Pressman Film and Utopia have released the official trailer for About a Hero, Piotr Winiewicz’s genre-bending film created from a story generated by KASPAR, an AI trained – with Werner Herzog’s permission – on Herzog’s body of work. Utopia’s Circle Collective acquired North American rights and will release the film theatrically this fall. Adapted by Winiewicz and screenwriter Anna Juul from material generated by KASPAR, the film begins after a factory worker dies under mysterious circumstances and a synthetic Werner Herzog travels to a sleepy European town to investigate. Blending staged narrative with real-world interviews, the film brings artists, philosophers and scientists into a provocative conversation about authorship, originality, consent and the limits of machine-made meaning.
The film features actors Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Corsage), Stephen Fry (Godsford Park, V for Vendetta), and Imme Beccard (Am Ende der Worte, Solness), and is produced by Sam Pressman and Max Loeb for Pressman Film, Tambo Film, Cineteam Hannover, Yo Productions, Engima, and Utopia.
About A Hero opened the 2024 International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam with additional festival appearances at CPH:DOX, Stiges Film Festival, Karlovy Vary Film Festival, Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Göteborg Film Festival. The film was released by Arte across Europe.
Pressman Film and Utopia will be hosting screenings of About A Hero across North America, featuring Q&A’s with the Kaspar AI trained for the film. The first screening will take place in Toronto on September 15 at 4:00PM at the Paradise Theatre (1006 Bloor Street W, Toronto, ON) during the Toronto International Film Festival, with future screenings planned in New York City and Los Angeles.
On September 30, About a Hero will celebrate its New York premiere at Crown Hill Theatre in Brooklyn. The screening will be followed by a one-of-a-kind Q&A featuring director Piotr Winiewicz and KASPAR, the AI behind the film’s story. Tickets are available here: https://wl.eventim.us/event/
Pressman Film will be premiering Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and Jelena Maksimović’s Until the Day Ends in competition at Venice International Film Festival in the Orrizonti strand. Upcoming projects for the company include Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho, Josephine Decker’s Chasing Summer starring Iliza Schlessinger, Lola Tung and Megan Mullally, Daniel Cockburn’s The Eden Express, and Jenny Suen’s Peaches with Sophie Thatcher and Havana Rose Liu.
