Lightships Out On Digital!
Happy Release Day!
Lightships is available worldwide on iTunes Apple TV and Amazon Video from today!
The whole team is very happy and grateful that so many of you have followed the journey of creating this film and bringing it into life. We’re very excited for everyone to explore and experience Lightships and hope we’ll hear many of you at the release party tonight on Clubhouse.
There will be two time slots for our international audience, friends and cast and crew to join.
Lightships release party on Clubhouse 11th of March 2022
1st session - 8:30pm GMT UK - 2:30pm CST
2nd session - 0:00am GMT UK (11th to the 12th) - 6:00pm CST (11th)
Celebrate with us. Join the Lightships club and save the rooms.
Lightships will also be available on the Google Play Store soon.
Winner Best Sci-Fi Film At MidWest Weirdfest
We’re excited to announce that Lightships closes its festival run with a win of Best Sci-Fi Film at the MidWest WeirdFest. We couldn#t be more happy to receive the news on its release day! Thank you very much to Dean, Jenn and the whole team at MidWest WeirdFest and congratulations to all fellow winners of the festival.
Lightships Release
We are very excited and proud to announce that Lightships will be released across all territories on Apple TV, the Google Play Store and Amazon on the 11th of March 2022.
It has been an immense journey and I’m deeply proud that the work and artistry of everyone who worked on this film has been recognised, in the many awards that we’ve been blessed to receive.
Thank you to the entire team.
- John Harrigan
Please keep an eye out on all social media channels for more information and all updates on the release. We are planning to do a release event on the Clubhouse App with the team, friends and our audience and will share all details with you soon.
Talking Weird Podcast Interview with John Harrigan
Watch the fantastic interview John Harrigan had with Dr. Dean Bertram and Jenn Dorrell at the Talking Weird podcast from Saturday night.
Lightships will screen at the MidWest WeirdFest on the 4th of March at 10pm at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Get your tickets here: https://www.midwestweirdfest.com/tickets
Occultist, artist, and filmmaker, John Harrigan returns to Talking Weird this Saturday at 11pm central, to talk about his latest film LIGHTSHIPS, based on the writings of UFO contactee Maryann Rada. It screens at MidWest WeirdFest this March. John has a tremendous knowledge and understanding of art and magic, and his return to the show has been requested by many of our listeners/viewers. Don't miss what will be another fascinating episode!
LIGHTSHIPS WILL SCREEN AT THE MIDWEST WEIRDFEST - MARCH 4-6, 2022 - PASSES ON SALE NOW
We are very excited to share that Lightships is part of the first programming wave that has been announced at MidWest WeirdFest 2022!
The festival takes place March 4-6, 2022 at the Micon Downtown Cinema in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Discounted festival passes are now on sale here: https://filmfreeway.com/MidWestWeirdFest/tickets
Individual tickets to each film will go on sale closer to the festival; both on the fest's website, and directly from the Micon Downtown Cinema.
Full program details and filmmaker guests will be revealed in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out on their website.
“Get ready for the fest's weirdest and most wonderful season yet!” says MidWest WeirdFest founder and programming director Dean Bertram. “From a record number of films submitted to the festival this year, we've assembled an unmissable program of horror, science fiction, fantasy, documentary, and underground gems. The first wave announcement gives a glimpse at just some of this year's dark and fantastic offerings: From metaphysical mind-benders featuring UFO contactees and New Age cultists, through terrifying tales of supernatural forest dwellers, re-animated monsters, and black gloved serial killers, to genre-bending sci-fi noir and a documentary loaded with your favorite horror film creators and heavy metal musicians.”
BEST SCREENPLAY FOR LIGHTSHIPS AT THE DREAMERS OF DREAMS FILM FESTIVAL 2021
John Harrigan has won the BEST SCREENPLAY award for Lightships at the Dreamers of Dreams Film Festival 2021.
Thank you to the Dreamers of Dreams Film Festival for BEST SCREENPLAY for Lightships. Deeply greatful.
The omens and portents you seek as you begin writing the next story….
Thank you to Tereza Kamenicka for representing FoolishPeople today and collecting the award on my behalf.
Thank you to Maryann Rada for being so gracious about my adaptation of her book ‘Remembrance’.
- John Harrigan
Best Director Win for John Harrigan at The Festival Of Cinema NYC 2021
We’re over the moon for Lightships’ director John Harrigan, who has won the ‘Best Director’ award at the Festival Of Cinema NYC in New York.
