Bentonville Film Festival - Urban Country
Every Journey Begins With One Step. Faith, a young girl from the city, moves to a horse ranch in the country to help her dying mother.
Interview with Producer Matt Keith and Writer Gianna Montelaro
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Matt Keith: We made URBAN COUNTRY because our production team recently had two other successful inspirational, family films.
Gianna Montelaro: We wanted to make a movie that everyone in the family could enjoy. Something moving and inspirational, appropriate but still relevant.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Matt Keith: I think our acting is strong, and it's a film that the whole family can watch together.
Gianna Montelaro: You should watch this film to be inspired by growth. To see a young girl overcome bad circumstances and make plans for a bigger and better life for herself by any means necessary. This film is also about forgiveness, forgiving others and forgiving yourself.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
Gianna Montelaro: At some point in our lives, we all come to a fork in the road, we have decisions to make that will change our lives for good or for bad. These decision cannot be undone. Urban country shows faith growing from an immature, angry person into a hopeful, mature young lady.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Gianna Montelaro: The story evolved quite a bit. especially when it came to giving the story on Faith’s journey with her parents through her childhood. We wanted this movie to be about HER journey, not THEIR journey, so we cut lots of details out so that our audience could just focus on her.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Gianna Montelaro: We’ve gotten really positive feedback so far. People like that it’s not a traditional movie. It’s geared toward a younger audience in the sense that children of any age can watch it, but grownups can still enjoy the content because it’s bigger than an animated film.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Gianna Montelaro: We are surprise by any of the negative feedback, or questions people ask to try to fill in the blanks. every bit of negative feedback that we have gotten was right on target for what we expected. But at the end of the day, this project accomplished exactly what we hoped it would. We could not be more proud of the final product.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
Matt Keith: We are looking to gain more awareness about our film and expand our following.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Matt Keith: We need the "word" to be spread.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Gianna Montelaro: We just want people to know that mistakes can be overcome. We all make them, bit it is what we do after that really counts. Never give up on yourself.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Gianna Montelaro: Why is she so angry with her mother. or why was she living with her father and not her mother. People have been so concerned about this. But we just decided not to tell that story. I’m just happy that they’ve paid enough attention to notice that that was never addressed. Also why did she go to jail for what she did? People don’t think what she did was severe enough to be incarcerated, not realizing that she assaulted her classmate, using her skateboard as a weapon.
Would you like to add anything else?
Matt Keith: We have been successful in the inspirational, family genre and we expect URBAN COUNTRY to follow that same path!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Matt Keith: We are looking for more inspirational scripts to acquire and produce.
Interview: April 2018
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We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, scifi, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
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URBAN COUNTRY
Every Journey Begins With One Step. Faith, a young girl from the city, moves to a horse ranch in the country to help her dying mother.
Length: 88 Minutes
Director: Teddy Smith
Producer: Matt Keith
Writer: Gianna Montelaro
About the writer, director and producer:
Matt Keith is the owner of Leverage Films. He has produced nearly 40 projects since 2006. URBAN COUNTRY is Director Teddy Smith's third full length feature. URBAN COUNTRY is Writer Gianna Montelaro's second script to be produced.
Key cast: Brighton Sharbino, Lou Diamond Phillips, Jason London, Candice Michele Barley, Saxon Sharbino, Dean West, Bryan Arthur Marroquin and C. Thomas Howell.
Looking for (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists):
We are looking to gain more awareness and create additional press through Bentonvile. We have received 5 respectable offers from distributors, and we expect to sign the week of the Bentonville Film Festival.
Social media handles:
Facebook: facebook.com/urbancountryfilm
Twitter: twitter.com/urbancountry
Instagram: instagram.com/urbancountryfilm
Made in association with: BIC Media Solutions
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? The film will have a limited theatrical in August and release in September domestically.