SOUTH MOUNTAIN is an original 82 minute feature that premiered at SXSW 2019 and then went on to The Nantucket, Mill Valley, Palm Springs International Film Festivals as well as BAMCinema Fest. Though its theatrical release was interrupted by COVID, we’re proudly 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and currently streaming on multiple platforms.
“Hilary Brougher has crafted a world in which nothing is cleanly resolved but a future is still possible. Easily one of the best films I’ve seen this year, South Mountain is the wise, sometimes bitter, sometimes overwhelmingly emotional tale of a woman learning to fall out of love. — Alissa Wilkinson, VOX
Lila’s is not a story of the grieving wife coping with the shock of betrayal, but rather that of a woman struggling to reaffirm her self-worth independent of others. — Beatrice Loayza, MUBI
“Talia Balsam is astounding… There’s no doubting the presence of a focused, intelligent vision guiding the small-scale material along… a tender, intimate, and blatantly personal work — Eric Kohn, INDIEWIRE
Brougher’s film is simple and personal, yet complicated and elegant in all the best ways — somewhat like love.” — Robert Daniels, 812 Film Reviews
“POTENT… Balsam makes Lila a thoroughly fascinating character — frustrated, angry, sensual, always caring. Cohen does an excellent job conveying the duplicity a s well as the attractiveness of the philandering husband…An affecting vision of frayed family ties.” – Stephen Farber, Hollywood Reporter
… “A snapshot of major and minor upheavals, and the rocky means by which people move forward from them, it’s a showcase for Balsam’s superb lead turn. The film assumes an honest, authentic perspective on the trials and tribulations of adulthood. — Nick Schager, VARIETY
The writer/director of “Stephanie Daley” roars back with this cascading drama about a woman trying to salvage the world she’s worked so hard to build up around her…. Balsam takes an ownership of the character in a way that’s electrifying to behold.” — Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest
Lila (Talia Balsam) is left to her own devices when her kids leave for the summer and her husband leaves for good.
This is a film about what comes together when things fall apart.
The film is based on an original script by Hilary Brougher. Producers Kristin Frost, Maria Rosenblum, Susan A. Stover and Executive Producer Jean Castelli complete the team and in the Summer of 2017 we completed principal photography in Upstate N.Y. Photographed by D.P. Ethan Mass and a dedicated small crew, we are proud to have made a film with a small production footprint that resonates all the more deeply because of the intimacy of its making.
SOUTH MOUNTAIN features Talia Balsam (Divorce, Mad Men) as LILA, Scott Cohen (Gilmore Girls, Billions) as EDGAR, Andrus Nichols (Bedlam Theater’s Joan of Arc, Hamlet) as GIGI, Naian Gonzalez Norvind (Gotham) as DARA, Michael Oberholtzer (TV: Good Girls in Revolt, B’way: Hand to God ) as JONAH, Macaulee Rusnak Cassaday as SAM, Midori Francis as EMME, Isis Masoud as GEMMA, Guthrie Mass as JAKE and Violet Rea as CHARLOTTE.
For more festival news, press and interviews, visit our website: https://southmountainfilm.com/
Photo by Ethan Mass, Scott Cohen, Macaulee Rusnak Cassaday, and Talia Balsam
Photo by Ethan Mass, Talia Balsam and Andrus Nichols