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Meet the Filmmakers: Tyler Holme & Ben Fout, “Spike”

Q: Why did you become a filmmaker?
Ben: To make short films. I idolized the filmmakers of my early days in screening committees, youth juries, and filmmaker showcases at Aspen Shorts Fest. Being so involved with shorts at an early age still gives me my drive today.

Tyler: My dad bought me my first video camera for Christmas when I was just ten years old, and I’ve felt obligated ever since.

Q: What are we going to see at the EFP? Has it screened elsewhere, and what are your plans for it?
Tyler: Our short film, Spike, is a Terrance Malick film for dogs about a pup, his human, and that jerk next door.

The film has surprisingly screened in festivals both nationally and abroad. It even won a couple of awards along the way, including the Audience Choice Award at the excellent Colorado Short Circuit Film Festival in Colorado Springs.

This is one of the last live screenings we have scheduled for the film. So we shall see where it ends up next.

Q: What else are you working on?
Ben: I am co-owner of a member-owned production studio called Truce.Media where our goal is to create a member-owned movie studio in Denver Colorado where we can all make content we own to create infrastructure to bring movies and TV back to Denver. So, I’m making content every day, most of it short!

Tyler: I just wrote and published a satire book called Beet Life: A Health & Lifestyle Guide To Show Your Life Who’s Boss By: Your Girl @Beets_By_Beth: Beth Gethard, which is currently available for purchase at booksbybeetsbybeth.com.

Q: Tell us one weird thing about you and/or your movies?
Ben: I always say I went to film-making school, not just film school. I love to make things and my films always have things I’ve made in them.

Tyler: One weird thing about me and my movies? I actually still like some of them.

Q: Where can people go to find out more about you and your work?
B&T: You can check out our work at: https://www.thebande.co
You can check out some of Tyler’s other work here: https://www.tylerholme.com/
You can check out Ben’s other production company here: https://truce.media/
You can buy Tyler’s new (first) book here: https://booksbybeetsbybeth.com/

Q: Is there anything you’d like to say about The Emerging Filmmakers Project?
B&T: We are just extremely grateful to get the chance to screen our film along with all of these other excellent Colorado filmmakers. Thank you!

Spike will screen during The Emerging Filmmakers Project on Thursday, September 16th, 2021 at The Bug Theatre.

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Meet the Filmmaker: Josh Berkowitz, “Shame, Compassion and Defence”

Q: Why did you become a filmmaker?
JB: I became a filmmaker because of John Cassavetes and David Lynch but that was much later on. I have been making films with the best friends I have had my whole life and still make films with these same people. I decided at a certain point somewhere in adolescence that being weird was way more important than being cool until I began to influence people through my films and that being weird was cooler than anything.

Q: What are we going to see at the EFP? Has it screened elsewhere and what are your plans for it?
JB: I made Shame, Compassion and Defence in my junior year of college when I was going through a really painful revelation of a childhood trauma and this vision came flying out of me and has snuck its way into other peoples psyche through its music and unexplainable nostalgic haunting quality. It has screened during a retrospective of my film work in 2017.

Q: What else are you working on?
JB: I am currently working on a play called The Family Rules, The Family Jewels, a psychodrama in three acts which is about all taking traumatic memories and turning them into song, dance and slapstick.

Q: Tell us one weird thing about you and/or your movies?
JB: I always write about real things and the realer I get the less real it seems. I guess that is what I love most about life, the absurd and the surreal. I believe that magic comes from manure.

Q: Where can people go to find out more about you and your work?
JB: all inquires can be sent to joshberk11@gmail.com

Q: Is there anything you’d like to say about The Emerging Filmmakers Project?
JB: Super grateful that they appreciated my wackiness and essence.

Shame, Compassion and Defence will screen during The Emerging Filmmakers Project on Thursday, September 16th, 2021 at The Bug Theatre.

