Bianca Lucas’ “Love Dog” has debuted its trailer ahead of its world premiere at Locarno Film Festival in Concorso Cineasti del Presente. Lights On has bought international sales rights.
The film centers on John who – after finishing a job on a Texas oil rig – returns to his home town in Mississippi, where he will confront not only his own repressed trauma, but that of a society grieving dying American myths.
In a statement, Lucas said: “‘Love Dog’ is about the personal and collective process of grief, repression of trauma, and their repercussions in our everyday lives. About the breakdown of a mythicized American identity, and the universal ways in which truth, love and reckoning might break generational cycles of violence and emotional pain. It is about mourning, and learning how to live and love – not just function – in the midst of our ghosts.”
The producers are Lucas and Joaquín del Paso for Love Dogs and Cárcava Cine. Manosanta Studios coproduces.
The screenplay is by Lucas and John Dicks. The film stars Dicks, T.J. Tarver and Becca Begnaud. Cinematography is by Józefina Gocman-Dicks.
Lucas is a graduate of Goldsmiths College in London and Béla Tarr’s three-year Film Factory course in Sarajevo. During her studies, she has been mentored by filmmakers such as Carlos Reygadas, Gus Van Sant, Abel Ferrara, Pedro Costa, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Guy Maddin, Agnieszka Holland, Juliette Binoche and Tilda Swinton.
Her short films have screened at international festivals such as IFFR, New Horizons, Sarajevo, Premiers Plans d’Angers, Winterthur among others. “Love Dog” is her first feature film.
