Hope at the Charlotte Film Festival

Hope had a great screening at the Charlotte Film Festival!  The quality was professional level, Hope looked so crisp on the big screen. The food and drinks they provided filmmakers were plentiful and delicious. Sharon and Alison were able to join me for the screening.  I got to meet up with Trinity, my incredibly talented composer for my upcoming short "Saving Jake."  I hope to be back with my next film next year!

Ghost Image

I had such a great cast and crew for this short, thriller, horror film "Ghost Image."  Rebecca Morris is the best!  She worked so hard throughout the shoot and turned in a brilliant performance.  Penny Munroe was the perfect ghost, what a pro.  Greg Hugins was my brilliant DP and brought with him a dream team of a crew.  I don't like watching horror films nearly as much as I like making them!

An except from the award-winning short film "Ghost Image." When a ghostly apparition shows up in a photographer’s work, she’ll have to find a way to eliminate all cameras from her life or risk losing it to the thing that haunts her.

Ghost Image Behind the Scenes

Thanks to Ben Avivi my set photographer for these great stills!

Making a Film Festival Run

Film Festivals are tricky business.  As an independent filmmaker with short films, there aren't that many more venues out there to get work seen.  With that in mind, I sent my movie, "Second Parent" out to 6 major film festivals:

South by Southwest

Cleveland International

Atlanta International

The Florida Film Festival

Aspen Shorts Fest

and Nashville Film Festival

In addition, I also sent it out to two smaller fests: the Seattle True Independent Film Festival and Inside Out Toronto LGBT Film Festival.  Most of the festivals I've had my shorts play at in the past have been smaller, niche festivals where my work stood a better chance of being accepted.  So just getting in to one of these six major festivals is a huge honor!

So far I've been rejected from South by Southwest....but I made it into the Cleveland International Film Festival! http://www.clevelandfilm.org   I'll let you know if my movie makes it into any others.

Katie

My movie in Google+ Film Festival

This is the 2nd Film Festival my movie "Second Parent" has made it into!  And unlike most festivals which only take place at a particular physical location, this one is happening as an online event.  So you can all finally see my movie!  It will be playing in a block of shorts on Saturday December 1st at 8pm (Eastern Standard Time) 5pm for my West coast friends and family.

Go to: https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/c3e426r5u1pv0knk8vhge1gj9ok for the event info.
And for more info on the festival: http://www.ugpff.com

This is the only time you'll be able to see my movie this year.  I can't make it available on youtube or any other site like that because I'm still submitting it to Film Festivals.  So if you want to see the movie along with some other great short films, follow the links above and mark your calendars.  I'll be available online for a Q&A after the films.

Katie

Press: Asheville Filmmakers Work for Passion

Cover Photo by Matt Rose/Asheville Scene

Written by: Tony Kiss

Movie Making in the Mountains. Asheville Citizen-Times: Scene Magazine.

To be sure, Asheville has landed its share of big-budget movies.  Think of the Oscar-winning “Being There,” (1979) or the romantic epic “Last of the Mohicans” (1992) and, in March, the futuristic adventure “The Hunger Games.”

Even some local independent films, like Chusy Haney-Jardine’s “Anywhere USA” (once known as “Asheville, the Movie”) got some big attention in 2008 when it won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival and compliments from director Quentin Tarantino.

But beyond the glitzy Hollywood productions, there’s plenty happening in moviemaking here.  On any given weekend, local filmmakers are grabbing their equipment and scripts, pulling together their cast and shooting short films – even features – mostly for love of the art.

Photo by Matt Rose/Asheville Sce

Those filmmakers are really just hoping for a little appreciation and exposure at events like this weekend’s Asheville Cinema Festival.

“It’s a thing I have to do,” said Asheville filmmaker Katie Damien.  “If you love it, you will do it regardless of how much money you make.” Like most local filmmakers, she has a day job, working in creative services at WLOS/Channel 13.

Damien’s short fiction film “Second Parent” has won the Cinema Festival’s Prestige Subaru Film Competition for local filmmakers and will be screened Saturday at 1:15p.m. at Asheville Community Theatre.   (Damien will also speak at the afternoon event, “Short Films for Women by Women.”)

Her movie is about a same-sex couple and what happens to the family after one of the partners dies.  “I wouldn’t have made it if it hadn’t been for the competition,” Damien said.  “You only have so much time to do what you want to do.  You are not getting paid, and this kind of competition is good for filmmakers.”

It turns out she will get a little cash out of the contest – a first-place prize of $500 (the second-place winner receives $250 and the third gets $100; all will be screened at the Cinema Festival.)  Nine short films, none more that seven minutes long, were entered into the Prestige Subaru Competition, said Asheville Cinema Festival executive director Wyman Tannehill.  The competition is about “supporting the filmmaking scene,” said Tannehill.  (The local Subaru dealership is the presenting sponsor of the entire fest).  “I think the filmmaking community here is very diverse,” he said.  “Not only in the age of filmmakers but in the type of films that people are creating.  You find people downtown shooting on some street corner or in a back alley.”....