In Episode 2, host Kirk Nordenstrom chats with Indra Van’t Hoof, the longtime producer of the Amsterdam 48 Hour Film Project and one of the most imaginative voices in the international 48HFP scene. From claymation to chaotic genre draws, Indra shares stories from the frontlines of Dutch creativity—including what makes Amsterdam’s film community so vibrant, how animation teams approach the 48-hour challenge, and the unique energy that international filmmakers bring to the competition. It’s a global spin on DIY filmmaking that proves great stories—and wild weekends—know no borders.
In this episode of 48 Hour Heroes, host Kirk Nordenstrom sits down with Indra Van’t Hoof, producer of the Amsterdam 48 Hour Film Project and a fierce champion of experimental storytelling.
Topics covered include:
How Indra got involved with the 48HFP
What makes Amsterdam’s filmmaking scene so unique
Why animation teams love the 48-hour format
Strategies for organizing international 48HFP events
Memorable moments from years of chaos, clay, and creativity
The magic of watching total strangers become collaborators—and sometimes lifelong friends
🎬 Whether you’re an animator, a city producer, or just 48HFP-curious, this episode is full of insight, laughs, and a few Dutch surprises.
🔗 Learn more: 48hourfilm.com
🎧 Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and share the pod with your filmmaking crew!
48HFPHEROES-EP02-INDRAVANTHOOF
Kirk: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to episode two of 48 Hour Heroes Origin Stories. I'm your host, Kirk Norden Strom, co-producer of the Seattle and Montana 48 hour film projects. And in episode two, I'm going to speak with a dear friend of mine from the Netherlands. Her name is Indra Van Ho, and she is a city producer for Eindhoven and in the Netherlands.
She's new to the gig, she's only been doing it a couple of years, but she has competed in 42, 48 hour film projects over the years. And one year was the city winner and actually went to the short film corner at the Cannes Film Festival, which is, no small feat, and it's the, the Holy Grail for 48 hour filmmakers around the world.
The reason I wanted to talk to Indra early on in this is [00:01:00] that Filmapalooza Palooza is coming up March 9th through 12th in Washington, DC and. In a lot of ways, Indra really encapsulates for me what Filmapalooza is all about. In 2018, when Filmapalooza Palooza was in Paris, my wife Kasha and I were attending the opening night screening, a retrospective for the best French films and some of the other best films over the years in the 48 hour film project.
And I remember Kasha and I were sitting in the theater and there was this purple haired woman. Sitting right behind me. And in the spirit of Filmapalooza, I introduced myself and it turns out that it was Indra. And, we just started chatting. She told me all about her film and introduced me to the actor in her film.
And we were Facebook friends shortly after that. And we chatted throughout the duration of Filmapalooza Palooza and, became casual friends over the course of [00:02:00] those five days in Paris. Fast forward two years to Filmapalooza Palooza in Rotterdam, and the first day I see Indra working at the registration desk, and it was excited to see her because, we'd been Facebook friends, but we hadn't seen each other in person in two years.
And I saw all the ink on her arm. And my buddy Chris Cherry from Toronto, we had decided that we wanted to get tattoos and our colleague Laura Schlecht from Houston had bailed on the idea of getting the tattoo with us. Understandable. It's a bit of a commitment. We'd known that Indra had done all these 40 eights in the past and it was in her blood, so we figured why not?
We'll ask if she wants to get it on her skin as well. So we asked Indra, Hey, Chris and I we're gonna go get tattoos of the 48 logo. And she said, yeah, without a second thought, just boom. Yeah, I'll do it. We found the place, a place called Bob's tattoos, which is just right [00:03:00] across the water from us walking distance.
It was great, and sure enough, Chris Indra and I, we got the 48 tattoos and, Indra's kind of become the younger sister I never had. That's why she encapsulates. What Filmapalooza is and encapsulates, just how much fun Filmapalooza is. So without further ado, let's get into the episode.
Here's episode 2 48 Hour Heroes, origin Stories, and my interview with Indra Van Hoof.
Hello everyone. My name is Kirk Norstrom. I am the coast City producer of the Seattle 48 Hour Film Project and the Montana 48 hour film project. If you're watching this, you probably participated in the 48 or have gone to a screening of the [00:04:00] 48. And I'd like to get some behind the scenes tidbits of the minutia and trivia of what goes on in the 48.
So I thought I'd step up and talk to the vast network of people associated with the 48 that I've accumulated since. 2005 when I started in Seattle. And let's see here. So Film Palooza, which is the international best of event of the 48, where the rest of the world gets mad at the Dutch and French because their films are so damn good.
It's, all the filmmakers from all over the world. From the 130 cities where the 48 is held in. We all get together, we watch each other's movies, embarrass ourselves, singing karaoke, and basically have, a fantastic time in creating this, giant family network of filmmakers.
