The Slamdance Film Festival presents the World Premiere of the film sequel “Bliss,” on Friday, January 19th at 4:15 pm MST & the second in-person screening on Thursday, January 25th at noon MST at the Yarrow in Park City, UT. The film charts the path of characters introduced in the original award-winning film”Bliss” by writer/director Joe Maggio (“The Last Rites of Joe May,” “Bitter Feast”), and Executive Producer Larry Fessenden.
Maggio reunited with Clint Jordan, the star of the story’s debut feature film “Virgil Bliss,” to pick up the main character’s story twenty years later. In many ways, Virgil’s journey has mirrored the filmmaker’s own journey – both set out with the best and purest of intentions, but somehow, either through fate or luck, always appear to get knocked a little off course. “Bliss”, the second film in a planned Virgil Bliss Trilogy, also marks Maggio’s return to the filmmaking philosophy of “Incidental Cinema.” Incidental films are films made with total creative freedom. An incidental film can be commercially exploited, but market considerations play no part in its actual creation.
The synopsis sees the protagonist Virgil Bliss as a fugitive for twenty years. His decision to return to the scene of his original crime and finally make amends is complicated by the sudden death of his girlfriend and fellow Oxy addict, Amy. Further to this, the unexpected arrival of Amy’s holy roller sister catches Virgil up in a web of lies and deceit. At once a dark fable of persistence, perseverance, and the transformative power of love, but also a searing indictment of the American carceral system and our ongoing opioid epidemic.
The Incidental Films & Glass Eye Pix production charts a path much like Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” following the same characters 20 years later and follows on the success of “Virgil Bliss” which had its world premiere at Slamdance in 2001, earning multiple Film Independent Spirit Award nominations that same year.
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