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This year’s South By Southwest film festival presented two sides of troubled teen rejuvenation in America. There’s Short Term 12, the more hopeful experience, and then there’s Coldwater, a look into wilderness reform facilities that aim to break their residents instead of mending them. Here now is the first trailer for the film, presented exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter.
Coldwater follows Brad (newcomer P.J. Boudousque), the latest inmate of a remote juvenile prison, as he attempts to survive grueling conditions and the wrath of his boot camp instructor. Unlike the other teen boys in the camp, Brad doesn’t take the authority’s torturous conduct lightly, and engages “The Colonel” in hopes of exposing his harsh reality to the outside world.
Vincent Grashaw, producer of the hit indie Bellflower, makes his directorial debut here, drawing from documented cases of rehabilitation center violence and corruption to base Coldwater in truth. Although it’s a work of fiction, Coldwater offers a glimpse into the grisly “training” that many juveniles face.
After SXSW, Coldwater took to the festival circuit with appearances at Little Rock, Las Vegas (Winner, Grand Jury Best Feature), Shanghai, Fresh Film Fest (Audience Award for Best Film), and Raindance in the U.K. (and has stops planned at Athens IFF and American Film Festival in Poland).
Continental Media will be representing this film to USA distributors at a dual private screening on Oct. 16th in NYC and LA, following up with a presentation to worldwide buyers at AFM in November.
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