Oct 22, 2013

Dark Blood tells the story of Boy ( River Phoenix ) a young widower who retreats to the desert after his wife dies of radiation following nuclear tests near their home. Boy is waiting for the end of the world and carves Katchina dolls that supposedly contain magical powers. Harry (Jonathan Pryce) and Buffy (Judy Davis) travel to the desert on a second honeymoon in an attempt to save their marriage. Their Bentley breaks down in the middle of nowhere and the couple is rescued by Boy. Boy holds them prisoner because of his desire for the woman and his ambition to create a better world with her.

ABOUT THE FILM

Dark Blood was filmed in Utah and ended ten days before the end of shooting due to the sudden and unfortunate death of River Phoenix. In 1999 Sluizer found out that the insurance company wanted to destroy the footage and decided to save the material. He got the unedited footage out of the storage and shipped it to the Netherlands. When George Sluizer after an acute aortic dissection faced death himself in 2008 he decided to edit the “unfinished” long feature DARK BLOOD.

“It was a kind of urgency. The director Michelangelo Antonioni once said : If I can’t film I prefer to die . I can find myself in these words. You are a craftsman and you want to complete your work. I am a perfectionist , I wanted to finish DARK BLOOD and I also wanted to preserve the cast and crew’s creative work.

With a contribution of the Netherlands Film Fund, private funding . investments of Sluizer Films and donations via Cinecrowd, the editing and post-production started in January 2012. After investigating various options how to fill in the missing scenes George Sluizer chose a simple and effective solution. He narrates the missing story parts with his own voice-ocer. “It’s a complete film, George Sluizer says, it has a beginning and it goes to the end , like it should.”

DARK BLOOD had its Premiere with a guest audience in September 2012
at the Netherlands Film Festival in Utrecht. After the screening there was 
a standing ovation. George Sluizer mentioned the absence of the Phoenix family and quoted from a letter of the mother of River Phoenix who wished the director all the best for the film.

 www.darkbloodthemovie.com

WHERE:         AERO THEATER

                        1328 Montana Ave

                        Santa Monica, CA

WHEN:       OCTOBER 29, 2013   7:30PM