Last Tuesday was the January edition of IndieWorks! We screened 5 films and had over 50 people in house. The first set of films were intense & dramatic pieces, focused on past relationships coming back with consequences. The second set were lighter pieces, focused on feeling stuck or halted and unsure of what’s next, portrayed across very different styles & genres. Aside from one of the filmmakers not showing up and us needing to skip a 6th film we had programmed, the night went extremely well. We had a really engaged crowd with a lot of profound questions and comments during both Q&As.
We'd like to say thank you to everyone who came out to support the filmmakers and spend the evening with us & them. We do hope you enjoyed the films, as well as the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film enthusiasts. We know some connections were made! AND we hope you'll join us again for our February screening on the 12th! It’ll be a sweet, silly, and sometimes sad mix of films about love, sex and relationships.
See photos from the evening:
The Films of the night:
The Long Wet Grass (Directed by Justin Davey, Written by Anna Nugent & Séamus Scanlon)
As dawn breaks over a remote lakeside in the West of Ireland, a car comes to a halt and a man all in black exits. He opens the boot (trunk) and we find there a terrified, barefoot woman. As he leads her to the edge of the lake they start to argue and we discover that they have been there before as children.
My Name is Somebody (Written & Directed by Orges Bakalli)
Bruno is living the 'American dream.' He has a loving wife, owns a bar and is expecting his first child. He is hiding a secret however; one he has spent the last twenty years hoping to hide. When a forgotten figure re-emerges and threatens all that he has built, Bruno must make amends with his past, before carrying on with his future.
Still Life (Written & Directed by Jennifer Dean)
A short-short film celebrating the art that keeps us sane even when life makes us crazy.
Cheese Shop (Written & Directed by Sammy Zeisel)
Takes place over the course of one long day at an artisan cheese shop. Ella, an out-of-work actress, struggles to wrap cheese in plastic, build trays, and cut every variety of cheese throughout her first day of work at the shop. Meanwhile, her life outside the shop appears to be falling apart: career failure, a break-up, and...bed bugs.
Future Unknown (Written & Directed by Makeba L. Ross)
On the afternoon of their college graduation, Mannie lets the fear of the future keep her from enjoying the day, while her friend Sunny tries her best to be happy for the both of them.
Watch our Q&A Recap. *Please know there are some film spoilers - feel free to look for an opportunity to catch the films at a festival or computer screen near you & then come back to watch!
The awards go to...
At the end of the evening, we announced our winning filmmakers for both Audience Choice Award & Silver Whiskers Award. The Audience Choice Award is voted upon by all those in attendance, and the Silver Whiskers Award is judged by the CongestedCat Team based on a rating system of 8 categories: Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value, along with a nuanced discussion focused on inclusion and originality. The Silver Whiskers winner goes on to screen again at our end of year Best of Fest screening next April.
The Silver Whiskers winner also receives $50 towards a crowdfunding campaign on SeedandSpark.com should they use the platform and 50% off 4MileCircus' post-production audio cleaning service for a future project.
For the January 2019 lineup, our winning films were:
Audience Choice Award: "Cheese Shop"
Silver Whiskers Award: "Future Unknown"
