, so it’s not hard to understand that by the time she was 8, Cuban-American Elizabeth Pena already had designs to become an actress. Born in New Jersey, raised in New York, Elizabeth's, and her sister, Tania's parents, Mario and Estella Margarita Peña, had opened off-Broadway's Latin American Theatre Ensemble, and were more than encouraging. Elizabeth attended New York City's High School of the Performing Arts, now the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and Performing Arts, and found occasional work in repertory theatre and in television commercials. Her film debut in the independent Spanish-speaking feature, El Super (1979), and started her on a long line of independent and rebellious characters which showed plenty of independence. During the early 80s, she played everything - from a knife-threatening waitress to a disco queen, as she waited for her big break. The big break came in the 1990's form of 2 hugely successful films of different genres; one was the hugely popular comedy, Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), co-starring Bette Midler, Richard Dreyfuss and Nick Nolte, in which she stole many scenes as the sultry, politically-minded maid, "Carmen", who lusts for Nolte, and the other was the mystery, drama, Jacob's Ladder (1990) This propelled her to move to Los Angeles, where she continued to spice up both the big and small screen, including the part of Ritchie Valens' stepsister-in-law, in the well-received biopic, La Bamba (1987). Honors also came by Elizabeth's way, when she received the "Independent Spirit" and "Bravo" awards for the film, Lone Star (1996), and the "ALMA Award" for Tortilla Soup (2001). On TV, Elizabeth never found the one series role which could showcase her abilities fully. Co-starring roles in Tough Cookies (1986), I Married Dora (1987) and Shannon's Deal (1990) were short-lived. Elizabeth was married since 1994 married to Hans Rolla. The couple had 2 children; a son, Kælan, and a daughter, Fiona . She passed away after a brief illness.
Isabelle McNally
(Isadora)
BIOGRAPHY
Isabelle McNally is an actress, known for Frances Ha, Before I Disappear and The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him. She has most recently been seen as the character Madeleine Loomis in Bates Motel on A & E, and in the indie films Amnesia and The Big Spoon. She has also appeared on Netflix’s House of Cards.
FILM STILL
Robert Sheehan (Nikolai).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
FILM STILL
Robert Sheehan (Nikolai) and Mary Beth Peil (Charlie Sway).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
FILM STILL
Rory Culkin (Ollie) and Robert Sheehan (Nikolai).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
FILM STILL
Robert Sheehan (Nikolai) and Rory Culkin (Ollie).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
FILM STILL
Rory Culkin (Ollie) and Robert Sheehan (Nikolai).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
FILM STILL
Mary Beth Peil (Charlie Sway), Robert Sheehan (Nikolai) and Rory Culkin (Ollie Sway).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
FILM STILL
Rory Culkin (Ollie Sway) and Elizabeth Peña (Marlena).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
FILM STILL
Rory Culkin (Ollie Sway) and Isabelle McNally (Isadora).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
PROMO STILL
The Gold Brothers: identical twins Ari Gold (writer-director) and Ethan Gold (composer-producer).
Photo Credit: Grack Films
BEHIND-THE-SCENES PHOTO
Photo Credit:
© Grack Films
Appearing:
Ari Gold (director) and crew.
Q&A with director Ari Gold
What inspires you as a filmmaker?
Our big beautiful world is infected by greed, hatred, and delusion. Healing for the spirit and the earth lies in our ability to wake up, to be present. Therefore, as a filmmaker, I believe I have a duty to mine my own soul, which makes lots of mistakes as it seeks to wake up! Artists can show the path through the jungle, by sharing our own struggle to find that path. I believe film must open the heart or it has no value. Joy, humor, music, love, healing are all possible when the heart is opened.
Where did the idea of the “The Song of Sway Lake” come from?
Spending summers in the mountains north of New York City as a kid, I became fascinated by this giant swath of wilderness that seemed to exist outside of time. In the lakes was the history of the great American royalty, now in decline and often in conflict with poorer year-round residents. My grandparents, while not members of the royalty, aspired to be a part of it. But the present was always catching up to them, as it was to everyone whose nostalgia infected even the sunny days with melancholy. The “real sway” was always out of reach because it was in the past.
Why is telling this story so important to you?
For me, regret and nostalgia have always been seductive poisons. I’ve often asked—particularly when I was in pain—what if my life, what if the world, were different? But this question can only lead to more pain. Only by feeling “the sway” of what is, can I begin to make my life (or the world) better. So, I wanted to tell a story of three characters who cannot tolerate the present: Ollie Sway, a collector of old music, hoping to erase his father’s suicide with the perfect song and the perfect girl; Nikolai, an immigrant whose adoration of a heroic fabled America meets reality in the Sway family; and the matriarch Charlie Sway, longing for a past which—in her memory—was perfect. All three characters are on a journey of letting go of the past. If they can do it, they have a chance at joy.
What was the most challenging part of making this film?
Editing was for me the biggest challenge, because when I shot, I did not yet understand the real meaning of the film. I knew it was about family, music, friendship, death, and the beauty of a lake. But it wasn’t until I was editing that I discovered it was about my own struggle to be present in the world. I take consolation in Pablo Picasso’s statement that if he knew what he was going to paint before painting it, there would be no purpose in making the painting! I discovered the meaning while on a silent meditation retreat, and only then was I able to complete the film.
