The winners of the December IndieWorks were Power Out and Tina. Power Out won the Silver Whiskers, which is voted on by the Congested Cat team, and will go on to the Best of Fest in April of 2020. Tina won the Audience Award. Power Out was represented by the writer and director Ben Myers as well as the producer and editor Rachel Pearl. Tina was represented by Gayatri Bahl, its writer, director, and lead actor.
During the Q&A, Myers and Pearl mentioned they will be working to tighten Power Out from its 5 minute runtime down to 3 minutes. Myers hopes to give it a better chance at going viral. The goal behind the film is to motivate people to vote.
Pearl mentioned that her current work is a feature documentary. See more of her at lonepearl.com. Myers is planning to shoot a short in Austin in January. See more of him at benjaminlawrencemyers.com.
Gayatri Bahl mentioned that dance pervades and encompasses her real life and her film shows it in an interesting way. She wanted to show traditional Indian dance that isn't a traditional Bollywood movie. Bahl is now working on a feature narrative script and a documentary.
The other films screened were Krampusnacht, represented by Julia Parrott, and Zoul, represented by writer and director Tom Cassese. Parrott mentioned that the next project for the Schnitzel Studios team is a short called The Long Road to Hell. You can see more from Schnitzel at schnitzelstudios.com and Parrott's work at jmpedit.com. You can see more from Cassese at tomcassese.com.
The next IndieWorks screening is January 14, 2020 at Sanger Hall in Sunnyside, Queens. For more info about IndieWorks, including how to get your short film screened, go to congestedcat.com/indieworks.
Rachel Pearl, Ben Myers, Gayatri Bahl
Rachel Pearl, Ben Myers
Ben Myers, Gayatri Bahl
Julia Parrott
Tom Cassese
Ricardo Manigat, Ben Myers, Christina Raia, Rachel Pearl, Dani Thomas