Christina Raia

Summer 2022 Update

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It’s been a while! Here’s a bit about our 2022.

  • Both Christina & Kelsey, our CongestedCat team leaders, moved to the Hudson Valley this year! Christina & her husband Justin are in Ulster County. Kelsey & Dani are in Dutchess County (and they’re having a baby this fall!). We’re all still just a train ride away from the rest of the team in NYC and plan to continue supporting & shooting in the City, but we’re also excited to start building community and making movies Upstate! We went to our first local event last week, a panel on the state of Film and TV Production in the Hudson Valley.

  • We struggled with sticking to our weekly writing group through the second half of 2020 and 2021, but we’ve been going strong so far this year by committing to meeting at least every other week even if only one person has new pages or pitches. This approach keeps the pressure light while still encouraging creativity and collaboration amongst us.

  • We’ve all continued revising existing projects but most notably on the new side:

    • Kelsey wrote a queer holiday romcom!

    • Christina & Kelsey are writing a queer horror feature together!

      • Christina’s also in early stages of development for her next feature as writer/director, Silent Night, a horror you’ve surely heard her mention in past years. You can hear a bit about the status of that in the mid-year check-in episode of her podcast.

  • IndieWorks is still up in the air but not necessarily gone forever. The fact remains that the pandemic isn’t over and indoor gatherings continue to be risky. And with Christina, Kelsey, and Dani now out of the City, the future of IndieWorks does feel even more unclear than the last two years. But we all love screening films and building community, and it’s something we aspire to get back to when it feels feasible from a safety and bandwidth perspective. Aside from the timeline, all things we said in our blog post last year still stand. We’ve discussed what it could look like bringing IndieWorks back into Manhattan (instead of Queens) with a new venue near Penn Station; we’ve discussed what it could look like moving to a venue Upstate instead and shifting the focus of the series a bit; and we’ve discussed doing both in various combinations to support filmmakers and reach audiences in various ways. We’re intrigued by all the prospects, but nothing can really be decided and acted on until the pandemic is truly under control - which unfortunately doesn’t seem like it’s going to be anytime soon. In the meantime though, we look forward to watching what all our peers in NY are working on and supporting in ways that we’re able to from afar.

Game Brunch wins at Revolution Me Film Festival

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We’re proud and grateful to have Game Brunch as the winner for Best Ensemble at Revolution Me Film Festival! And our founder, Christina ,is this year’s recipient of the REME Award, which is short for Revolution Me and is an honor bestowed to one filmmaker every other year who has made an impact in the Revolution Me and local film community.

It was also nominated for Best Comedy, Best Director, Best Actor (Ricardo Manigat), and best Actress (Ricki Lynée).

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"Game Brunch" Online Premiere

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Update August 27: check out this sweet review from Cinema Crazed.

It's Sunday, which means it's the perfect day for brunch. And there's a full moon tonight, which means it's an extra perfect day for "Game Brunch." Watch the film now, it just premiered on Film Shortage!

(Shot in November 2019 - see behind the scenes.)

Its festival run isn't over yet. There'll be chances to catch it on a big screen in the fall. Stay tuned for details! But in the meantime, feel free to watch and share through your small screens! And if it makes you chuckle, we'd love it if you'd add your thoughts to the film's Letterboxd page!

Director Statement

“Game Brunch,” like most of our recent projects, came out of our weekly writing group, where Kelsey, Ryan and I (and sometimes other CongestedCat collaborators) encourage each other to come in with new pages or pitches every time we meet up. After working on some darker projects, I wanted to jump into something light-hearted with actors I've loved working with in the past or have wanted to work with for a while. I sat down one evening and tried to come up with an idea that could be shot in my apartment and could work as a short ensemble piece. I made a list of actors and started thinking about how I could pair them up. I recalled a game night I hosted years ago and found myself chuckling at the notion of revolving an entire film around one specific word (which I can’t reveal — you’ll just have to watch the film). I started writing and an hour later I had an absurd 15-page script. When I sent it out to my writing group members and some other trusted writers to read, everyone got a kick out of it and really encouraged me to direct it. A couple even said “please make it!” It was exciting to see such a positive response to it, especially from the actors I had in mind. They all eagerly accepted the roles. I think they, like me, needed a break from the overwhelming amount of things to be outraged about in the world and loved the idea of just focusing on making something fun. And what fun it was to make! I hope it's just as much fun to watch!

Also, here’s a collection of screenshots of audience reactions we saw throughout the film’s virtual run: