Newsroom - Press Release

JDIFF Festival Tour to Showcase Offical Selections at Midwest Theatres

August 17, 2020

Cinemarketing and the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival are teaming up with a unique offering in the wake of the challenges COVID-19 has placed on movie theatres and film festivals.

The two are partnering to present the JDIFF Festival Tour, which will feature select JDIFF Official Selections in theatres around the Midwest and will kick off at Phoenix Theatres' Kennedy Mall on October 16th.

"This has been a challenging year for everyone, it has forced all of us to find creative ways to move forward," said Cory Jacobson, Owner of Phoenix Theatres. "This is the perfect opportunity for us to partner once again with our friends at JDIFF and offer some unique independent film to the Dubuque community that keeps our theatre operating with style."

The JDIFF Festival Tour, which begins on October 16, will feature:

• 2020 short film nominees, including Coffee Shop Names, Extra Innings, Alina, Flora, and The 11th Order.
• Death To Metal, a comedy/horror by Dubuquer Tim Connery that was named Best Feature at the Spooky Empire Horror Film Festival in Tampa, Fla.
• Laddie: The Man Behind the Movies, 2019 JDIFF Best Documentary winner. This is the untold story of the movie mogul, producer and former 20th Century Fox chairman, Alan Ladd Jr., who green-lit Star Wars, Blade Runner, Alien, Police Academy, and more. It was directed by his daughter Amanda Ladd-Jones.
• Book Week, 2020 JDIFF Official Selection. This Australian comedy follows a jaded high school English teacher who is forced to re-evaluate his life when his novel is passed over for one of his students.
• Royalty Free: The Music of Kevin MacLeod, 2020 JDIFF Official Selection documentary. This documentary is about the composer Kevin MacLeod and his practice of releasing all of his music for free and how he unwittingly became one of the most heard composers in the world, with his work ending up in millions of videos, thousands of films, and many odd places.
• Parallax, a 2020 JDIFF Official Selection. This psychodrama/sci-fi feature follows Naomi Johnston who wakes up in a life that she doesn't recognize.
• Working Man, a 2019 JDIFF Official Selection. This feature begins when the last factory in a small Rust Belt town closes its doors. A career employee of the factory, Allery Parkes, forms an unlikely friendship with his charismatic neighbor, Walter Brewer, in order to revive the defunct factory.
• Silo, a 2020 JDIFF Nominee. In this 76-minute feature, a grain entrapment accident threatens to tear apart family and friends in a small American farm town.

For showtime and ticketing information - click here

Films included are exclusive to the JDIFF Festival Tour and did not appear on the JDIFF virtual platform during its online festival, which ran June 25 through July 13.

The festival tour films will be shown at Phoenix Theatres in Dubuque and Michigan, and possibly other select Midwest theatres.

The theatre will be taking many steps to ensure moviegoers' safety, a new system has been installed that offers customers the opportunity to select their own numbered reserved seat that will automatically social distance you from other guests not in your party. Phoenix Theatres is also a participant in the Cinemasafe program that sets a high standard for cinema operations that is certified by epidemiologists from Columbia University, U.C.L.C. and Michigan's Beaumont Hospital. Further details on Phoenix Theatres' safety protocols are available at: Covid Response

"We are so appreciative of this partnership with Phoenix Theatres," said Susan Gorrell, executive director of JDIFF. "This is a wonderful opportunity for filmmakers and for the festival. It offers another component to this year's virtual festival that we have never done before."

Background:

The Michigan based Phoenix Theatres opened its first Detroit-area theatre in 2001 and currently operates 7 theatres, with the introduction of Northtowne marking their 59th theatre screen.