35mm print screening with director Nathan Silver in person, followed by a Q&A moderated by author Jonathan Lethem

Over the last ten years, New York-based filmmaker Nathan Silver has made a name for himself as “one of the most original independent filmmakers working today” (The New Yorker), making highly unpredictable and nakedly emotional psychodramas that are largely developed through improvisation. Following the premiere of his recent Sundance breakout Between the Temples, we are thrilled to invite Silver in person to present a 35mm print of one of his boldest experiments, shot by DoP Adam Ginsberg on an era-appropriate vintage Betacam video camera. Set in suburban New Jersey in the early ‘90s, the film follows a woman (Hannah Gross) who arrives at a harmonious safe house for recovering drug addicts run by a married couple (Keith Poulson and Deragh Campbell), only to inflame tensions among the patients. With a wide ensemble cast of who’s-who NY indie film character actors (among them Eleonore Hendricks and Tallie Medel), Stinking Heaven is a riotous lo-fi home-movie from hell.

“A lo-fi, high-volatility psychodrama, the 31-year-old director’s fifth feature ricochets with raw, mercurial responses… Never a banal depiction of dysfunctional group dynamics, Stinking Heaven, which was shaped, as in Silver’s previous work, largely through improvisation, remains consistently absorbing: The actors’ agile reflexes keep scenes unpredictable as their characters react to passive-aggressive slights or terrifying paroxysms of rage.” -Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

“Silver makes the story’s agonies reflect the tone of its era; his densely textured images have many planes of action, which he parses with pans and zooms, revealing the volatile bonds of a group on the verge of combustion as well as the howling horrors of unremitting solitude.” -Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Official Selection: International Film Festival Rotterdam, Viennale, BAMCinemaFest, 2015