By Matthew Tracy
Falls Church may be rich in history, but now it’s ground zero for a wave of supernatural turbulence the world has never seen.
So goes the premise behind the award-winning web series “Malice,” created by Falls Church native Philip J. Cook and now available on YouTube. Described as “‘Juno’ meets ‘The Shining’“, “Malice” is the story of the Turners, a family who moves into their late grandmother’s house in Northern Virginia only to find something evil this way comes. It’s up to daughter Alice, played by Herndon native Brittany Martz, to save the family from a wicked fate.
Alice’s latest adventure takes her to the heavens in “Malice: 1999,” which is part of the Showcase Lineup at the 25th Rosebud Film & Video Festival happening this weekend at the Artisphere in Arlington.
Cook is a seasoned veteran of the film industry. In 1992, his first film, “Outerworld“, reached a national audience when it aired on Syfy. He has made a new name for himself with “Malice,” and he did it through YouTube, an outlet he says has opened the market for different kinds of storytelling.
“(YouTube) allows people to make their own media, which was impossible 20 years ago,” Cook says. “If you said (back then): ‘Hey, there’s this free international distribution platform. It costs no money. You don’t need a distributor. They don’t take 20 percent. And you can reach a wide audience right now, from your home,’ you would have thought that’s crazy.”
Although YouTube has changed how creators reach audiences, it can be difficult to break into the broader media landscape. Cook describes the Rosebud Film Festival as a major conduit for area filmmakers.
“There’s a lot of work that gets done in town, but we haven’t yet crossed the threshold into theatrical releases or mainstream cable television,” Cook says. “Like everybody, we’re all struggling, trying to get our projects made, financed and released. And that’s why Rosebud is a fun thing.”
Open to filmmakers in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., the Rosebud festival seeks to highlight the ” innovative, unusual, experimental, and deeply personal” in regional short-film cinema.
“What I really love about it is they’re really proactive in trying to connect with the local community in terms of getting the message out on all these people,” Cook says.
Audiences can see Cook’s “Malice: 1999” and more at the Rosebud Film Festival this Saturday, Jan. 24, in Arlington, Virginia.
For more information, visit RosebudFestival.org.
