After recently winning an Oscar for his short Curfew, writer-director-actor Shawn Christensen had the opportunity to expand the drama into a feature-length film. The result is Before I Disappear, starring Fatima Ptacek, Emmy Rossum, Paul Wesley, and Ron Perlman, which premiered earlier this year at South by Southwest Festival. Following an uncle and his niece on an adventure through New York City, it picked up the audience award after its premiere and now ahead of a fall release, we have the first trailer today.
We said in our review, “What could have felt like a fleshed-out storyline based on a short turns into something much more, even if it becomes somewhat contrived. There are clever details filling in the relationships of Richie, whether it’s with his sister, Gideon, or Bill, and the way that he keeps rebounding around what becomes the longest night of his life finds a rhythm and poetry. One becomes familiar with the locales he frequents and sense the lived-in feel of it all. It helps that these were less sets and more actual locations in New York that Christensen was adamant about filming in. The result of this is Before I Disappear, a darkly comic film about love and family with rich characters and an original voice.” Check out the new trailer below.
A troubled young man and his straight-laced niece embark on a thrilling odyssey through New York City in this heartrending drama based on an Oscar-winning short. As his life hits rock bottom, 20-something Richie (Shawn Christensen) decides to end it all—only to have his half-hearted suicide attempt interrupted by an urgent request from his sister (Emmy Rossum) to babysit her precocious daughter (Fatima Ptacek). So begins a madcap tour of Manhattan after dark, as uncle and niece find unexpected bonds in the unlikeliest of places. Ron Perlman co-stars in this hugely moving adaptation of up-and-coming director/star Christensen’s own 2013 Academy Award-winning short, Curfew.
Before I Disappear opens in theaters and on VOD on November 28th.