What was the most incredible situation you faced during production?
Shooting in this magical place, 75-year-old Mary Beth Peil said she felt that we were a theatrical troupe making “Midsummer Nights’ Dream”--and it’s true. The lake, the water, the storms, the smell of the old house cast a spell over us. We were in a perpetual dance with nature, as we were telling a story of “learning to dance,” because the weather changed so quickly that we never knew what scene we would be able to shoot next. It forced us all to be nimble. In the movie, the electricity is knocked out on the whole lake, and this happened for real at several points during the shoot. We would play piano and drink to stay warm. And just as nature seemed to be playing game with us, so did the machines that play such a role in the film: the boats would break during boat scenes, and later come alive as though turned on by a ghost. The universe laughed at us as we learned to sway.
One of the great experiences of my life was working with Elizabeth Peña, an actor of such fierce intelligence that she actually suggested that I give her character fewer lines of dialog. What a rare actor, asking her director to remove lines! She suggested that the character of Marlena should be almost silent, as in a silent film.
One night, I got word from the producers that Elizabeth wanted to have a “private talk” with me at the cottage where she was staying, across the lake. I rowed in the wooden boat from 1894 that appears in the film, under the moon, to have a secret meeting with Elizabeth. She waited for me on the edge of the water, and told me her secret: she felt that her character, the maid, had long ago had a sexual relationship with the patriarch of the Sway family. This secret affair was the reason for so much of Marlena’s secrets and burdens, and her conflicts with the matriarch Charlie Sway. Elizabeth asked my permission to play this truth as an actor, but asked me not to add a single mention of it to the cast, crew—or to the screenplay. This secret makes her performance more powerful and layered than it could have without Elizabeth’s genius. Watching the film and understanding this secret is a powerful thing. Her loss is a huge one.
Talk about your directing method.
As a director, in order to create magic for the audience, I have to create it for the cast and crew. My favorite films have a deep sense of place, and additionally, use music not as a spice, but in the main course of the meal. “The Song of Sway Lake” uses music and nature to tell a story of the soul, so even though we can’t get smell a movie, I wanted to do my best to make you smell that lake! Thousands of photographs and almost 5000 songs went into the research to build the fictional world of the Sways. I think the cast and crew were swept into this dream, too - both the young lovers and the older lovers kind of fell in love, and this allowed their dance to feel real.
Why did you hired Irish actor Robert Sheehan to play a Russian?
The character of Nikolai was inspired by my friend, the Russian director Serguie Bassine. Nikolai (and Serguie) have a very specific combination of bombast, passion, charm, obsession, humor, and pain. I knew that for the character to come to life, the actor had to have these qualities. I looked at over 70 young men for this role, from all over the world, including Russia of course. But it was only when I found Robert Sheehan—who had all of these elements in his spirit—that I believed that Nikolai could actually come to life. Serguie and I both recognized in Robbie the bombastic, exaggerated “Russianness” that some immigrants use to charm gullible Americans. It didn’t matter that he was technically Irish. We saw Nikolai.
Talk about the cast. Why did you select those actors? What makes them special?
I’ve spoken about Elizabeth Peña and Robert Sheehan above.
For the character of Ollie, we required an actor who carried the shock of recent loss on his face, and found it in the immensely sensitive Rory Culkin, who, like Ollie Sway, has his own “family name” as a burden.
Isabelle McNally, who plays the young purple-haired beauty Isadora, was as bewitching in person as the character needed to be for Ollie. Mercurial.
For the essential role of the matriarch Charlie Sway, which required a radiant and natural beauty in her seventies--icy and loving simultaneously—we were lucky to find the magnificent Tony-nominated Mary Beth Peil. Not only was she trained as an opera singer--and thus understood the musicality of the role--but she was, to be frank, one of the only great actresses of her generation who has not attempted to look younger than she is. She is her real age, and her spirit is like the sun. I will also mention that her professionalism saved the film many times: when the cast or crew were exhausting, shooting in the rain at 3 in the morning, it was always Mary Beth who could shut down people’s complaints with a single wink of her eye!
Tell us about the music in your film and what role it plays as a narrative device.
The film is about people seeking to hear the lost melodies of the dead, so the right music was always going to be essential. My identical twin brother Ethan Gold, who has also composed music of all kinds for my previous films, was the person who actually suggested that we create an original song to sound like it came from 1940, instead of recycling a known piece of music from the era. The suggestion terrified me: would we be able to make an original song convincing as coming from 1940? Would it match the dozens of “real” songs from the era that I’d painstakingly selected for the film, from the thousands I’d collected?
Working a great arranger, Ethan was able to turn the piano melodies of his score into two versions of this magical song. With a brilliant arranger and the real-life sister-trio The Staves, Ethan created the “sunny hit” version to match the Glen Miller / Andrews Sisters sound. He then asked John Grant, one of the greatest singers of our time, to channel both the soulful and the technical vocal aspects of this tragic fictional singer Tweed McKay for the “lost” version of the song.
By making the “Sway Lake” song a truly never-before-heard original piece of music--and matching the melodies o
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