''Hotline'' is a 2014 documentary

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

written and directed by Tony Shaff. The film explores the intense connections that are made between strangers over the telephone, and explores these anonymous conversations people are often too hesitant to have with the people closest to them. The film stars

Miss Cleo Youree Dell Harris (August 12, 1962 – July 26, 2016) was an American television personality and actress best known for portraying Miss Cleo, a spokeswoman for a psychic pay-per-call-minute service called Psychic Readers Network, in a s ...

Jeff Ragsdale Jeffrey Charles "Jeff" Ragsdale () is an American author, documentary filmmaker, actor and stand-up comedian. In 2011 he posted a flyer in New York City as a "social experiment", stating his phone number and asking people to call him, describing ...

, Jamie Blaine, and Tonya Jone Miller. The film was first shown in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

at Hot Docs in April 2014, where it was an official selection and audience and jury favorite. On August 9, 2014 ''Hotline'' won First Prize for Best Feature Documentary at the

Rhode Island International Film Festival Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF) takes place every year in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island as well as satellite locations throughout the state. History Started in 1997, the Festival is produced by Flickers, the ...

. On May 9, 2014, the Brooklyn Film Festival announced that ''Hotline'' had been selected for inclusion in its prestigious feature film line-up.

Synopsis

''Hotline'' explores telephone hotlines throughout the United States. Among those profiled Brad Becker of the GLBT Hotline, Youree Dell Harris (aka

, formerly of the Psychic Readers Network), and the Homework Hotline in

Nashville Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...

. Additionally, the telephone volunteers at the Anti-Violence Project are profiled, as are Alan Ross of the Samaritans in New York, crisis counselor Jamie Blaine of Nashville, Pastor Brent Furlong of Go Time Ministries in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, and Tonya Jone Miller of the Bay City Blues sex-line in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. Another telephone sex worker known only as Gypsy is seen, as is

, the eponymous Jeff, One Lonely Guy hotline out of New York.

Production

Shaff, a former telephone psychic and suicide prevention hotline volunteer as well as reality television producer and director, shot the film at various locations across the United States. In post-production, Shaff worked with both the film's composer, Jess Stroup, and the film's editor, Charlie Dugan, on a score which utilized an analog dial tone theme. "The jumping off point for working on the score for ''Hotline'' came after I listened to a Radiolab piece about phone phreaking that featured a blind boy with a difficult school and home life who said that he found comfort in the sound of a telephone dial tone," Shaff explains. Shaff used the crowd source funding website,

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

, to finance portions of the project.

Release and distribution

''Hotline'' screened at

IFC Center IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...

on November 17, 2014, as part of DOC NYC festival.

Gravitas Ventures Gravitas Ventures is an independent film distribution company owned by Anthem Sports and Entertainment. The company was founded by Nolan Gallagher in Los Angeles, California in 2006 and moved its headquarters to Cleveland, Ohio in 2019, where it f ...

released the film in select theaters and on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and VOD on November 18, 2014.

Awards

On August 9, 2014, ''Hotline'' won First Prize for Best Feature Documentary at the

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 3213142 2014 films American documentary films 2014 documentary films 2010s English-language films Films about telephony 2010s American films