Slow Machine, a feature film co-directed and written by alumnus Paul Felten '04 and produced by alumnus and Adjunct Professor Shrihari Sathe '09, will screen virtually at Metrograph from June 5 to 10, 2021. Afterwards the film, which had its festival premieres at International Film Festival in Rotterdam and Film at Lincoln Center New York Film Festival last year, will have its nationwide cinematic debut on Grasshopper Film’s website Projectr on June 11, 2021.
In Slow Machine, Stephanie, a restless and vibrant actress, meets Gerard, an NYPD counterterrorism specialist who’s an aficionado of experimental theater (and maybe out of his mind). Flirtation ensues, ends disastrously, and forces Stephanie to the ramshackle upstate home of musician Eleanor Friedberger, yet this supposed escape is infected by violent memories of her past life. A miniature epic of paranoia, espionage, subterfuge, music, and performance captured on lush and invigorating 16mm, Slow Machine heralds major new talent.
Paul Felten is a US filmmaker and screenwriter, born and raised in Reno, Nevada. He is a graduate of Columbia University, where he studied Film and has been mostly active as a screenwriter, having written or co-written titles such as Bomb and Francophrenia (Or, Don’t Kill Me I Know Where the Baby Is). Felten is also the former director of Olympia Film Festival and was a participant in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. Slow Machine is his first feature film as co-director.
Shrihari Sathe is an Independent Spirit Award-winning producer. He is a 2013 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and has received fellowships from the HFPA, PGA, IFP, Film Independent, and The Sundance Institute to name a few. Sathe is also a Trans Atlantic Partners fellow (2013) and Cannes Producer’s Network fellow (2014, 2015, 2016). Sathe’s feature directorial debut – Ek Hazarachi Note (1000 Rupee Note) – won the Special Jury Award and Centenary Award for Best Film at the 2014 International Film Festival of India and has received over 30 awards. Sathe has produced Elisabeth Subrin’s A Woman, A Part which world premiered at the 2016 International Film Festival Rotterdam and co-produced Anthony Onah’s The Price which world premiered at 2017 SXSW and Eliza Hittman’s Beach Rats, a 2018 Sundance Film Festival winner. Sathe's production Bassam Jarbawi’s Screwdriver (Mafak) had its world premiere at 2018 Giornate Degli Autori in Venice and Ritu Sarin & Tenzing Sonam’s The Sweet Requiem world premiered at 2018 Toronto International Film Festival where Screwdriver had its North American premiere.
