The rom-com documentary Shoot To Marry, the follow-up to Canadian filmmaker Steve Markle’s cult classic Camp Hollywood released the new trailer prior to the film’s World Premier at the 2020 Slamdance Film Festival.
The documentary is part of the Breakouts Selection, which showcases films by feature directors who demonstrate a determined vision of filmmaking that is instinctively becoming their own. Northern Banner Releasing (the Canadian distribution arm of Raven Banner Entertainment) just acquired the Canadian rights.
In this real-life romantic comedy, heartbroken and disillusioned documentary filmmaker Steve Markle focuses his camera on women with hopes of finding the love of his life. What begins as a quest for female companionship gradually becomes a wake-up call as Steve’s search for a wife leads him on an unexpected and poignant journey.
“The idea for the doc grew out of a deep desire to be married. I think spending your life with someone is beautiful,” says filmmaker Steve Markle. “The concept was to ask women about their lives, relationships and love and I thought who knows – if I film with enough women, maybe I’ll click with one of them?”
Over the course of a year, Steve hops from city to city stumbling through interviews with over fifty unique women. From a firefighter to a dominatrix, a serial dater to his first-grade secret crush, Steve’s female subjects share up-close and personal perspectives on love, dating and what it is to be a woman today.
“After my previous relationship fell apart, I sat on the couch crying for weeks and months, feeling shitty about myself. The voice in my head fed me a constant stream of negative thoughts: You’re not loveable. You’re shit. You’re garbage,” recalls Steve Markle. “At a certain point I felt inspired to put my pain into art and create something. I grabbed my camera and started filming this documentary.”
Shoot To Marry was produced, written, shot, directed and edited by Steve Markle – virtually a one-man film crew over a five-year period.
Steve Markle is best known for writing, directing and starring in Camp Hollywood, the Sundance Channel doc about struggling performers living at a legendary Los Angeles fleabag. Markle starred in the hidden camera show You’ve Got A Friend exec-produced by Ashton Kutcher for MTV, and starred in the comedy series Testees for FX.