Christy Oldham
When Christy Oldham moved to LA from Louisiana 13 years ago to be an actress, she hadn’t heard of the Screen Actors Guild. “I was very green and naïve,” she says. “But I realized that if I was going to be successful, I would have to write, produce and make my own movies rather than waiting on someone to call me in for an audition.”
Fast-forward to today and she has three movies under her belt. Her latest, “Barracuda,” is a dark comedy about a phone-sex operator’s mission to bring sex offenders to justice, tracking them in her 1966 Plymouth Barracuda. Oldham wrote, produced and stars in the work; Shane Woodson directs.
“My film exposes the secret and often criminal sexual lives of normal, professional men,” Oldham says. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there are nearly 740,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S.
“Barracuda” is part of the 2011 Burbank International Film Festival’s women’s night. It screens Thursday, Sept. 15th, at 10:30 p.m. at the AMC 16 movie theater in Burbank. “Barracuda” was nominated for three awards at the Burbank festival including Best Picture and received an Excellence in Filmmaking award at the 2011 Las Vegas International Film Festival.
“Barracuda” taps veteran editor Robert Pergament, cinematographer Marco Naylor and composer Emir Isilay. The film was shot in California, Kentucky, Louisiana and Indiana; the cast includes 200 actors.
Oldham and Woodson previously collaborated on the 2007 screwball comedy “Cain and Abel,” starring rap icon Flavor Flav. Oldham plans to make her directorial debut with a film that she wrote about the victims of a serial killer in southern Louisiana.
The Burbank film fest is open to the public. You can buy tickets to “Barracuda” ($13.41 each, including service fee) here.
“Barracuda” will also screen in New Orleans and Mississippi film festivals in October. For more information on the film and the filmmakers, go to: barracudamovie.tv and mercuryrisingfilms.com.
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