IndieWorks - August Recap

in

Tuesday was our August edition of IndieWorks. Despite a thunderstorm, over 40 people came out for our 4 films of the night. All the films were scifi in nature, but had very diverse styles & sub-genres, from drama to animation to experimental. All were visually-striking & thought-provoking. Overall, the night was a big success!

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 all enjoyed the films and the opportunity to network with other filmmakers and film fans. We know some connections were made! 

We hope you'll join us again for our September Web Series Special on the 18th -  featuring a fun lineup of NYC-based webisodes.

See photos from the evening:

The Films of the night:

Greater Good (Directed by Andrea Ashton, Written by Candace Little & Allison Yuen)
When a pregnant woman receives an unexpected visit from two strangers she is faced with making a life-altering decision.  

Androktasiai (Written & Directed by (Lincoln) Yufeng Li)
A combat robot designed to protect good people from bad people. But who are good and who are bad? 

Rubber Ducky (Written & Directed by Sean Mannion)
After a fight outside a rock show Tara finds a Rubber Duck that changes her perspective.  

Back Page Ripper (Directed by Stephen Rutterford, Written by Stephen Rutterford & Jon Burkhart)
A girl must solve the mystery of who ripped the last page out of her mystery novel. 

Watch our Q&A Recap. *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 rating system of 8 categories:   Story, Dialogue/Writing, Direction, Acting, Cinematography, Sound, Editing, and Production Value, along with a nuanced discussion focused on inclusion and originality. 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 on SeedandSpark.com should they use the platform and 50% off 4MileCircus' post-production audio cleaning service for a future project. 

For the August 2018 lineup, our winning films were:
    Audience Choice Award:  "Back Page Ripper"
    Silver Whiskers Award:  "Greater Good" 

Join us next month for our September edition on the 18th!

About a Donkey at Buffalo International Film Festival

in ,

We're so excited that our feature About a Donkey is an official selection of Buffalo International Film Festival, which runs October 4th - 8th! It's our 5th festival acceptance and will be the 4th public screening, happening between Austin Revolution in September & Adirondack in mid-October. Details to come.

38936175_10155682488547919_4737182755203317760_n.jpg

Bluestocking Film Series Recap

in ,

Last weekend was the Bluestocking Film Series, and it was truly amazing! It's now one of my favorite film festivals. On the first night, 8 films were screened in a nice college-campus theater to an audience of 115 people. Then on day 2, I spent much of my day teaching (one of the perks of my job with Seed&Spark is offering to teach about crowdfunding at festivals where my work gets in, in order to have some expenses covered - it's a great way to experience a fest as a filmmaker & get to help other filmmakers while I'm there). Then I was on a really thoughtful panel titled "The Director's Craft & Female Representation," with the other attending filmmakers and representatives from Cinfemme & Tanji. And then my film "Enough" screened with 6 others to another crowd of over 145 people! The audience was really engaged, both during the film and the Q&A; and many came over after the screening to tell me how much they loved the ending!

The women who run the festival are just so supportive. You can feel the care put into organizing every detail. And the festival made it a point to get the community & filmmakers connected by having free afterparties each night at warm & welcoming local spots. The programming was simply excellent. It's wonderful as a filmmaker and fan getting to see such diverse works by women. I often feel like I'm supposed to represent my entire gender at most (typically male-dominated) festivals. At this one, I got to just be me, and appreciate the many perspectives and styles of women directors out there. And I don't think I've ever attended a festival with as much inclusion, not just in terms of gender, but also in race, class, age, and sexual identity across the entire lineup. The films were memorable & moving. It's a prime example of how meritocracy and diversity are not separate aspirations, and when you commit to the latter, nothing needs to be sacrificed with the former. It was truly beautiful to witness. The conversations both on and off stage were motivating & insightful. And I walked away with new friends and potential collaborators. There was a lot of positivity and inspiration packed into two days. I found it completely rejuvenating & hope to attend next year, even if I don't have a film screening. 

Anyone who reads my festival recaps knows that I'm very candid about my experiences and don't recommend all festivals that I attend. This is one I definitely recommend submitting to if you have a film that meets the qualifications. And even if you don't but happen to be near Portland, Maine, you must make the trip to experience the festival & people behind it as an audience member, at least! 

Local Vegan Treat:

  • The delicious vegan Cinnamon Sugar donut at The Holy Donut has inspired me to start adding any local vegan treats I come across in all the festival traveling I do now. These donuts are made from mashed potatoes & they're super fluffy. A must try.

Catch the film next at:

-Christina

P.S. Film Inquiry reviewed the whole fest, and our little review within the piece was positive! Read it HERE.

Christina Featured in the Queens Tribune

in ,

The Queens Tribune has released a cool series on Queens-based artists and I was chosen as the resident Filmmaker! Check it out, where I discuss my filmmaking career and our latest projects! I'm grateful for the write-up, but please note that, while there are also a few minor misquotes about the context of my childhood, a major error is that they cited me as the writer of About a Donkey instead of director. Kelsey Rauber is the writer! I'm still hoping they'll respond to my correction request for the online version.

UPDATE: Queens Tribune has since shut down but the article lives on via medium.