Southlander: Diary of a Desperate Musician

Rory Cochrane and Beth Orton Rory Cochrane and Laura Prepon Beck Performs in His Studio

Southlander is a darkly comic journey through today's music scene in Los Angeles, the only city where you can take a road trip without ever getting out of town. This music-driven send-up cruises both LA's underbelly and its over-the-top outer limits. It features a talented, eclectic cast and an original soundtrack highlighted by on-screen performances by international indie-rock icons Beck and Beth Orton.

Chance (Rory Cochrane, CSI Miami; Love and a .45), a talented but unknown musician, finds his ticket to fame, fortune and romance with the help of a unique keyboard synthesizer. The otherworldly sound of the coveted ’69 Moletron gets him both the gig and the girl (Beth Orton in her first film role). But the Moletron is stolen -- and with it, Chance's big break -- so he desperately tries to track it down through The Southlander, a weekly buy/sell classified rag.

It's a Chandler-esque odyssey through a bi-polar city, veering between nether-noir and never-never-land. Along the way, Chance and his pal Ross Angeles encounter a cross-section of only-in-LA eccentrics, including Beck, the songwriting proprietor of a ramshackle recording studio; Lawrence Hilton Jacobs III, a psychopathic ex-funk star; clairvoyant media princess Laura Prepon, and Gregg Henry, a brilliant New Age artist and Bacchanalian party-giver who is buying up (and burning) any electronic instruments he can get his hands on.

A journey without a freeway map, Southlander is directed by Steven Hanft, the MTV Award Winning creator of many acclaimed videos for Beck -- including 'Loser' -- and other artists. The Los Angeles Times found that "Hanft has a laid back manner and visual panache that are just right for this improvised adventure, which has a terrific music track."

Featuring Performances By...

Beck... Beth Orton... Union 13... Hank Williams III... Billy Higgins

And Music By...

Elliott Smith... Da Da Munchamonkey... Ross Angeles... Royal Trux