Please read the heart-felt message John shared after his winner announcement:
When you work so long and hard on a project such as Lightships, you often forget to stop to take in the experience. Well not this time. I’m deeply grateful to be awarded ‘Best Director’ at the 2021 New York Festival of Cinema. My deep gratitude to Jayson Simba and the entire team of festival staff and supporters. This is a pinch yourself moment. Thank you to Lois Temel for accepting the award on my behalf and for being a great friend.
Thank you to all of the incredible artists and collaborators who worked so hard to make Lightships a reality. Without you, none of this would have been possible. It’s been a great honour to dream, imagine and create with you.
A special thank you to the immeasurable Maryann Rada for your continued faith. It’s been an honour to explore your work.
To my FoolishPeople and to GHRL Ltd and to the amazing and fearless Bill Houston for being a foundation of strength. To Kathleen for being in the trenches with me throughout.
Most of all thank you to my wife Lucy Harrigan for having my back and for supporting our work and our family across all stages of our journey together. And to the divine and sacred, that which I placate myself before, so that I might be able to catch a glimpse of the truth and wonder that holds me aloft.
John Harrigan
Lightships at Paracinema Film Festival - Derby
We are beyond excited for Lightships to screen at Paracinema Film Festival, FoolishPeople will be in attendance and there will be a Q&A after the screening of Lightships on Sunday the 26th of September at 2:15pm.
Paracinema have commissioned some incredible design work from Andrew-Mark Thompson (of the amazing original Lightships poster by Paul Jenkinson), featuring the line up of this years festival as VHS video nasties.
Lightships - World Premiere at the Broadway
Cinema & Theatre
We are proud to announce that the world premiere of award-winning Lightships will take place at the Broadway Cinema & Theatre in Letchworth Garden City at a special screening as part of the Letchworth Film Festival 2021. The screening will be followed by an in person Q&A with director Jon Harrigan and cast.
Saturday, 3 July 2021
7:30 pm 10:30 pm
Broadway Cinema & Theatre (map)
Book your tickets for the event at the Broadway Cinema & Theatre.
Read this beautiful statement about the venue by director John Harrigan :
When I think about the Broadway Cinema & Theatre the first memory that comes to mind is of my mum. I’m standing outside with mum in a long queue, I’m about ten or eleven. It’s daytime, a matinee showing of either Empire Strikes Back or ET. The excitement and overwhelm in the eyes of the other kids is unmistakable. I recognise it, because it’s how I feel too.
This magnificent, old cinema is no ordinary picturehouse, this is a gargantuan art deco portal of dreams. It's been five years since we lost my dad, and our visits have become a weekly ritual. A strange miracle that alleviates the loss and grief.
This beautiful building is forever linked to my childhood, and the films I saw there. I’ve been visiting Broadway Cinema on and off for over forty years. Throughout the course of our lives, we build relationships with the sites where we first meet the stories that shape us, that teach, inspire and cultivate our dreams.
These sites are enchanted resonators.
The idea that I have somehow arrived at the moment where we screen a feature film that I directed at the Broadway Cinema, during the Letchworth Film Festival is almost too much to comprehend, a mixture of the same wonder and bewilderment that I felt standing in line with my mum every week. I can physically feel the expanse of time between the most magical moments in my childhood, and where I stand now at the edge of turning fifty, weeks away from premiering Lightships at the Broadway Cinema.
The films I saw at Broadway Cinema absolutely played an important role in my choice to become a storyteller and when we hold the world premiere of ‘Lightships’ at the Broadway on the 3rd July, a waypoint in my own story has been reached.
Thank you to the staff past and present for continuing a legacy of dreamweaving that has enchanted millions over the last eighty years.
And thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this happen.
John Harrigan
FROM POST PRODUCTION TO FILM FESTIVALS
Post production for Lightships wrapped on the 12th of March 2021 and we’re happy to announce that we are about to begin submitting ‘Lightships’ to international film festivals.
After working on the feature for over two years, the team is proud to finally start entering the film festival circuit 2021.
Early development on Lightships started during summer 2018. First footage for the film and the teaser trailer has been shot in France in autumn in the same year. The majority of ‘Lightships’ was filmed throughout January 2019 in Wellingborough and Hertfordshire in the UK.
The production team has worked hard to create a unique film and an extraordinary experience for our audience. We’re excited to enter the final stages to release Lightships into the world.
Stay tuned for more news and updates.