Some people can handle being in overarching dangerous situations in stride, as they instead contemplate the minute details that led them to such a harrowing circumstance. Actress Melanee Nelson’s character of Angel Mercy is doing just that in the upcoming hitman mockumentary, ‘Artists in Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse.’

Global Digital Releasing is set to distribute the highly-anticipated crime comedy on VOD platforms worldwide on Friday, July 21. In honor of the project’s release, Film Factual is premiering an exclusive clip from the feature, which is titled ‘Angel vs SWAT.’

In the clip, Angel is confiding in a documentary crew that’s chronicling her life that she doesn’t understand her older sister’s attraction to the man she’s interested in. Meanwhile, a SWAT team has swarmed her apartment. The officers urge her to give herself up, but she refuses to do so, which leaves innocent bystanders in the crossfire.

Courtney Sara Bell, Ken Breding and Paul Byrne wrote the script for ‘Artists in Agony.’ Kenneth Lui directed, produced and served as the visual effects supervisor on the movie. The project comes after the award-winning filmmaker worked as a visual effects artists on such MCU features as ‘Doctor Strange,’ ‘Captain America: Civil War’ and ‘Ant-Man.’

‘Artists in Agony’ features recently discovered footage that reveals how four famous hitmen died at the infamous titular Coda Teahouse Massacre. Those hitmen include Frosty (the new father), Lucien Mercy (the stay-at-home mom), Red Rick (the romantic) and his apprentice, Lady Faith (the rising star). Ex-CIA Agent Jonathan Sully (Chance Hand) guides us through the footage, suspecting they were killed by the renowned assassin artist known as Rockstar (Frank Kitchin), considered to be the greatest hitman who ever lived.

While discussing the mockumentary, Lui said: “I was cheering up a friend who was getting over a breakup, and out of the blue, he asked if I could create a project where he could ‘Look cool shooting bad guys.’ When I pictured my friend shooting bad guys, the shot was handheld like in a documentary.

“All of this reminded me how I always wanted to do a film where instead of a script, I’d give the actors goals and specific phrases for each scene and have them improvise with only myself knowing how the story ended. To do this would require very talented actors that were quick, funny and could go with the flow – like a jazz session. They also had to trust me,” the helmer continued.

“Fortunately, I know actors that can do all that. As a test, I asked them to let me shoot interviews where they discussed their approach to the craft of acting, but I edited it to appear like they were talking about the craft of being assassins,” Lui also shared.

“The results were hilarious. The idea of regular people talking casually about killing like it was an art was fascinating. I asked them if they’d commit to finishing arcs in a project where they’d play hitmen. They foolishly agreed,” the filmmaker noted.

“The interviews proved to me that shooting this subject matter in a documentary/cinéma-vérité style would work great in a satire. I have always been a huge fan of ‘This is Spinal Tap’ and how the producers were able to create the type of humor in the film, shooting it documentary style. Being the cinematographer of a “documentary” would also let me improvise the pseudo-realistic style – plus I’d get to play a hidden character as the point of view for the audience. It sounded like fun,” Lui added.

“The result is our first feature film, ‘Artists in Agony: Hitmen at the Coda Teahouse,’ an absurdly violent mockumentary that follows 4 foolish hitmen to their deaths and the hijinks of how it happened. It’s a satirical crime exposé with its tongue firmly in its cheek,” the director concluded.