IndieWorks: Insider Series W/Cristhian Andrews

May 26, 2016 in IndieWorks

Part of our effort for IndieWorks is to feature & support indie filmmakers outside of our monthly screenings. We bring our winning filmmakers to your screen for a chat with one of our IndieWorks hosts in our series titled "IndieWorks: Insider Series."congestedcat.com/indieworks/

Cristhian screened his short "Before We Lose" with us at our August Screening in 2015 and won the Silver Whiskers Award. He screened another film "Najmia" with us in November, as well, and it won the Audience Choice Award that month. "Before We Lose" went on to win our Best of Fest 'Golden Whiskers Award' at our Year 3 Best of Fest! We used our Best of Fest screening to chat with her a bit about the inspiration behind and making of the film.

Cristhian Andrews:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AudInnovative
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/user29353654

*This will be our last episode formatted like this. Moving forward, we'll be shooting and releasing the Q&A's at our screenings.

IndieWorks: Best of Fest Year 3 Recap

April 22, 2016 in IndieWorks

INDIEWORKS: BEST OF FEST

Tuesday was a special night at IndieWorks! We celebrated the conclusion of our 3rd year and began screening at our new home for the series! Between the 10 phenomenal films, the brilliant filmmakers and the wonderful audience, we had a lot of fun and made some new connections! We hope everyone that was part of it enjoyed the night as much as we did! In total, we had just over 80 people in attendance, which is bit smaller than last year & even the year before. But considering the factors of moving from Manhattan to LIC, moving to Tuesday night, having one less film than past years, it being Election Day AND it coinciding with Tribeca, that turnout wasn't too shabby! We're excited about our huge new venue, The Local, and hope audiences will still join us from all over the City each month despite it being just outside Manhattan.

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 fantastic films and talented filmmakers.

Three years ago, 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, supportive, engaging and still encouragingly competitive environment. Sure enough, she made it happen pretty quickly and it has grown to something so wonderful, more so than we could have imagined, in just three 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 lineup & nominations can be found in our previous post.

Photos of the night include Step & Repeat and Award coverage by Grayson Davis & additional floor coverage by Jingjing Yang. Also, video coverage (coming soon) by Shelby Zoe Coley. Big thanks for their time & talent all night! See all the fun we had below!

THE AWARDS GO TO...

AUDIENCE CHOICE: "Live a Little" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign. — **AUDIENCE CHOICE**: "**Live a Little**" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

BEST EDITING: "Larry Gone Demon" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign. — **BEST EDITING**: "**Larry Gone Demon**" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: "Tadaima" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign. — **BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY**: "**Tadaima**" - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

BEST PERFORMANCE: "Before We Lose" (Saadet Yuce) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign. — **BEST PERFORMANCE**: "**Before We Lose**" (Saadet Yuce) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

BEST DIRECTOR: "The Texture of the Light" (Arilyn Martinez Cora) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign. — **BEST DIRECTOR**: "**The Texture of the Light**" (Arilyn Martinez Cora) - Wins $50 towards a Seed&Spark campaign.

GOLDEN WHISKERS (BEST OF FEST): "Before We Lose" - Wins $200 towards a Seed&Spark campaign & distribution in the Seed&Spark Cinema. And a free consultation with a local casting director. — **GOLDEN WHISKERS** (**BEST OF FEST**): "**Before We Lose**" - Wins $200 towards a Seed&Spark campaign & distribution in the Seed&Spark Cinema. And a free consultation with a local casting director.

THAT'S A WRAP!

Check out the recaps from ALL 9 SCREENINGS of Year 3 of IndieWorks.

As we take next month as an opportunity to go out and make things, we hope you will too. Our 4th Year of IndieWorks kicks off in June -- so keep in touch & stay up to date through our social media accounts. We want to see YOU at the next screening!

Be sure to submit your films on our IndieWork page, and watch episodes of our Insider Series with the monthly Winners from all 3 years to get more insight into their screened films & upcoming work.

IndieWorks: August Recap

August 19, 2015 in IndieWorks

Last Wednesday was the August edition of IndieWorks, and it was such a great night! We trimmed our typical 6 film lineup to 5 because three of the films were over 15 minutes (we try not to let the evening run too late) and we wanted to see if last month's overflow of 120 people in house was a fluke or the norm moving forward. As it turns out, we really have grown that much because even with 1 less film, we had over 75 people in house and had to open both floors! The vibe and energy in the room were positive and supportive. The audience seemed to really enjoy the lineup and the night as a whole!

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 enjoyed all the films and the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film enthusiasts, and we hope some connections were made!

See photos from the evening:

The films of the night:

Tom in America (Directed by Flavio Alves)
Michael and Betty have been united by one guiding principle: no secrets. But when a provocative Tom of Finland doll triggers Michael's long-buried desires, Betty discovers that secrets have been part of their life all along.

Before We Lose (Directed by Cristhian Andrews)
The love story of a mother and her 3 year old son and the turn their lives take with her deteriorating health condition in the Black Sea Region of Turkey.

Love & Badminton (Directed by Kenneth Maharaj)
Meldrick Whitaker is at a major cross-road in his life. Stay committed to his beleaguered marriage to Wilamina or succumb to his infatuation to Lisa who happens to be the only person that shares an interest in his favorite avocation, Badminton.

Into The Woods ( Directed by Anne Hu)
An idealistic couple journeys through the treacherous woods of their relationship in hopes of finding love.

Unwritten ( Directed by Anita Carroll)
A young woman returns to New York City and grapples with heartbreak, loss, and things unsaid.

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 Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value. The Silver Whiskers winner goes on to screen again at our end of year Best of Fest event in April!

The Silver Whiskers winner also receives $50 towards a crowdfunding campaign on SeedandSpark.com should they use the platform, and both winners received a free 2015 subscription to Bright Ideas Magazine and have the opportunity to be interviewed for our Insider Series.

For the August 2015 lineup, our winning films were:
Audience Choice Award: "Unwritten"
Silver Whiskers Award: "Before We Lose"

See posters for the winning films below:

The other 3 on our Facebook Page.

Join us next month for Web Series month on September 9th!