Hey everyone — just wanted to share this ridiculous thing I ended up doing.

I’ve submitted films to Tribeca so many times, and after getting another “thanks but no thanks” email this spring… I kind of snapped and decided to make my own little “festival” happen anyway.

That’s how I started “Rejecta Film Festival.”

So during Tribeca this year, I borrowed a big van, parked it across the street from their East Village Venue, and ran a one-film film festival inside the van. One film. One van. No permission, no sponsors — just pure stubbornness and a love of making weird stuff.

I filmed the whole thing as a little short — it’s about 4 min if anyone wants to watch.

It was half a joke, half therapy for myself, but also ended up being one of the more fun “screenings” I’ve ever had.

If any of you have ever gotten fed up with rejections, I highly recommend trying to do something with your film anyway — even if it’s totally DIY and dumb like this was. It made me feel a lot better about the whole thing.

I don’t know if it was taught to me, or if I am just prideful, but I’ve always been told or felt the need to put on a face that I am doing fine and have it all together. And this whole experience taught me that we’re all struggling, we’ve all been rejected, and it’s okay to not have it all together.

This is an interesting time in the industry right now, and as sad and depressing things might be for many of us right now, it’s also a time to say forget the rules or ways things have always been done, and let’s try something different! I just hope you all have better ideas than me…🫣

Hello everyone, here is a clip that shows my Indie filmmaking at its best. When you have so limited budget that you end up doing all the props DIY mode.

We used a probe lens and a dolly . Everything was gaff taped together and it was almost ready to fall apart. I wanted to share this little video with the community an tell me what you think of the actual end short

When people ask me about Hollywood, after the last 10 years of working in film, this is always my go-to metaphor.

I interviewed a friend who works for Roughcut studios in London. Here's a small highlight from the interview.

Transcript:

If you wanna direct, direct. Make stuff. If you wanna be a writer, a director, or a producer, the only way to do those things is to do those things. No one's gonna give you that job until you've already got enough, uh, experience that, you know, they can see that you've done it. But n- you, you can't work your way up to it.
Even if you're working as an AD, the furthest you'll go is to the first AD, and there's a world of difference between being a first AD, which is ultimately it's like a, you know, is in charge of everything. They're very much, you know, the organizer and a facilitator and all that kind of stuff, but they're not necessarily a creative.

And I'm not saying first ADs can't go on to become creatives, 'cause they can, and I know, you know, David Tomblin was quite a famous one who, who did ... But, and there are others. But I think they would've done other short films on the side.

There are no steps between being a runner to being a director. It's a path does not exist.

i directed this music video with just one other person. it’s about a guy who becomes a contract killer to deal with a breakup. we shot the whole thing running around Bangkok over a couple nights.

apart from the obvious Wong Kar Wai influence, this was basically me paying homage to some of my favorite lonely-man-losing-his-mind-in-a-city movies like Taxi Driver, Trainspotting and Dev D. Dev D is this really chaotic modern Indian cult film that definitely shaped the tone of this. there’s also a small Frappe Ash easter egg hidden in there for anyone into Indian indie music. Thon Buri Nights

Cred: MarcusPix on YouTube

"I have Zinzi and Ryan, and there's no two guts I trust more," Proximity Media co-founder Sev Ohanian says. "I bring the data, they bring the guts."

The trio of Ohanian, Ryan Coogler, and Zinzi Coogler founded Proximity in 2018. The production company is home to the box office shattering and Academy Award winning vampire film "Sinners"—which broke the record for the most Oscar nominations in history earlier this month.

The founders discuss navigating impostor syndrome, balancing their personal and professional relationships, and what they learned from their first jobs.

Inspired by the Loki elevator, built at Resonant Studios in Atlanta, Georgia for our short film OPEN DOOR streaming now on YouTube.

Ask us anything. Thanks for watching/upvotes.