And that's coming up. In March of 2022, it'll be the 20th [00:05:00] anniversary of Foma Palooza. So it's fitting that it'll be in Washington DC where Mark Rupert and Liz Langston first kicked off the 48 hour film project 21 years ago. And, FOMA Palooza is my favorite holiday. I love it. It's, it's right up there with Halloween and, Christmas and Thanksgiving for me.
And, I love that I meet so many people, make, creative connections and, personal connections. And this is the first one in two years in person. So it's gonna be a really special one. And the first person I wanted to talk to was my dear friend, Indra here. Because in many ways she exemplifies what Filmapalooza is in 2018, Filmapalooza had its first international iteration, which was in Paris.
And it was, it was Olivier Dussausse who runs all the French 40 [00:06:00] eights, unsurprisingly, put on an amazing Filmapalooza. It was, memorable in so many ways especially since it was my first time to Paris as well, which is just amazing. Always wanted to go studied French for nine years in San Jose, California.
Weird thing to learn in San Jose, but I got to speak French and the opening night retrospective my wife Kasha and I went to this gorgeous old theater in historical theater, Inmar to watch five of the best French films over the years and five of the best international films over the years.
And we sat in front of two Dutch people, one bald and one with purple hair, and we just started chatting and hit it off and, went about the rest of film Palooza had an amazing time. And then in 2020, I. Days before the lockdowns and the [00:07:00] pandemic happened, 500 of us were running around Rotterdam hugging and shaking hands and crowding theaters and going to bars and getting tattoos.
And, first day at the registration desk, there's Indra and Chris Cherry, our counterpart in Toronto. We wanted to get a 48 tattoo, and we knew that Indra had done a couple of 48 hours in the past. We'll get into that in a little bit and was, inked up to high heaven and we need a third, kinda like the band of Hobbits needed a, needed a 13th.
And yeah, she's done a whole ton of 40 eights and speaks the language and, do you wanna get a tattoo with us? She's yeah. And with that I give you Indra.
Indra: It's me. It's you. Hi. It's so cool. It's it's so cool to go back in my head and especially that first night in Paris, 'cause it was my first [00:08:00] film.
I was there as a filmmaker because we won one of the Dutch editions the year before. And I was there with my dear friend Patrick who was the main actor in our film. And I just remember it was my first time in Paris as well. And I just remember sitting there in that beautiful theater 'cause it was just gorgeous, wasn't it?
And seeing all these people from all around the world coming in. And just talking to everyone. And then you guys sat behind us and we're like, he seems cool. These are my type of people, a bit alternative bit, not fitting into, we probably
Kirk: dress something like this.
Indra: You were.
So we, yeah, like you said, we started talking and I found out you were a city producer and that, that's been in the back of my head for a long time to, to become that. And then we saw each other again in Rotterdam. And you approached me, you and Chris about doing the tattoo.
And I do like my ink. So yeah, so we went to the it's a famous Dutch tattoo shop called Tattoo Bob, and we went there. [00:09:00] We had a camera crew with us and a few other people. It was just like happening. It was just so cool. It's just like the ultimate thing to do together, right? You were the, you went first because you wanted an absolutely true and right to be the first one ever to get a 48 hour logo tattoo.
And then I think Chris went, and then I finished up last.
Kirk: Yes.
Indra: And you got it on the inside of your arm, right?
Kirk: I got it, yeah. Right there.
Indra: Yeah, I got it right there too. By now there's a bit more surrounding it
because
Indra: I'm starting the sleeve, but it's still there because my artist, the one who's doing my sleeve she said the placing is a bit awkward.
Should we cover it up? I said, nah, no, we're not covering it up now. Yeah, but it's not that pretty. I said, it doesn't matter that it's maybe not pretty in your eyes. It's pretty in my eyes. And what it stands for is even prettier because it's 48. It's everything. So never covering that up ever.
Kirk: But yeah, that's [00:10:00] Filmapalooza.
When you think of, the people we know all over the world now, I always, I always like to joke that, if I need a room to crash in, if I'm in Ula, Batar Mongolia I can get hooked up. Yeah. If I go to Karachi Pakistan, I can get hooked up.
Indra: Yeah. We say, KK hook us up.
Kirk: Yeah, exactly.
Indra: And yeah, but that's, I think that's the beauty of it. I've always done the 48 hour in, in, in the Netherlands, and we have six different cities here five, six different cities that do it. So my network went from, I don't know anybody to, I know everyone in our tiny little country.
And then I went to, in Paris, my first one. And from there on it just exploded. And now I have friends and people I know all over the planet. And it's just a mental thing to think of that a yeah. A filmmaking competition, which we, essentially are Can do that to someone.
Yeah. To,
Indra: that, if I want to [00:11:00] go to, like you said, ULA Batar is a great example.
I always have to explain where that is because people don't know it. But if I wanna go to Japan, Poland anywhere in the States Mexico name, you name it there's bound to be someone there who does 48 and says, come stay with me. It's a family thing. And it Exactly.
Kirk: And that's, one of the things that I think, personally helped my sanity during the.
Pandemic and the lockdowns was, for a good stretch, we had our weekly, Sunday. Morning slash evening, zoom calls and those went on for, about three months we did it, pretty religiously. And it was just great seeing Dino and Iris and Chad and Chris and Alene and KK and occasionally Mark or Christina, Christina would pop in and that, that really helped in that time of detachment, very literal detachment.
It, really [00:12:00] helped me. And they go for two, two and a half hours. Sometimes
Indra: they did. And then Olive y would pop up with his bottle of wine in hand. And it's like early morning for you guys and we are over here drinking wine 'cause it's like after five we're good.
But also, talking about everything, right? But also sharing experiences and, how do you guys do this and how do you guys do that? Because by now, I've been a city producer for a year and a half now, and shortly after Phil, my rot dam I became official
Kirk: and no one was surprised.
Indra: No. See, the thing is though, because Pierre our lovely Pierre, who has been a city producer for two cities here for about eight years taught me everything. Love the man to high and back. He's been nagging me for this for years and years. And then since Paris, mark also started to, don't you wanna, wouldn't it be cool to, I mean [00:13:00] you've done 42 of them, isn't it time for next?
And I'm like, yeah, I dunno. It would be cool. But then I wouldn't be able to do the actual 40 eights anymore. And I like to still make the films. And then because I helped out, I was allowed to help out Hanson Sper during film at, in, in so much, I just fell in love with the whole other side of it.
And spoke to all of you guys, what's it like and do you miss making the films and talking to all of you guys. I basically decided that week this is what I wanna do, and a week later I was efficient. So those meetings, not just being able to talk about the pandemic and, seeing what it's like for you guys over there and what it's, like for us over here in Europe and made you feel closer to each other.
Because you're all same thing together. But also learning from each other and just having fun and hearing all the weird stories and situations that you end up in, doing 48. It's just, yeah. It was so much fun. It was so much fun.
Kirk: Yeah. It's crazy when you start hearing the stories you behind the curtains, you go off and you have, your own [00:14:00] crazy adventures making these films.
And then you talk to the city producers and you who invariably have. The utmost regard and respect for everyone, who participates in it, from the first timers and hobbyists, to the film students, to the young careerists all the way up to pros who, just need a creative break for making, content for Amazon and Microsoft and Nintendo and T-Mobile, the soul crushing forward
Indra: stuff and
Kirk: stuff.
Indra: Yeah. All creative stuff. Yeah.
Kirk: And they come in and just, the stories you collect over the years of, just seeing this myriad, rainbow colored, pastiche of filmmakers. Yeah. But then, yeah, you come to the other side and you just see there's a lot to commiserate about and a lot to celebrate.
Indra: Exactly. Because what struck me the most, I think is, i, like I said, I've done 42 of them things, I know how this game works. I know it better than Mark [00:15:00] does. And then knowing that, I made a mistake once or twice with one of the elements, with the propor of the character, the line, whatnot.
And I told the line of disqualification a few times and now, and then I was like, no, you can't disqualify me, blah, blah, blah. And now I'm sitting on the other side of that fence and I'm looking at these films and I'm just sitting there praying they got it right. Because I don't wanna make that phone call.
I don't wanna make that phone call.
Kirk: It's a rough one to make.
Indra: It's horrible. It's horrible.
Kirk: There's, there's
Indra: how much goes into it,
Kirk: yeah. And the reactions are always so it's either, yeah, we know. It's cool, we messed up. We know we did. Or you are killing my baby. You're killing art.
Indra: Like I put everything into this. I know, there's rules I can't bend. Yeah. Because the rules is what [00:16:00] make up the backbone of this entire competition. But I think the, you know what struck me the most of all besides, all the practical stuff that goes with being a city producer is the true and honest feeling of friendship and family between, such a great group of us and, 'cause I thought, I know, it's all lovely people and they all like each other and it's fine.
But actually being in the center of it and then having those meetings, like you said, those Zoom calls if you have an issue, you, there's always someone there to help. It's just such a warm bath that you like, get invited into. Because, there's been, there've been people that are quite new like myself.
There's been, there's people that have been doing it for ages like yourself, but still with this much love and enthusiasm for, the competition and the films and the filmmakers. Yeah. I just think it's, there's nothing like it. There's nothing like it.
Kirk: Yeah.
