"Work" a Very Short Film

This film was made for a 10 second film contest: https://vimeo.com/640166376

Why do we toil so long and hard at work, spending most of our time in a miserable cycle? There is so much more to life. Made for the Asheville 10 second film contest.

Homeward Bound PSA

For 2021 I produced a 1 minute PSA I made for Homeward Bound:

https://vimeo.com/568665533

Here is a link to the longer documentary "Invisible" I also produced for Homeward Bound, from which we pulled the PSA footage: https://vimeo.com/538876421

Housing is Healthcare Documentary

I recently produced a short documentary for an amazingly wonderful non-profit: Homeward Bound.  They work to permanently end homelessness.  Homeward Bound does such important work, especially now with the Covid-19 pandemic raging across our country.  How can you stay healthy and escape the crowds of people, if you don't have a home to go to?  If you do get sick, how can you recover, if you don't have a safe place to rest and heal?  You can watch this informative and hopeful look at a group of people dedicated to solving these problems.

Saving Jake at RAD

Behind the scenes on the short "Saving Jake" in the River Arts District. I love this graffiti building! I feel so lucky to have been able to shoot a scene at this gem of a location.  When you're working with a great team, magic happens and these scenes were magic.

New short film: Saving Jake

Synopsis

Based on a true story, a hardworking orphan grows old on the streets as a homeless man until a friend convinces him to find housing and hope.

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!

The Cannes Film Festival Video

I finally had the chance to go over all the little snippets of video footage that Lela and I grabbed at the Cannes Film Festival with our GoPros and iPhones.  Here's a short video of our amazing time at the festival (including our celebrity red carpet walk.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSllW851SMY&feature=youtu.be

The Perfect Spot

When the production company I belong to, Gorilla with a Mustache Films, won the grand prize with our movie Joint Effort part of the prize was to have free entry into the next year's competition.  Even though we've all been exhausted working on our comedy feature film, One Hell of an Angel, we decided we had to take advantage of the free entry and compete again this year. 

The competition, formerly "The National Film Challenge" re-branded itself this year (probably because it's an international competition and the title is a little confusing) and is now called "The 4 Points Film Project."  Our team created a short film in just one weekend with some new faces on set.  We had the talented and ruggedly handsome Paul Anderson as our cinematographer, Lisa Styles our awesome Canadian Producer friend who we met at the Cannes film festival came down just to help us with this production, Michael Valentino came on board to help with editing, and Eruch Kimball was our fabulous composer.  After a rocky start and a completely unexpected last minute script change, we set off to make a film pretty much by improv.  Luckily our actors are good at that.  While we didn't win any of the awards this year, we were chosen in the top 20 in the world, so not too shabby.  Here it is: The Perfect Spot.

http://youtu.be/CFB0xVCeafo

Second Parent

Adoption law is supposed to be based on the best interests of the child.  I made this short film when I discovered an issue a lot of gay couples must face when trying to adopt a child.  While many states will allow gay couples to adopt children, they will only do so if one person out of that couple adopts as a single parent.  In the eyes of the law, that second parent is not recognized.  What if the adopting parent looses their job and benefits and that second parent ends up wanting to put their child on their health insurance?  What happens if the child has to be hospitalized while the adopting parent is out of town?  What happens if the adopting parent dies? 

http://youtu.be/g8xhVKEQZ90
A lot of talented Asheville folks helped make this movie possible working in front of the camera and behind the scenes.  Thank you for your support and for giving your time to help make this short film happen.

Katie

Poster Designed by: Anthony Abraira http://anthonyabraira.com

Going to the Cannes Film Festival!

I'm going to the Cannes Film Festival where "Joint Effort" is screening!

I am beyond excited!  The short film I directed, "Joint Effort" won the top prize in the National Film Competition and in addition to a cash prize will now be playing at the Cannes Film Festival in May!  And I'm going!!!  Every sentence ends with an exclamation point because that's how excited I am!

Our film isn't in competition, we are on the business side of things.  This is the perfect opportunity to try to secure some foreign distribution for our feature film and get some finishing funds.  In addition to winning best film, Gorilla with a Mustache Films also took home: 

Best Writing
Best Comedy Film
Best Actor David Ostergaard
3rd place audience choice award 

We will be wheeling and dealing and living it up on the French Riviera.  I'll take lots of pictures so stay tuned for more.

