Bushwick directors give us the lowdown

Hitting select cinemas on August 25 before a TVOD release three days later (and a DVD outing in October), Bushwick certainly looks as though it will pack a punch.

Perhaps that is not entirely surprising when you realise it stars wrestler-turned-movie-star Dave Bautista, or that it comes from the makers of Cooties and Stake Land.

Here’s the synopsis:

Lucy emerges from a Brooklyn subway to find that her neighbourhood is under attack by black-clad military soldiers. She crosses paths with an ex-Marine corpsman, Stupe, who reluctantly helps her fight for survival through a civil war, as Texas attempts to secede from the United States of America.

Alongside Bautista the film stars the likes of Brittany Snow and Christian Navarro, and comes courtesy of co-directors Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott.

Intrigued, we wanted to get the director’s take on the film, so here’s their thoughts on Bushwick:

Bushwick, conceived of seven years ago, was inspired by actual events. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry’s comments that instigated a small Texas secession movement, the U.S. Government’s responses to natural disasters, U.S. Foreign Policy, and global terrorism – these all fueled the story. Prior to production of the movie, we witnessed more terrorism – including the Boston Marathon, San Bernardino and the 2015 Paris attacks. The Paris attacks actually occurred the day before we started production, blurring our vision of the movie with reality. The news footage was surreal to see, as we had recently designed the look of our black-clad mercenaries. Our fictional storyboards looked eerily similar to the scenes we saw on the news from Paris – contemporary storefronts and cafes smoking and destroyed as snipers hid on rooftops. Recently, as we finished the long process of post-production, we again watch as the United States becomes even more politically, economically and racially divided because of the 2016 Presidential election.

Our intention was to make Lucy’s experience as real as possible. We wanted to remove the manipulative aspects that are inherent in modern action movies, and avoid quick editing tricks used to sensationalize and exaggerate emotion. Our goal was to stay with our characters – in real time – the entire length of their journey. We filmed in a series of long takes, emphasizing the performance and camera movement, to keep the emotional focus on the two main characters. This brought a sense of intimacy, authenticity and credibility to this violent, unimaginable situation. We were inspired by other great films, like Gravity, Goodfellas, The Protector, Oldboy, Raid 2 and Hard Boiled, which all use continuous shots to build tension and realism. We worked closely with our cinematographer, Lyle Vincent, to film in a groundbreaking technique, where every shot was filmed using the Arri Alexa Mini on the MoVi Camera Stabilizing System. This allowed us to continuously follow characters in and out of locations seamlessly, and to avoid looking like a documentary with shaky cam or a found footage film.

Overall, we wanted to create a simple story of survival filmed in a unique way. The issues we saw seven years ago, which originally informed our vision, continue to pertain to our country’s current political climate in new and troubling ways.

We’ll have a review of this one up on site shortly……