SYNOPSIS


Tarantino meets Truffaut in this fiercely gripping and international award-winning film from Ryan Hauser and Brandon Maxwell.  “The Willing Suspension of Disbelief” is a taut psychological thriller in which Quentin (Ryan Hauser), a down and out filmmaker, enters the very noir crime world depicted in his films to steal the money he so desperately needs to finish his rag tag production.  Matters become increasingly complicated when Quentin becomes involved with the mysterious Veri Similitude (Erinn Gavaghan), a nightclub singer and aspiring actress who happens to be involved with the same crime boss he is trying to rob.  The line between reality and cinema deteriorates as Quentin delves deeper and deeper into the criminal underworld and becomes more and more obsessed with finishing his film until his life and art threaten to converge toward a catastrophic collision. 

 

TWSOD


In this film, the artists set out to explore the phenomenon of the willing suspension of disbelief not only in the existential thematic sense, but also in its practical application.  The filmmakers wanted to challenge the audience’s disbelief by openly conveying right from the start that the viewer is merely watching a film.  The hope was that despite having the rug pulled out from under them numerous times, they would still re-engage the story and gestalt would cause the boundaries dividing the main story and  Quentin’s film to fade away and would fuse into one.  The willing suspension of disbelief also figures heavily in the theme of the film and is as multi-leveled as the plot structure itself.   

OUR STORY


“The Willing Suspension of Disbelief” is the culmination of the tireless work of a group of down and out independent filmmakers.  TWSOD breaks all the conventional rules of independent filmmaking incorporating a complex script, a large cast, difficult location shoots, sophisticated special effects, high production values, gripping action sequences, musical numbers, child actors, animals and a blistering soundtrack.  Shot entirely in Oklahoma with very few resources, the small but dedicated crew took over  a year to shoot this small but ambitious film.  This was the first feature for Ryan Hauser and Brandon Maxwell.   The film was entirely “self-financed,” but the actual source of the funds for the production must  be left to the viewer’s imagination.

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