Joint Effort in the News Everywhere!

We've had so much coverage about our little film:


 http://youtu.be/juKa6Mjt2W4

https://soundcloud.com/katiedamien/880am-the-revolution-jeff

Asheville filmmakers win big in National Film Challenge, will have movie screened at Cannes

Jason Sandford | December 27, 2013

A team of Asheville filmmakers recently won big with their film entry in the 2013 National Film Challenge. Their movie, Joint Effort, won the Best Film award and will go to the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for a special screening.

The movie was the work of Asheville’s Gorilla With A Mustache Films, a five-person team of producers that includes the following: Lela Winton, Katie Damien, Eruch Adams, Coranna Adams, and Matt Shepard.

Joint Effort is a comedy about a package delivery gone horribly wrong. For the National Film Challenge, the group had one weekend to write, shoot, and edit the short film, then present it to the judges. Joint Effort won other awards. David Ostergaard won for Best Actor, while Eruch Adams and Will Eill won for Best Writer. Joint Effort also won the Best Use of Genre -Comedy award and was second runner-up for the Audience Choice Award. More here.
Here’s the credit rundown for Joint Effort: Katie Damien, director, with Lela Winton as second unit director. Cinematograpy by Andy Crespo. Cast: David Ostergaard, Matt Shepard, Darren Marshall, and Adam Meier.

More about the National Film Challenge and the prizes awarded:

The best film is sent to the Cannes Film Festival and given a $3000 prize. GoPro, the title sponsor, is giving out another $3000 prize for the best use of a GoPro Camera in a movie. And the Audience choice winner receives $1000. The top 15 films are selected by judges for online voting determined by YouTube and Vimeo likes . “Joint Effort” was chosen as one of those top 15 films. The team of Asheville residents is undergoing a campaign to get the word out about the film and to encourage people to vote and to hopefully win the Audience Choice award.
Producer and director Katie Damien said, “There’s some stiff competition in this contest.  Overall the quality of all the top films is very high.  I feel really honored to have our film chosen as one of the best!  Asheville might not be as big as Dallas or Paris, but we’ve got some really talented people here in the mountains.”

About Gorilla with a Mustache Films: Established in 2010 when a group of producers collaborated on a 48 Hour Film Project. They won Best Picture for the city of Asheville. Heady with their recent victory (and drunk on their own sense of power), the group decided to pursue a feature film, as well as other short films. The Gorillas are currently in post-production on their first feature film “One Hell of an Angel.”
Joint Effort on IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3347134/combined
Company IMDb page: http://www.imdb.com/company/co0385222/
Gorilla with a Mustache on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GorillaWithaMustache
http://www.ashvegas.com/asheville-filmmakers-win-big-in-national-film-challenge-will-have-movie-screened-at-cannes

Gorilla With A Mustache wins National Film Challenge with "Joint Effort"

By Dan Thornton on December 26, 2013
The Gorilla With A Mustache Films team out of Asheville, North Carolina won the Best Film Award in the National Film Challenge 2013  this week and the film will go on to the Cannes Film Festival this coming year for a special screening.
Their entry, Joint Effort, is a comedy about a package delivery gone wrong.
The team, in accordance with the National Film Challenge rules was given an assignment and had one weekend to write,shoot, and edit the short film, then present it to the judges. No small feat.  
Other awards received for the film were: Best Actor -  David Ostergaard, and Best Writer  Eruch Adams and Will Eill for Joint Effort.  Joint Effort also won the Best Use of Genre -Comedy award and 2nd Runner Up for the Audience Choice Award.
Gorilla With A Mustache Films is a 5 person team of producers: Lela Winton, Katie Damien, Eruch Adams, Coranna Adams, and Matt Shepard.  They have  participated in multiple 48 Hour Film Project competitions and now for the first time, the National Film Challenge. Each time the team was slightly different in regards to the cast and crew, but has always had the same core of producers. 
 Joint Effort was directed by Katie Damien with Lela Winton as second unit director. Cinematograpy by Andy Crespo.  Cast: David Ostergaard, Matt Shepard, Darren Marshall., and Adam Meier.

http://www.gigspotting.net/national-film-challenge-2013-winner-gorilla-with-a-mustache-with-joint-effort.html

My Short Film is an International Winner!

