{"id":454441,"date":"2025-12-18T00:45:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/454441\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T00:45:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:45:19","slug":"freestyle-digital-media-acquires-mumblecore-drama-intrusive-thoughts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/454441\/","title":{"rendered":"Freestyle Digital Media Acquires Mumblecore Drama ‘Intrusive Thoughts’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEXCLUSIVE:<\/strong> Freestyle Digital Media<\/a>, the digital film distribution arm of Byron Allen\u2019s Allen Media Group, has acquired VOD rights to Intrusive Thoughts<\/a>, the feature directorial debut of Saumene Mehrdady<\/a> (Tehrangeles, Milkshakes).<\/p>\n

\n\tSarah Chang Tadayon, Alexander Morales, and Angela Barber star in the film, described as a \u201cmumblecore drama,\u201d produced by Mehrdad Sarlak<\/a> & Joel Villegas Salda\u00f1a<\/a>. It will become available to rent or own on North American digital HD internet, cable, and satellite platforms, as well as on DVD, beginning January 13.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIntrusive Thoughts tells the story of Gabe Torres [Morales], a struggling filmmaker who spends an awkward week moving out after breaking up with his girlfriend, Sasha Khosravi [Tadayon],\u201d notes a description of the film. \u201cAs Gabe ponders whether or not to give up on the dream, his therapist, Dr. Martha [Angela Barber], succumbs to unethical temptations as a result of their sessions. Meanwhile, Sasha\u2019s family-arranged date with a new guy goes awry, leaving both exes spiraling and questioning how or why to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Top:<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTop: Sarah Chang Tadayon; Bottom: Alexander Morales, Angela Barber<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFreestyle Digital Media\/<\/p>\n

\n\tThe film is a production of newly formed independent studio HBHK.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWith Intrusive Thoughts I wanted to make something that focuses on three dimensions of dissonance in our current moment \u2013 to be creative in a culture that\u2019s been increasingly devaluing it, to be a lover in an increasingly loveless and transactional world, and the struggle to unblur one\u2019s professional ethics under the weight of longing,\u201d filmmaker Saumene Mehrdady said in a statement. \u201cIntrusive Thoughts is a movie about desire, doubt, and the things we do when we\u2019re afraid of being unseen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFreestyle Digital Media negotiated the deal to acquire Intrustive Thoughts directly with HBHK and Glen Reynolds at Circus Road Films.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Producer<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tProducer Mehrdad Sarlak<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Matthew Carey<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer Mehrdad Sarlak has more than a dozen films among his producing credits, including La Pi\u00f1ata de Marcel (Marcel\u2019s Pi\u00f1ata, 2024), Tehrangeles (2020), and Just Hold On<\/a> (2020). As an actor, he has appeared in Oscar Best Picture winner Argo, FX TV series Nip\/Tuck, and two dozen other series and films. Sarlak serves as executive producer on the upcoming feature documentary Learning to Survive: A Lesson in Student Homelessness, directed by Kevin Naughton. Among producer Joel Villegas Salda\u00f1a\u2019s producing credits are Tehrangeles and Cherry and Highland (2013). He directed the 2023 short David Se Va which Sarlak produced, along with several music videos and the 2017 short Subterra.<\/p>\n

\n\tRecent releases from Freestyle Digital Media include Allswell In New York starring Emmy award-winning actress Liza Col\u00f3n-Zayas from FX series The Bear; All Happy Families, starring Josh Radnor and Rob Huebel; The Ghost Trap starring Zak Steiner (Euphoria) and Greer Grammer (Awkward), and the Weekly World News horror-comedy The Zombie Wedding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Freestyle Digital Media, the digital film distribution arm of Byron Allen\u2019s Allen Media Group, has acquired VOD…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":454442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,208294,208295,208296,208297,53,208298,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-454441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-freestyle-digital-media","10":"tag-intrusive-thoughts","11":"tag-joel-villegas-saldau00f1a","12":"tag-mehrdad-sarlak","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-saumene-mehrdady","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115737810423525018","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}