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Joined: Jun 05, 2004 Posts: 605 Location: Boise, Idaho
Posted: Fri Dec 04, 2009 9:55 am Post subject: PR: "Happy Holidays" Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Happy Holidays
A Comedy about Friendship, Family and Faith, HAPPY HOLIDAYS Should Be on Your Holiday Movie List.
Burbank, CA – Santa is making his list…are you? Independent film lovers are unwrapping the thoughtful and timely movie entitled HAPPY HOLIDAYS, and director/producer James Ferguson hopes that his cinematic gift ends up on your list of holiday viewing recommendations as well. After entertaining audiences at the 2007 Woods Hole Film Festival, the 2007 SNOB Film Festival and the 2008 All American Film Festival, HAPPY HOLIDAYS is now available in home theaters worldwide. When the weather outside is frightful (or sunny and 72 degrees Fahrenheit, for that matter) HAPPY HOLIDAYS can be
downloaded directly from h a ppyholidaysthemovie.com as well as the web services run by iTunes, IndiePix and EyeSoda. The film can also be viewed via DVD purchases from h a ppyholidaysthemovie.com , Indieflix, IndiePix, or via DVD rental from CinemaNow.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS is the story of three high school friends who unexpectedly reunite in their New England hometown the week before Christmas. Now in their mid-thirties, it’s the first time Patrick, Alden and Kirby have all been in the same zip code since their high school graduation. Life has taken them in very different directions and now they have a hard time finding common ground, especially when it comes to matters of morality, responsibility and faith. While discussions about religious pluralism and lifestyle differences may seem out of place in a comedy, there’s plenty of irreverent banter and humorous situations to lighten things up.
“HAPPY HOLIDAYS is a fantastic human comedy-drama. The film is perfectly balanced with liberal doses of humor, some of it subtle while some is laugh-out-loud funny,” says Cary Conley of Rogue Cinema.
Still living in their hometown, Patrick (Paul Hungerford) has shifted away from Catholicism to become an atheist, thinking himself abandoned by the Church (as well as his family) when he came out of the closet in high school. “Patrick is kind of the keeper of the past, except that he’s got a few chapters mixed up in his history book,” says Hungerford. Kirby (Thomas Rhoads) would like everyone to believe he is an upstanding Catholic, if they could only overlook the fact that he’s cheating on his wife—that’s what penance is for,
right? “Kirby is an actor’s dream part—he seems like a total ass, but underneath the free-wheeling drunken frat boy lies a very deep, very sad person,” states Rhoads. Alden (John Crye) has taken the path of Judaism as HAPPY HOLIDAYS what he believes is the road to happiness, but his friends think it’s just another detour along his drive of being
uncommitted. “His religion-hopping is a symptom of his greater malady—the mistaken belief that changing anything but you can make you happy” says Crye of his character.
“This film asks the question ‘What does it mean to have faith?’” Ferguson explains. “It's about how and why we turn to religion, or why we don’t. Are we hijacking or exploiting it for some personal agenda or are we truly, sincerely looking for insight? And doesn’t our inherent selfishness effect all aspects of our lives, especially our relationships?”
Co-writer Thomas J. Misuraca hopes that the audience will “be inspired to find their own
paths, true to their own selves and not just what tradition, religion or family dictates.”
Much of HAPPY HOLIDAYS was shot in Ferguson’s Rhode Island neighborhood. All of the most striking exterior images were filmed just after a fresh snowfall in March 2006, a gift from Mother Nature “that we lucked into, because the season had been snowless up until the day we started filming,” recalls Ferguson. One of the most memorable interior scenes was shot in the gymnasium at the middle school where Ferguson himself attended. In the words of Jen Johans from Film Intuition, HAPPY HOLIDAYS is “a gorgeously photographed
‘walk and talk’ indie lensed by cinematographer Josh Blakeslee with beautiful black and white photography that gives it both a nostalgic feel a la Judy Berlin and classic Woody Allen.”
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