Oscilloscope Laboratories is opening Keith Miller’s quietly absorbing work of cinema verite, Welcome To Pine Hill, in Los Angeles at the Arena Cinema today, June 7th.
Pine Hill follows a recently reformed drug dealer, now working as a claims adjuster by day and bouncer by night, who receives some earth-shattering news, forcing him to make peace with those around him, as well as himself.
The film received enough votes to appear on the S&A Best of 2012 list, a film that blurs the boundaries between documentary and fiction, presenting an atmospheric depiction of a journey to self-discovery and spiritual redemption, taken by an unlikely cinematic lead character.
In our review of it, we called it, the “un-urban urban film.”
The narrative was inspired by a chance encounter between director Miller and the film’s star Shannon Harper, who found themselves fighting over a lost dog one night in Brooklyn, NY. It has its beginnings in a short film, titled Prince/William, before it was expanded into the feature film, Welcome To Pinehill.
Made in collaboration with the Brooklyn Filmmakers Collective, a group which writer/director Miller belongs, the film, a 2011 Independent Filmmaker Lab participant, World Premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival last year, where it won the Grand Jury Award.
Watch a trailer for the film below and you’ll find the short film, Prince/William, after it:
Here’s the 8-minute long short film: