Magazine Article about Me

My film school Alma mater published a great article about my recent film success and my trip to Cannes:

http://today.ucf.edu/cannes-cannes-cannes/

Because She Cannes Cannes Cannes

Alumna's short film honored at world's most prestigious festival

Cinematographer Katie Damien, '01, started working in film before she was a teenager

Growing up in a family of movie buffs and watching the Oscars every year, it seemed Katie Damien, ’01, was predestined for a future in film. In fact, she made her first movie when she was 12 years old. And, she hasn’t stopped making movies since.

Born and raised in Florida, Damien chose to attend UCF because, in her opinion, it had the best film program in the state.


“Film students could direct their own work, they got to keep all the rights to their films, and Orlando is the perfect place to be for filmmaking, with all the studios nearby and the city being so production friendly,” she explains. “’The Blair Witch Project’ had just come out, and UCF’s film program was the place to be.”


Today, she’s the owner of Kd Multimedia, a writer and director, and one of five producers in Gorilla with a Mustache Films.


Damien started the film company with a team of filmmakers she joined in 2010, in order to compete in the 48 Hour Film Project. After winning the competition’s top prize for their short film, “Touched by Angels,” they decided to make more movies together.

Last year, the group competed in the National Film Challenge. But, instead of competing against other local filmmakers, they were competing with filmmakers around the world. In addition, each team was assigned a genre, a character, a prop and line of dialogue that had to be used in its film.


After a long session of brainstorming, one of Damien’s teammates told a story about a friend who rented a car and ended up with the same make and model someone else at the agency had already rented. He didn’t realize he drove off with the wrong car — until he stopped, opened the trunk and found it full of drugs. So, it got them thinking: What would you do if you suddenly found yourself accidentally in possession of a bunch of drugs? And, again, the group won for its short film, “Joint Effort.”


“I was out of my mind excited [when I learned we won],” Damien says. “I was screaming on the phone with the other members of my team. I was in an office full of people when I found out, and they all started to gather around as I was jumping up and down, screaming like a fool.”
But, the excitement didn’t stop there. The National Film Challenge win sent their film to the Short Film Corner at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.


“I knew that Cannes was the top prize, [but] I had to get on a computer real quick and look for myself to make sure it was true,” Damien continues. “When I saw the win with my own eyes, that’s when the screaming started [again].”


Not surprisingly, Damien’s biggest dream is to some day win an Oscar.

“But, in the immediate future,” she says, “I’d just like to have a big enough budget that I can do all the things I want to in a given movie, and be able to pay all my cast and crew properly.”


Q&A REEL


Q. Who was your favorite professor, and why?


A. Sterling Van Wagenen was the director of the film program when I was there. He also taught a directing class that I took. He was amazing. It wasn’t just the knowledge he imparted or the extremely helpful real-world advice he would give, but he had a soothing demeanor about him. He had a way of squeezing your shoulder that just made you feel like everything would be okay. And for a stressed-out film student, sometimes a shoulder squeeze was exactly what you needed. Mary Johnson was a fantastic screenwriting teacher! I still use her template for creating characters when I write scripts. Mark Gerstein and Lori Ingle were also amazing editing teachers. I learned so much from them. And, I can’t skip Jonathan Mednick, my documentary film teacher. He gave me the best advice my senior year. I was working on a short documentary, and he watched it as a work-in-progress and told me: “Make it about the people. Tell their story and the rest will fall into place.” He died suddenly and unexpectedly that summer. I will always carry those words with me.


Q. How has your UCF degree helped you in your career?


A. Having a film degree, while not essential in this industry, has certainly opened a lot of doors for me. I think the quality of the education I received helped boost the professionalism of my work by leaps and bounds. I was able to try new and difficult things, take risks and fail, all without losing credibility, because I was in a supportive learning environment.


Q. Describe some of your previous films.


A. I’m just now releasing my first documentary feature film, “My Toxic Backyard,” about a community that has been fighting for clean, safe drinking water for decades since it discovered its water was contaminated by an old manufacturing plant where toxic chemicals were dumped into the ground. I’ve made a few comedy films — one comedy/horror about a vampire with a toothache. I made a short drama, “Second Parent,” about how gay parents can’t jointly adopt a child. And, I made a horror film about a couple that accidentally run over a guy with their car and soon find themselves victims of an elaborate scheme.


Q. Are you currently working on any other film projects?


A. I’m currently in post-production on my first comedy feature film with the same group I made “Joint Effort.” It’s called “One Hell of an Angel,” and it’s about a demon who gets in trouble for asking too many questions in hell and is punished by being forced to work with an angel on an impossible mission to get a washed up rock star to write a song that will change everything.


Q. All-time favorite movie?


A. “Strictly Ballroom”


Q. Worst movie you’ve ever seen?


A. The first movie I ever made as a kid. It was so bad I destroyed it.


Q. Favorite movie genre?


A. Action


Q. If someone made a movie about your life, what would the title be?


A. “The Mad World of a Creative Mind”


Q. What or who inspires you?


A. In the film world, Robert Zemeckis. That man can make any kind of movie and make it well.


Q. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?


A. Beer taster. I’ve heard that’s a thing…


***Check out Katie Damien’s day-by-day journal of her experience at the Cannes Film Festival.***

Blue Ghost Fireflies

David Ostergaard holding a blue ghost firefly for a long exposure.

Walk in the woods of the Southern Appalachian Mountains as night in early spring and you may be lucky enough to spot tiny fairies carrying blue candles, gliding over the forest floor.  That's what blue ghost fireflies look like to the naked eye.  They are very rare and can only be found in the Southern Appalachian Mountains and in Texas, just North of Mexico.  They're small and shy, but if you're in the right place at the right time and are patient, you may be lucky enough to see a few.  Even smaller than their more common firefly cousins, they glow for long periods of time, sometimes up to a minute.  I went on a hike in Dupont Forest with David Ostergaard and Tina Herring.  David was quick enough to catch one and I photographed it in his hand.  They photographed green, but to my eye their light looked light blue.

Katie

Cannes Film Festival and Romania

I just returned from a whirlwind vacation/work trip to the Cannes Film Festival where my award-winning short film "Joint Effort" screened (see the movie here: In a previous post) and then Romania where I visited Dracula's castle.  If you want to know more about Cannes check out the page I made dedicated to my experiences there: My page about Cannes and stay tuned (I just realized how antiquated that term is.  In the digital age, does anyone tune a dial anymore?) for more on Romania! 

Katie

David Ostergaard, Tina Herring, Lela Winton, Billy Goodrum, there with the award-winning short film "Joint Effort" produced by Gorilla with a Mustache Films.

a bedroom in Dracula's Caster (Bran Castle)

Romania

Peles Castle

I loved Romania!  I traveled to Bucharest on my own and spent my entire trip as a single female traveling around Romania and not able to speak anything except the essentials (which all travelers should acquaint themselves with before traveling in any new country) and I never felt lost or afraid.

The Essentials:

Please: Varog
Thank you: Mull-Too-Mesk
Excuse me: Scuz-At-Zima
Sorry: Um-Me-Parrie-Rew
Yes: Da
No: Nu
Where is the bathroom: Un-De Este Toiletta

I had just wrapped up an action packed week at the Cannes Film Festival and wanted to experience some of Europe that I never had before.  Eastern Europe has been on my list for a while.  I worked with quite a few Eastern Europeans on ships and had heard fabulous stories about the countryside and decided that I should see some of Romania.  I mainly stayed in Bucharest and went on day trips to Transylvania, but now I wish I had made Transylvania the main place I had stayed.  The Carpathian Mountains are gorgeous and the countryside looks like something out of a medieval fairytale.  There were gypsy houses, horse drawn carts and castles.

The Black Church in the town of Brasov

I visited beautiful medieval churches and monasteries.  One of the churches had a mural on the roof of Jesus and God.  I don't know that I've ever seen God depicted like that before, it was really neat to see.

Peles (sounds like Pelish) Castle was the most ornate castle I've ever seen in my life.  The amount of detail in the various carvings and artwork was breathtaking.  My favorite castle though was Bran Castle which is called Dracula's castle, though it wasn't a residence of Vlad the Impaler, but rather the castle that Bram Stoker based his description on in the book.  Vlad Tempes also had a totally different feel in Romania.  He is seen as something of a folk hero.  He protected his people and kept them safe and today they are still grateful for it.

Bran Castle Courtyard

A bedroom in Bran Castle

Bran Castle as seen from the village below

Mt. Express Article on our trip to Cannes

Fabulous article about the trip Lela and I made to the Cannes Film Festival:

Cannes or bust: Local filmmakers report on their trip to the prestigeous film festival

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Alli Marshall

Katie Damien and Lela Winton at Cannes Film Festival

Scroll down for the full week’s worth of posts.

Local filmmakers Katie Damien and Lela Winton are part of the Gorilla with a Mustache Films crew who attended the Cannes Film Festival (yes, the one in France) to screen their short comedy, Joint Effort.
The group spent a week in that glamorous locale, taking in wonderful films, eating French food, imbibing champagne and rubbing elbows with celebs. Damien and Winton sent back updates — e-postcards, if you will. See info on the film at the bottom of the page.

May 24

On this, my final day at Cannes I find myself reminiscing over the time I’ve had. It all feels like a wonderful dream that I don’t want to wake up from. I’ve had drinks on a yacht, crashed parties, met celebrities, seen amazing movies and walked the red carpet. And I’ve made so many great contacts in my time here. Today was a day of movie watching. I saw tons of short films and made it to the last feature film, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigsby.
 

 I could not have hoped for a better experience here. I am now full of excellent food, Wine and wonderful memories. When I get home I will begin contacting the many people I’ve met here. I hope that every filmmaker has the opportunity make it to the Cannes Film Festival. And I hope to return again soon. — Katie

May 23

Tonight is the 20th anniversary of Pulp Fiction winning the Palm D’Or at Cannes. We celebrated with Tarantino, Thurman, Travolta and Weinstein on the beach at a special screening — so fun! Cannes does these great free beach screenings every night but the special screening of Pulp Fiction was something special. The crowd was ecstatic. People were shouting favorite lines, cheering, whooping and laughing loud together. I could just barley see Quentin Tarantino from where I sat and he seemed just as excited as ever to be showing his film to a crowd.
Most of the festival attendees have packed up and left so there was not a whole lot of work getting done today. Katie and I broke into the press conference area though for some great photos (see above). — Lela
• • •
Things are really starting to wind down for the Cannes Film Festival.  Lela and I went to the Marche du film, but found it fairly sparse. After playing around in the press conference area, we decided to do a little sightseeing. And who should we meet at the top of the tower at a museum, but the very people we were looking for earlier: film distributors (below). We exchanged cards and even showed them our trailer on the iPad we are always carrying around. We ended the day with a beach screening of Pulp Fiction introduced by none other than Quentin Tarantino. It was a great end to a great day. — Katie

May 22

Today a young Frenchwoman (named Alice, pictured below) accidentally spilled her wine all over Lela’s dress. By way of apology, she got us two tickets to a red carpet screening premiere with celebrities in attendance. When Lela and I went on the red carpet before, it was early in the day and there were no celebrities or photographers around. This was the real deal. It was all at the last minute, and because I wasn’t expecting it, I was not properly dressed. I had to literally run to the apartment and back to get there in time. I put on my Ship to Shore dress again in record time. — Katie

May 21

Spent a great day with David and Tina in nearby Antibes while Billy Goodrum did photo shoots, dinners, press functions, etc.  I finally got to wear my Ship to Shore dress for a screening. I turned many a head in it.
At the end of the day Lela and I  reconnected with our esteemed composer Billy Goodrum who you can see in red carpet photos standing next to Sophia Loren! I didn’t get to chat with her, but did speak with her director son who is charming and very nice even though he must have been exhausted. Billy, Lela and I went for drinks with the George Clooney of Italy, Enrico Lo Verso [see photo at top of page]. Oh la la was he handsome!  And so chivalrous, too. He escorted Lela and me home after he broke up a bar fight. What a man. — Katie

May 20

Today we screened Joint Effort for a packed theater.  People laughed and seemed to enjoy the movie. It was great to have David Ostergaard and Tina Herring join us, as well as Billy Goodrum, our composer. Billy also had another movie screening at Cannes. Lela and I went to his other screening, where Sophia Loren attended. She is amazingly beautiful at any age! A full and wonderful day. — Katie

May 19

The most exciting thing that happened today was running into Benicio Del Toro on the street!  Then chasing after him and grabbing a quick selfie. He was just so cool.
Today was my first day to walk the red carpet. Lela and I had to wait in the rain on the off chance there was extra space in an afternoon screening. We were lucky enough to get into a screening of Foxcatcher. Excellent movie.  I have never seen Steve Carell in that type of dark role and he was amazing. The screening was in the middle of the day so there were no stars around to join us in our walk up but still very thrilling to be walking on the red carpet for the first time. — Katie
Editor’s note: Read Entertainment Weekly‘s take on Foxcatcher here.

May 18

I can’t believe it’s only been a few days — I’m starting to loose track. I’ve done so many amazing things at the Cannes Film Festival. Today, on a whim, Lela and I walked past the rows of multimillion dollar yachts looking for a man I flew in with who invited me aboard his yacht for drink. It was a very casual invitation and I wasn’t sure if we would ever actually be able to connect. Not only did he have us come aboard for drinks, but we met other amazing filmmakers, distributors and even a reporter from CNN. We had an amazing lunch followed by cheesecake and the strongest thimbleful of espresso I have ever had. We shared stories and screened a short film by one of the filmmakers. It was a phenomenal afternoon with a fabulous host! — Katie
•••
Third day here at Cannes. Started out great with a red carpet screening of Tommy Lee Jones’s new movie called The Homesman, also staring Hilary Swank. It was a pretty good film over all, though not as good as True Grit, from a few years ago, which it was strikingly similar to. After a huge tank drove down the road with the entire all-star cast of The Expendables 3 sitting on top, drawing all the tourists out to the Coisette and making walking much easier, we then moved onto a great afternoon on a swanky yacht with lots of big movie professionals. Today was full of delicious food and delightful company. Even a few good films thrown and for good measure. More tomorrow! — Lela

May 17

Hi Asheville! Having a great time here at the Cannes film Festival. Today I got my first pass to a grand theater premier: The Homesman by Tommy Lee Jones. His directorial debut! It’s screening tomorrow morning, so wish me luck.

The festival is huge and busy with people everywhere. The Mediterranean Sea is beautiful and incredibly blue. There are people from all over the world and the hotels really know how to do it up in style! Last night I went to a cocktail party at the Thailand pavilion and had some great food and conversation.
Our screening for Tuesday is filling up with 70% of the seats already accounted for. Still have seven days to go at the festival, and have seen quite a few stars and directors. Really looking forward to meeting more people. Tonight we are going to a cocktail party on a quarter billion dollar yacht. #excited! — Lela

•••
The big news of the day was the two parties we crashed at night. Lela and I went to a party hosted by Thailand. It was by invitation only and we were lucky enough to score two invitations standing in line! The princess of Thailand was there, there were live performances and films shown. We sipped our drinks and ate fantastic Thai food. Then it was off to the next big party of the night, hosted by Germany. We did not have invitations and were nearly stopped by security but somehow managed to finagle our way in. We hobnobbed with German filmmakers for a while, then strolled past the yachts before calling it a night. — Katie
•••
Had an amazing night. Started off the evening meeting some great filmmakers who hooked us up with a gentleman who got us in to the Thai national films party. It was a huge deal — very exclusive. Only about 100 people got in. Her Royal Highness the princess of Thailand was there and gave a talk and then there was a live film/Thai boxing demonstration, drinks and food. It was amazing! Then we casually snuck into a beach party for the German film commission. It was a huge party and also very exclusive. After the German Party we headed out to yacht row. The yachts were bumping with parties. Someone mistook me for a star and introduced me to their group as if I was Amy Adams. Now we are back at our apartment getting ready to sleep, because I have a red carpet screening tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. for The Homesman by Tommy Lee Jones. — Lela

May 16

Flying in, I had a bit of an ordeal with getting to France. But it turned out to be a match made in heaven when I flew from London straight into Nice.  On my flight [I] saw not only Guy Pierce (who probably would have been completely cool but I was too intimidated by to even approach) but also Matt Smith — the new Dr. Who — who was super friendly and awesome. He was much more approachable, so [below] is his photo. Very nice guy. Finally [to] Cannes and completely jetlagged … will have more tomorrow. — Katie

May 14

Here’s Damien’s first missive, sent as she was heading out of town:
I wanted to get an early start here because I have some Asheville folks to thank before I jet off. My flight is this afternoon.
“For the red carpet, I have on loan a beautiful dress made by local designer R. Brooke Priddy with Ship to Shore. For make up I went to Zack Russell with Makeup at the Grove Arcade and got some fantastic tips, guidance, a whole makeover I wasn’t expecting and great makeup that I’ll be wearing in Cannes.

More about the project, from a press release:

Asheville based Gorilla with a Mustache Films heads to Cannes Film Festival in France this month to screen their internationally acclaimed comedy short, Joint Effort. Winner of the 2013 National Film Challenge, this comedy short tells the story of a gay couple who mistakenly assume they have been mailed a box of marijuana: hilarity ensues. Joint Effort will be represented by two members of Gorilla with a Mustache Films, Director Katie Damien, a five time Emmy award winning Director based here in Asheville, whose recently released documentary, My Toxic Backyard, chronicles the story of the CTS site in Buncombe County, and local Producer Lela Winton.
Cannes is one of the largest and most prestigious film festivals in the world. Attendance is by invitation only. To earn the honor to screen at Cannes, Joint Effort competed internationally and won Best Picture, along with Best Writing for local writers Eruch Adams and Will Eill, and Best Actor for the accomplished local actor and Emmy winner David Ostergaard of Bright Star Theater, who also travels to attend the screening.
Local film buffs should keep their eyes peeled for the Gorillas feature film One Hell of An Angel currently in post-production and slated for release later this year.

About Gorilla with a Mustache Films
Gorilla with a Mustache Films is a production team based out of Asheville, North Carolina.  Originally envisioned by Producer Lela Winton, their diverse crew includes Director Katie Damien, Actor Matt Shepard, and husband-wife Writer team Eruch Adams and Coranna Adams.

My Toxic Backyard in Southern Circuit

So excited to have My Toxic Backyard accepted to the Southern Circuit film screening tour. http://www.southarts.org/touring-arts/southern-circuit/  This documentary is 1 of only 18 films that made it in!!!  I'll be traveling across 5 states to host screenings at different universities and art collectives.

My Toxic Backyard has it's Theatrical Release

 
A special limited theatrical release of My Toxic Backyard.  The poster is up at the Fine Arts Theater in downtown Asheville and check out the markee! Available to see on the big screen for 1 full week! May 8-15th at 7pm.  Get out and see it while you can.

Creating a DCP file

For my theatrical release I need to have my movie converted into a DCP.  Remember the ticker and flicker of film projectors?  Well those days are gone and now with digital projection, theaters have super fancy computerized machines that take encryptable, specially formatted files called Digital Cinema Package or DCP.

You can pay to have someone do this for you.  That can run you $1,500 to $3,000 for a feature.  Or if you're a micro budget filmmaker like me, you can now do it yourself!  But be warned this is a complex, time consuming, hair-pulling thing to do on your own.

I used Open DCP, free software you can find here.  And I used the wonderful, extremely helpful walk-through from another filmmaker Danny Lacey here. 

Let me start by telling you that it took me Terabytes of footage, days that ran into nights of computers crunching files and weeks to finally get through all this.  I needed to create 3 DCP files in 2k (you can do either 2k or 4k.)  I needed one file of my movie trailer in 1:85, one of my trailer in 2:35 and one of my whole movie in it's native aspect ratio 1:85.  The trailers were a great way to test out my work flow and make sure everything worked before doing the whole movie.

There's no way for you to play the file once you've made it.  You have to take it to a movie theater and have them load it into their giant, fancy projector and play it for you.  Luckily the Fine Arts Theater, one of our art house movie theaters in town, has the most awesome staff that are really supportive of independent filmmakers and they let me test out my DCPs on their super duper projector.

Briefly, the process goes something like this: first you have to export your movie as a TIFF sequence (this took up 1 Terabyte of space and took a full day to export!) then you export WAV files for the audio, then you run it through the Open DCP software and finally you put it on your drive.

You're supposed to put them on a hard drive formatted for Linux, but I didn't go that far.  I used a flash drive (formatted FAT32 which works with both mac and PC, but you can't transfer a file larger than 4 gigs) for the trailers because they were small enough to fit and that loaded fine.  Then for my movie I used a hard drive formatted for a mac and that also worked.  I've read it might be possible to get NTFS to work, but if you can't go in person to test out the transfer I would recommend going with the standard delivery format in Linux.  Here's a great link to more info on how you should deliver a DCP.

Mountains to Sea Trail Hike

For me this was the mountains part of the mountains to sea trail.  I did a short day hike with Erik and his friend Mike.  The weather couldn't have been better and it was a beautiful and pretty easy hike.  We went to the top of Sam's Knob and enjoyed an okay view, but later on we found a really amazing vista and I got some great shots.  If you live in the Asheville area and want to go, head up the Parkway past graveyard fields and take the next road on your right (warning it's full of car sized pot holes!) Go to the parking area at the end and consult the map to figure out which trails you want to go on.  We did a loop on Sam Knob Summit, to Sam Knob, then Flat Laurel Creek, to Little Sam and finally the Mountain to Sea Trail/Art Loeb.  Not too much elevation change and though this was supposed to be a half day hike, it turned out to be more like a day hike.  One thing I find mildly baffling is that the trails are marked with signs that have their names, but most maps have the trails numbered.  If someone can explain why this is the way it is, I'd love to know.

Katie

Thin Line Film Festival Video

Here's a little video I put together of my trip to the Thin Line Film Festival.

World Premiere of My Toxic Backyard

My Toxic Backyard had its first screening at the Thin Line Film Festival in Denton, Texas and I was able to attend.  This was my first time in Texas.  Denton is about 30 minutes North of Dallas.  Sadly I didn’t meet any real cowboys on my short visit. I had been expecting to see horses, holsters and hats everywhere.  The cowboy hats I did see a lot of, but Texans are not all cowboys.  In Denton everyone happen to be friendly and welcoming.  The land is flat and scrubby, but the sky is huge.  I know the sky seems like the kind of thing that should be the same everywhere you go, but it’s not.  In Texas the sky is just bigger.

There was a great line up for documentary films at Thin Line.  The festival covered room, board and transportation while there.  The staff was fantastic.  They were on call 24 hours a day!  The greenroom was stocked with food and drinks and was a great place to network with other filmmakers and VIP festival goers.  I met some great people there.  The town square is really cute and full of musicians.  I think over half the population is in a band.  My screening was at the Campus theater, which was a wonderful historic theater in the middle of town.  This was my first time attending this wonderful documentary film festival and I tip my hat to the festival organizers for putting on such a great festival.

Joint Effort in the News Again

Here's a quick news clip about our win!

http://youtu.be/4WuTzg2GrW4

Katie

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.

Press: Watered Down

BY DOROTHY FOLTZ-GRAY, Bold Life Magazine

Katie Damien surveys the Superfund site, that is the subject of her documentary, My Toxic Backyard, from across the street. Photo by Rimas Zailskas

Five years ago, filmmaker Katie Damien searched for a home to buy in South Asheville off Mills Gap Road. "Prices were so much lower than in other places in Asheville," says Damien, a five-time Southeast Regional Emmy winner. "But my friend said, 'Don't buy there. There's something wrong: People are getting cancer.' I stopped looking, but I couldn't stop thinking about the people living there. It haunted me."
The haunting resulted in Damien's first feature-length film, My Toxic Backyard, an hour-long documentary about the South Asheville Superfund site leaking toxic chemicals into the ground water surrounding the area.

CTS Corporation, a global manufacturer of electronic components, purchased the site in 1959, closing it in 1986. But the Environmental Protection Agency did not name it a Superfund site until 2012. The Superfund was established in 1980, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, or Superfund) into law. The law enables the EPA to clean up hazardous waste sites.

The EPA first assessed the Asheville site in 1985, finding no evidence of contamination. In 1991, CTS itself notified the state of contamination, but EPA again signed off on the site. Residents believe that 74 cases of cancer have occurred with a mile of the site. And residents' complaints have kept EPA returning, each time finding more evidence of toxins in the ground water.

Damien's film focuses on several affected families: Aaron Penland, who opens the film by pointing to family members, victims of cancer appearing in a family movie, "a death video," he says; Tate MacQueen who moved his family into a tiny apartment to get them away from the water; and Shannon Mead whose constant illness forced her to miss the first seven years of her first child's life.

As the film proceeds, Damien highlights community meetings with EPA officials who appear puzzled by the residents' anger. She alternates such scenes with alarming pictures of toddlers running in sprinklers or drinking from icy water glasses.

Damien toiled on the film for five years, completing it in December 2013. "I thought it was going to be a one-year project," says Damien. "But I was shooting, editing, and doing the research and audio by myself."
For the final year, she was joined by others, including the film's editor, Jamie Byrd, also a filmmaker. "I was so tired, and I had collected so many interviews and so much information," says Damien. "Jamie breathed new life into the project. I was trying to pack in information, but she is more about heart and telling people's stories."

Damien invested more than $10,000 of her own to buy equipment she needed. And she raised $5,000 through Kickstarter, an organization that allows supporters to pledge money for creative work in return for small rewards such as a free ticket to a screening.

Now, she's busy submitting the film to festivals, accepted so far by The Thin Line Festival in Denton, Texas. And she's sending copies to state legislators who are deciding whether to loan Asheville the money to connect affected families to city water.
Damien wants the film to stir up questions about what's happening in our own back yards. "I feel like the society is so concerned about the economy, saying 'We'll deal with the environment once the economy comes back,'" she says. "But the longer we wait, the worse the environment will get."

Damien doesn't begrudge the money she's spent on the film: "Everyone contributed more than they were paid," she says. Besides, she didn't get into filmmaking to make money but to fuel her early passion. "I started when I was 12, making plays with my sister and cousins. And then my uncle gave me a movie camera. My first film was so bad I erased it, but I had so much fun. I thought, 'This is what I will do for the rest of my life.'"

After high school, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida native headed to the University of Central Florida, a place where film students can direct their own projects. Her first documentary — a film about Florida cowboys, Cowmen — won third prize at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. "I knew the cowboys probably wouldn't be around long, and I thought I should tell their story," she says.

Later, for five years, she worked in broadcasting on cruise ships, traveling the world. Then she followed her parents to Asheville, taking a job at WLOS, where she is Creative Services Producer.

Her next film is a comedy, One Hell of an Angel. "It's about an angel and demon forced to work together to help a washed-up rock star write a song to save the world," she says.
The theme's not surprising: For Damien, teamwork — and perseverance — are key to good filmmaking: "Asheville's great for independent filmmakers. People here open their doors. Still, it can be daunting and frustrating. So many films never get finished. You have to make an investment in yourself and trust your own work. And the end goal is to do the story justice."

My Toxic Backyard
Coming to Asheville
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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