BTS of New Short "Arm Bar"

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Last night we wrapped production on my new short film, "Arm Bar."

Logline: A young, aspiring MMA fighter visits her local boxing gym to settle a dispute with the owner.

The screenplay for "Arm Bar" came to fruition in the first few months of our CongestedCat writing group. Christina Raia, Kelsey Rauber, and I, had all been talking about how we wanted to meet once a week to keep the creative, right side of our brain's in motion. I knew I wanted to move into pre-production on a new short, but I didn't know which would be the right script to move forward with. I initially wanted to tackle one of my other short stories, "Magic Mountain," with DoP Peter Westervelt, but it proved to be a bit too ambitious for the time. After Christina and Kelsey gave me their thoughts on Arm Bar, I knew it was the one. I was soon after introduced to Jeanette Sears at one of our IndieWorks events and knew she would be a great fit to DP the film. I loved the fact that we had representation and inclusivity not only in front of, but behind the camera as well.

Christina expressed her interest in producing the project and we immediately moved into pre-production, which proved to be a lot to take on. At first, the plan was to crowdfund on Seed&Spark, but after talking with Christina, we decided it'd be best to fund this one out-of-pocket. She helped me solidify the budget and we realized it would be attainable. Still, we made the decision to shoot promotional and behind the scenes videos to draw some attention to the project before moving into principal photography. You can watch the promo here: 

 

Casting the project was a bumpy road, but when I auditioned Latresa Baker is when it all really started to come together. She walked into that room prepared and ready to take the role that was rightfully hers. The training process was one one of the aspects of pre-pro that I was most scared about. We bounced around from class, to individual trainer, to fight choreographer, and I was worried that all the different types of blocking and direction would make it more confusing than helpful. In the end, Latresa absorbed all the information like a sponge and we created a simple, cohesive, and hopefully exciting fight that I can't wait to share with you all.

In hindsight, everything about this project was almost just as ambitious as Magic Mountain. FedUp was the last short I directed over two years ago... a six-and-a-half minute short in my apartment with a small cast and crew. Arm Bar is a fifteen page screenplay that takes place in a boxing gym with a decent-sized supporting cast, extras, and fight scene choreography. It was a lot to take on, but with the help of Christina, Jeanette, AD Matt Gershowitz, and the rest of the amazing cast and crew that I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with... we did it.

Check out some raw stills from what we shot below:

See BTS photos from the day:

I really can't thank my cast and crew enough. They were all my rock, and helped me keep it together in the production's most heightened points of anxiety. Can't wait to collaborate with these wonderful people again in the future.

Some of the cast and crew after we wrapped production on the film.

Some of the cast and crew after we wrapped production on the film.

-Ryan

IndieWorks - November Recap

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Last Tuesday was the November edition of IndieWorks! Due to the weather, it being 2 days before Thanksgiving and only 2 weeks after the terrifying and devastating election results, we expected a smaller crowd. Thankfully, we still had 40 people in house for our screening of 5 shorts. And even more thankfully, we were able to enjoy an evening of celebrating expression and local filmmaking/filmmakers even amongst such uncertainty. The first half of the lineup was a series of animated films (the third mixed with live-action in documentary form), and all addressed trauma or anxiety but with resolutions of hope. The second half was more lighthearted with fun genre twists and turns. Some lovely 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 on December 13th, where we'll take a break from our usual screenings to have a filmmaker focused forum on how artists can use our reach and creative content to organize against the normalization of hate.) 

The Films of the night:

Trauma (Directed & Written by Brett Moody)
Matt, an ageless male in a spacesuit, wakens on the floor of a massive, pitch-black cavern. He is lost, and a meter on his suit warns him that he is running out of oxygen.

Bloop (Directed & Written by Joshua Planz)
A visual poem depicting the last three years of internal thoughts.

Suffering is the Easy Part (Directed by Jaime Ekkens)
A short, partially animated documentary about trauma, trauma's aftermath, depression and the healing process.

The Suitor (Directed & Written by Alvaro Congosto)
October 30th, 1938. During Orson Welles' infamous radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, a lonely man tries to bond with a panicked young woman as they fearfully wait for the end of the world together.

Mantis (Directed by Christian LaMorte, Written by Dylan Gantz)
A young man and a young woman watch TV together.

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 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 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 November 2016 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Mantis"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "The Suitor"

Watch the audience winner and trailer for the Silver Whiskers winner below:

LOVE TRUMPS HATE

We're having a hard time articulating the way we feel right now. Christina gave it a shot at the end of her last update. What we know is that we're determined to combat the hate that now leads our nation by using our voices and creative content to spread empathy and inclusivity. (And we'll be working like hell individually and collectively to keep people paying attention once he's in office in an effort to keep people woke enough to vote in 2018.)

We weren't able to go to today's march against Trump. But we were able to attend yesterday's Love Rally, where we marched from Washington Square Park to Union Square in solidarity with other New Yorkers who believe in fighting for true equality. 

Being surrounded by love & inclusivity and getting to chant #lovetrumpshate and #blacklivesmatter and #mybodymychoice and #gayrightsarehumanrightsand #transrightsarehumanrights and #muslimlivesmatter and #latinolivesmatter and #refugeesarewelcomehere and #notmypresident and #thisiswhatdemocracylookslikegave gave us such strength for the fight ahead. Thank you everyone who's organizing and joining. We'll be hitting the streets to peacefully and powerfully protest at the next opportunity. 

"Hello" at Ax Wound Film Festival Recap (& feelings post-election results)

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I write recaps for every festival screening of my work that I'm able to attend. I originally planned to write and release this recap this afternoon with the exciting Hillary win surging through my fingers. But that win didn't happen. And I didn't feel like writing a recap at all because I didn't feel like doing anything at all -- I couldn't with so much hurt and fear pounding in my chest since last night. But I watched a helpful video that Kelsey shared about coping with anxiety and the first tip was to stick to your routine - to remind you that you are still in control of your life. So here I am, writing this recap. See below. Thanks for reading. 

Last Saturday, my short film, "Hello," screened at the Ax Wound Film Festival. My friend Nicole Solomon recommended I submit because she was part of the festival with her film last year and absolutely loved it. I see why, after being part of it myself. Nicole & other friend Sean Mannion were headed up to the festival in Vermont this year as sponsors, so when my film got in I jumped at the opportunity to tag along. It was nice getting to roadtrip with these two, who I had been on many trips with in the past for I Was There film workshops, my previous job pre-Seed&Spark. Getting to catch up with them was cool, but the trip was really special because this festival is so special. It screens only genre films by women directors. I watched at least 25 of the shorts that screened and, though didn't love all, I was never bored and always intrigued. All had female protagonists and were exploring complicated and often underrepresented issues and circumstances women face. I truly loved quite a few. And the closing night feature, Dolly Deadly, was an absolute delight; I highly recommend it. I'm honored to have been in such talented company all around.

A lot of people had wonderful things to say about "Hello." My favorite comment said directly to me was, "The hardest horror is horror of the heart - being able to make something that really connects with people. You so pulled that off." I also saw a couple attendees raving about the film on social media! But my favorite part of the festival was getting to meet other female genre filmmakers. I only wish I had had more time to chat with them. The highlight was definitely the Q&A, where we all got to discuss our work. A lot of festivals I go to either don't do a Q&A at all or just have the same generic questions for everyone. This one, run by Horror Happens radio host Jay Kay, was thought provoking and showed a real appreciation for each film and what made it unique. And I'd just like to give a HUGE shout-out to Hannah Forman, the festival director, who is absolutely lovely and clearly cares so much about the festival. I could feel how much she cares in every detail throughout the day. I loved being part of it. I hope to be back next year with my new horror short, "Night In." 

Speaking of, when I got back to my hotel room after the festival, I found myself thinking about during the Q&A when Heidi Moore, the director of Dolly Deadly, asked a question about whether or not we viewed our (women) protagonists as truly crazy and unstable or just as real people who had had enough and took action. It lead to a good discussion that I didn't really participate in because it didn't pertain to the whimsical poignancy of "Hello." But "Night In" is super relevant to that conversation. (I'm spoiling my not-yet-screened film a bit here but couldn't not bring this up because it's so on my mind.) So in my hotel room, I thought about how that conversation may come up at next year's Q&A - should "Night In" get into the festival and I'd be able to attend again - and I sort of imagined myself explaining the context behind making the film. 

While the initial decision to shoot a new short a few months ago came out of a desire to shoot one last short in my apartment at the time, the real inspiration for what I ended up making out of that decision is rooted in the fact that Donald Trump was polluting the airwaves, and blatant misogyny (along with racism, xenophobia, homophobia, toxic masculinity and a general entitlement-fueled bigotry) was not only being tolerated but accepted and excused at an alarming rate. I found myself feeling anxious and angry and wanting to take some sort of action that felt like I was slashing the patriarchy -- so I made this film.

And while lost in thought in my hotel room with this fantasy flash-forward I had of explaining this context at next year's festival, I assumed that I'd be discussing this from a far less anxious point of view with maybe even some hindsight humor because we were about to elect the first female president (also the most qualified person for the job). And while Trump would maybe have a news station and sustained influence in November 2017, Hillary would be commander in chief and he would no longer be the terrifying threat that he was last Saturday night, 3 days before the election.

But now here we are. He's our president elect and I feel a paralyzing sense of hopelessness and helplessness. But I'm determined to push through because I'm not powerless. And pushing myself to write this has reminded me of that. I've been thinking of what I can do in my personal life to combat the hate that now controls our nation. I'll make donations and volunteer at various organizations on this list, and I'll boycott all businesses I know of that supported/supports him, and I'll work my ass off to get out the vote for the midterm elections in two years. But I know that where my real personal power lies is in my art. I'm going to work even harder to use my voice and my passion to reach people and continue to tell inclusive, intersectional feminist stories. I have an endless pit in my stomach and a lump in my throat that seems to well up every few minutes, but I'm going to use that to keep from accepting what now is. I'm going to fight to make a difference using the only weapon I feel I was meant to use. I hope other artists feel empowered to do the same.  

-Christina