American Jesus has its world premiere at the Woodstock film festival Friday October 4 and its International Premier at Sitges later this month.

The film is produced by Fessenden and Brent Kunkle. Schaeffer goes on to say:

From the official press release:

First Run Features and Glass Eye Pix present

a documentary by Rob Kuhns

Opens November 6 in New York at IFC Center

1968. PEACE. LOVE. AND THE UNDEAD.

“It’s taken me 45 years to stop biting my fingernails after first seeing Night of the Living Dead. Having just watched Rob Kuhns’ mesmerizing documentary about that classic horror story I finally understand why I was not only scared out of my wits, but was simultaneously watching a cinematic breakthrough and cultural phenomenon.” -Bill Moyers

In 1968 a young college drop-out and aspiring filmmaker named George A. Romero directed Night of the Living Dead, a low-budget horror film that shocked the world, became an icon of the counterculture, and invented the modern movie zombie, which has spawned legions of films, books, comics, and video games, generating billions of dollars.

Night of the Living Dead is not only internationally recognized as an art film, revered for its groundbreaking treatment of American race relations and allegorical references to the Vietnam war, the film still maintains its cult status as a classic horror masterpiece. The film made history when it simultaneously screened at MOMA and the notorious grind-house theater circuit on 42nd Street. Since its release Night of the Living Dead has been selected for preservation by the Library of Congress and the National Film Registry.

Rob Kuhns’ feature documentary BIRTH OF THE LIVING DEAD goes beyond just being a tribute to director George Romero’s work, to explore a critical moment in the American experience and the notion that horror acts as a reflection of national anxiety. The film details how Romero gathered an unlikely team of real Pittsburgh citizens — police officers, iron workers, teachers, housewives and a roller-rink owner — to shoot in a revolutionary guerrilla style that became a cinematic landmark and one of the most visceral and influential horror films ever made.

Writer/Producer/Director/Editor Rob Kuhns has co-directed and edited Enemies of War (PBS, 2001) and This is a Game, Ladies (PBS, 2003, Audience Award – AFI Silverdoc Festival). His many other editing credits include Moyers and Company (2011 – present), the TV drama Sleeper Cell (Showtime, Golden Globe nomination, 2005), and Adam Clayton Powell (Academy Award nomination, 1990). Kuhns wrote and directed the short comedy, King’s Day Out, (1993 Sundance Film Festival).

Producer Esther Cassidy has produced and directed Enemies of War and The Wrong Man: The Case of Edward Lee Elmore for Court Television. She was Coordinating Producer of Barbara Kopple’s Oscar-winning American Dream and produced Kopple’s other films With Liberty And Justice For All; Justice For All; and Civil Rights: The Struggle Continues. She was Consulting Producer on the Peabody award-winning broadcast documentary A Healthy Baby Girl (2006); and the 2007 theatrical documentary Sacco and Vanzetti.

Executive Producer Larry Fessenden is the writer, director and editor of the award-winning art-horror movies Habit (nominated for 2 Spirit Awards), Wendigo, No Telling, The Last Winter (nominated for a 2007 Gotham Award, premiered at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival), and most recently, Beneath. He has served as producer on dozens of acclaimed films in and out of the horror genre through his company Glass Eye Pix, including Stake Land, Wendy and Lucy and The House of the Devil.

Film poster designer Gary Pullin is the Art Director for Rue Morgue, the world’s best-selling horror magazine. Gary has helped shape the ever-evolving face of horror, working as a designer with musician/filmmaker Rob Zombie, artist Mike Mignola (Hellboy), and horror icons Clive Barker and Basil Gogos. His award-winning illustrations and designs have also appeared in popular magazines such as HorrorHound, Famous Monsters of Filmland, heavy metal magazine Revolver and Royal Flush. He’s also worked in the music industry for vinyl releases and gig posters, t-shirts and album art for bands including The Misfits, Tiger Army, The Brains, Ghoultown, Electric Frankenstein and The Creepshow.

Indifferent even to the prospects of inheriting his father’s estate, Swanson has been insulated his whole life by the bubble of privilege. He and his hipster friends live in a tepid social paradise, a.k.a. Williamsburg, where their good fortune breeds indifference and recreational cruelty. They pacify their discontent with games of mock sincerity and irreverence, as though humor itself were dying and had nothing left to do but turn on itself. Testing limits to break through their numbness, they act out like spoiled children—with ironic beards and beer bellies.

Rick Alverson unleashes a camouflaged assault on contemporary culture veiled in a gorgeously crafted and humorous veneer. As taboos are broken, audience members are forced to question their boundaries and whether they should be laughing with it, at it, or not at all. A scathing look at the white male on the verge of collapse, The Comedy provokes and disorients; it’s a carefully rendered cautionary fable for the autumn of America.

After over one hundred years of service, The Yankee Pedlar Inn is shutting its doors for good. The last remaining employees -Claire (Sara Paxton) and Luke (Pat Healy) – are determined to uncover proof of what many believe to be one of New England’s most haunted hotels. As the Inn’s final days draw near, odd guests check in as the pair of minimum wage “ghost hunters” begin to experience strange and alarming events that may ultimately cause them to be mere footnotes in the hotel’s long unexplained history.

HYPOTHERMIA Written and Directed by James Felix McKenney (Festival Trailer)

Maine in the dead of winter: Ray Pelletier (Michael Rooker) and his wife Helen (Blanche Baker) have been ice fishing the frozen expanse of Lake Noyade for over two decades… but this year something is different: no fish bite.

Is it their new neighbors on the ice– Stevie Jr. and his overbearing Dad—with their high-tech gear and over-sized rig that is driving the fish away? Or is it something else…?

The answer comes in an onslaught of ferocious attacks that unites the two families against a mysterious creature from under the ice.

America is a lost nation. When an epidemic of vampirism strikes, humans find themselves on the run from vicious, feral beasts. Cities are tombs and survivors cling together in rural pockets, fearful of nightfall. When his family is slaughtered, young Martin (Gossip Girl’s Connor Paolo) is taken under the wing of a grizzled, wayward hunter (In the Cut’s Nick Damici) whose new prey are the undead. Simply known as Mister, the vampire stalker takes Martin on a journey through the locked-down towns of America’s heartland, searching for a better place while taking down any bloodsuckers that cross their path. Along the way they recruit fellow travellers, including a nun (Kelly McGillis) who is caught in a crisis of faith when her followers turn into ravenous beasts. This ragtag family unit cautiously moves north, avoiding major thoroughfares that have been seized by The Brethren, a fundamentalist militia headed by Jebedia Loven (Tony award-winning actor Michael Cerveris) that interprets the plague as the Lord’s work.

Directed by Joe Maggio

Dark Sky Films presents a Glass Eye Pix production

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Directed by Ti West
Produced by Glass Eye Pix & Dark Sky Films

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A psychedelic campfire tale.

Directed by Graham Reznick

Produced by Glass Eye Pix & Aphasia Films

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Directed by Kelly Reichardt

Starring Michelle Williams

A Glass Eye Pix and Film Science production

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