Andrew Repasky McElhinney

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[edit] Biography

Andrew Repasky McElhinney is an American film producer born in Philadelphia in 1979. He grew up in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania and lived in Manhattan in New York City in the late 1990s while earning an English literature / Cultural studies degree from The New School for Social Research before returning to his home city in 2000.

Openly bisexual, and a fierce social critic, McElhinney routinely contributes writing to publications like The Film Journal, Filmmaker Magazine, Ritz Filmbill and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. McElhinney is a member of the Peek-A-Boo Revue Burlesque Troupe and a repertory film programmer who runs Andrew's Video Vault at the Rotunda sponsored by The University of Pennsylvania as well as The Chestnut Hill Film Group hosted by The Free Library of Philadelphia.

[edit] Early works

In 1994, while in High School at Abington Friends, he formed "ARMcinema25.com", a production company devoted to producing avant-garde movies.

In 1994, McElhinney released the short films, The Scream and Her Father’s Expectancy. A baroque tale of incest and mutilation, Her Father’s Expectancy caused an immediate scandal for its expressionist examination of moral relativism within the home.

In 1995, McElhinney made a silent musical entitled A Maggot Tango before beginning his feature film work the subsequent year.

[edit] Feature films

McElhinney’s first feature, Magdalen, "a gossipy meditation on drinking, smoking and screwing" was well reviewed in 1998 for its luminous black and white camerawork from cinematographer Abe Holtz and its ensemble cast lead by Alix D. Smith. Comparing McElhinney to Andy Warhol and Godard, Sam Adams of the Philadelphia City Paper wrote of Magdalen that he’d "be damned if I've ever seen anything like it."

In 2000, McElhinney’ sophomore feature was released. It was an 1807 period thriller A Chronicle of Corpses starring soap opera diva Marj Dusay. Named one of the top ten films of the year by The New York Times and Village Voice among others, A Chronicle of Corpses catapulted McElhinney to the forefront of his generation of filmmakers and saw an acclaimed international release. Jeremiah Kipp of Filmcritic.com gave A Chronicle of Corpses four stars and remarked: "What's most impressive about McElhinney's highbrow period film is its ability to satisfy snobbish cultural aesthetes while simultaneously fulfilling slasher film conventions. . . . Think of it as a caveat to those who secretly wished that Jack Nicholson (in wild-eyed mode from The Shining) had wandered into The Remains of the Day wielding a mallet. [A Chronicle of Corpses is] the art film from hell."

McElhinney next shocked his admirers with the provocative and difficult Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye released in 2003. A film about spectatorship, inspired and informed by the academic, transgressive and yet oddly sentimental philosophy of Georges Bataille, McElhinney’s third feature, appropriated the title of Bataille’s most famous work for a mesmerizing examination of bizarre anticipation. Dennis Harvey, reviewing Georges Bataille’s Story of the Eye in Variety said the film was "A punk-pornocopia equivalent to Last Year at Marienbad." Phil Hall in Film Threat pronounced that "Andrew Repasky McElhinney's new feature Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye is a new landmark in underground cinema. The film is an artistic assault on both the senses and sensibility. Mixing equal parts of surrealism, eroticism and silliness into a vibrant package rich with lush cinematography and a challenging soundtrack, [Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye] is a brilliant achievement that demands attention and challenges the audience in a way that few films today can even dare to achieve."

In 2004, McElhinney began shooting his fourth feature film - a yet as untitled modern dress production of a romantic comedy from the 1930s with the subtext reexamined to explore issues of race, class gender/sexual identity in contemporary America. Still "in production" there are rumors of McElhinney’s new movie premiering in 2007.