IOWA CITY, IOWA (September 27, 2022) — The inaugural film for the inaugural Refocus Film Festival is Bones and All, directed by Luca Guadagnino, adapted for the screen by University of Iowa Writers Workshop alum David Kajganich (Suspiria, A Bigger Splash, The Terror) from the novel of the same name written by Camille DeAngelis.
Refocus Film Festival is a festival inspired by the art of adaptation, curated and produced by FilmScene, Iowa City’s non-profit cinema. The festival will include 26 films and performances as part of a four-day festival from October 6-9, primarily hosted at FilmScene’s two downtown Iowa City locations.
MGM’s Bones and All will be the showcase opening night film on Thursday, October 6, 7PM, at the historic Englert Theatre. Kajganich and DeAngelis will appear in conversation about Kajganich's process of adapting the story from book to film. The screening will be followed by the festival’s Postscript Party, which ticket holders are welcome to attend.
The film stars Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Michael Stuhlbarg, Andre Holland, Chloé Sevigny, David Gordon Green, Jessica Harper, Jake Horowitz, and Mark Rylance. It recently premiered at the Venice Film Festival to a rapturous applause, winning both the Silver Lion Award for best director for Guadagnino and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actress for Russell.
Provocative and tender, Bones and All is described by the film’s producers, which include Guadagnino and Kajganich, as “a story of first love between Maren, a young woman learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee, an intense and disenfranchised drifter; a liberating road odyssey of two young people coming into their own, searching for identity, and chasing beauty in a perilous world that cannot abide who they are.”
Interested moviegoers are invited to purchase a festival pass, now on sale, to ensure they can select the films they would like to see before they are available to the public. Passholders can reserve tickets beginning the week of September 19. Individual tickets to festival films will go on sale September 23. Tickets and full festival information are available at www.refocusfilmfestival.org.
ABOUT REFOCUS FILM FESTIVAL
Refocus Film Festival, in its inaugural year, will present a full weekend of films, gatherings, conversations, special guests, outdoor screenings, and live performances in a community-wide celebration of cinema. This vibrant, wholly-unique annual festival will spotlight source material — literature, journalism, photography, music, art, podcast, and more — and present its evolution of voice, perspective, and medium to the big screen.
ABOUT FILMSCENE
FilmScene is Iowa City’s non-profit cinema, working in partnership with the Bijou Film Board, a University of Iowa student organization, to present films at two locations on five permanent screens and a seasonal outdoor cinema. From our home in Downtown Iowa City, we enrich the cultural vitality of the surrounding area through community-supported programming that showcases exceptional American and international filmmaking in a vibrant, accessible, equitable, and welcoming space. FilmScene’s mission is to challenge, inspire, educate, and entertain our diverse communities through the shared discovery of film.
