HogTown

ArtMattan Films, the films distribution arm of ArtMattan Productions, has announced its acquisition of Daniel Nearing’s experimental period drama, “Hogtown.”

Nearing, who made the previously critically-acclaimed 2009 indie drama “Chicago Heights,” shot “Hogtown” in black and white with Herman Wilkins and Diandra Lyle playing the leads in a multi-racial cast of more than 70.

Set during the notorious 1919 Chicago race riots, the film’s plot follows: the investigation into the disappearance of a multi-millionaire theatre owner during a snowstorm; on one hand a murder mystery and love story; on the other, a celebration of the city while exploring the isolation and emotions of many of its inhabitants, says the filmmaker.

The film includes several famous, or who were soon to be famous real people, like a 19-year-old Ernest Hemingway. And though it is a period film, director Nearing says he aimed to make a “period-less” work, shooting in undisguised contemporary Chicago locations.

Now, after traveling the film festival circuit over the last 3 years, ArtMattan has picked it up for formal distribution, with a Washington DC Premiere set, as part of the 10th Annual African Diaspora International Film Festival DC, which runs from August 19-21. That will be followed by its European Premiere screening in Paris, France, at the 6th Annual African Diaspora Film Festival Paris, September 9-11, 2016.

Check out the trailer below:

Hogtown

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