In 2010 I had the good fortune of meeting John Wildman. I was just hired to be the President & CEO of the Dallas Film Society and John was our PR man on loan from AFI. That was the first year that I dove head first into producing the Dallas International Film Festival fresh off of its initial three-year contract with AFI. Thank goodness the fine staff and folks at DFS/DIFF took me under their wing. I learned a lot in a very short period of time.
Since that time I see John once a year when we share our love of film at the Sundance Film Festival. We all stay at the same house each year courtesy of our extraordinary friend and film buff Ruth Mutch. He is always off to the midnight screenings and seeing things in the NEXT category. What does that mean? Blood and gore, zombies, monsters and just weird. The best part is that we all gather and re-cap what we saw that day. You can see some of his brilliant gift for writing in his column “Films Gone Wild” on Film Threat.
John and his wife, Justina have tried their hand at filmmaking and showcase their midnight series film THE LADIES OF THE HOUSE at DIFF 2014. I spoke with John recently and he had this to say. “As far as the film is concerned, I had a goal for the film to give audiences an impression of what THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE might have looked like if master of 50s middle class society melodrama Douglas Sirk (ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, IMITATION OF LIFE, etc.) had directed it. Full of saturated colors and social commentary. And, of course, blood and gore. Style and the use of color was very specific with the wardrobe of each character and the backdrop of every room and every set. So much so, that one of the only arguments that Justina and I had while doing the prep work for the film was the color of one of the actress’s corsets in the dance club.”
xoxo- Tanya
The Ladies of the House
(MIDNIGHT SPECIALS -THE DARK SIDE OF FILM, FOR MATURE AUDIENCES) Angelika 4 Friday, 4/4 11:59pmThe saying goes that “a lady is as a lady does,” but what these ladies do is shockingly disturbing. In THE LADIES OF THE HOUSE, a reluctant birthday celebration starts out innocently enough but quickly turns into three men’s desperate fight for survival. The film explores a modern-day house of horrors, inhabited by four women who lead a most unusual lifestyle. This unorthodox ‘family,’ made up of dangerous beauties with a retro-sensibility, will let nothing compromise the happy home life they’ve carved out for themselves. Filmed in Dallas by the husband and wife team of John Stuart Wildman and Justina Walford, this stylized and sexy thriller lures the viewer into a place of unthinkable terror. While a macabre feast for the senses, it serves as quite the cautionary tale. Taking a place atthis table is indeed eye-opening to the potential deadliness of feminine wiles.
— Bridgette Poe
Dallas International Film Festival April 3-13 www.dallasfilm.org
Tags: Dallas International Film Festival, DIFF
