Vote for the 9th film to screen at IndieWorks Best of Fest!

March 12th concluded our monthly screenings for the 6th year of IndieWorks, and our Best of Fest is just around the corner on April 23rd. The event will feature the 8 Silver Whiskers Award Winners of the year, plus a 9th Audience Chosen film.

Before each Best of Fest, we select three films to compete for the last spot at the screening and encourage the audience to choose the winning film. This allows the community to participate in our selection process and the public to see a few of the all-around excellent 49 films screened this year, building up to our celebratory screening! 

All three won the Audience Choice Award and were high contenders for the Silver Whiskers Award at their respective screenings. We also feel that they reflect the diverse & innovative approach to narrative storytelling that we aim to support and showcase at IndieWorks.

Please watch all three films and VOTE BELOW for the ONE you'd like to see screen with the Silver Whiskers Award winners of the year at Best of Fest. Voting ends on April 1st at 7pm EST.

The contest has ended. Find out which film won very soon! See you on April 23rd!

IndieWorks - December Recap

Last Tuesday was the December edition of IndieWorks! We screened 5 films and had over 50 people in house. The first set of films were mixed-medium pieces about overcoming trauma, and the second set were lighter pieces that both somewhat touched on creating art & expression. The lineup as a whole was moving and encouraging. The audience was wonderfully engaged; and, thanks to some positive adjustments by our venue after last month’s unfortunately rowdy bar crowd, the evening was immersive and sparked a lot of thoughtful conversation.

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 January screening on 8th! It’ll be an eclectic mix of narrative films exploring tense relationships, finding one’s path, and surprising discoveries.

See photos from the evening:

The Films of the night:

The Mole (Directed by Nina Gielen, Written by Steffan Triplette)
A visualized poem about identity, marginalization, and bitter-sweet memories of childhood. Created as part of the Visible Poetry Project.

For a Better Life (Written & Directed by Yasmin Mistry)
Sold for $100 at the age of 5, Fekri suffers through years of abuse before his plight is discovered. After almost a year of hospitalization and therapy Fekri moves into a group home where he finds support, mentorship, and eventual forgiveness towards the family which sold him. 

AMYDEE (Written & Directed by Amy DePaola)
Since surviving a physical assault on the steps of her apartment, Amy DePaola (30) has been keeping a low profile while visiting a local boxing gym. When a young woman turns up dead in her neighborhood, Amy is forced to face her fears again, revealing that her real fight is far from over. 

Encore (Written & Directed by Noah Marthaller)
A woman struggles with her elderly father’s new living situation as his health declines and he clings to his independence.

Unfinished Business (Written & Directed by Nikolai Basarich)
rock bottom rock bottom rock bottom demon rock bottom rock bottom. 

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 December 2018 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Encore"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "AMYDEE" 

Join us next month for our January edition on the 8th!