Catherine Jelski makes her feature directing debut with The Young Unknowns, a harrowing portrait of a spoiled and self-destructive 23-year-old from L.A.’s ruling class. Charlie Fox is one of those kids who’s had everything money can buy along with a level of parental neglect that would have landed poorer kids with social services. His commercial director dad is currently in London with his third wife and new baby, so Charlie and his model girlfriend have the L.A. spread to themselves. There’s no one to put the brakes on a day that starts with a pitcher of margaritas for breakfast. "I wanted to write something as brutal as Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf about empty young lives in L.A.," says Jelski.

Jelski started out as a dancer and after initial training in San Francisco and New York spent three years as one of two foreign students at the state ballet school in East Berlin. Back in the States she directed plays Off Off Broadway and studied film at the AFI before embarking on a career as script supervisor on films like Dazed and Confused and The End of Violence. Her short film Angela’s Story won a CINE Golden Eagle. She adapted The Young Unknowns from a 1969 play, Magic Afternoon, by Austrian theater of cruelty enfant terrible Wolfgang Bauer; the resulting screenplay was one of 15 finalists for the Walt Disney Screenwriting Fellowship. Financing for the film came through private investments raised by producing partners Kimberly Shane O’Hara and Eric Klein, whose previous credits include ‘99 Flix Tour entry Bury the Evidence and Quentin Carr, a Columbia University thesis short starring Jared Harris that became something of a cult hit.

The Young Unknowns was shot on Super 16mm color over 17 days last fall, mostly at a sprawling neo-Hollywood mansion once occupied by Heidi Fleiss. The film’s cinematographer-and editor is Gabor Szitanyi, best known through Tamara Jenkins’ shorts, Fugitive Love and Family Remains. The filmmakers are editing on a Mac 9600 with Adobe Premiere 5.1 and Film Logic "matchback" software, the latter courtesy of Film Logic developer Loran Kary. All rights are available.

Cast: Devon Gummersall, Eion Bailey, Arly Jover, Leslie Bibb, Priscilla Barnes, Dale Godboldo. Crew: Producers, Catherine Jelski, Kimberly Shane O’Hara, Eric Klein; Co-Producers/Casting Directors, Dan Shaner, Michael Testa; Screenwriter/Director, Jelski; Cinematographer/Editor, Gabor Szitanyi; Production Designer, Warren Young; Costumes, Merrie Lawson. Contact: Eric M. Klein, Wit’s End Productions, 11269 Palms Blvd., Suite C, Los Angeles, CA 90066. Tel: (310) 398-7504, Fax: (310) 398-1445

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