Lust and a Locket: 12-Minute Thriller, The Rendezvous, Set for April 20th Screening at the AFI Theater

SILVER SPRING, MD, April 05, 2012 (Press-News.org) To what extremes can greed, passion, and jealousy push human beings? The Rendezvous provides at least one chilling answer. The slick and sexy 12-minute thriller will be shown at a private screening on Friday, April 20th at the AFI Theater in Silver Spring, MD, before it makes its way onto the film festival circuit.

Shot at a stunning mansion in Potomac, MD, an upscale suburb of Washington, DC, the film centers on a beautiful woman with a love of racy lingerie and the finer things in life who convinces her greed-driven lover to engage in a risky plan. The plan consists of stealing an extremely valuable object from the woman's husband, selling the object to the highest bidder, and ultimately running off to live the good life. Juicy and deceitful, the plan seems fail-proof, but, as The Rendezvous reveals, not all plans go quite as well as expected. In this case, the multiple twists and turns jam-packed into this 12-minute film not only keep viewers on the edge of their seats, but also leave them pondering the unexpected and shocking outcome.

The Rendezvous is the brainchild of the up and coming husband and wife production team of Writer/Director, Stephen Smith, and Producer, Janine Shore. A former nightclub bouncer at the celebrated 9:30 Club in Washington, DC, Smith's first foray into storytelling was through music videos (Army of Me, Catatonik, Voodoo Blue, and Clutch, which aired on MTV in 2007). Later, Smith's work received attention and praise from Academy Award-nominated Director, Arthur Hiller (Love Story, Man of La Mancha, Silver Streak), who saw great potential in his storytelling abilities. With the validation, he dove headfirst into filmmaking, going to extreme lengths to finance his projects and studying his heroes - Hitchcock, Kubrick, Ridley Scott. Not surprisingly, The Rendezvous is peppered with classic nuances.

"Steve is one hell of a storyteller, and his creative solutions to filmmaking and breadth of knowledge on
the subject never cease to amaze me," says Shore. "This film [The Rendezvous] is like no short film I've ever seen. The level of drama, sexiness, thrills, terror, even visual FX, is on par with a Hollywood eature. I truly believe we're witnessing the beginnings of a brilliant director, and to see someone who came from nothing realize his dream is beautiful - a true rags to riches story."

A private screening of The Rendezvous and a cocktail reception will take place on Friday, April 20, from 8:30 - 11:00 pm at the AFI Silver Theatre, which is located on Colesville Rd. in Silver Spring, MD.

For more information about The Rendezvous, visit www.stephensmithfilms.com. For information about the screening, or to RSVP, email Lisa Horan at lisa@popmarkmedia.com or call 410.929.4380.

For information about AFI, visit http://www.afi.com/silver/

PopMark Media is a creative partnership offering marketing/new media, music production, and audio post services to businesses, filmmakers, and music industry clients. www.popmark.com