Devolver Digital Films is proud to announce the digital VOD release of the critically acclaimed comedy-drama, Soft in the Head, directed by Nathan Silver. The feature-length narrative film, set in New York City, follows the blithely unaware Natalia (played by Sheila Etxeberría), a drunken mess who seeks refuge with friends and in a makeshift homeless shelter, after being thrown out of an apartment by her boyfriend. The digital VOD (Video on Demand) release is scheduled for July 29, 2014 through Devolver. Soft in the Head will be available via iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, PlayStation, Xbox, VUDU, Vimeo on Demand, VHX, Google Play, and others. The film will also be released on cable VOD on September 2, 2014.
Devolver Digital Films to Release
Soft in the Head
A Critically Acclaimed Feature-Length Comedy-Drama
Directed By Nathan Silver
Digital VOD Release: July 29, 2014
Cable VOD Release: September 2, 2014
A darkly comedic look at how easy it is to lose one’s head
in the big city, particularly for those already lost.
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LOS ANGELES, CA – July 14, 2014 – Devolver Digital Films is proud to announce the digital VOD release of the critically acclaimed comedy-drama, Soft in the Head, directed by Nathan Silver. The feature-length narrative film, set in New York City, follows the blithely unaware Natalia (played by Sheila Etxeberría), a drunken mess who seeks refuge with friends and in a makeshift homeless shelter, after being thrown out of an apartment by her boyfriend. The digital VOD (Video on Demand) release is scheduled for July 29, 2014 through Devolver. Soft in the Head will be available via iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, PlayStation, Xbox, VUDU, Vimeo on Demand, VHX, Google Play, and others. The film will also be released on cable VOD on September 2, 2014. For additional information, please see www.devolverdigital.com/films/view/soft-in-the-head.
Soft in the Head (Comedy-Drama 2013, 71 min.) –
Thrown out of her New York City apartment, Natalia, a 25-year-old hot mess, relies on the kindness of friends and strangers. Seemingly unaware of the havoc she wreaks, she skips from one place to another, including her best friend’s place, where she crashes a holiday meal and seduces the best friend’s socially inept brother. Natalia ends up staying at a shelter, run by the genuinely good Maury, who takes an interest in making her life better. But life is not that simple and tragedy ensues. With a menagerie of New York characters, set against the backdrop of a homeless shelter, a religious household, and the cacophonous streets of New York, the entirely improvised Soft in the Head is a look at how easy it is to lose one’s head in the big city, particularly for those already lost. The film was inspired by Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Russian classic The Idiot.
Soft in the Head received strong reviews from its festival circuit run, which included screenings at the Viennale (Vienna International Film Festival), Goteborg International Film Festival, and Sarasota Film Festival (see review excerpts and links below). Newcomer Sheila Etxeberría has been praised for her commanding performance in the lead role of Natalia. Prolific director Nathan Silver, who has churned out notable films on an annual basis the past few years, was recently named “one of the most interesting emerging directors in U.S. indie film” by Filmmaker Magazine. Silver is currently screening his 2014 film, Uncertain Terms, on the festival circuit. He is also filming Stinking Heaven in New Jersey this summer.
Sheila Etxeberria as Natalia Béthencourt
Cast & Crew –
Natalia: Sheila Etxeberría
Maury: Ed Ryan
Nathan: Carl Kranz
Hannah: Melanie J. Scheiner
David: Theodore Bouloukos
Director: Nathan Silver
Executive Producers: Harvey L. Silver, Diane Lanyi
Producers: Lynn Truong, Nathan Silver
Screenwriters: Nathan Silver, Cody Stokes, Kia Davis
Director of Photography: Cody Stokes
Editors: Cody Stokes, Nathan Silver
Production Designer: Kia Davis
Music: Carl Kranz
Nathan Silver, Director –
Nathan Silver graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2005. Since then, the filmmaker has written and directed four short films and four feature films: The Blind (2009), Exit Elena (2012), Soft in the Head (2013), and Uncertain Terms (2014). His films have played in festivals around the world, including the Vienna International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, Slamdance Film Festival, Sarasota Film Festival, Woodstock Film Festival, Torino Film Festival, Munich Film Festival, and Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (BAFICI). Exit Elena opened in New York at the reRun Theatre and received rave reviews in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Village Voice. Soft in the Head opened at Cinema Village in New York and received glowing reviews in The Village Voice, The New Yorker, and Slant Magazine. Recently, Filmmaker Magazine named Silver “one of the most interesting emerging directors in U.S. indie film,” and The New York Times profiled him. His latest film, Uncertain Terms, had its world premiere in competition at Los Angeles Film Festival and its international premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival. He is currently in production on his fifth feature, Stinking Heaven, a black comedy that follows a commune of recovering drug addicts.
Devolver Digital –
Based in Austin, Texas, Devolver Digital distributes independent video games and guides indie filmmakers through digital distribution and film promotion. Devolver Digital’s outspoken passion for independent games, developers, and fans has earned the company no minor measure of game industry notoriety. With its expansion into film, which was announced at South by Southwest 2013, the company applies that same fiercely creative devotion and digital content expertise to support and celebrate indie filmmakers and projects. Co-Founder and Partner Mike Wilson says his own experience as a filmmaker seeking distribution led him and his partners to expand Devolver Digital into film. That experience has guided the company’s focus on “hand-crafted” strategic partnership and personal attention in distributing the titles on the label to a full range of digital and cable VOD platforms.
Links –
• Film’s Devolver Page – www.devolverdigital.com/films/view/soft-in-the-head
• Official Site – konecfilms.com/Soft-in-the-Head-1
• Trailer – vimeo.com/86429623
• IMDb – www.imdb.com/title/tt2069920
• Facebook – www.facebook.com/softinthead
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For more information, photos, a screener, or to schedule an interview, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at 213-840-1201, lynn@greengalactic.com.
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QUOTES
“Entirely improvised, Soft in the Head constructs its narrative from kinetic exchanges that bely the simplicity of the film’s storyline with their engrossing frenzy….Soft in the Head teems with life.”
– Sarah Salovaara, Filmmaker Magazine
“Brooklyn-based firebrand filmmaker Nathan Silver may just be the saviour that American indie cinema didn’t even know it had – let alone needed – meddling in its midst. Emending camera-vérité traditions with clear-sighted and calculating close-ups into ecstatically ill-at-ease comedies, Silver establishes some of the most seminal small-scale movies in recent memory.”
– Shane Scott-Travis, Vivascene
“A concise and blistering indie that captures a sense of volatile madness via sharp handheld aesthetics and a commanding lead performance from Sheila Etxeberría.”
– Nick Schager, Film Journal International
“…the audience must sink or swim. The sensation is at once maddening and, for its daredevil embrace of naturalism, absolutely thrilling.”
– Steve Dollar, Wall Street Journal
“Surprising, challenging, and never less than thrilling…. Sheila Etxeberría delivers a performance of extraordinary intensity.”
– Calum Marsh, Village Voice (Critic’s Pick)
“Riveting.”
– Aaron Hillis, IndieWire
“An emotionally ragged, tightly focused character study.”
– John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
