The first annual St. Lawrence International Film Festival, running October 22-25, 2015, today announced for the first time ever, and in honor of the late horror master, Wes Craven’s 1984 masterpiece A Nightmare on Elm Street will be screened on Elm Street in Potsdam, NY, legendarily (and perhaps spuriously) known as the inspiration of the film from Craven’s time as a professor at Clarkson University as part of the inaugural St. Lawrence International Film Festival.

In addition to A Nightmare on Elm Street on Elm Street, St. Lawrence will screen four films in its Dark Borders program, including two North American premieres. The Dark Borders section delves into the vast shadowy side of filmmaking, seeking to bring the best in Horror, SciFi and Thriller genres to festival audiences across borders.

“We’re thrilled to feature such an iconic genre film alongside our Dark Borders program of new work from around the globe,” states Bears Fonte, Director of Programming for the St. Lawrence International Film Festival.

The St. Lawrence International Film Festival, will run October 22-25, 2015 and will feature an incredible 60+ screenings with over 25 features, 5 shorts programs and live performances in four cities in two countries for it’s debut. With the theme “Beyond Borders” the Festival will present films from all over the world to screen at five different venues. The Festival Opening Gala will feature a 35th Anniversary Screening of “The Blues Brothers” with Dan Aykroyd in attendance to benefit the RCMP Foundation. The Friday Night Block Party sponsored by SUNY Canton will fill the streets of Canton, NY and feature a special cinematic edition of NYC’s ultimate multimedia live game show, The Big Quiz Thing.

DARK BORDERS

BLACK MOUNTAIN SIDE (East Coast Premiere), Canada
Writer/Director: Nick Szostakiwskyj
Cast: Shane Twerdun, Michael Dickson, Carl Toftfelt, and Timothy Lyle
Synopsis: At a remote weather monitoring station in the Arctic Circle of Canada, a team of scientists uncovers a strange stone structure with archaic writing and symbols thousands of miles north from where it should logically be. As they investigate, inexplicable things happen around the camp. Cut off from the rest of the world by a communications glitch, the team fall victim to paranoia and violence.

THE CIRCLE (Cirkeln) (North America Premiere), Sweden
Writer/Director: Levan Akin
Cast: Josefin Asplund, Helena Engström, Miranda Frydman, and Irma von Platen
Synopsis: An otherworldly force brings together six girls from the same small town high school who must master their own elemental powers to defeat an evil that threatens the whole world. The first film based off the best-selling Swedish young adult novel franchise, The Circle conjures up images of The Craft and Twilight, with the sensibilities and bleakness of Let the Right One In.

THE CORPSE OF ANNA FRITZ (East Coast Premiere), Spain
Writer/Director: Hèctor Hernández Vicens
Co-Writer: Isaac P. Creus
Cast: Albert Carbó, Alba Ribas, Bernat Saumell, and Cristian Valencia
Synopsis: Crashing their friend’s shift at the morgue the night the famous (and beautiful) actress Anna Fritz dies, two young men realize they have the ‘non-argumentative’ glamour star all to themselves. When their host admits this is not his first time taking advantage of a captive cutie, they decide to take turns with her body. Only she’s not quite dead, merely suffering from paralysis. Relying on her skills as an actress, she quickly turns the three boys against each other and attempts escape.

INDEX ZERO (North American Premiere), Italy
Writer/Director: Lorenzo Sportiello
Cast: Simon Merrells, Ana Ularu, Antonia Liskova, and Velislav Pavlov
Synopsis: The year is 2035 and the United States of Europe has decided not all human life is sustainable. A man and woman negotiate the ruins of civilization to find somewhere worth raising their baby on the way. To gain entrance into the walled city, they must prove to the gatekeepers that they are healthy and sustainable, in other words, profitable and worth having inside.

A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET ON ELM STREET
For the first time ever, and in honor of the late horror master, Wes Craven’s 1984 masterpiece Nightmare on Elm Street will be screened on Elm Street in Potsdam, NY, legendarily (and perhaps spuriously) the inspiration of the film from Craven’s time as a professor at Clarkson University. Craven’s first dabbling in film came in 1968 with Pandora Experimentia, a 45 minute short that mocked action-thriller movie trends (much like Scream mocked Horror trends years later) made with sixty or so students from the Clarkson Drama Club and SUNY Potsdam as cast and crew. In attendance will be Brian Hauser, Assistant Professor of Film at Clarkson University to share stories and insights.

According to an article in the 1989 Clarkson Alumni Magazine, Craven reflected that “none of us knew anything about sound, none of us knew anything about editing, and none of us knew anything about cinema.” The co-directors John Heneage and Ken Lyon used glue to splice the segments when editing the film at neighboring St. Lawrence University. The film cost about $300 to make and was shown six times over two nights, making back five times their investment. The directors were members of Theta Chi fraternity, so the frat house on Elm Street (demolished in 2010) was chosen as the location of the action. It had been a funeral parlor early in the century.

In an interview published in Clarkson magazine in 1989, Craven said, “It was more like ‘Let’s make as many mistakes as possible and see what happens.'” He continued to work on scripts while he taught Humanities at Clarkson, but because he was not working to complete his doctoral dissertation, he and Clarkson parted company. According to co-director John Heneage, the original and only copy (he knows of) of the film was sent to Craven sometime around 1970-71 so he could show it around as a demo reel.

The St. Lawrence International Film Festival is searching for information on Pandora Experimentia on behalf of the original filmmakers, including updates or from the 60+ members of the cast and crew and reflections from those who saw the film in 1968. Material can be sent to Director of Programming Bears Fonte, bears@stlawrencefilm.com, who is compiling the notes. The screening will take place October 24th as part of the inaugural festival on the second floor of Between the Buns, a location the general manager has hinted may just be haunted.

Strategically located at the center of the St. Lawrence River Valley with events in Ottawa and Brockville, ON and Canton and Potsdam, NY, St. Lawrence International Film Festival is a first-of-its-kind celebration of film, with related events on both sides of the international border between the US and Canada.

A limited number of All-Access VIP Passes for the Festival weekend include guaranteed seating for the Opening Gala screening and reception, as well as admission to all Festival screenings, panel discussions, parties and VIP lounge. All passes are available now through the Festival website www.stlawrencefilm.com.

ABOUT St. Lawrence International Film Festival:

Founded by Adam Paul, St. Lawrence International Film Festival has assembled an extraordinary team of festival professionals from all over North America to bring the best in film to a fertile new destination: The Fourth Coast. No other event in the world plays simultaneously in two countries, offering a highly-visible promotional and partnership opportunity featuring 25+ international films, an Opening Gala, the Empire State Filmmaker Award, parties and competition awards during a 4-day event in the US and Canada. The Festival advisory board is lead by industry notables Sara E. Johnson (Oscar-winning Executive Producer of “Birdman”), Mark Valley (“CSI”), Aaron Woolf (“King Corn, Peabody Award-winner), Drea Clark (Programmer Slamdance Film Festival & Los Angeles Film Festival), Gloria Campbell (Managing Director of the American Pavillion at Cannes), Ann Marie Gardinier Halstead, Brian Hauser (Co-Editor of The Journal of Short Film), and Bob Penski (Founder of Penski, Inc)