Rafael De Leon

IndieWorks: Best of Fest Year 6 Recap

INDIEWORKS: BEST OF FEST

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Last Tuesday was a special night at IndieWorks! We celebrated the conclusion of our 6th year! Between watching the 9 fantastic films, mingling with the talented filmmakers, and engaging with the wonderful audience, we had a ton of fun! In total, we had over 70 people in attendance and it was clear the crowd enjoyed the lineup. We hope new connections were made! There was, unfortunately, some bar noise towards the end of the night, but thankfully it didn’t disrupt the films as a whole. Please know that we’re addressing this behind the scenes and will be making an announcement regarding our venue very soon!

THANK YOU. 

To all of the incredible 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 another great year of innovative, local films and filmmakers.

Six years ago, Christina decided she wanted to create a monthly film series for local independent filmmakers to showcase and discuss their work with an audience and connect with their (our) peers in a friendly, supportive, engaging and still encouragingly competitive environment. Sure enough, we made it happen and it has grown into something so wonderful, more so than we could have imagined over the past six years. It's been a real 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 of likeminded, productive & talented individuals. Thank you all for being part of it! We're honored to screen & support your work! 

The full lineup & nominations can be found in our previous post.  

THE AWARDS GO TO...

AUDIENCE CHOICE: "Adult" (Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen & Cynthia Silver) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign, a free one-year subscription to Seed&Spark’s streaming platform, and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

BEST EDITING: "Goodbye Old Friend" (Rafael De Leon Jr) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign, a free one-year subscription to Seed&Spark’s streaming platform, and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

BEST ENSEMBLE: "Her Being Home" (Ellie Gravitte) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign, a free one-year subscription to Seed&Spark’s streaming platform, and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

BEST WRITER/DIRECTOR: "AMYDEE" (Amy DePaola - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign, a free one-year subscription to Seed&Spark’s streaming platform, and script coverage from the CongestedCat team of one future short screenplay.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY (Adam Volerich) & GOLDEN WHISKERS (BEST OF FEST): "We Were Kids" (Adam Taylor (Pictured: Marquis Wood)) - Wins (collectively) $250 towards a Seed&Spark campaign, a free one-year subscription to Seed&Spark’s streaming platform, a 1TB G-drive, an hour production, post-production, or marketing phone consultation from 4milecircus., script coverage from the CongestedCat team of two future short screenplays, and a day of social media promotion from the CongestedCat team.

See all the fun we had and testimonials from the filmmakers below! 

THAT'S A WRAP!

Check out the recaps from ALL 10 SCREENINGS of Year 6 of IndieWorks. 

As we take next month as an opportunity to go out and make things, we hope you will too. Our 7th Year of IndieWorks kicks off in June on the 11th, with our Pride-themed screening -- so keep in touch & stay up to date through our social media accounts. We want to see YOU at the next screening!

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Be sure to submit your films on our IndieWork page, and watch episodes of our Insider Series with the monthly Winners from all 6 years to get more insight into their screened films & upcoming work. Also, films that are available for free online from ALL 6 years are watchable on our Past Films page.


IndieWorks - October Recap

Last Tuesday was the October edition of IndieWorks! And it was our annual Halloween Special, where we screen local horror shorts and celebrate the spooky season. We screened 6 films and had 40 people in house. October is always an interesting month because some of our regulars aren’t genre fans, so they don’t come out; but then we end up with some people who typically don’t attend except for at the Horror Special. So it’s always a nice crowd of new & familiar faces (a few of which join us in costume), who generally just love scary movies! The lineup was a solid reflection of the diverse ways you can approach the genre and elicit fear from an audience. It was an evening filled with gasps, screams, and laughs. Thoughtful conversations were had during the Q&A, and the night was an overall 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 do hope you enjoyed the films and 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 November screening on 20th! It’ll be a mix of documentaries and narratives with a strong focus on family and childhood.

See photos from the evening:

The Films of the night:

The Music Lesson (Written by Kyle I. Kelley, Directed by Kyle I. Kelley & Adam R. Brown)
A jaded music teacher turns the tables on a soul-sucking student.

Broad Paws (Written & Directed by Vinny Sacchetti)
The unlikely and irrational fears that come from living alone at night take form when a young woman has to defend herself from intruding forces, leaving her in a moral dilemma that puts natural instincts to the test.

Goodbye Old Friend (Written & Directed by Rafael De Leon Jr.)
A young woman is trapped in her apartment by her childhood imaginary friend, who has come back to haunt her. 

I Waited For You (Written & Directed by Manny Serrano)
A Brooklynite girl goes out for the night with a friend in Queens, and becomes terrified after her lost cell phone is answered by a man with a creepy and ominous voice.

Dull Hope (Written & Directed by Brian Ratigan)
Suppressed memories reach a boiling point. 
An animated tale of longing.

Beneath (Written & Directed by Lindsay Serrano)
After a naughty video is uploaded online, a girl plots revenge against her deceptive boyfriend. 

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:   StoryDialogue/WritingDirectionActingCinematographySoundEditing, and Production Value, along with a nuanced discussion focused on inclusion and originalityThe 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 October 2018 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "I Waited For You"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Goodbye Old Friend" 

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IndieWorks: Halloween Series Recap

 

Horrors, Thrillers, Dark Tones, & Gore!

We couldn't pass up the opportunity this October to have a Halloween themed IndieWorks event, so we celebrated the season last Wednesday with our filmmaker friends at PEOPLE's Lounge in the Lower East Side. 

 

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 is judged by the CongestedCat Team based on a system rating 8 categories of Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value. It goes on to screen at our end of the year Best of Fest event.

For the "Halloween '13" lineup, our winning filmmaker was:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Birthday Boys" Directed by Rafael De Leon.

We hope everyone who came out had a great time at the event & hope to see familiar faces at next month's! To submit your film, visit www.congestedcat.com/indieworks


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Clear Your Schedule, November 20th.

The next IndieWorks event will be held on Nov. 20th at PEOPLE's Lounge & Bar.

RSVP on Facebook

 

 

 

 

New Episode of 'Kelsey' Premieres Tonight 7:30pm!

If you haven't caught up on the latest episodes yet, check them out.

www.kelseytheseries.com