Indieworks

IndieWorks - a new year, a new home!

in
59439730_1961847633919386_674675100900917248_n.png

Happy New Year! It may be long past acceptable to say that for 2019, but we’re starting our 7th Year at IndieWorks next month, so … Happy New Year! And with a new year starting, it feels like the right time to hit refresh on our screening series. So here we are with an announcement; starting with our next lineup on Tuesday, June 25th, we'll be moving to a new venue! We haven’t committed to a permanent new home just yet, but we will be spending the first few months of our new year testing out options and eventually decide on the best fit for our series.

As much as we appreciate The Local & their staff for allowing us to call the space home for the last 3 years, we've decided it's time to part ways with the venue. After a problematic incident at our November screening, where a rowdy bar patron screamed misogynistic expletives throughout the night, we found ourselves heavily weighing the pros & cons of the venue and seriously longing for our original home at the People Lounge where the owner allowed us to use the entire space for our screenings and was very hands on in maintaining a safe space for everyone. After some careful thought & discussion as a team about changing venues, we decided to express our concerns to the venue and stick it out through the rest of our 6th year before making a decision. But after another rowdy night at our Best of Fest last month, we came to the conclusion that, despite the venue checking off a lot of our necessary boxes (being warm & comfortable, offering an open space that can accommodate our generally large crowds with projection of the films on a huge screen), we’ve found ourselves making sacrifices each month that were starting to take a toll on our sense of responsibility to the creators we showcase. Keeping the series free & open to the public is important to us, so we loved that The Local offered us a deal that allowed their guests to come over and discover local films & filmmakers, while our guests could give the venue bar business and brand awareness. However, more and more over the last year, there would be bar patrons that’d nearly ruin the night by being loud & disrespectful towards our event and guests. We understand why The Local has the restrictions it has in terms of requiring the space remain open and multi-purpose at all times; but as filmmakers ourselves, it pained us not having any control over the environment surrounding the screening area (not even being allowed to put up dividers or sound blankets to create some noise barriers). Over the last few months, we’ve found ourselves repeatedly apologizing for behaviors beyond our control while having no agency within the venue to course correct for future screenings. We don’t mean to disrespect the people who run The Local. We are so grateful to them and we love their space for so many reasons. (And we loved the bartenders & being able to bring them business on slow evenings.) It’s truly excellent for networking & mingling, events where noise isn’t a factor. But despite our best efforts, it’s just not really a screening space. As their business continued to grow and their bar became more busy on weeknights over the last year, we’ve been happy for them & their success but frustrated with feeling like we’re not honoring the fully inviting, respectful, and immersive experience we'd come to be known for in our first few years. The inability to create a consistent (positive) experience for our attendees every month was making us feel like failures. As a filmmaker, I (Christina) try to be super transparent about my poor experiences at festivals on this blog; and I recently started feeling like I’d write negatively about our series on the filmmaker side if my only experience with it was during one of our noisier nights. IndieWorks was originally created as a filmmaker focused & friendly alternative to a lot of the bad business I’d seen in the festival world. So, it’s extremely important to me and to us as a team that we deliver on our ideals and what we set out to do each month.

So we’ve decided to spend the first few months of our new season testing out different venues. We did this once before back in 2016, after the People Lounge shut down; we scouted & tested multiple bars & back rooms, and found that most venues (and screens) were too small to fit our audience size and/or had way too much bar noise to fit our vibe. And because we're committed to keeping screenings accessible for all, being able to rent a private space has always been a struggle (not to mention that most rentable screening spaces in the city are cold & impersonal theaters with rules against food & drinks, so wouldn’t fit our vibe anyway). Discovering The Local was a great find at the time, so part of me is sad to say goodbye. But it’s the right move to ensure the atmosphere we aspire to create every single month. Last time around, before settling on The Local, we tested Stone Creek Lounge (which is a solid space and our go-to backup, just a bit too small for our needs most months), Subject NYC (not bad but too loud), and Arlene’s Grocery (too small but a great venue for music). This time around, we’re going to start June out at Stone Creek Lounge as a buffer to explore other venues for future months. We’re really excited to test out Nuyorican Poets Cafe in July, with potential later opportunities in the works at The Creek & the Cave and Artefix NYC. We’ve reached out to others and we’ll see what comes along. If you have suggestions, please send them our way and we’ll reach out. (For criteria, here’s our blog post from our 2016 search).

Thanks for being part of our film family through the run of IndieWorks. We’re excited for this new chapter of working to make it better than ever!

And please join us to kick off our new year and celebrate Pride on June 25th!

IndieWorks - January Recap

in

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" 

indieworks.png

IndieWorks - August Recap

in

Tuesday was our August edition of IndieWorks. Despite a thunderstorm, over 40 people came out for our 4 films of the night. All the films were scifi in nature, but had very diverse styles & sub-genres, from drama to animation to experimental. All were visually-striking & thought-provoking. Overall, the night was a big success!

We'd just like to say thank you to everyone who came out to support the filmmakers and spend the evening with us & them. We hope all enjoyed the films and the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film fans. We know some connections were made! 

We hope you'll join us again for our September Web Series Special on the 18th -  featuring a fun lineup of NYC-based webisodes.

