sf indiefest

Roxie Theater 2/11/2007 9:30PM

Victoria Theater 2/17/2007 2:15PM

Roxie Cinema 2/19/2007 9:30 PM

Nothing makes the IndieFest crew happier than discovering new artists, and presenting the world premiere of a local filmmaker's debut feature film is a particular pleasure. Cyrus Amini's stunning 25-Cent Preview is a gritty cinema-verite-style drama that journeys headlong into San Francisco's dark underbelly.

Director/editor Amini's balanced, brutally honest film is a sympathetic yet unflinching portrait of two young guys cruising lower Polk—and the brutal reality of their hard-drug & sex-for-pay lifestyle. Marcus (Merlin Gaspers), a white, jagged-edge pretty-boy, is the protégé of a more seasoned black street hustler “DotCom” (Dorian Brockington). They join forces to self-medicate, turn tricks, deal with the power-plays and random violence that come with the lifestyle, and to find basic solutions to their common problems of daily survival.

One night, their lives are changed forever by a particularly fateful meeting with a figure from Marcus' past – the Priest who molested him when he was a young boy. In a moment everything changes - and the ensuing emotional tsunami compels him to confront the man. Don't miss it.