IndieWorks: People Lounge Farewell Recap

January 10, 2016 in IndieWorks

Wednesday evening was our last night of IndieWorks at the People Lounge. We explained in a previous post that the People Lounge is shutting down at the end of January. We were so sad about it (still are) and decided it'd be best to not have a final screening there this month, but instead have a farewell party/alumni mixer. The CongestedCat team and People Lounge staff partied one more time, and about 35 of our alumni filmmakers & friends spent the evening with us and networked further with each other. It was a lovely night, and though a sad occasion, a nice way to see the People Lounge off. We'd like to reiterate how grateful we are to Heinz Liu and the People Lounge staff for giving us the opportunity to host IndieWorks (and shoot our web series) there for almost 3 years, and for being so wonderfully supportive and welcoming the entire time. We're sure going to miss them.

Our last group photo at the People Lounge.

Here's the slideshow we had playing during the night, featuring fun moments had at the People Lounge.

We're currently still searching for our new venue. We have some promising leads, and hope to have a new space secured in time for our February screening, tentatively scheduled for February 17th. Hope to see you then!

Most of our CongestedCat Productions team, alongside Heinz & Al of PEOPLE's lounge in NYC, taken at our IndieWorks: Best of Fest event on April 3rd, 2014. — Most of our **CongestedCat Productions** team, alongside Heinz & Al of PEOPLE's lounge in NYC, taken at our IndieWorks: Best of Fest event on April 3rd, 2014.

IndieWorks: Best of Fest Recap

April 07, 2014 in IndieWorks

Thank you.

To all of the amazing people involved in this community who submit their work, attend our monthly series, follow our content, and spread the word of anything IndieWorks... we truly thank you. It's been a great year of fantastic films and talented filmmakers.

Last year, Christina decided she wanted to create a monthly film series for local independent filmmakers to showcase their work for an audience and connect with their (our) peers in a friendly and supportive environment. Sure enough, she made it happen pretty quickly. It's been another passion project from our team, and we hope it has stayed true to the ideals of helping independent filmmakers find an audience and build a network & community.

Last Thursday, we celebrated our Best of Fest by screening 10 winning films from our first year of IndieWorks. Naturally, it was hosted at PEOPLE's Lounge in the Lower East Side, whom we truly have to extend a great deal of gratitude. They have been so very helpful over this past year, giving us this venue each month to host the series and sponsoring prizes for Best of Fest.

The event brought an audience of nearly 90 guests to commemorate our first year; new faces and plenty of familiar. All audience members got 250 Sparks from SeedandSpark.com and we had 2 free raffle winners (both of them filmmakers who have previously screened their films at IndieWorks). The first of whom was October Audience Choice winner, Hannah Leshaw ("Fictional Me, Fictional You"), who came out to support the other filmmakers of the night, and April Silver Whiskers winner, Shahir Daud ("La Loteria"), who's film was screening that evening. They both received a copy of Bright Ideas (Seed&Spark's exclusive independent film magazine) and a Seed&Spark t-shirt.

The Awards Go To...

Audience Choice Award

Shahir Daud - "La Loteria"

Sponsor Prizes:PEOPLE's: an evening of bottle service.Seed&Spark: a copy of Bright Ideas & $200 toward a crowdfunding campaign if funded on Seed&Spark.Indiewood_Hollywouldn't: film review & sharing of any future film or crowdfun… — **Sponsor Prizes:**
**PEOPLE**'s: an evening of bottle service.
**Seed&Spark**: a copy of Bright Ideas & $200 toward a crowdfunding campaign if funded on Seed&Spark.
**Indiewood_Hollywouldn't**: film review & sharing of any future film or crowdfunding news via social media this year.

Golden Whiskers Award

Dani Tenenbaum - "Guides"

Sponsor Prizes:PEOPLE's: 1.5 TB hard drive.Seed&Spark: a copy of Bright Ideas; $200 toward a crowdfunding campaign if funded on Seed&Spark; "Guides" will be streamed in the Cinema on Seed&Spark's site.Indiewood_Hollywoodn't: film review;… — **Sponsor Prizes:**
**PEOPLE**'s: 1.5 TB hard drive.
**Seed&Spark**: a copy of Bright Ideas; $200 toward a crowdfunding campaign if funded on Seed&Spark; "Guides" will be streamed in the Cinema on Seed&Spark's site.
**Indiewood_Hollywoodn't**: film review; interview on website; sharing of any future film or crowdfunding news via social media this year.

We had an amazing time with everyone who joined us Thursday evening, and every other evening in which we celebrated filmmaking during IndieWorks this year. As we take next month as an opportunity to go out and make things, we hope you will too. Our second year of IndieWorks is coming back better than ever in June -- so keep in touch & stay up to date through our social media accounts.

And be sure to submit your films on our IndieWork page.

Discover Shorts. Find an Audience. Build the Community.

IndieWorks: Insider Series w/ Nelson Isava

March 13, 2014 in IndieWorks

Part of our effort for IndieWorks is to help indie filmmakers outside of our monthly screenings. Each month we're bringing our winning filmmakers to chat with IndieWorks host Lauren A. Kennedy for our series titled "IndieWorks: Insider Series".

Nelson Isava is a filmmaker originally from Venezuela who studied at the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. His film "La Solitaria" won the Silver Whiskers awards back in January 2014's IndieWorks screening at the PEOPLE's lounge. We invited him over to get to know him and his work a bit more, as well as any future projects he's got cooked up.

Nelson Isava
Twitter: http://twitter.com/nelsonisava
Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user3408916

Source: http://www.congestedcat.com/indieworks