'Dr. Chevalier’s Lie,' directed by Preeshl, to premiere at the Vero Beach Film Festival

“Dr. Chevalier’s Lie”, a film directed by Visiting Assistant Professor of Performing Arts Artemis Preeshl, is one of 75 films selected as an Official Entry to the Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival, the “Summer Sundance”.

“Dr. Chevalier’s Lie” traces a respectable doctor decision about how to document the death of a young woman with whom he is acquainted. In this modern adaptation of Kate Chopin’s short story written by Rachel Grissom, the coroner writes multiple versions of the autopsy report to transform how the world will remember the deceased – who may or may not have been murdered by a police officer. This controversial film stars Keota Geaux Picou and Anthony Fredericks with Aaron Romano and Brian Peydoux. Wrapped in the theme of violence in the African American community of New Orleans, Patrick McGinley’s cinematography highlights the question of excessive use of force on a mentally ill woman in this hard-hitting film.

“Dr. Chevalier’s Lie” is an apt selection for the Vero Beach Wine and Film Festiva, which is dedicated to the theme of “A Life Worth Living,” as a benefit for Suncoast Mental Health Center. Jerusha Stewart, founder of the Festival, created the festival as a doorway to which we could bring the widest array of people into the conversation about mental health in our country” and send the message “‘we’re all in this together.” More than 2,000 filmmakers and audience members will attend Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival’s 4-day run. Among 4,000 festivals around the world,  Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival was voted as a Top 100 Best Reviewed Festivals.

Ripe Figs LLC first adapted Kate Chopin’s “Respectable Woman,” entitled “Inachevé” directed by Preeshl. Dr. Chevalier’s Lie is the third film by the Ripe Figs LLC, comprised of Preeshl, Barbara Ewell, Kate Chopin’s first biographer, and Rachel Grissom, writer and director of 2012 New Orleans Film Festival entry, “The Somnambulist”. The Ripe Figs LLC is devoted to bringing female Louisiana writers to the screen. Ripe Figs LLC explores race, gender, and class issues in Kate Chopin’s works that persisted for decades after Reconstruction and underlie struggles that wracked the post-war decades.

As a Visiting Assistant Professor of Performing Arts, Preeshl teaches acting, movement, dialects, and improv and co-directed Instant Laugher. Since Preeshl joined Elon University, she spoke on “Kate Chopin: Yesterday and Today” and screened her film “Inachevé” at Fatima Jinnah Women’s College and directed Shakespeare scenes and monologues for Theater Wallay in Islamabad, Pakistan as a Fulbright Senior Theatre Specialist.