rafael de leon

IndieWorks - October (Halloween Special) Recap

Happy Halloween! Last Tuesday was the October edition of IndieWorks, and our annual Halloween special! We screened 6 genre shorts, and had almost 50 people in house despite the jarring chill in the air! The films ranged in sub-genre throughout the night, but all had a macabre spin and really put us in the Halloween spirit. Some wonderful conversations came out of the lineup; we hope connections were made, as well!

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 you'll join us again for our November screening on the 22nd. After two months in a row of speciality screenings, we'll be back to our usual diverse lineups through the rest of Year 4. 

The Films of the night:

Arts & Crafts (Directed & Written by Nina Gielen)
When Misha was small, he and his mother would spend hours creating their own toys and animals out of sticks and leaves. It’s been over a year since Misha’s mother died, and he now lives alone with his dad. Still hoping she might come home eventually, Misha leaves the door unlocked for her every night, much to his father’s consternation.

Burnt Popcorn (Directed & Written by Rafael De Leon)
When a naive young woman is reluctant to break away from an unfulfilling dating situation, her father convinces her to handle it in an extreme way and complete her transition to adulthood.

The Price of Bones (Directed by Brandon Taylor, Written by Samantha Kolesnik)
Caprice and Heather go to extreme lengths to be thin.

Stitched (Directed & Written by Heather Taylor)
A sheltered woman, reeling from the death of her mother, shows her sister how far she will go to be heard.

The Grind (Directed & Written by Christian LaMorte & Alejandro Veciana)
A mini web series satirizing modern movie cliches with absurd, surreal humor.

Sticks (Directed & Written by Mark J Parker)
Four college students reunite on a summer night at a house in the woods. As they tell scary stories around the campfire, the line between imagination and reality blurs, and they get the feeling they may not be alone on the property.

Watch our Q&A Recap (shot & edited by Kimberly Drew Whiten). *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 system rating 8 categories of StoryDialogue/WritingDirectionActingCinematographySoundEditing, and Production Value. 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 onSeedandSpark.com should they use the platform and a free Social Media audit ($200 value) from4MileCircus. And both winners received a free 2016 subscription to Bright Ideas Magazine.

For the October 2016 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "The Price of Bones"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Arts & Crafts"

Watch the Trailer for both winners below:

IndieWorks: Halloween 2014 Recap

Wednesday was the Halloween Edition of IndieWorks, and it was a fun & frightening night! With over 50 people in house, the evening was a huge success and a real testament to how much we've grown since last year, particularly because the Horror genre can be a bit of an acquired taste. We screened 8 thrilling & entertaining films by talented local filmmakers, who all brought something unique and innovative to the line-up and Q&A. Thank you everyone who came out to support the filmmakers and spend the evening with us celebrating the Halloween season. We definitely had a blast, especially because we're big Horror fans at CongestedCat & feel its often an overlooked and under-appreciated genre. We hope you enjoyed the films, as well, and the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film enthusiasts!

See our photos from the evening:

The films of the night:

Advent (Directed by Chance Muehleck)
Anthony Czara plays other people. But when he impersonates the missing teenaged son of a dysfunctional small-town family, this bold con artist gets more than he bargained for.

Vivienne Again (Directed by Kim Garland)
A funeral home employee saves a dead woman from the killer who's closing in to complete the job.

Deal Travis In (Directed By Kim Garland)
A man trying to make his peace with the mysterious death of his daughter is offered the answers he's seeking, but at the cost of his freedom and another woman's life.

Gasmask (Directed by Pablo Bonelli)
A scavenger in a ravaged wasteland comes across an abandoned house deep in the woods. He discovers a family living there that doesn’t take kindly to strangers. After an initial confrontation, they invite him in for food, but nothing is as it seems and the dangers within that house could just be worse than the hell that the world has become.

Sophie & the Chain (Directed by Daniel Rothman)
Our story begins with a young girl named Sophie. Trapped, chained in the deepest, darkest forest, far in a distant land beyond the reaches of the sun. 

Teasers (Directed by Rafael De Leon)
It's girls night for three friends who take pride and amusement in leading guys on. However, their latest victims decide to hit back with a tease of their own: a scare that gets out of control.

Wormbug (Directed by Arlen Konopaki)
After Henry swallows a bug in his sleep, very strange things start happening to him. Realizing the bug is to blame, Henry wrestles for control of his life against the bug, who has its own sinister agenda. But to what lengths will Henry have to go to rid himself of this pest?

People in Trees (Directed by Jonah Vigil)
After Ellie Burroughs celebrates her last day of school by doing an obscene amount of MDMA, she finds herself alone in the woods with a cult.

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. The Silver Whiskers winner goes on to screen at our end of year Best of Fest event in April, while both winning filmmakers have the option to be featured in our Insider Series

For the Halloween 2014 lineup, our winning filmmakers were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Gasmask"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Wormbug"

Check out the trailers for each below:

 

Be sure to join us for the next Edition (our final of 2014) on November 19th!