‘AUTOMATIC’ TO HAVE ITS EAST COAST PREMIERE AT 2005 WOODSTOCK FILM FESTIVAL
Festival Alum Jonathan Walls to Return With Narrative “Automatic”

Director Jonathan Walls will return to Woodstock Film Festival this September for a 2nd year with his debut narrative feature AUTOMATIC. Jonathan’s documentary, “Playing for Change” was critically acclaimed at the 2003 Festival. AUTOMATIC’S East Coast Premiere at the festival will also return Walls to his home region of upstate New York.

In AUTOMATIC, an ensemble cast of three reckless men and three drifting women follow various paths of content and contempt within the droning, repetitive confines of suburbia. When these six people attempt change, their lives are turned upside down. This confusion, pooled with the commonality and insecurity that life on the outskirts breeds, leads to a series of questionable decisions that destruct morals and reinforce an existence that refuses to change. Everything turns right side up...or wrong side up. It's AUTOMATIC.

At the recent Woodstock Film Festival, Barbara Pokras dubbed AUTOMATIC “edgy and bright” for its compelling storyline - “Far more than the dissolution of a marriage, this is a story of jealousy and seduction, of brother hurting brother, and of the irrefutable need to be a part of another. Boundaries are crossed with the inevitable and often painful knowledge that there is no going back.”

In addition to producing AUTOMATIC, Travis Schuldt (NBC’s “Passions”), makes his silver screen debut as “Randall Dunn,” a player losing his financial means to play, while writer and producer Jay Thames portrays “Will Marcus,” a lonely young man already stuck in a dead end job with no hope in sight. Brandy Howard is “Sam Miller-Sliva,” a temptress of a half-sister. “Sara Miller,” a dutiful wife wanting, yearning for something more is played by Jennifer Ferguson. Rounding out the ensemble are familiar faces, Sean O’Bryan (“Raising Helen,” “Mission Impossible III”) as “Brad Miller” and Jamie Anne Brown (“The Notebook”) playing “Austin,” a nomadic vixen any man would want.

Festival Alum, Director Jonathan Walls is looking forward to returning to the festival with his narrative feature film. “To have a film screening in any festival is an accomplishment and I’m grateful that Denver has been receptive to my films, expresses Walls. “I’m looking forward to returning to the festival and with a narrative story and I hope audiences enjoy it.”

AUTOMATIC was shot over a 19 day period with a Panasonic SDX 900 camera using various innovative methods (including a tripod equipped with a deflated basketball) which gives the film its signature look and style.

Schuldt and Thames, the principals in 35 Terrace, produced the film with private equity financing. AUTOMATIC was written by Thames. 35 Terrace is a Los Angeles, CA based independent film production company.