WARM BLOOD
RICK CHARNOSKI, 2022

Catalog Number: FTF-146
Length: 88 minutes

Set in the underbelly of 1980s Modesto, California, Warm Blood uses the real-life diary of a teenage runaway named Red (newcomer Haley Isaacson) returning home to find her father. In his narrative feature debut, director Rick Charnoski’s history as a skate video director informs the frenetic storytelling style, as he combines Red’s nihilist musings with a collage of documentary and B-movie meta-narratives that paint a seedy picture of life on the outskirts of town. Talk-radio bits and punk music underscore the auditory cacophony of doom, while frequent Kelly Reichardt collaborator Christopher Blauvelt (First Cow, The Bling Ring) lends his immersive, naturalist lens shooting on gritty 16mm film. While Red searches the streets, a constant foreboding presence looms around the chemically toxic river polluting the town. Via a cable-access news reporter interviewing the local residents about its impact, Charnoski infuses today’s growing apathy around the insurmountable nature of our man-made ecological disasters into this raw, politically subversive tale.

Directed by Rick Charnoski
Written by Rick Charnoski, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, James Hewison
Produced by Stephen Fitzgibbon, Amiel Courtin-Wilson, James Hewison, Coan Buddy Nichols
Director of Photography Christopher Blauvelt
Editor Rick Charnoski
Composer Josh Landau, Eliminator Music

Cast: Haley Isaacson, Ryan Toothman, John Veit, Andy Roy

Festivals: Melbourne International Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival, Denver International Film Festival, Oak Cliff Film Festival, Chicago Underground Film Festival, American Film Festival Poland

PURCHASE

WATCH THE FILM

September 13-19, 2023
Spectacle Theater, Brooklyn, NY info

September 14-16, 2023
Harper Theater, Chicago IL info

November 8, 2023
Lightbox Film Center, Philadelphia , PA info

November 12, 2023
Zoetropolis, Lancaster, PA info

December 1, 2023
Secret Movie Club, Los Angeles, CA info

December 6 & 7, 2023
Guild Cinema, Albuquerque, NM info

February 1-3, 2024
State Theater, Modesto, CA info

PRESS

“Warm Blood is the disowned drugtaking homeless cousin of George Lucas' American Graffiti.”
- Dov Kornits, Film Ink

“Transgressive. Feels like a lost piece of cinema from the No Wave era that reveled in the New York underground, only relocated to NorCal."
- Stephen Saito, The Movable Feast

“Visually arresting. Punk rock, talk radio and public-access cable news marry the personal with the political.”
- Pam Grady, San Francisco Chronicle