Indie Film Musical ‘Heart Strings’ Get Los Angeles Premiere at American Cinematheque
Indie musical “Heart Strings” will have its Los Angeles premiere June 30 at American Cinematheque’s Loz Feliz Theater. Director Ate de Jong (“Drop Dead Fred”) co-wrote the film with Steven Gaydos, Variety executive VP, Global Content, who is also co-producing.
“It’s a great honor to screen at the American Cinematheque. And especially to play the film at their Los Feliz location where ‘Heart Strings’ first began as a screenplay decades ago when I lived there after working on a Roger Corman film in Georgia,” Gaydos said. “Fans of 1970s American indie cinema might be surprised to find that Ate de Jong has just made an audience-engaging film with the subversive spirit and maverick attitude of that time. It only took 50 years to get the job done, which I hope makes Francis Coppola feel better about ‘Megalopolis!’”
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“Heart Strings” follows phony lovebirds Lucky (Sam Varga) and Billie (Maggie Koerner) who lie their way to stardom while competing on a music competition TV show. But as the pair grows closer, they sacrifice all their success for their true love of each other and the music they create.
The score for “Heart Strings” was written and produced by composer-songwriter Randy Edelman (“Last of the Mohicans,” “Mask”), with a theme song performed by country musicians The Bellamy Brothers.
The film first premiered in March at the Fantasporto Film Festival in Porto, Portugal before holding a screening at the Miami Film Festival in April. In early June, “Heart Strings” was screened as a special presentation by the Carmel Film Festival in Carmel by the Sea.
De Jong also directed films including “Love Is Thicker Than Water,” “Highway to Hell” and “All Men Are Mortal,” for which Gaydos co-wrote the screenplay. Gaydos’ other screenplays include “Iguana” and “Road to Nowhere.”
Gaydos, Varga, Koerner and actor Jonathan De Azevedo (“Free Guy) will introduce the film in person prior to the 7:00 p.m. screening.
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