High There star Wayne Darwen adds buzz to Echo Park Rising fest

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Aug. 17, 2015 - PRLog -- HOLLYWOOD (August 17)  Echo Park Rising, the three-day music, art and food fest celebrating Los Angeles' hipster neighborhood, got a double dose of star power this weekend with the meeting of Wayne Darwen, director and star of the hottest nonfiction indie film of the summer, and hot comedian Hannibal Buress.

Darwen, who stars as Dave High in High There, met with Buress backstage Saturday after the comedian finished a surprise free show under a blazing afternoon sun. Buress wished Darwen well on his new film, and Darwen congratulated the comic on his work on the Comedy Central hit, Broad City, and his new series, Why? with Hannibal Buress.

Darwen, a veteran tabloid journalist and television producer, saw some irony in his kinship with the young comic who helped bring down Bill Cosby by bringing up rape accusations in his stand-up set. "There are a few degrees of separation here. Twenty-five years ago, I was getting my picture taken with Cosby after shooting a story on him for A Current Affair."

Darwen proved a favorite among the crowd of thousands, some of whom mistook him for his character Dave High.  He posed for photos with festivalgoers and performers alike, including hot local band Mister Elevator &The Brain Hotel, as well as the culinary stars of the festival, Anne Chen and Cindy Pao of Bing Bling Dumpling.

High There is a Sam Peters International Productions Unlimited and Good Story Productions presentation of a Rat Lung picture.  It's distributed by BRINKvision on limited edition DVD and VOD.

The film's success has been helped immensely by positive reviews and news articles in the alternative press, and reviews from the new breed of independent digital film critics.  High There has received many rave reviews indie movie websites, including  A Bucket of Corn, which called High There "a perfect film," Movie and TV Series Geek ("A perfect example of a memorable and really good piece of filmed cinema") and Documentary Dude ("Wildly entertaining!").

A sequel to High There, Area 420, is now in pre-production, with filming expected to begin in late fall of this year.  Meanwhile, Darwen plans to make more appearances at public events and is available for radio, television and online interviews.

Find additional photos from Echo Park Rising at hightherethemovie.blogspot.com.