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Meet the Filmmaker: Lindsay Morrison, “Gyre”

Q: Why did you become a filmmaker?
LM: I was a college art & design student when I started making films. I had gotten a taste of it earlier on through class projects, but when I met a fellow music-video-lover who wanted to team up with me to make music videos, I finally got a chance to start creating my own vision — and boy, was it a rush! I started with music videos and moved onto short films within a couple years. Creating moving images was a feeling for me like no other, and I knew I needed to keep going. So after receiving a BFA in art & design from Cal Poly SLO, I decided to go to film school to earn an MFA in film production from USC School of Cinematic Arts. And the rest is history! I still get a rush from filmmaking and from screening my films every single time; it never, ever gets old.

Q: What are we going to see at the EFP? Has it screened elsewhere and what are your plans for it?
LM: You will be seeing Gyre (2011), which was my USC graduate thesis film. The first public screening was in September 2011 on the USC campus, so this will actually be the 10th Anniversary screening for the film. It went on to play at over 10 film festivals in 2012-2013, including FRAMELINE 36, San Francisco’s International LGBT Film Festival. It also won Best Screenplay in the Experimental Film category at the Women’s Independent Film Festival in Los Angeles. 10 years later, it remains one of my favorites and I am so excited to see it on the big screen once more.

Q: What else are you working on?
LM: Back in 2018 I moved to Denver and started WOLF LUV FILMS with Gyre’s editor (and now my husband), Michael La Breche. We’ve mainly been in development mode for the past year and a half due to Covid, but we’re back in production now on a series of bizarre/raunchy stop-motion shorts for our Youtube channel. The series is called Let’s Get Weird and we’re planning to drop it sometime in the fall. We’re also starting work on a music video for local band, No Gossip in Braille.

Q: Tell us one weird thing about you and/or your movies?
LM: One weird thing about Gyre is that I didn’t really realize I was making a horror film when I made it. I was calling it a “surreal relationship drama” or sometimes “experimental.” I didn’t fully clock that it was psychological horror until it got programmed in a horror shorts set at aGLIFF in Austin. Looking back I wish that I had submitted it to a few horror film festivals instead of only prestige festivals and LGBT festivals.

Q: Where can people go to find out more about you and your work?
LM: Go check out WOLF LUV FILMS on instagram (@wolfluvfilms) and youtube (https://bit.ly/2Yjd6jQ). You can also check out my director portfolio site at lindsaymorrison.com

Q: Is there anything you’d like to say about The Emerging Filmmakers Project?
LM: As always, I am grateful for EFP. I love the chance to see work from local filmmakers and have the opportunity to share my own as well. It’s been a great community to find here in Denver, and I look forward to being a part of it for years to come.

Gyre will screen during The Emerging Filmmakers Project on Thursday, September 16th, 2021 at The Bug Theatre.

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Meet the Filmmaker: John Aden, “Against Sand”

Q: Why did you become a filmmaker?
JA: A school friend showed me his claymation of a dinosaur eating a man’s head and then pooping. I said to myself, “That’s what I want to do!” I went home and used my father’s home video camera (relatively new technology at the time that cost him $3,000) to make my own claymation – of a dinosaur eating a man’s head and then pooping.

Q: What are we going to see at the EFP? Has it screened elsewhere and what are your plans for it?
JA: On the soon-to-be-lost island of Atlantis, citizens are protesting an unpopular government mandate. Do sandbags mean safety or a loss of freedom? Find out in this COVID-themed toon by Shocking Beyond Belief Films.

Q: What else are you working on?
JA: We at Shocking Beyond Belief Films are in pre-production for the pilot of Anomaly, a TV show of Steampunk meets The Love Boat meets Star Trek.

Q: Tell us one weird thing about you and/or your movies?
JA: We try to make sensational films with a political theme. Here Come the Brides!, for instance, was gay marriage meets Reefer Madness. It is important for us to be able to be relevant in the day’s political climate.

Q: Where can people go to find out more about you and your work?
JA: shockingbeyondbelief.com

Q: Is there anything you’d like to say about The Emerging Filmmakers Project?
JA: We love screening our projects at EFP and truly appreciate the support it gives to local filmmakers. We also have our premieres at the Bug.

Against Sand will screen during The Emerging Filmmakers Project on Thursday, September 16th, 2021 at The Bug Theatre.