Synopsis
An empathetic stripper plays therapist to the many damaged clientele and co-workers who frequent the popular Anywhere Bar.
JamesWorks Entertainment’s Angel of Anywhere stars Briana Evigan (Step Up Movie 2: The Streets, Sorority Row) as Michelle, Ser’Darius Blain (When The Game Stands Tall, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) as Brian, David A. Gregory (“One Life to Live,” “The Good Fight”) as D.C., Nihan Gur (“Westworld,” “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders”) as Alexx in Wonderland, Adam Carr (“The Call Room”) as Drunk Patron, Krystal Conway as Bartender, and introducing Axel Rockham as Angel.
Winner of Best Narrative Short at the 2018 Macon Film Festival, screening at nearly twenty global festivals, including the Academy Award qualifying Hollyshorts and Sidewalk Film Festivals, Angel of Anywhere is directed by James Kicklighter (Desires of the Heart), written by Casey Nelson & Kate Murdoch (The Last Treasure Hunt) and produced by Beau Turpin (Beneath The Leaves)
- Director · Producer
- James Kicklighter
- Writers
- Kate Murdoch, Casey Nelson
- Producers
- Beau Turpin, James Kicklighter
- Cinematographer
- Jonathan Pope
- Production Designer
- Christopher Cullen
- Editor
- James Kicklighter
- Composer
- Nicolas Repetto
Videos
Press
“JBN Journalist Mark Johnson talks with filmmaker JAMES KICKLIGHTER.”
“It goes to some very deep, personal places, with a very intelligent script.”
“Over 1000 people attended the week long event which featured over 15 panels and workshops taught by nearly 50 of the top minds and talents working in the industry today, including Writing & Directing a Short as Proof of Concept with Rachel Goldberg (Director, American Horror Story), Elyes Gabel (Filmmaker, Actor; Game of Thrones, World War Z, Interstellar, Scorpion), and James Kicklighter (Director).”
“Don’t be turned off by the headline, this is a very impressive dramatic short film. Angel of Anywhere is an award-winning short directed by James Kicklighter that has been playing at festivals this year.”
“An exercise in near flawless design and execution, I simply can’t stress enough how excellently this production flows onscreen. From the technical to the acting. It’s all really top notch.”
“Director James Kicklighter serves up another winning film with Angel of Anywhere… while you may be thinking you’re in for some shallow, pointless cinematic short you should think again. [The film] is proof positive that he continues to grow as a filmmaker and challenge both himself and his audiences.”
“A deftly written, intelligently executed, deeply human, dramatic exploration into the very heart of what it means to have the desire to see things that are broken fixed.”
“James Kicklighter’s stylish short film flows effortlessly and boasts a committed cast who, in a mere 16 minutes, is able to bring depth to their roles. Angel of Anywhere is a taut examination of human insecurities, with a sprinkle of the supernatural.”
“Aside from the wonderful dialogue between the main players, Kicklighter also adorns his short film with a visual smorgasbord of filmmaking treats. There is a daring to the craft that does not let the central themes do all of the heavy lifting.”
“Briana Evigan, who also starred in a couple of Step Up films, as well as Sorority Row and as Sonja in the From Dusk Till Dawn series brings some gravitas to the production and is very strong in her performance as Michelle.”
Gallery
Director's Notes
Early in pre-production, one of our collaborators told me Angel of Anywhere was going to be like Frank Capra made a stripper film. I laughed, then I wrote it down, because it was the exact sentence I’d been trying to find for six months.
The film is about a man named Angel who works at a place called the Anywhere Bar. He takes off his clothes for a living, but the real work happens between songs. People sit down across from him and tell him things they haven’t told anyone else. He listens. He fixes a lightbulb. He tries, inside the limits of a shift and a room and a body, to make a stranger feel less alone.
That’s the whole movie. And that’s why I wanted to make it.
I’ve always been drawn to people whose job description hides what they actually do. The waitress who is really the neighborhood’s social worker. The barber who is really the confessor. The bartender who is really the therapist. The strip club sounded like an unlikely setting for that story, which was the point. Kate Murdoch and Casey Nelson’s script understood that the more improbable the sanctuary, the more honest the confession. Our job was to give that confession a room, and a light, and a patient camera.
We shot the back room in cold blue, almost empty, and kept Angel in it at his most exposed. That was deliberate. I wanted the architecture of the film to mirror what he actually does: strip away, until only the true thing is left. The one-take opening, the lightbulb scene, the way the music bleeds through the walls, none of it is decoration. It’s all the same question. What happens to a person who spends his life absorbing other people’s pain? Who catches him when he falls?
I grew up in a town of 123 people in south Georgia. I know what it’s like to be someone’s only mirror. I know the quiet cost of being the one who listens. Angel of Anywhere is a love letter to everybody who has ever been that person, whether they meant to be or not, and it asks a question I’m still asking in my work today: is empathy sustainable, or does it eventually use the person providing it up?
— James Kicklighter