Lowell screening of “Earthwork” is the only showing in the Boston-area!

“Earthwork captures the incredible true story of Stan Herd creating his masterpiece, and you simply MUST see it in the theater.” — Chris Ordal, director/producer of Earthwork

Next Tuesday, September 13, the City of Lowell will be, as far as we can tell, the only city in the area showing director Chris Ordal’s renowned independent film Earthwork. We’ve canvassed Fandango, Eventful, and Yahoo Movies and are yet to find a nearby locale that’s featuring this must-see film. The award-winning piece is indeed making the rounds at theaters, so we encourage you to keep a lookout for it. But in the meantime, please plan on joining us on September 13 at 7PM as Lowell will be the ONLY place to see this film on that date in the New England area — we’re so proud of that! Once again, we extend our sincere thanks to our good friends at Shadow Distribution for granting us the rights to screen this film to all of you before it hits our local theaters. We truly consider it a ‘reel sneak peek!’

The Chris Ordal quote we opened this post with is a poignant one, and also quite ironic. As you all know, Lowell is currently without an independent theater. Though this is the case, we are fortunate to have venue partners in the City who appreciate the importance of film — especially independent film — and who time and again open their doors to us as venues for film screenings. While we can’t promise you screen size and sound quality that match the local AMC or Showcase, we WILL promise you carefully curated films that reflect our own love of cinema and our devotion to bringing you a special communal film experience. That being said, we hope you’ll join us for our screening of Earthwork in our OWN theater for the night, that of the lovely Art Gallery at Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union. Their in-house sound and screen system are perfect for an intimate film event, and perfect for this particular showing of one of our most favorite films.

Director Chris Ordal has much to say about Earthwork and his desire to bring it to audiences. It was his first film project and was also actor John Hawkes’ first role as a leading man (though he’s appeared in countless films as supporting cast, including last year’s Academy Award nominated role in Winter’s Bone). At the center of the story is the fantastic Kansas-based artist Stan Herd, who choses to create temporary public art made from crops, plants, shrubs, trees, and any other vegetation he can find. Seen only from the air via helicopter or airplane, these ‘earthworks’ are absolute stunners. They are Herd’s passion, and one can only imagine the vision and drive it must take to plan and complete just one ‘canvas.’

Below is an excerpt from the first-person article penned by Ordal on ‘Regionalism in art and the importance of seeing Earthwork on the big screen.’ We encourage you to read the full article on the Shadow Distribution website (linked below):

“Earthwork, my film about Stan’s creation of [his artistic piece] Countryside, doesn’t seem to fit any of the pre-existing genres, but I believe that Regionalism is about as good a label as any. It’s the story of an artist who celebrated rural landscapes over urban ones, and tells a story that defies the rapidly developing advances in societal and media demands.  A film about a Midwestern artist that was made in the Midwest.

Now that Earthwork has successfully travelled the country on the film festival circuit and secured a theatrical release (not to mention the well-deserved attention John Hawkes has been getting, who shows his incredible range as a first-time leading man playing Stan Herd), I can only hope that audiences are more interested in coming to the art house theaters to see it than they are in sitting in front of their TVs and watching the latest household name eaten alive by our collective intrigue.

The communal experience of sitting in a theater and seeing Stan’s story unfold is impossible to truly appreciate without a massive screen. Even though the story works on any screen or device, no one owns a TV big enough to see Stan’s acre-sized art be created right before their eyes. Earthwork captures the incredible true story of Stan Herd creating his masterpiece, and you simply MUST see it in the theater.”  (Click here to read Chris Ordal’s full article.)

Please mark your calendars for the area premiere of Earthwork on Tuesday, September 13, where we’ll be presenting it in our OWN indie theater-style setting!