Hellaware - Factory 25 - Michael M. Bilandic

HELLAWARE
Factory 25
(Vinegar Syndrome Partner Label)

HELLAWARE gently satirizes the world of high-brow art through the eyes of a wannabe photographer who becomes consumed by the bright lights of mainstream success. Jaded by the “incestuous, New York, socialite shit” that sells at prominent art galleries, Nate (Keith Poulson) embarks on a quest for a more authentic brand of contemporary art. When a coked-up YouTube search leads to a music video from Delawarean Goth rappers Young Torture Killers, an Insane Clown Posse knock-off, Nate knows he’s found his subjects. He soon drags his friend-with-benefits Bernadette (Sophia Takal) to rural Delaware to shoot the group playing in their parents’ basement. To “immerse himself” in the group’s culture and add an extra layer of realism to his work, Nate befriends the rappers and makes return trips to get to know them. But as his relationship with group develops, he becomes increasingly aware that, while you can take the boy out of the art world, you can’t take the art world out of the boy.

Directed by Michael M. Bilandic, HELLAWARE operates as a low-key industry satire embedded in indie realism, using performance-driven naturalism and semi-improvised cadence to track status anxiety within New York’s contemporary art ecosystem refracted through internet subculture appropriation.

• Region Free Blu-ray
• Deleted and extended scenes
• Behind the scenes of HELLAWARE
• Commentary with Michael M. Bilandic, Keith Poulson and Sean Price Williams
• Trailer
• Music video for "I'll Cut Yo Dick Off"
• 24 page booklet with forward by Abel Ferrara and essays by Nick Pinkerton, Michael Chaiken, Sean Price Williams and Michael M. Bilandic
• English SDH subtitles

directed by: Michael M. Bilandic
starring: Keith Poulson, Sophia Takal, Kate Lyn Sheil, Brent Butler
2014 / 73 min / 1.78:1 / English Stereo