The Strain sisters roll out the red carpet for the Chatham premiere

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Kat and Karissa Strain have dedicated their time, resources and talents to their first feature film, and they want local residents to be able to enjoy the red carpet when they see it.

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The Call of the Blackbird, a film that the 34-year-old Chatham twins shot and produced locally as a showcase for the film industry, will have its local premiere on October 11 at the Chatham Capitol Theatre.

“We were lucky to be able to go to the red carpet premieres in Los Angeles and experience all the glitz and glamor while walking the red carpet,” Karissa said.

The sisters want everyone in town to share how important working on the film in Chatham was to them, she added.

Tickets are $10 for general admission or $20 for VIP access to walk the red carpet and attend an after-party with the cast, crew and live band at the River Rock Social House. Tickets available at cktickets.com or at the door.

Theater doors open at 5.30pm and The Strains will be on hand to welcome audiences.

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Kat said the show starts at 7:30 p.m. with a “teaser” for their next project, a comedy.

Kat said that this feature film is already written and ready to be made. “We will be submitting a project for funding in Los Angeles and Toronto this fall, and we just wanted to give the city a little sneak peek of the next project we will have to do.”

The Call of the Blackbird will have its world premiere at the LA Femme International Film Festival October 24-27.

This is probably the only movie they’ll be able to get a red carpet screening for in Chatham. The companies they will be working with will not want the features to be shown anywhere until they are fully distributed.

“We’re breaking the rules a little bit because it’s important that we share this with Chatham,” Kat said.

The sisters collaborated on a book of poetry entitled Call of the Blackbird, which will be available at launch.

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The twins have gone on to achieve blockbuster success, including playing mean twins Nikki and Lizzy in the 2013 remake of the horror classic Carrie. They also starred in the 2018 horror film Twinsanity.

When they returned to Chatham about three years ago, they initially considered it a failure. They founded Sisters Strain Films to create their own feature films and showcase their talents to the film industry.

Returning home turned out to be one of the best moves they made.

“Nowadays, we know that if we didn’t do it, we definitely wouldn’t be at this point in our creative careers. . . go home,” Kat said.

“The sense of community, the support of our parents and other local artists was what we needed to reach the next level in our career and try our own work,” she added.

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Karissa said her stay in Chatham was a great opportunity to work with many talented local people.

“We didn’t realize how many creative people were already in the city,” Kat added.

She quoted Ben Srokosz, founder of Chatham-based OOAK Productions, which is helping pave the way for local filmmaking. “We have worked with him a lot and he is very supportive of local artists.”

When considering their own film careers, the sisters found local people who had never traveled to a big city to do something creative, but had the desire.

“We were able to find them, put them in our project and really work with them. . . to shine with your performances,” not only keeping her dream alive but also opening the door for the dreams of others, Karissa said.

“Watching them on screen in our project gives us so much satisfaction that we can’t wait for people they know to come and see them,” she added.

The project is entirely theirs, they made all the decisions and did exactly what they wanted, Kat said.

It shows “what we think, what we feel, how we see the world, what kind of artists we are and what kind of women we are,” her sister added.

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