This week, Seattle-based EKE Pictures announced the world premiere release of The Periphery Project, Volume I, will be on IndieFlix, the membership-based global movie hub.
According to Producer Steve Edmiston (an area resident and Writer/Producer of The Maury Island Incident): “the film tells the story of one man’s mission to expose a secret government operation to spy upon filmmakers.”
The Periphery Project is in part a found-footage feature-length collection of public access show episodes originally broadcast on a Northwest-based public access television. It is also in part a collection of award-winning short films from around the world, each embedded within an episode. According to the show’s anonymous host, each of the featured filmmakers have been placed on a government watchlist, and are now the target of an ongoing government operation to spy on the filmmakers in order to better predict the future.
The filmmakers found the context irresistible.
“We have a long history of domestic spying in the United States, ranging from J. Edgar Hoover’s secret files, to the post-9/11 surveillance explosion launched by the Patriot Act,” Edmiston said. “What most people don’t know is that the U.S. Army, within days of 9/11, began to collaborate with Hollywood filmmakers to try and predict what kind of terrorist acts might be next. When we considered how this initial government foray into the mind of filmmakers somehow twisted into the secret surveillance society we face today, it became apparent that this nearly-lost public access show, airing before anyone had ever heard of WikiLeaks, deserved a wider audience. After all, we’ve heard of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden because, right or wrong, they avoided capture. And we wondered, what happened to the whistleblowers that didn’t?”
IndieFlix viewers will have first access to this story, as well as to the award-winning short films embedded within each episode. Producer Victor Kepler said, “We were seeking an ideal distribution partnership for this hard-to-characterize content, which includes science fiction, conspiracy, thriller, soft horror and comedy genres, all wrapped up in found footage wrapper, and of course, IndieFlix was at the top of our wish list. We’ve worked successfully with IndieFlix before (the IndieFlix original series The Maury Island Incident which led to Hulu distribution), and we admire their long-standing filmmaker-centric, business model.” Edmiston says: “IndieFlix is a Northwest company with an incredible track record of innovation. Of course we love the fact that IndieFlix puts filmmakers first in almost every way imaginable. But even more, we have been impressed by the level of creativity and enthusiasm shown by the IndieFlix team as part of planning The Periphery Project launch.”
The directors with films within the Volume I episodes include Andy Marsh (Noireville), Jon Stout (Bottles), Mark Ratzlaff (Voodoo), Eric Day (The Unnatural) and Gavin and Jason Fox (All the Time in the World).
Here’s a trailer:

The Periphery Project from Steve Edmiston on Vimeo.

The Periphery Project, Volume I was produced by local shingles EKE Pictures and Invicta Media Group, in collaboration with the Seattle Film Institute.