BAM!

NY was a blast.

I went down on the 17th for BAMCinemafest. The Catechism Cataclysm was just as fun the second time around (I saw it first at SXSW). This was my first time attending a Rooftop Films event, although it was held in a parking lot across the street from BAM Rose Cinemas, so maybe it should have been called “Parking Lot Films”? Anyway, I got to see a lot of people, like the film’s director, Todd Rohal, its stars, Steve Little and Robert Longstreet, as well as Michael Tully, Sophia Takal, and Lawrence Levine.

Sunday Night, I saw The Color Wheel with my friend Brian, who runs The Film Panel Notetaker. The Color Wheel is a very offbeat road movie about two siblings who set out on a road trip after JR (Carlen Altman) is dumped by her professor (Bob Byington). Michael Tully called the film a sitcom version of Frownland. The Color Wheel has similar themes that more mainstream independent films have, but with the “developed” aspect removed, The Color Wheel‘s characters are more absurd (in the existentialist sense of the term) rather than cartoonish. At the Q&A following the screening, Carlen Altman, the co-star and co-writer of the film, was genuinely grateful to be there:

“This is the first time I’ve finished a creative endeavor,” she said. (Okay, these weren’t her exact words, but she said something very similar.)

Career Options

Ted Hope recently tweeted that his most read post since moving his blog over to IndieWire was a post titled, “A ‘Career’ In Indie Film? Better Have That Second Job Lined Up…“. The crux of the post is basically this: whereas once you could sustain a living as an independent filmmaker, you now need to have a “day job”.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I got laid off back in February. One of the ups of being laid off was that my co-workers and I were approved for Trade Act Funding. One of our trainers at my last job busted his ass to have us all approved for this. Thus, the progress of this project has been delayed by thoughts of, “Where do I go from here?” At the risk of being self-indulgent, I really don’t want to be working at just above minimum wage for the rest of my life. It would be nice to have something to fall back on that would allow me to support myself, be independent, and be able to continue on this lovely path of making movies.