CHASING TASTE to Make World Premiere at VISIONFEST 2014, 5/16

Fresh from a "Best Comedy" win at the 2013 Burbank International Film Festival, indie film Chasing Taste has sold out of tickets for its world premiere at VISIONFEST on Friday, May 16th at 7:00p.m. at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. To meet the demand of audience members, VISIONFEST is opening up more seats in a second screening room for a simulcast. Chasing Taste tells the story of a down-and-out novelist who is transformed overnight into NYC's next big food critic. On the cusp of fame and fortune, the writer turned food critic suddenly loses his sense of taste and smell in a freak accident, forcing him to rely on a team of super "smellers" and tasters to help him fake his reviews. The screenplay is written by Lori Fischer and produced by Ashley Wren Collins, Maitely Weismann and Sean Gannet. The picture also marks the feature film directorial debut of Sean Gannet.

Producer Ashley Wren Collins co-wrote Produce Your Own Damn Movie! (Focal Press, 2009) with Troma Entertainment's B-movie king and creator of The Toxic Avenger, Lloyd Kaufman, who makes a star cameo in the film, along with country music superstar Phil Vassar, April Wilkner (America's Next Top Model), Joseph R. Gannascoli (The Sopranos), Kevin Brown (30 Rock), and Lynn Cohen (Sex and the City, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire), who is confirmed to attend the world premiere. Broadway veterans Nancy Opel, Chuck Cooper and Rita Gardner also appear in Chasing Taste, along with the Classical Theatre of Harlem's Producing Director Ty Jones, who stars as Bennett Brulee. Famed chef and chocolatier Fritz Knipschildt, who also makes a cameo in the film, will also be in attendance next Friday. Says Kaufman on the importance of making indie films and regarding Collins and the Chasing Taste team, "If there are to be visionary movies that are game changers, they're not coming from the $200,000,000 Troma-type movies now being made by the media oligarchy. Truly inspiring cinema will come from the young independent artist working on her own damn movie, outside the mainstream and expressing what is in her heart."

Chasing Taste is unique in that a cast and crew were assembled and locations were set before the script was penned. "When this process began, I didn't even know I'd be directing a romantic comedy. Every member of our team put their trust in each other; the result is a celebration," says the film's Director/Producer Sean Gannet. The world premiere will be followed by a Q & A with the producers, director and select cast members, followed by an exclusive "cocktails and lobsters" reception in The Varick Room of Tribeca Cinemas.