Urbania (film)
| Urbania | |
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| Directed by | Jon Shear |
| Produced by |
Stephanie Golden J. Todd Harris Jon Shear |
| Written by |
Daniel Reitz (play and screenplay) Jon Shear (screenplay) |
| Starring |
Dan Futterman Paige Turco Samuel Ball Josh Hamilton Matt Keeslar Alan Cumming |
| Music by | Marc Anthony Thompson |
| Cinematography |
Shane F. Kelly Peter Konczal |
| Edited by |
Randy Bricker Ed Marx |
| Distributed by |
Blackwatch Releasing (Canada) Lions Gate Entertainment (USA) here! Films |
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Release date
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Running time
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103 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $225,000 USD (estimated) |
| Box office | $1,032,075 |
Urbania is a 2000 independent drama film based on the play Urban Folk Tales. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, then played the Toronto International Film Festival, the Seattle Film Festival, and a number of LGBT film festivals, winning a total of 6 "Best Film" awards. It was released by Lionsgate and was named "One of the Year's Best Films" in over 35 publications including the Los Angeles Times, Time Out New York, the Chicago Tribune, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
Urbania follows Charlie (Dan Futterman) through a sleepless night. After an unsuccessful bout of masturbation to the sound of his upstairs neighbors having sex, he prowls the streets looking for a man he saw several months earlier. The implication is that he's had a one night stand with the man, cheating on his boyfriend Chris (Matt Keeslar). This is reinforced by several phone calls Charlie places, leaving messages on Chris' answering machine. As he's walking, he has momentary flashes akin to hallucinations or waking dreams: a man's mouth; a bottle breaking; a man with a blood-stained shirt.
After a series of encounters (with his upstairs neighbors, whom he tells about his masturbatory activities, and a potential trick), he meets the man he's looking for. His name is Dean (Samuel Ball) and it makes no sense either that he'd trick with Charlie or that Charlie would trick with him. Dean is unabashedly racist, sexist and homophobic. Nevertheless, Charlie, pretending to be straight, buys Dean drinks and smokes a joint with him. Dean takes Charlie to a gay cruising area looking for victims, but Charlie is able to warn away the intended target. Dean is now almost incapacitated by alcohol and drugs and Charlie gets him into Dean's car and drives him to a secluded marshy area.
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