Unauthorized DC Film The People’s Joker Gets LA Screening
You may recall there was a movie by the name late last year The folk joker caught the attention of film people during the festival. After a single screening at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) last year, Warner Bros. Discovery has canceled future screenings on the grounds that they own the rights to the original DC Comics villain Joker (and more specifically, the Movie 2019 that this film parodies). In response, director/actress Vera Drew said that the film would eventually come out, but that it would not appear at any further screenings that year.
Apparently the time for publication is now The folk joker will premiere on Saturday, July 15 at the Outfast Film Festival in Los Angeles. Drew broke the news earlier in the week TwitterShe said she was “extremely grateful” to finally bring the film to the United States. Following the screening, Drew and her co-writer will join the cast and crew for a question and answer session about the film. For those in the LA area, it looks like general admission tickets aren’t that expensive but wouldn’t hurt to buy them now if you’re interested.
Before it was retired from the film festival scene, the big draw was for Volksjoker was that Drew hyped it up as a new version of Batman that was also “kind of a big creative project around gender, comedy and mothering themes.” She plays the titular Joker (aka Harlequin), reimagined as a stand-up comedian with dreams of playing a big part in Gotham’s crime world. According to a description of LA’s Beyond Fest last year, the film also employs “multiple cinematic techniques from animation to CGI to create a truly subversive comic book epic.” Impressions after the film’s single TIFF screening were fairly positive, and the black mark of rejection by Warner Bros. probably helped the film’s reputation grow over the last year. (Especially now, given some of his recent releases.) Perhaps Drew’s has since also managed to land a distributor or negotiate a deal with WB so more people can see it.
Once again, The folk joker will premiere at Outfest in Los Angeles on Saturday, July 15. Tickets for the festival can be purchased directly Here.
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