Who needs Hollywood when you have “Hoyawood”? No, I’m not just talking about the organization on campus. I’m talking about Georgetown alum and director Zal Batmanglij (COL ’01) and writer/star Brit Marling (COL ’05). Try typing their names into Google – they are quite literally the new “it” celebrities.
Their most recent film, “Sound of My Voice”, premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and will be released by Fox Searchlight Pictures this Friday. This psychological thriller follows a journalist and his girlfriend as they investigate a cult whose leaders claims to be from the future. Praising it for the way “it does a lot with a little”, a movie critic gives the film a 3.5/4 stars.
But for me personally, it’s not so much that they’ve been getting fantastic reviews. It’s more of the fact that they’ve been working and filming together for so long. According to Batmanglij, “we entered ‘Lucid Grey’ into the Georgetown festival on April 27, 2001. Now ‘Sound of My Voice’ is opening on April 27, 11 years later. It couldn’t have happened in a more perfectly cinematic way.”
Well, Hoyas who are aspiring to be directors, actors, producers and all the above, don’t miss the opportunity to attend the private screening of “Sound of My Voice” tomorrow night. Both Batmanglij and Marling will be present for a Q&A after the screening and they’ll be joined by their fellow alumni filmmaker Mike Cahill (COL ’01), director of “Another Earth” (which also happens to star Marling). Can you say perks of being a Hoya?
When directors and actresses just casually show up to a private screening to meet you. NBD.
(Side note: Apparently Batmanglij’s mom is quite the chef and writer. What a family.)
Photo: collider.com
