Kelsey and friends go for a ride in Tyrone's new car. It's a little too cramped for some and not enough for others.
IndieWorks: Insider Series w/ Hannah Leshaw
in IndieWorks
Part of our effort for IndieWorks is to help indie filmmakers outside of our monthly screenings. Each month we're bringing our winning filmmakers to chat with IndieWorks host Lauren A. Kennedy for a bi-weekly series titled "IndieWorks: Insider Series". Back in October, our Audience Choice award was won by Hannah LeShaw, for her short film "Fictional Me, Fictional You." We invited her to speak with us about her piece and her upcoming projects, including a new short on the horizon, titled "Bliss."
Hannah can be reached via her vimeo page here.
#STRICTLYINDIE FILM VIEWS: "C.O.G."
Going into C.O.G. without having read David Sedaris' Naked, I found myself struggling with how I felt about it after the credits rolled. I couldn't get over how convenient its twits and turns were. Maybe it's following the source material perfectly, but maybe that's also why it worked as an essay backed up by the writer's voice and sense of humor.
David (Jonathan Groff), who has renamed himself Samuel for purposes of obtaining a new identity, sets out into the country to get away from everything that reminds him of his white privileged life back home. He does so while wearing his Yale sweater. See, now that's funny. The story retains this dark sense of humor as David gets a job picking apples for a racist, thick-headed man on the countryside. He barely learns a single lesson in hard work, minimally communicating with the spanish-speaking immigrants he works with. That is, until he decides to take a break from work to read. His boss sends him into town to get butane gas without a car and by the time he gets his wheezing self back, he's realized his lesson. No breaks. This excursion is also what leads him to Jon, (Denis O'Hare) the "Child Of God", pamphlet peddling, backwards Christian.
As the plot progressed, so did its pandering (at times too heavily) to its themes of sexuality and religion. If it weren't for the admirable, bare-bones performance by Groff, I may have lost interest somewhere in the mess of its second act. It's not a small feat to bring empathy to a character as pretentious and smug as the one Groff had to work with. I admire that director Kyle Patrick Alvarez set out to make this adaptation without any voice over, however it may have benefited from it because its dark but still humorous tone becomes quite stale and overridden by serious religious connotations.
Review by Ryan Kramer
Kelsey Ep.8 "Bluffing"
Kelsey and Sam host poker night for the friends. Kelsey has news about her date with Joanne.
"Kelsey" & Christina get Exploited by Fusion
Christina here. Just wanted to share my Facebook post that kind of went viral last night (shared by tons of people & LGBT Facebook groups) about my experience of shooting an interview with the new network Fusion, owned by ABC & Univision.
"So my experience shooting the the "Alicia Menendez Tonight" show was really crappy.
I was put in a room alone, with no one from the show prepping me on what the format would be like or what would be asked. And then while rolling, I quickly realized that they had an agenda that was quite different from how it was originally pitched to me. Overall, I think the comments made by myself and the other 2 panel guests were worth sharing. But I originally chose not to share the segment once it was up online after airing on TV because I disliked the fact that my comments about how "Kelsey" breaks stereotypes for both women in general as well as lesbians were cut and felt that I was just used as a way to fill the female/lesbian quota of the segment (not to mention ethnic diversity quota as well). HOWEVER, after seeing how they are now marketing the piece, I have to share it because I'm really pissed. Their headline completely trivializes the fact that LGBT characters need to start being portrayed outside of just the confines of their sexuality and be allowed to be human beings with their own individual experiences and stories that are unique to them on a personal level, not just because of who they have sex with. We do not make web content just so our characters can "get it on." To imply that that's our main motivating factor for making independent content that showcases LGBT characters is inexcusable. Shame on you Fusion. Rant over (though I could go on.) http://fusion.net/American_Dream/video/directors-turn-web-lgbt-characters-326018"
They later changed their headline to 'Directors Turn to Web to Fully Develop LGBT Characters' after I and one of the others interviewed sent the guy who recruited us an email. But I checked back a week later and, although the headline on the page was the new one, the thumbnail and social media tag had reverted back to the 'Get It On' headline. Evidently, that was more effective in getting viewers to the page...
I shared this because it was a big learning experience for me about the press, not just in how overwhelming a studio experience can be and that I need to get better at hearing multiple people in my ear while looking at and talking to the camera (a lot harder than it seems), but more importantly how much they use people simply to meet their agenda. Whatever soundbite they need from you, they're going to try to manipulate out of you. And if you have a message different from theirs but still want the publicity, then you need to learn how to play the game while saying exactly what you want to say. I failed at this my first time out of the gate, but I hope to improve as I get more experience. That said, points for me for getting them to air a woman saying "Male Gaze" on national television. I was at least adequate at getting that point across instead of pandering to their stupid Glee question.