Podtalk: Director Jennifer Reeder Wields ‘Knives and Skin’

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CHICAGO – TONIGHT (12/13/19) is the Chicago release date of writer/director Jennifer Reeder’s “Knives and Skin,” a noir mystery that contains more than what’s on the surface. The historic Music Box Theatre is the locale (7:15pm), and there will be numerous opportunities to see Reeder in person (click the link below).

Jennifer Reeder on the 55th Chicago International Film Festival Red Carpet
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto at HollywoodChicago.com

“Knives and Skin” is a mystical Twin Peaks-ian teen noir, telling the story of the disappearance of a high school student, which points toward dark forces at work in a sleepy Illinois town. Although friends, neighbors, and family search for Carolyn Harper, the case remains unsolved. Unmoored and adrift, the rural community – from the mother of the missing girl to her fellow choir members – tries to soldier on. Surreal, sly, and shocking, Jennifer Reeder’s coming-of-age tale has a intuitive feminist heart.

Jennifer Reed directs her first feature film from her own script, after her major directorial feature debut in “Signature Move,” which combined romance and wrestling. Along the journey she has over a dozen short films, many of them major festival award winners. She matriculated from The Ohio State University and got her Masters of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Scene from ’Knives and Skin,’ directed by Jennifer Reeder
Photo credit: IFC Midnight

In PART ONE of a Podtalk with Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com, writer/director Jennifer Reeder talks theme, symbolism and intent in “Knives and Skin.”

In PART TWO the director speaks of show biz as “high school with money” and the influencer future of film as an art form.

By PATRICK McDONALD Editor and Film Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com