Happy Monday and welcome back to the Discover Indie Film Podcast!

Pablo Riesgo’s feature film “Marco Polo” was an official selection at BOTH Film Invasion Los Angeles and Sherman Oaks Film Festival in 2024.                                                                                            Something you might not know is that we do allow films to be official selections in both festivals, but we do only have them play in the theater once.                                                                                             There’s too many great films to have the same film in the theater twice! But thanks to being an official selection twice, “Marco Polo” has a long awards list. Here it is!

FILA 2024 Grand Jury Award – Best Feature Film – Drama
Grand Jury Award – Best Screenplay – Feature Film – Pablo Riesgo Almonacid

SOFF 2024
Grand Jury Award – Best Supporting Performer – Feature Film – Jorge Zuloaga
Grand Jury Award – Best Performance by a Cast – Feature Film
Grand Jury Award – Best Cinematography – Feature Film – Marko Alonso

I know that I don’t usually list the awards this way, but hey… “Marco Polo” is a special film that is near and dear to my heart.                                                                                                                                           It is an honest, painfully authentic coming of age film that includes moments of loss, addiction, family, and friendship. I highly recommend that you see this film!

Finally, Pablo is a great person. He lives in Los Angeles and has come to some of our mixers.
It is always a pleasure to talk to Pablo, which made it extra fun to get to know him better by interviewing him for the podcast.

You can follow Pablo at:

Instagram: @pabloriesgo
(https://www.instagram.com/pabloriesgo/)
Web: www.cinederiesgo.com

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What are the 4Qs? (1) Three favorite films. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.

Wednesday I had the pleasure of posting my chat with filmmaker Jess Paul, whose touching film “Burying Baby” was an Official Selection at the Sherman Oaks Film Festival last year and took home the Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking. If that names sounds familiar, Jess actually was my surprise interviewer for our special 500th episode where I agreed to have the mic turned on myself for questioning for the very first time.

In getting to know Jess I’ve learned she is truly a die hard film lover so I was very excited to get to her 4 Questions!

You can follow Jess on Instagram @thisisjesspaul

(https://www.instagram.com/thisisjesspaul/) and
if you should also check out her supercool
website https://jesspaulart.com and, if you want
to be even cooler, check out her Etsy site
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JessPaulArt

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Discover Indie Film

Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter

The INDIE Channel

The INDIE Channel Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter – TikTok

Source: Discover Film

Hello to all my DIF Listeners and Friends!

For me, one of the highlights of the 2024 Sherman Oaks Festival was writer/producer/artist Jess Paul using the All Access Pass that she got for her film “Burying Baby” being a Official Selection to attend many
screenings throughout the festival. Obviously I started this podcast because I love indie films and talking about them, and every time I ran into Jess at the festival we would have a great
chat about the films she had seen and about the festival in general.

“Burying Baby” is a touching, authentically surprising short film about loss that is very close to my heart and it took him the Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking.                                                                                                                                                                     I will not go into it too much, but Jess and I did email about her film prior to the festival and this classy, kind person gave me a lovely gift that is hanging on my All Access Pass as I type.

We had a great chat on this podcast and Jess’s intelligence and perspective struck me so that when I had to give podcast producer Karina Wolfe a list of potential interviewers for DIF Episode 500 in February, I added her to this list!
I did not want to choose my interviewer and left that up Karina. This is my way of saying that Jess is now a part of Discover Indie Film history.
That’s right. Jess will forever be the person who interviewed the interviewer.

You can follow Jess on Instagram @thisisjesspaul  
(https://www.instagram.com/thisisjesspaul/) and
if you should also check out her supercool
website https://jesspaulart.com and, if you want
to be even cooler, check out her Etsy site
https://www.etsy.com/shop/JessPaulArt

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Discover Indie Film

Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter

The INDIE Channel

The INDIE Channel Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter – TikTok

Source: Discover Film

What are the 4Qs? (1) Three favorite films. (2) An underrated film. (3) An overrated film. (4) A lesser-known film people should seek out.

Friday I chatted with filmmaker Clarke Wolfe about her short film “A Shining Example” (a darkly comic tribute to The Shining) that she brought to Sherman Oaks Film Festival 2024 and pulled in a pair of awards for; the Filmmakers Award for Outstanding Writing, Horror and “Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking.”

Clarke directed, co-wrote and played the lead character in the film.

I was not able to moderate Clarke’s Q&A so I was thrilled to chat with her on the podcast and equally eager to follow up with the 4 Questions!

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Discover Indie Film

Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter

The INDIE Channel

The INDIE Channel Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter – TikTok

Source: Discover Film

Happy Friday, Everyone!

Filmmaker Clarke Wolfe brought her short film “A Shining Example” to Sherman Oaks Film Festival 2024 and pulled in a pair of awards; the Filmmakers Award, chosen by our jury that is entirely made up of alumni, gave Clarke and co-writer Dylan Guerra the award for Outstanding Writing, Horror and a jury of one gave the film what we call, “Programmer’s Prize for Exceptional Filmmaking.”

Don’t come at me too hard for saying this, but this darkly comic tribute to The Shining is, for me, better than the original book or film because the perspective is fresh and authentic.

Clarke directed, co-wrote and played the lead character in the film.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             Much to my chagrin, “A Shining Example” played in the theater where I was not moderating Q&A’s, an unfortunate fact that kept me from praising Clarke’s work in front of an audience.                                 Happily Clarke is among the first to hop onto the Discover Indie Film podcast after SOFF 2024, which made e feel a lot better that I was in the theater next door during her Q&A.

You can follow Clarke on Instagram at @clarkewolfe
(https://www.instagram.com/clarkewolfe/)

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Discover Indie Film

Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter

The INDIE Channel

The INDIE Channel Website – Instagram – Facebook – X/Twitter – TikTok

Source: Discover Film