PRESS RELEASE
Leap Frog Films is pleased to announce Reaching for the Moon, which opens the Mardi Gras Film Festival tonight, as its latest acquisition. Tonight’s screening has sold out and a second screening has been added.
“We are thrilled to have such a beautifully compelling film in our line up and are proud to have it open the festival,” says David Doepel, Leap Frog Films Managing Director.
Set mostly in Brazil and based on the 2002 biography Rare and Commonplace Flowers, the biopic follows the 15-year relationship between U.S. Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto) and headstrong Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Gloria Pires), famous for designing Rio’s Flamengo Park.
Australia’s Miranda Otto shines in the lead role as the tormented yet brilliant American poet and Gloria Pires brings an earthy sensuality to the screen. Directed by the Academy Award® nominated filmmaker Bruno Barreto, the on-screen chemistry between the women is palpable as the film traces the erotic, tender but often volatile relationship between two, polar-opposite women.
In addition to opening in Sydney, Reaching for the Moon will close the Melbourne Queer Film Festival. “It’s a privilege to be able to bring this story to Australia and New Zealand,” Andrew Hazelton, Director of Sales and Marketing, commented, “And we look forward to presenting it in limited release in all capital cities after its successful festival run”.
Reaching for the Moon is the fourth acquisition for Leap Frog Films, which is distributing three other features in cinemas this year: Half of a Yellow Sun (in cinemas 27 March 2014); Wrinkles, an adult animation about life and friendship in an elder care home (featuring the voices of Martin Sheen and Matthew Modine) and The Sea, an atmospheric drama based on the best-selling novel by John Banville, which stars Ciaran Hinds and Charlotte Rampling.