Josephine Decker's BUTTER ON THE LATCH and THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY Set for 2014 Berlin International Film Festival

Below, find information about writer/director Josephine Decker's two films at the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival: 'Butter on the Latch' and 'Thou Wast Mild and Lovely'.

Having started her career in documentaries, helping to produce for A&E, ABC and Discovery, Josephine Decker often builds her work from improvisation and collaboration with real communities. In addition to making her own work, Josephine Decker spent the past two years acting in films by directors like Joe Swanberg, Onur Tukel, Adam Wingard and Spencer Parsons, producing short videos for United Way, and creative producing a doc for performance artist Sarah Small.

In 2008, Josephine directed the documentary feature Bi The Way, exploring the rise of bisexuality in America and available on Logo and Netflix. The film screened at SXSW, Silverdocs, and about 100 festivals worldwide and received write?ups in The Austin Chronicle, Curve Magazine, The New York Times, New York Magazine, and The Dallas Morning News, among others. Josephine's short films and music videos have played at MoMA, SXSW, Cucalorus, Maryland, and Austin Film Festival, have won children's programming awards, and can be seen on PBS and Kidzbop. Her short "Me The Terrible," about a child pirate who tries to conquer New York City, received a glowing review in The New Yorker.

Fortunate to be collaborating with artists she admires, Josephine also raises awareness about environmental issues through her performance art.

This exciting double-bill of Butter on the Latch and Thou Wast Mild and Lovely will be a return to Berlin for Josephine, as she played one of the lead roles in Joe Swanberg's Art History, which premiered in Berlin in 2011.

Butter ON THE LATCH

(Acquisition Title / Paradigm)

Section: Forum

Written and Directed by: Josephine Decker

Cast: Sarah Small, Isolde Chae-Lawrence, Charlie Hewson

Josephine Decker's Sinister folktale is set in the dark Californian forest of Mendocino, where a Balkan folk festival is taking place. Sarah (Sarah Small) surprises her friend Isolde (Isolde Chae-Lawrence) by visiting her at the camp, and the two of them enjoy learning about the mythical stories from those faraway lands, practicing traditional song and dance and chit-chatting on their torch-lit journeys back to the tiny cottage where they sleep. Sarah encounters a handsome guy during one of their carefree moments and decides to seduce him - slowly and over the course of several days. Obscure feelings begin to disrupt her behavior while she makes her advances, and she almost forgets about Isolde as she is dragged deeper and deeper into the mythical world being played out in front of her by the other festival guests. Ashley Connor's refreshing cinematography and Decker's own freestyle editing - at times experimental, at times tranquil and contemplative - articulate the eerie underworld simmering in Sarah's unstable psyche. What begins as an innocent visit to the forest soon gives way to a confusing mind-trip, where reality and mythology become inextricably linked.

TRT: 72 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English

Genre: Drama

Screenings:

P&I Screening - Thursday, February 6th, 1:45pm (CinemaxX 6)

Premiere Screening - Saturday, February 8th, 10:00pm (Zoopalast 2)

Public Screening #1 - Sunday, February 9th, 3:00pm (Cubix 7)

Public Screening #2 - Tuesday, February 11th, 10:00pm (CineStar 8)

Public Screening #3 - Wednesday, February 12th, 12:30pm (Arsenal)

THOU WAST MILD AND LOVELY

(Acquisition Title / Paradigm)

Section: Forum

Written and Directed by: Josephine Decker

Cast: Joe Swanberg, Sophie Traub, Robert Longstreet, Kristin Slaysman, Matt Orme

On a farm in rural Kentucky, father Jeremiah (Robert Longstreet) and daughter Sarah (Sophie Traub) squabble together like young puppies. Over crisp, verdant images of nature, of animals, streams and puddles, a mysterious, sensual female voice tells of her lover, who may be a person or may be the whole world. Enter Akin (Joe Swanberg), there to help out for the summer. He's left his wife and child at home - and taken off his wedding ring as a precaution. Soon the three of them are circling each other, watching, feeling watched and knowing that their watching is not going unwatched. Within this atmosphere, a charged romance develops between Sarah and Akin that carries both an erotic tension and vague feeling of menace. When Akin's wife Drew comes for a visit, the situation explodes, harmless fantasies giving way to a violent nightmare.

The seductive colors and shallow depth of field of Ashley Connor's superb camerawork accentuate the ethereal nature of this enigmatic story. Josephine Decker's second feature lets beauty and horror blithely flirt with one another like two coquettish flowers in the same inviting meadow.

TRT: 76 minutes
Country: USA
Language: English

Genre: Drama

Screenings:

P&I Screening - Thursday, February 6th, 11:30am (CinemaxX 6)

Premiere Screening - Friday, February 7th, 10:00pm (CineStar 8)

Public Screening #1 - Sunday, February 9th, 8:00pm (Colosseum 1)

Public Screening #2 - Monday, February 10th, 10:15pm (Cubix 9)

Public Screening #3 - Wednesday, February 12th, 3:00pm (Arsenal)

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