West Coast Premiere - October 2020
“A remarkable hybrid of narrative and documentary, Teddy, Out of Tune is a poignant portrait of a charismatic but troubled wayward street musician. After the passing of his mother, Teddy decides to drive from Arizona to Canada to spread her ashes and give her a proper goodbye. With little more than the piano tethered to his truck, Teddy's solitary journey quickly becomes one of camaraderie and healing as he encounters various friends and characters along the way. Teddy, Out of Tune is a bold and arresting debut feature, deftly filmed in gorgeous kaleidoscopic cinema vérité-style by director Daniel Freeman. Freeman co-wrote the film with actor Drew Connick, whose raw performance as Teddy is the film’s dynamic life force. With Connick seamlessly and effortlessly embodying Teddy through compelling, unexpected interactions with real people along his trip, Teddy, Out of Tune is a gripping mix of fiction and non-fiction, full of keen observations about loss, stability, and growth.”
World Premiere - June 2020
“This tender and elegiac portrait offers us the chance to ride shotgun with Teddy, as he drives on up the road, crying and laughing, swimming and frolicking, loving and fighting his way through the pain. A raw and intimate film that could handily draw comparisons to both the Maysles Brothers’ Grey Gardens and Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, and yet Teddy, Out of Tune is wholly it’s own film. A gripping portrait of a life in transition, so deeply human in it’s observations that one can’t walk away unaffected by Teddy’s unpretentious and soulful way of being—an outsider in a world that doesn’t make enough space for those who don’t wish to jump through its hoops.” – Scott Braid, Maryland Film Festival - Director of Programming
New York Premiere - October 2020
Winner of the Programmer’s Choice award for Narrative Features
Oregon Premiere - April 2021
"The movie is presented as a documentary film, although Drew Connick who plays the wild-eyed Teddy is an actor, and the film is loosely and partially scripted. Connick is deeply convincing as thirty-something vagabond, portraying a bone-deep kindness that is equally child-like and manic—and one that also has been demented by abuse and trauma. He talks about playing “Moonlight Sonata” to Redwood trees because what a shame they have lived for a thousand years and never heard that song, and he fantasizes about playing a concert on Mars, and he dances with Burning Man abandon alone in the desert. But he displays instability bordering on insanity; a fragility that is pure humanness and pain." - Phil Busse, Rogue Valley Messenger
Florida Premiere - June 2021
Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature