Killer Films

Look among the titles of the most daring and delirious American independent films of the past 15 years and you'll discover that a good number of them share one name in common: Killer Films . In just the past few years, the New York-based film production company has produced the films The Notorious Bettie Page , Far From Heaven , Hedwig and the Angry Inch , Todd Solondz's "Happiness" and "Storytelling," One Hour Photo , and Boys Don't Cry , to name but a few.
Producer Christine Vachon got her start as a feature film producer in 1991 when she teamed up with Brown University alumni Todd Haynes and Barry Ellsworth to produce short films and eventually Haynes' first feature – and Sundance grand jury winner – "Poison." She has gone on to produce all of Haynes' films: "Safe," "Velvet Goldmine," Far From Heaven , and his forthcoming "biopic that's not a biopic" about Bob Dylan.
Vachon has also produced the first features of artists Larry Clark ("Kids") and Cindy Sherman ("Office Killer"), and actors Ethan Hawke ("Chelsea Walls") and Tim Blake Nelson ("The Grey Zone"). She has introduced us to the directing talents of film newcomers John Cameron Mitchell ( Hedwig and the Angry Inch ), Mary Harron ("I shot Andy Warhol" and The Notorious Bettie Page ), and Kimberly Peirce ( Boys Don't Cry ), and has recently worked on projects with veterans Robert Altman ("The Company") and John Waters ("A Dirty Shame").
Vachon wants to make movies that matter. She wants to and does. The title of her book (written with David Edelstein) is Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies That Matter . She is no stranger to risk, controversy, and experimentation. The 40 or so films already bearing her name attest to that. Some writers have called her the "Queen of the New Queer Cinema"; others associate her name with politically committed filmmaking. One thing's for sure: each of her films is worth having been made, worth having tried to meet its challenges, worth having dared.