I just made a short film "Joint Effort" that was picked as one of the top 15 in an international competition! They are doing online voting for an audience award and you can help by liking the video on YouTube: http://youtu.be/xs7UzQCwCa0 (just hit the thumbs up button) and Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/81675843 (there is a heart in the top right inside the video window.) You have to be logged in to like it.  If we get the most likes, we could win $1000!  It's a pretty funny movie too.  We had a great cast and crew made of entirely volunteers and the whole movie was made in one weekend.  Enjoy the show!

(there is a thumbs up button at the top right corner of the movie here, but you have to be logged in for it to count, you can log in to gmail, google, or youtube to like it in this player.)

P.S. - the film would probably get a PG rating.  There are lots of drugs in it... 2.2 pounds to be exact.

Nosferatooth

Here's my latest short film, "Nosferatooth, " the horror/comedy about a vampire with a tooth ache. WARNING: there's lots of cussing and some blood, but overall, it's pretty funny. Enjoy!

Delivering our 48 Hour Film

This film we have to make for the 48 hour film project needs to be done in one weekend.  Exactly one weekend.  If you are even one minute past the deadline time, you're disqualified.  I was editing and not paying close enough attention to the time. Wanting to do as much fixing as possible, I waited too long to start my export. As I stood watching the progress bar, I knew it was too late. I immediately broke the bad news to the team. Explaining that yes, it would be finished before the cutoff time, but there wasn't enough time to physically drive the file to the drop off location; someone piped in with, "What about Keresey's Ducati?" This was what happened next, recorded by our sound guy Scott Duncan on his iphone:

And yes, she did make it in time :)

The 48 Hour Film Project 2013

I just had the most fun weekend ever!  It was the annual 48 Hour Film Project here in Asheville, were you have to write, shoot, edit and finish a short film in one weekend! They give out a prop, a character and a line of dialog that must be included in the movie and each team picks a genre out of a hat.  We picked horror film, but ended up making a comedy horror called "Nosferatooth" about a vampire with a toothache.  We had an amazing cast and crew and ended up with a really great movie.  If you're in the Asheville area, you should come to the screenings at Asheville Pizza and Brewing off Merrimon Tues at 10pm, Wed at 7pm or Thurs at 10pm. 

If you want to see more photos and behind the scenes stuff go to the Gorilla's Facebook page:www.facebook.com/GorillaWithaMustache

Here's a little sneak peek at the movie:

37th Cleveland International Film Festival Video

Here's a quick video of my time at the Cleveland International Film Festival.



Katie

Second Parent Trailer

I'm looking for film festivals to submit this film to.  If you can think of any that would be a good fit, please leave a comment.

Asheville Cinema Festival

I had an amazing weekend at the Asheville Cinema Festival! The festival was very well organized and they treated the filmmakers really well. I attended great panel discussions on screenwriting and distribution and my movie screened 4 different times. The most exciting screening was at Regal on a really really big screen! I met a lot of great people and now I can't wait for next year's festival. The film that got in is a very short claymation (1 minute and 15 seconds in total) called "On High" and I'll have that posted soon.

Katie

My first Animation

The animation wars have begun. It all started when Ben, a friend of mine at work, showed me an animation he had made. It was a simple movie, but it inspired me to make a simple animation myself. So armed with clear plastic notebook sleeves, paper, and some dry erase markers I came up with the following movie. After I showed my movie to Ben, it was on. He is now working on a claymation movie, to which I will answer with a claymation of my own. For now, here is the first animation. I estimate, it took me about 4 hours to draw this out, and 2 hours to edit.

Katie

ktdamien has shared a video with you on YouTube:

The Horror
A stickman discovers his hometown is over run with zombies. Will he make it out alive?45 seconds of cheezy animated horror movie goodness. Drawn using paper, clear plastic sleeves, colored pencils, and a dry erase marker.

If you can't see the link above, copy and paste this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qftYDY2EzYM