The Calgary Underground Film Festival
VULCANIZADORA
United States, 2024: 85 minutes: Alberta Premiere
description
Two friends trudge through a Michigan forest with the intention of following through on a disturbing pact. After they fail, one of them must return home to deal with the legal and emotional repercussions.
Director and star Joel Potrykus (BUZZARD, THE ALCHEMIST COOKBOOK, and CUFF 2018 Secret Screening RELAXER) serves up another deliciously dark film, and possibly the most well-realized culmination of the themes featured throughout his body of work. A heavy metal slacker comedy, VULCANIZADORA cascades into an existential nightmare and journey through themes of friendship, guilt, and contemplations of mortality. The Tribeca and Fantasia Film Festival selected film is a masterful combination of jet-black humour and psychological horror.
OFFICIAL SELECTION
Tribeca Film Festival 2024
Fantasia Film Festival 2024
Sidewalk Film Festival 2024
Chicago International Film Festival 2024
DIRECTOR'S BIO
American writer/director Joel Potrykus resides in Grand Rapids, MI where he works with a filmmaking band, Sob Noisse, including long-time collaborator Joshua Burge. His films APE, BUZZARD, THE ALCHEMIST COOKBOOK, and RELAXER have premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, and have screened at the Lincoln Center and the MoMa. He teaches filmmaking at Grand Valley State University.
press for Vulcanizadora
"An off-kilter slow burn about a macabre pact that eventually goes awry."- Variety
"[Joel] Potrykus helms with edgy style, but it’s his and [Joshua] Burge’s transformative performances that carry this unconventional gem."- Bloody Disgusting
details
credits
Director
Joel Potrykus
Producers
Ashley Potrykus
Hannah Dweck
Matt Grady
Theodore Schaefer
Screenwriter
Joel Potrykus
Cinematographer
Adam J Minnick
Cast
Joel Potrykus
Joshua Burge
Bill Vincent
Solo Potrykus
Melissa Blanchard
awards
Winner, Best Narrative Feature Film Award, Oak Cliff Film Festival 2024