Stonestreet Studios is having their world premieres of two socially poignant short films, Crowbar and Compulsion, both directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett, at the Soho International Film Festival on Wednesday, September 20th.
Inspired by true stories and the current legal, social, and cultural environment, Compulsion touches on reproductive rights from the perspective of a young woman, her mother, and her boyfriend. The film follows the story of Sloane, a young woman living in Texas, who finds out she is pregnant and has to answer to her mother and boyfriend. Purchase tickets to see the short here.
Crowbar displays the challenges between young gay man, Nathan, and his mother as she crashes his graduation party. It’s a compassionate tale of the complexities that exist intergenerationally in regards to ideologies, sexual identity, emotional logic, and morality. You can purchase tickets to see it here.
“It’s a joy to get to work on relevant and meaty writing with such wonderful actors between feature films – I seem addicted to making them!” says director Alyssa Rallo Bennett. “I’d love to make Compulsion part of a short or long form series Gary and I have been accumulating scripts for called DOT, featuring stories inspired by current legal and cultural climate in all 50 states. There are so many dramatic, un-polemic ways to explore the different sides of an issue, and Compulsion is just the beginning.”
Compulsion was directed and produced by Alyssa Rallo Bennet, written and executive produced by Gary O. Bennett, and features performances from Mizz, Saori Goda, and Sebastian Mora. It is also an official selection also of the Austin International Film Festival, Amsterdam Short Film Festival, Niagara Falls International Short Festival, and London International Film Festival. Crowbar was directed by Alyssa Rallo Bennett, written by Craig T. Williams, produced by Alyssa Rallo Bennett and Gary O. Bennett, and features performances from Rosalyn Coleman and Jaylen Axel. It is also an official selection of the upcoming Newport Beach Film Festival.
About The Team
ALYSSA RALLO BENNETT (Director, Producer) is a multi-hyphenate award-winning director, producer and singer-songwriter. Her feature films include ReRUN, starring Christopher Lloyd, which premiered closing night at The Woodstock Film Festival, nominated for a Maverick Award, winning multiple awards at many festivals, The Pack, starring Lucie Arnaz and Elisabeth Moss, was accepted into the Tribeca Film Festival, won awards and screened at a dozen other festivals and Aberrant, starring Jack Quaid, Justine Magnusson, and distributed by Green Apple Entertainment. All films are streaming on Prime Video, Tubi, Boxd, iTunes, AppleTV. She has directed & collaborated with her partner, Gary Bennett on multiple pilots & series streaming on Amazon, Videola starring Sean Young & Gil Zabarsky, to Paradise by the Dashboard Light, featuring Sea Shimooka, Francesca Reale, Danny Ramirez, et al also streaming on multiple platforms as well as her latest feature film The Arrival which will be released this year by Gravitas Ventures. Many of her festival shorts can now be seen on ShortsTV, SofyTV, StonestreetTV.
Gary O. Bennett (Writer of Compulsion, Producer) is a writer and director. His feature film, Rain Without Thunder, starring Jeff Daniels and Linda Hunt, premiered at the San Francisco Film Festival and played many other international festivals before being nationally released by Orion Classics. He wrote ReRUN now available on AppleTV and featuring Christopher Lloyd, which won multiple awards including Best Screenplay at the Los Angeles Film Awards and Best Narrative Feature at the Northeast Film Festival. Gary has written multiple web-based series and pilots, such as Videola, starring Sean Young and Janet Zarish, Paradise by the Dashboard Light, and Nowhere Girl, Gary has written many of Stonestreet’s branded MicroMovies, which are now streaming on ShortsTV. The Pack, a feature he co-wrote, starring Lucie Arnaz and Elizabeth Moss, which was accepted into the Tribeca Film Festival and streams on Amazon, Tubi, et al.
Craig T. Williams (Writer of Crowbar) is a writer, producer, and editor who has written the hit TV show TERROR LAKE DRIVE, and ALLBLK. Just recently, he wrapped the feature film Game Nite, a project he wrote and produced. Craig was part of the prestigious WarnerMedia Discovery Discovery Access Writers Program (formerly the HBO All Access Writers Program.) Chosen one of 20 writers from over four thousand applicants, he created an original 30-minute TV Pilot. Craig has many scripts in various stages of development, and his feature film “Unravel and Cut” has Academy Award Winner and newly crowned EGOT Viola Davis and her husband Julius Tennon attached as Executive Producers.
Stonestreet Studios (Production Company) is celebrating 33 years as a New York City based fully operative, multi-purpose, visual motion picture production studio. Stonestreet’s work ranges from award-winning socially speculative feature films such as ReRUN and The Pack to pilots, web series and MicroMovies. Stonestreet has become known as an incubator of socially conscious, character driven and culturally provocative content, and for cultivating talent such as Miles Teller (Whiplash, Top Gun: Maverick), Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, House of Cards), Camila Mendes (Riverdale), Danny Ramirez (Top Gun: Maverick), Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart), Xosha Roquemore (The Mindy Project), Francesca Reale (Stranger Things), Idina Menzel (Frozen), Ximena Lamadrid (Bardo, Who Killed Sara). Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby), Nik Walker (Hamilton) and more. Stonestreet’s films explore the passions, eccentricities, and politics and humor of character driven, no holds barred stories that seek to entertain and enlighten.
