Press release: Mary and Max
For Immediate Release
January 13, 2010
THE LIGHT FACTORY SCREENS ‘CLAYOGRAPHY’ MARY AND MAX
Award-winning film opened 2009 Sundance; features voice talent of Toni Collette, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Eric Bana
Charlotte, NC – The Light Factory will screen “Mary and Max,” a clayography feature film from Academy Award® winning writer/director Adam Elliot and producer Melanie Coombs, featuring the voice talents of Toni Collette, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Barry Humphries and Eric Bana.
The Light Factory will screen “Mary and Max” Wednesday through Friday, January 20, 21, and 22, at 7:30 p.m. in the Duke Energy Theatre located in Spirit Square. Tickets are $7 for non-members and $5 for members of The Light Factory, and will be sold at the door. More information is available by calling 704-333-9755 or logging onto www.lightfactory.org.
Spanning 20 years and 2 continents, “Mary and Max” tells of a pen-pal relationship between two very different people: Mary Dinkle (Collette), a chubby, lonely 8-year-old living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Australia; and Max Horovitz (Hoffman), a severely obese, 44-year-old Jewish man with Asperger’s Syndrome living in the chaos of New York City.
As “Mary and Max” chronicles Mary’s trip from adolescence to adulthood, and Max’s passage from middle to old age, it explores a bond that survives much more than the average friendship’s ups-and-downs. Like Elliot and Coombs’ Oscar® winning animated short “Harvie Krumpet,” “Mary and Max” is both hilarious and poignant as it takes us on a journey that explores friendship, autism, taxidermy, psychiatry, alcoholism, where babies come from, obesity, kleptomania, sexual differences, trust, copulating dogs, religious differences, agoraphobia and many more of life’s surprises. Please note this film is not rated, but may not be appropriate for children. The total running time is 92 minutes. More information about the film can be found on the film website: www.maryandmax.com.
Academy Award® winning writer/director, Adam Elliot, is a celebrated independent animator from Australia. His films, “Uncle,” “Cousin,” “Brother,” and “Harvie Krumpet” have participated in over five hundred film festivals and won over one hundred awards, including in 2004, the Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film. In 2003, he completed the half-hour claymation “Harvie Krumpet” (narrated by Geoffrey Rush and produced by Melanie Coombs of Melodrama Pictures), which was included in the Annecy International Animation Festival’s Top 100 animated films of all time. Elliot is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. He also has served as a juror at numerous international film festivals.
In addition to being the opening night selection of the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, “Mary and Max” has won several accolades from Film Festivals around the world, including the Best Fiction Film Foreign from Traverse City Film Festival, Best Screenplay from the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards, Grand Prix Stuttgart Animation Festival, and Best Direction from the Australian Directors Guild.
The Light Factory is supported by Basic Operating Grants from the Arts and Science Council of Charlotte-Mecklenburg and North Carolina Arts Council.
The Light Factory is one of only four museums in the United States that promote the power of image through photography and film. For more than 30 years, The Light Factory has served students, artists and the public at large by offering film screenings, photography exhibits, classes and outreach programs that promote media literacy and self expression using the most powerful mediums of our time. The Light Factory is a 501c3, non-profit organization. To find out more about The Light Factory or make a donation visit www.lightfactory.org.
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