WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER: http://youtu.be/dMv9zDnXrVM
JUST ANNOUNCED: Following the screening Nik Fackler, director of Sick Birds Die Easy, will be in appearance for a special Q&A. Limited ticket availability. One Night Only!
Sick Birds Die Easy: A New American Film by Nik Fackler
Exploring the worlds of white privilege, magical realism and the apocalypse, Director Nik Fackler takes a drug addled conspiracy theorist, an entitled love drunk musician, and an American film crew deep into the jungles of Western Africa, searching for Iboga, an extremely potent psychedelic plant said to have the ability to heal drug addiction. What initially begins as a trip towards enlightenment, becomes a desperate attempt at maintaining sanity.
With a mad mix of compellingly hilarious characters, experimental drug use and an array of expertly wielded lo-fi and hi-fi cameras. Fackler capably explodes the fiction / non-fiction divide with an alarming self consciousness and ever more surprising degree of sincerity. Delving into mysticism, politics, colonialism and human nature, Sick Birds Die Easy is a mind bending, fantastical social experiment that will leave you laughing and questioning your own understanding of reality.
Winner of the New Horizon Polish Film Festival and one of the most controversial, unique and drug filled films of the year. Official Selection at Hot Docs, Woodstock and Lone Star Film Festivals.
Discussion immediately follows the film with director Nik Fackler.
*** Press quotes:
Sick Birds Die Easy is a unique and one of a king joy ride of filmmaking and wonderment that leaves you wanting more of these mad, mad, mad people. - My year @ the movies
The movie is both inept and inane, but the moronic antics are hard to look away from. - Toronto Standard
I almost want to attend the screening just to boo the cast. - Toronto Standard
A product of naivety, inebriation and youthful hubris, Sick Birds Die Easy is as infuriating as it is impossible to look away from. - Exclaim
An absolute riot and I loved every outrageous moment of it. - Shark and Pickle
Sick Birds Die Easy walks a blurred (and not just from all of the drugs) line between fiction and reality and starts to push the boundary of what "documentary" filmmaking can be. - Shark and Pickle
If there was ever a film to capture what happens to your brain on drugs, I suspect this is it. - Cinemablographer
Sick Birds Die eays, for all its bizarre selfindulgence and white privilege run amok, is an sanely entertaining head trip. - Cinemblographer
A lord of the fly adventure, ending with a rude awakening for the west. - Cinemablographer
The most cult thing at Hot Docs this year. - Society Vernacular
A spiritually minded group of druggy filmmakers as they bumble through the jungles of Africa on a Fear & Loathing like quest for a potent flower reputed to hold the cure to addiction. - Society Vernacular
*** Director bio: Born and currently living in Omaha, NE, Nik made his screen writing and directorial debut with the feature film Lovely, Still, starring Oscar winners Ellen Burstyn and Martin Landau. The 2008 release earned Fackler an Independent Spirit Award Nomination for Best First Screenplay.
Fackler's career began as a teenager making music videos for Saddle Creek Records bands such as Azure Ray, Bright Eyes and The Good Life. His most recent videos have been for his own band, Icky Blossoms, which released its debut album on Saddle Creek July 17. Icky Blossoms spent 2013 touring internationally and are currently writing there next record.
With Fackler's second feature film, Sick Birds Die Easy, he shot in the jungles of Africa creating an experimental film based around hallucinogenic plants, reality TV and ancient religions.