See photos from the evening:

The Films of the night:

Greater Good (Directed by Andrea Ashton, Written by Candace Little & Allison Yuen)
When a pregnant woman receives an unexpected visit from two strangers she is faced with making a life-altering decision.  

Androktasiai (Written & Directed by (Lincoln) Yufeng Li)
A combat robot designed to protect good people from bad people. But who are good and who are bad? 

Rubber Ducky (Written & Directed by Sean Mannion)
After a fight outside a rock show Tara finds a Rubber Duck that changes her perspective.  

Back Page Ripper (Directed by Stephen Rutterford, Written by Stephen Rutterford & Jon Burkhart)
A girl must solve the mystery of who ripped the last page out of her mystery novel. 

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 August 2018 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Back Page Ripper"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Greater Good" 

Join us next month for our September edition on the 18th!

We Need a New Space for IndieWorks

in

We're devastated to announce that the People Lounge, the space where we've hosted IndieWorks for the past 2.5 years, is shutting down at the start of 2016. The People Lounge has been our home, not just for IndieWorks, but for us as a team. We shot episodes of 'Kelsey' there, and like the characters on the show, it became our regular bar. We'd host wrap parties, premieres and team get-togethers there. We're so sad to see it go. Please join us in saying goodbye and celebrating the good times at the People Lounge on January 6th at 7:30pm. 

When we started IndieWorks, our very first month was at a hole in the wall bar where the owner was insincere and exploitative (exactly the kind of attitude & environment we were trying to counter with the creation of IndieWorks). Meeting Heinz, the owner of the People Lounge, a couple weeks later was a gift. He was supportive and generous. He believed in what we were about and, though impressed with our ability to bring in a crowd, it was never about money or quotas with him (or his staff). Like us, he believes in building and supporting a community. From our second month (July 2013), until our last screening this week, IndieWorks and the People Lounge were united. The warm and welcoming atmosphere we've always been complimented on at our screenings were not just from us, but an extension of the vibe set by Heinz and his team. It breaks our hearts to have to move on to another space, but IndieWorks must continue because we've only just begun! So we're reaching out to our community in hopes that we'll find a new home that has the same warm and welcoming vibe, understands our not-for-profit ideology and has all our tech needs. It's not going to be easy, which is why we need your help. But before we get to that, we'd just like to say a final thank you to the people behind the People Lounge: Heinz Liu & Allen Leung, and Danny, Bradley, Mario, Jeremy & Vidal. They'll always be part of the IndieWorks team. We do hope you'll join us for our farewell party to them on January 6th. 

We hope to be back with our final 2 screenings of our 3rd year (before April's Best of Fest) in February. In order for that to happen, here's what we need in a space:

  • Location: ideally, we'd stick with the Lower East Side since it's convenient for us and most boroughs. However, we're open to anything in Manhattan below Harlem or Long Island City.

  • Tech: we prefer a space with a projector and screen rather than just a TV. Right now we have a 6 foot projected image in the front with our films splitting to 2 flat screens in the back and upstairs. We assume we won't find this wonderful setup again (the People Lounge added the second flat screen for us), but we hope to match this as much as possible. We also need to have a good sound system and be able to hook up to a laptop. (We must be able to screen via digital files, NOT discs.) (*2019 search update: our current setup is a 20-foot screen, which has spoiled us a bit, but as long as the screen is at least what we used to have and, more importantly, can accommodate large crowds where everyone can see - then we’ll be good!)

  • Space: our average month has 50 people in attendance, but we've had as big as 130 people in our audience. So we need a big space with decent seating. We assume we're only going to get bigger! We don't want a theater. We like the lounge feel because it feels less formal and promotes engagement and conversation; plus we love supporting a local business through drink sales. This leads to the next point.

  • Accommodations: everyone on the CongestedCat team volunteers for IndieWorks. Since we've started charging a small fee for submissions with year 3, we've been able to cover still only a small percentage of our overhead (web hosting & storage, making of awards & step & repeat(s), promotional expenses). So, we literally have no funds to pay for a space. The People Lounge appreciated the business we brought in on a Wednesday night, but never put drink minimum demands on us or anything of that nature. As struggling filmmakers ourselves, we'd hate to have to start doing that to our guests, so we'd ideally find a place that will appreciate the business on a weeknight but also allow us to suggest to the audience that they buy drinks rather than enforce the sentiment.

  • Atmosphere: similar to the previous point, we don't mind if a space has their regulars; we in no way want to take away business. However, we want a venue that doesn't attract rowdy types. At IndieWorks, we're all about respect and support. We'd hate to have random patrons in the place talking during the films and disrespecting the filmmakers. We were never a private event at the People Lounge, but Heinz and his team set a certain standard. When regulars would come in, they'd always respect the event going on, and usually participate in the mingling and Q&A!

Those are the key things. Of course we could make a crazy long list because, at the end of the day, we'd just be listing everything the People Lounge has been for us. But we know we won't find another People Lounge. We can only hope to find something that comes close, with a new set of wonderful people to add to the team. 

Please email indieworks@congestedcat.com with any suggestions. Thank you!