Happy Holidays! Our year-in-review.

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Our Second Feature Film

We finished its festival run and released About a Donkey on VOD!

About a Donkey follows the Owens family: Ann & Tim, their 3 adult children, Cecilia, Burgh, and Annie (and her husband Paul), and matriarch Farrah. When Tim brings home a donkey in a mixture of wanting to rescue both it and himself, all of the characters' lives are shaken up and pushed forward. Screening next in Raleigh, North Carolina on August 18th at 5:10pm: http://www.carolinatheatre.org/films/about-donkey Followed by Austin, Texas on September 21st at 3:30pm: https://www.austinrevolution.com/events

Here are the end credits, including an exclusive mid-credit scene.

‘Tis the season to be jolly and we’ve got an early gift for you this holiday - check out the mid-credits scene from our movie! Want to see how they got here? Stream the whole film on Seed&Spark, Vimeo and Amazon Prime today! http://www.congestedcat.com/about-a-donkey

Find out how the characters get there by watching the film on Vimeo on Demand, Seed&Spark streaming, or Amazon Prime.

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Short Films

We released two shorts online, hit the festival circuit with one, and shot three new ones this year! 

Watch "Revelations"

On a common girl's night, two adult women with burdening secrets can no longer keep them from each other. http://www.congestedcat.com/revelations Director Statement For a while now I've wanted to direct a short, mostly to improve my writing. I love to try new things, probably because I have a real fear of becoming stagnant in life. And I am obsessed with lesbian content as well as representation of adult women beyond the usual "husband left/cheated on her, then she xyz" narrative. So, I knew I wanted it to be about two women with secrets. -Kelsey Rauber

Watch "Still Water"

A young girl gets some much needed advice from her mother on how to overcome her fear of the water... or so she thinks. http://www.congestedcat.com/still-water Director Statement "Still Water" is a film that explores how imagination affects us, especially at an age when we're susceptible to everything. I feel like, as a kid, I went through different stages with my imagination. At first, it was the source of fun and creativity. Every toy, every inanimate object had a story. There's a feeling of invincibility that comes with running away with your imagination, but in time, that same source of joy can become a stifling sense of fear. That's the grey area in which I wanted to explore. How your imagination can be your best friend and your worst enemy. The other underlying theme in the film is the horrors of parenting, and the line you dance around between smothering and giving your child too much freedom. We all hear stories of how someone turned their head for just a moment to find their child missing. I'm not a parent myself, but I'm sure any adult can empathize with such an innate fear. -Ryan Kramer

Look out for "The Gaze" at a festival near you in early 2020!

And see behind the scenes of "Affliction," "Game Brunch," and "Shadows." They'll also be on the festival circuit throughout 2020!

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IndieWorks, Monthly Screening Series

We kicked off Year 7 of IndieWorks in a new home with new perks for supporting our community of creators. We're proud that the series has continued to be a prime source for showcasing & discovering local independent films & filmmakers each month. 

Check out the monthly recaps from this year, including this month's lineup! And be sure to join us for next month's screening on January 14th!

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Direct Impact

We had really rewarding experiences this year that represented how our work has made an impact on people's lives and their wellbeing.

"The team at CongestedCat Productions just seem like really amazing people who want to make art that helps people and heals people and helps bring us all together for a better future, a better planet." We reached out to Ali Naro of Movies OVER The Rainbow about writing a review of About a Donkey. She ended up watching it and enjoying it enough to say she wanted to write a post about our production company as a whole. She sent us her incredibly moving post with this message, "I sweated for 3 days trying to figure out what your films did to my brain while I struggled to write, but I ended up discovering that you did good things. The blog ended up being more a piece about how your films have helped to heal my past than about your actual films themselves. Hope you don't mind. I just wrote where the muse of your work was taking me and it was taking me on a journey to just heal."

As a reflection of About a Donkey's impact and our work in the film community as a whole, Christina was honored with the Lois Weber Pioneer Award for leadership in film by the Queens World Film Festival.

"The film is about family and the individual struggles we each deal with. Through performances that are committed, especially the daughters, there’s a poignant tether that makes it a joy to start and heartwarming to finish. The movie provides a lens to our own vulnerabilities and capitalizes on the notion that happiness in any capacity should be sought. Even if that means getting a donkey." Kristy Strouse, Film Inquiry (One of many lovely reviews of About a Donkey and the way it has resonated with audiences.)

Cinema Femme Magazine interviewed Christina about our specifically targeted distribution strategy that involved film festivals that were in red districts of right-leaning states.

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