The Rise of the Film Club

By Kiowa

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks digesting the bit-torrent news and releasing Ink via Netflix, Blockbuster and other places. Not sure what to do with all the information, we were lucky enough to take a detour to the East Coast for a screening. Even better than that, we are lucky enough to be here due to the kindness and generosity of two people who are probably now lifetime friends: Pericles and Lisa Lewnes.

The very best thing about this last year is the opportunity to tour around the country and meet people. We have managed to draw an incredible level of enthusiasm and support for the film at our screenings. One such special screening was New York – I knew that a man named Pericles drove eight hours round trip to see Ink and meet us. On the street after the screening we exchanged hugs and screeners (Peri is himself an accomplished filmmaker, credits include Redneck Zombies and LOOP) and he told me about his film club in Annapolis. He and his wife wanted to bring films that might not otherwise get seen to their hometown in a casual bar or restaurant setting and they were willing to put in the hard work to promote the screenings. I was sold.

Peri and Lisa first showed Ink in early August, which drew us a whole new crowd of Ink fans. He showed the film Woodpecker the following month and then decided to crank the film club up a notch. Peri called me about six weeks ago and excitedly told me that he attracted larger sponsors and a great venue for his next screening, which he wanted to be an encore presentation of Ink. Not only that, he had gathered up enough sponsors to fly us out and put us up. So here we are enjoying the beautiful and historic town of Annapolis and an incredible steak dinner at the Lewnes Steakhouse – owned by Peri’s brother and our travel sponsor.

How did we get this lucky? Peri and Lisa are some of those rare humans that are incredibly generous with their time and resources. They happened to fall in love with Ink and have been tireless in their efforts to promote the film with whatever tools they have at their disposal. I believe the film club is going to rise up as the chief screening opportunity for indie filmmakers. One film a month, heavily promoted at a unique venue with food and drinks – what could be better? It centers the focus around one film at a time and if the filmmakers can attend for Q&A then it is officially an “event” that people will get out to be a part of.

High quality film festivals like Flyway Film Festival and film clubs like the Annapolis Pretentious Film Society put the focus back where it should be: on the films and filmmakers. We had the best festival experience of our life at Flyway thanks to Rick and Diana Vaicius making us feel incredibly welcome and not lost in the fray as you do at most festivals. Similarly, Peri and Lisa take the time to promote individual films and filmmakers and truly make the evening an event to remember. We are super excited to get to Monday night and connect with people at the Rams Head On Stage. If you are a filmmaker reading this, you need to get in touch with both Rick at Flyway and Peri of APFS – two fierce champions for truly independent films and filmmakers. Another description might entail wings, some sort of halo and an angelic glow… that’s how they appear to me anyway. Storytellers? I think so.

Rick and Diana Vaicius with Jamin at Flyway last month.

Ink plays at the Rams Head On Stage on Monday, November 30th at 6:30pm. $8 in advance and $10 at the door.
Click here for tickets and we will see you there!