POSE DOWN screens at London's Portobello Film Festival, August 14th 2007. Featuring RICH SOMMER (MAD MEN, DEVIL WEARS PRADA), BRIAN SLATEN ( THE TOURIST) and ADAM NEE (THE LAST ROMANTIC).

(NEW YORK – NY) POSE DOWN is a dark comedy set in Southwest Florida revolving around three former high school classmates –THE BODYBUILDER, THE GOOD OL' BOY and THE HOMECOMING QUEEN - whose lives become entangled after the airing of a tabloid news program. It's 1995; cell phones, email and i-chat have yet to change the channels of communication. A tall Southern tale involving a doppelganger, 'roid rage, remembrances of things past, murder and beauty pageants.

POSE DOWN’s twisted journey begins with a MacGuffin about a Killer Bodybuilder BRIAN DECK and slowly shifts into a story about his high school sweetheart, MARLENA GATE, who returns to her hometown to bury both her estranged mother and her past. POSE DOWN – one element of a bodybuilding competition where all the competitors face off against one another simultaneously - becomes a metaphor for the characters living and working in a small Southwest Florida town, particularly for our main protagonist, Marlena, who must literally "pose down" her past in order to look to a better future.

POSE DOWN continues along a similar thematic journey with writer/director ERIKA YEOMANS' other short films and videos (Paging Dr. Freud, Chubby Buddy, The Forgery, In Search of Bas Jan's Miraculous). Ms. Yeomans creates a world that is both familiar and foreign - constantly shifting between humor and pathos.
The soundtrack for POSE DOWN blends alt-rock indie artists of the 80's and 90's (Maria McKee, Beggar Weeds and Charlie Pickett) with alt-rock indie artists of today (Earl Greyhound, Smog, Six Organs of Admittance and Corn Mo) to create a rocking tapestry of music that further underscores the film's thought-provoking imagery.

Over the years, Ms. Yeomans has created an extensive body of work in theater, mixed media and film. As the co-founder and artistic director of the performance company Doorika, she collaborated with various artists (Casey Spooner of FischerSpooner, Jon Langford of The Mekons and award-winning experimental filmmaker Ken Kobland of the Wooster Group) to create multimedia and theater projects in Chicago and New York. Since 1999, Yeomans has focused primarily on filmmaking. Her videos and films have won grants and screened at film festivals and art institutions around the world, including: London's ICA, Lincoln Center's New York Video Festival at the Walter Reade Theater, Los Angeles' Disney Hall/REDCAT Theater, Berlin's Transmediale, Silver Lake Film Festival, Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum, Cinematek at the Danish Film Institute and New York's Anthology Film Archives. In January 2007, New York City's THE TANK programmed an evening of her films and her newest art video PAGING DR. FREUD (16
mins, 2007) is part of the official selection of the 20th Annual Dallas Video Festival 2007.

POSE DOWN was shot in 22 days on Super 16 mm in the spring of 2006. An ultra low budget production, POSE DOWN is Ms. Yeomans feature film directorial debut and was produced by AARON S. LEVINE. The production garnered tremendous business and community support from the city of Fort Myers, Florida and its residents. The production had the full support of the Fort Myers Fire Department, The Mayor of Fort Myers office, the Lee County School District and the Lee County Sheriff's Department, who even allowed the production to cast real deputies as the police officers in the film. The project was awarded a pre-production grant from New York State Council on the Arts. POSE DOWN was photographed by award-winning cinematographer BENJAMIN KASULKE (Walking to Werner, Guy Maddin's Brand Upon the Brain, 2006 Slamdance Kodak Vision Award Winner) and edited by SANDRA MONTIEL (MTV's Laguna Beach, The Martha Stewart Story, Punch Drunk Love).
The film features emerging young talent including ADAM NEE (Filmmaker Magazine's "25 to Watch 2006", The Last Romantic), BRIAN SLATEN (The Tourist, Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit), CHRIS STACK (Rodger Dodger, The School of Rock), COSMO PFEIL (Descent, Shotgun Stories), KRISTIN DISPALTRO (Transit, Margarita Happy Hour, The Hill) and RICH SOMMER (Mad Men, The Devil Wears Prada). Color, S16mm, RT 86 min., 2007.

ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION BIOS
AARON S. LEVINE (PRODUCER) is an independent producer based in New York City. In 1998, he produced Erika Yeomans’ 35mm short film ‘Hardhead Flair’ and her theater group DOORIKA’s 1998 theatrical production ‘The Forgery’ at NYC’s Ohio Theatre. Mr. Levine produced a broadcast video inspired by the production of ‘The Forgery’ (2000) with video artist and Wooster Group Associate Ken Kobland. Also in 2000, Mr. Levine spent the year working as production supervisor at Independent Digital Entertainment (InDigEnt), a partnership between Sloss Special Projects and the IFC. At InDigEnt, Mr. Levine assisted in the production of a number of digital video features including Richard Linklater’s ‘Tape’, Ethan Hawke’s ‘Chelsea Walls’ and Bruce Wagner’s ‘Women In Film’. In the summer of 2002, Mr. Levine acted as Director of Operations and helped to produce the first annual Manchester International Film Festival in Manchester, Vermont. More recently, Mr. Levine has produced the television show ‘Crib Notes’ for Todd Oldham and MTV; associate produced the children’s television program “Reading Rainbow� for PBS; production supervised the reality program “FilmFakers� for AMC; and, production managed the feature films “State Property II� for Lion’s Gate Films, “West 32nd� for CJ Entertainment and “Chatham� starring David Carradine, Bruce Dern and Rip Torn.

BEN KASULKE (CINEMATOGRAPHER) studied film at the internationally known Filmova a Televizni Fakulta Akadmie Muzickych Umni in Prague, Czech Republic. In 1999, Mr. Kasulke obtained a Bachelor of Science Cinema Production degree, cum laude graduate, from Ithaca College where he was honored with the Best Senior Film Award. His most recent work, the 2005 35mm feature film “We Go Way Back�, premiered at the 2006 Slamdance Film Festival where the film took home the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature and Mr. Kasulke’s work as cinematographer was singled out and awarded the Kodak Vision Award for Best Cinematography. Mr. Kasulke also shot Guy Maddin’s 2005 feature film “The Brand Upon The Brain� which has been pre-selected to premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. His other works have screened at a variety of international film festivals including the Seattle International Film Festival, the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Cardiff Screen Festival, CinemaTexas, the Northwest Film & Video Festival and the Best Of the Northwest Film & Video Festival Tour. Currently, Mr. Kasulke is the Staff Director Of Photography with the Film Company based in Seattle, WA, an active non-profit film studio where he is a key collaborator on all Film Company productions and responsible for the production of motion pictures on a variety of formats: 35mm, S16mm and Super 8mm film, and digital video.


SANDRA MONTIEL (EDITOR) credits as an editor include Erika Yeomans' “Chubby Buddy�, the ABC television film "Dynasty�, the NBC television film "Martha INC.: The Story of Martha Stewart", and the CBS television film "Behind the Camera: The Story of Three’s Company�. She was also the first assistant editor on Paul Thomas Anderson's "Punch-Drunk Love" and Roman Coppola's "CQ". In addition to feature work, Ms. Montiel has edited several music videos and MTV projects such as the OutKast music video “I Like the Way You Move�, “Stand: The Making of Jewel’s Video�, “Autumn Eve: A Tribute to Woody Herman�, and a DVD feature on the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Currently, she is editing MTV's reality program entitled “Laguna Beach: The Real O.C.�. Ms. Montiel is a member of the I.A.T.S.E. Editors Guild and was named Hollywood Reporter Young Editors to Watch 2005.

HEATHER PRIEST (COSTUME DESIGNER) has a MA in fashion design from the Art Institute of Chicago and has costumed theater productions in Chicago and New York with award-winning companies such as Steppenwolf Theater, Remains Theater and New Crime Productions. She designed costumes for several theater and video productions for the acclaimed performance art collective DOORIKA such as "The Forgery", "Akogari No Pari", "Dear" and the Jon Langford musical "Bathe Me!", which have all played in various venues throughout Chicago and New York. She was the Assistant Costume Designer on various feature films such as Woody Allen’s “Sweet and Lowdown�, “Telling Lies in America�, “Once Upon a Time In Mexico� and “Burn Hollywood Burn�.

BOLAND-EGGMANN CASTING (CASTING DIRECTORS) have cast a number of independent feature projects including “Confess�, “Best Thief in the World�, which went to the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 and “Wendigo�, which won an award at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2001. Ms. Boland’s credits also include work for Warner Brothers Studios where she cast over 60 pilots including “Everwood�, “Smallville�, “Gilmore Girls�, and “George Lopez�. Also while at Warner’s, Ms. Boland served as a Casting Associate for “Third Watch�, “Witch Blade�, and NY casting for “ER� and “The West Wing�. Prior to Warner Brothers, Ms. Boland was a Casting Associate at Walken/Jaffe Casting where she worked on the first two seasons of “The Sopranos� as well as a number of feature films. Ms. Eggmann’s credits in casting include the feature films “The Mothman Prophecies�, “Chelsea Walls�, “Happy Accidents�, “Riding in Cars with Boys�, “Autumn in New York� and Woody Allen’s “Celebrity�, and, the television series "Queens Supreme". Currently, Mary Clay Boland serves as the Casting Director for daytime drama “As The World Turns� for which she received the 2005 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement for a Casting Director. Katharina Eggmann currently serves as the Casting Director for the primetime drama "Law & Order: Criminal Intent".

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