The Walker Art Center presents the area premiere of Carlos Brooks’ Quid Pro Quo, Friday, June 6, 7:30 pm, the latest film in the series Premieres: First Look, an ongoing presentation of area premieres that gives audiences an early look at tomorrow’s critically acclaimed classics. Producer Sarah Pillsbury (Desperately Seeking Susan, River’s Edge, Eight Men Out, And the Band Played On) will introduce the film and participate in a post-screening conversation. A dark comedy, perverse romance, and psychological thriller, Quid Pro Quo made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival and was lauded by Variety as “strikingly original and provocative.” Nick Stahl plays a wheelchair-bound public radio personality who meets a mysterious woman (Vera Farminga) while covering a story on the curious subculture of “wannabes”—able-bodied people who seek to transform themselves by amputation. 2007, 35mm, 87 minutes.
Quid Pro Quo is a dark, puzzling tale of strangers who crash into one another’s lives and transform them forever. Isaac, a paraplegic, is a popular New York City public-radio reporter who is investigating a story from an anonymous source about a man who walked into a hospital demanding that his leg be amputated. While pursuing the story to satisfy his own probing curiosity, Isaac meets the mysterious Fiona, a restoration artist. Isaac’s investigation not only initiates a relationship with Fiona but also leads him into the strange subculture of those longing for wholeness—or lack thereof—in rather peculiar ways. Will Fiona lead Isaac to answers about this underworld of seekers, or will their stormy association push him toward a more painful truth?
In his directorial debut, Carlos Brooks confidently navigates the delicate line of the psychological thriller genre with the help of eerie performances from Vera Farmiga and Nick Stahl. Quid Pro Quo does not celebrate or sensationalize the subculture it portrays but instead explores the human psyche and allows the audience to ask questions. Brooks takes us on a journey to explore our desires, find order in disorder, and exhume the need to restore normalcy to a society we find ourselves ostracized from.
Tickets to Quid Pro Quo are $12 ($8 Walker members) and are available at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600. The screening takes place in the Walker Cinema.
