Former S.C. Filmmakers to Screen Their Hard-Hitting Film About PTSD, ‘Happy New Year’
February 17, 2012
Back from Iraq.The battle has just begun.
At the 6th annual Beaufort Int’l Film Festival a special Q&A moderated by the film’s director, lead actor and local experts, to take place immediately following the screening
BEAUFORT, SC – On Friday, February 17 at 7:00 PM, ‘HAPPY NEW YEAR,’ the controversial narrative feature film about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the rise in suicide within the U.S. Armed Forces will screen at the 6th annual Beaufort International Film Festival. Writer/Director K. Lorrel Manning, Lead Actor/Producer Michael Cuomo and Military Adviser Joseph Harrell will be in attendance to hold a special post-screening discussion, with special guests from the military community.
‘HAPPY NEW YEAR’ shocked audiences and critics during its World Premiere at the 2011 South x Southwest Film Festival (SXSW) and is electrifying the festival circuit, recently earning the Audience Award for Best Picture at the Oldenburg International Film Festival (called the German Sundance, by The Hollywood Reporter) and the Best Director and Best Actor Awards at the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), where former US Congressman Patrick Kennedy endorsed it as a great film that reminds us of our obligation never to forget.
Breakout filmmaker K. Lorrrel Manning, (2011 RIIFF Best Director Award, MFA Columbia University), formerly of Spartanburg, S.C., gives a human face to PTSD, expertly directing an accomplished, multi-ethnic cast, led by emerging star Michael Cuomo (RIIFF Best Actor Award) who delivers a haunting performance as Lewis.
Eminent British producer Iain Smith (Children of Men, The Fountain, and The Killing Fields) serves as the film’s Executive Producer and Academy Award-winning Soopum Sohn (Make Yourself at Home, MFA New York University) is the Director of Photography, creating a fly-on-the-wall experience that is painfully intimate. Joseph Harrell, a former Drill Instructor on Parris Island (2005-2008) and graduate of the University of South Carolina – Beaufort, and most recently seen in the theatrical hit Re-Entry, serves as the film’s military adviser and also plays a supporting role in the film.
Manning and Cuomo, who reprised their respective roles from the sold-out Off-Broadway play (The Barrow Group, June 2007) and short film adaptation (Huffington Post, April 2008), bring a deep level of authenticity to the narrative feature film, inspired by more than 80 one-on-one interviews with combat veterans, their families and V.A. personnel.
The supporting cast shines with searing performances from JD Williams (The Wire, Oz) and Monique Gabriela Curnen (Contagion, The Dark Knight, Half Nelson) and industry veteran Tina Sloan. Sloan, who is best known for her 26-year star turn as Nurse Lillian Raines on CBS’s Guiding Light, brings to the screen the fear she endured over a two-year period while her real-life son served in Afghanistan as a US Marine.
Joining Manning, Cuomo and Harrell for a post-screening discussion will be US Navy Chaplain Matthew Prince, Regimental Chaplain at the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island; Anna Bigham, Founder and Executive Director of Hidden Wounds, a S.C.-based, non-profit organization whose mission is to provide interim and emergency counseling services to ensure the psychological health and well-being to combat veterans and their families; and Florida-based Iraq veteran Josh Lyndsay.
WHAT: Beaufort International Film Festival screening of HAPPY NEW YEAR
WHO: Lorrel Manning, Michael Cuomo, Joseph Harrell, Chaplain Matthew Prince, Anna Bigham, Josh Lyndsay
WHERE: University of South Carolina, Beaufort, Center for the Arts, 801 Carteret Street, Beaufort, SC 29902
WHEN: Friday, February 17th at 7:00 PM (free admission to ALL active duty and retired military personnel)
• 7:00 pm – 8:45 pm / HAPPY NEW YEAR screening
• 8:45 pm – 10:00 pm / Post-Screening Q&A / Panel Discussion
Exclusive Clips/Trailer – www.happynewyearfilm.com
