In what may be a bit of “stunt” programming, the 2004 Silver Lake Film Festival will be screening two “Ushers” over the course of its 8-day run.

The 5th Annual Silver Lake Festival, taking place in Hollywood from Sept 23-30th, has selected Roger Leatherwood’s feature “Usher” as part of its 56-feature film lineup. “Usher” recently screened at the Telluride Indiefest over the Labor Day weekend to a sold-out house and was extremely well received.

“The buzz was very positive for us all weekend,” says director Leatherwood. “Distributors have been requesting screener copies, and festivals have been contacting us to invite us to submit.”

The stylish character study concerns a young hit man for the mob who goes into hiding as a movie theatre usher. He can’t handle it. Faced with rude customers, and a pretty candy girl who may have feelings for him, he finds himself losing control. He slowly resorts to his old hit man training.

The director and most of the crew worked at the movie theatre where it was shot, and stayed up nights until 6:00 a.m. over the course of 12 weeks to film the tale. It stars Thomas Alexander, who was featured in F. Gary Gray’s “The Italian Job” (2003).

The other “Usher” featured is a 40-minute short directed by film legend Curtis Harrington in 2002, based on the Edgar Allen Poe story, “Fall of the House of Usher.” It was intended as part of a longer film that never came to pass. Harrington, who directed “Queen of Blood,” “Who Slew Auntie Roo?” and other genre favorites, will be feted at the festival Tuesday the 29th of September.... continued