{"id":137838,"date":"2024-03-21T08:36:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T13:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=137838"},"modified":"2024-03-20T21:37:37","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T02:37:37","slug":"oxford-film-festival-alumnus-brian-whisenant-returns-to-tell-his-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/oxford-film-festival-alumnus-brian-whisenant-returns-to-tell-his-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Oxford Film Festival Alumnus Brian Whisenant Returns to Tell His Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Wrath Mercy<\/em><\/strong>, a 25-year dream come true for writer\/director Brian Whisenant<\/strong> is coming home to Mississippi<\/strong> with its world premiere at the Oxford Film Festival<\/strong> on Saturday, March 23 at 2:45 pm with a second screening on Sunday, March 24 at 2 pm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on a play and Whisenant\u2019s own life experience, Wrath Mercy<\/em> tells the story of a young gay drug addict, Adam, who after a dangerous encounter with Mall, the drug dealer, meets a mysterious woman named Irina who gives him an opportunity to change his fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrath Mercy<\/em> is based on a play written by Benjamin Craven<\/strong> that was first produced as a showcase at the University of Southern Mississippi<\/strong> in 1996 at the beloved Hartwig Arena Theatre<\/strong>. It made a huge impact on Whisenant who originally wanted to produce it as an acting showcase for himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the years passed, having moved to New York City <\/strong>and then to Los Angeles<\/strong>, the dream faded as he became hopelessly addicted to drugs including crystal meth. After some time homeless in LA, Whisenant found himself back in Mississippi at the Haven House<\/strong>, a substance use facility that helped save his life.
\u201cOne day I quite dramatically told my therapist that my dreams were dead\u2014that my biggest regret was throwing away a promising career as an actor and director. He asked if there was anything I might work on while still in treatment. Like a flash, I remembered Wrath Mercy. I dusted it off, took another pass at it and became determined to make it happen. Not as an actor this time, but as a director.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Whisenant moved back to Los Angeles, Oxford Film Festival produced a virtual table read of Wrath Mercy<\/em>. Nineties star Natanya Ross<\/strong> became attached to star in the film in late 2022, and after a nationwide casting search for an openly queer actor to play the lead, Matthew Zimmerman<\/strong> joined the cast along with NYC actor Deb Radloff <\/strong>and Mississippi locals Carys Glynne<\/strong> and Brice Stone<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn May of 2023, I went back to Mississippi to film Wrath Mercy<\/em>, the greatest three days of my life,\u201d Whisenant says.\u201d With the guidance and friendship of my coproducer, Glenn Payne<\/strong>, an amazing camera team led by my vision-making cinematographer Michael Williams<\/strong>, a wonderful, local supporting cast, crew, and a slew of donations from $5 to $5000, my dream finally became a reality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it came time to premiere the film, Oxford Film Festival was an obvious choice. Whisenant worked as the head programmer of LGBTQIA+ films for six years and spent many years acting and directing with Theatre Oxford as well as directing the Ox-Film produced, award winning short, The Golden Years, starring Johnny McPhail<\/strong> and Susan McPhail<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wrath Mercy<\/em> is an allegory. A fantasy based in reality. Whisenant says, \u201cI wanted to show people what it feels like to be a gay crystal meth addict, why we might become addicted in the first place, while asking what may be the unanswerable question of why some drug addicts live and some don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tickets available online: https:\/\/2024oxff.eventive.org\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wrath Mercy, a 25-year dream come true for writer\/director Brian Whisenant is coming home to Mississippi with its<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":137840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13391],"tags":[28181,12195,28187,28184,5681,7475,28183,13449,5,28182,4,137,9645,3,28180],"class_list":["post-137838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oxford-film-festival","tag-benjamin-craven","tag-brian-whisenant","tag-carys-gynne","tag-deb-radloff","tag-glenn-payne","tag-johnny-mcphail","tag-matthew-zimmerman","tag-michael-williams","tag-mississippi","tag-natanya-ross","tag-oxford","tag-oxford-film-festival","tag-susan-mcphail","tag-the-local-voice","tag-wrath-mercy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/IMG_6537.jpg?fit=667%2C1000&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137838"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":137844,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137838\/revisions\/137844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}