It's, [00:17:00] yeah. I can't wait to see everyone, it's,
oh, same.
Kirk: But it's that, it's a family reunion, it's, I didn't go to my, like homecoming dances or, senior prom or anything. I, I wasn't interested in that. I went to prime shows instead. And, Filmapalooza is that for me, it's my version of, homecoming and prom and, but it's more like a, family reunion too, where we all get to get all day.
Indra: Yeah. We all get together and especially, there's the feeling of, international. Collaboration and bonding is so cool because you are, like, right now you're on the other side of the planet.
Kirk: Yeah. We're nine time zones apart
Indra: and we're nine time zones apart.
And later on today I have, it's 11 o'clock at night for me when I have a meeting with Mark and it's five o'clock for them. But it's fine because that's just how it's, so you go to filmer and all of a sudden you're all in the same time [00:18:00] zone. You're all there together. You can, you go have a drink, go have a laugh, go have a talk.
It's a, it's like a family re reunion, holiday outing, all put together. Yeah.
And same with the filmmakers, because you get to meet people from all over the world that have been playing the exact same game, whether you're from, somewhere in the states or from Japan. It's all the same thing and you all have the same experiences.
How many hours did you sleep? I slept none. Yeah, me too. Me too. It's the same thing
everywhere. Yeah. It's just,
Kirk: yeah, and it's nice because, you get to see the host city, in a way that I like to travel, which is, a little by the seat of my pants, more like touring with a rock band than traditional.
Holiday tour, like in so when it was in Paris, I'd never been, I, I'd been all over Europe at that point. Except for Germany, [00:19:00] France, England, Spain, the places that, most Americans, dream of going, I go to Bulgaria and Serbia and Poland and
Norway,
Kirk: all great places.
Love, love all those places. Had been to Italy and, spent my entire time, five days in Italy, pissed off at how good the food and coffee were everywhere. But Kasha, my wife she'd been to Paris and she loves it. We stayed, we didn't stay at the official hotel 'cause it was a little out of our price range.
And, but we stayed at this nice, comfortable little hotel that was four blocks from the Louvre. We found, a bakery around the corner. We had breakfast at every day. There was a, brasserie right on the corner where, we'd get espresso and beer at, we trumped around and, saw some cautious favorite places, but it was so compressed, we didn't get to go to the Louv.
It was just like, we didn't wanna waste half a day just getting into the place.
Yeah.
Kirk: But, we made two trips to Mart. What, we walked from [00:20:00] our hotel to the Arc Deum. I got a Cro Maeu out by the, Eiffel Tower and, we saw a lot of it in, just a few days, went to the the Pompadour, which Kasha was really excited about.
She's, big art nut. And then, we hung out with city producers and friends and, watched movies and, swap stories. It's just, when you get the inside track from your local host it's great, because in 2017 we hosted, hosted it here in Seattle.
And I wish Chris had been my co-producer then, because events are her thing. That's what she does. I was flying by the seat of my pants and, our opening night kickoff was at the lobby for KEXP and, which is a pretty, it's a world renowned radio station at this point.
And, we had the executive director of the Seattle Mayor's Office of Film and Music Talk. We had Amy Lillard, our Washington State [00:21:00] Film Commissioner talk. Nice and 400 people from all over the world with the help of one of our, sibling film festivals, stiff they provided all the booze.
Very
important.
Kirk: Yeah. Yeah. And then, I got up and I was just looking around and I normally don't have a problem, speaking in front of crowds, but I was just looking. It was like, there's people from all over the world here right now. This is, they're in my hometown, I gotta make sure they're having a good time.
I barely slept that entire I Oh pressure. Never intended anything. Pressure. Yeah. Gosh.
It was just amazing. And it was great to have Kate Becker, who was, who used to be the director of the Office of Film and Music for Seattle. She's now working with King County, which is where Seattle's in King County working there and doing amazing work there.
And Amy Lillard from Washington Film Works, the state film commissioner. It was great. 'cause they, [00:22:00] afterwards they were just like, holy crap. They've been so helpful with me in the 48 over the years. They had no idea just the global scope of it. They were blown.
Indra: Yeah.
Most people don't. If you, people that participate regularly, they know. But if I for instance, go out and look for, I dunno, new sponsor or whatnot, right? Then I go, what was International Film Festival filmmaking competition festival thing. We're an over 130 cities in the world. They go really isn't that big?
Yeah, it's that big. And it's, I think, the marketing can be, even we can be even bigger. But it's a worldwide phenomena in a certain part of the industry. And there's a lot of people that start out doing 48 like myself when I did my very first 48 back in 2011.
So it's my 10 year anniversary this year, I suppose when I started out with Pierre as an actress, we do not speak of [00:23:00] this I. Pretty bad, proper bad. It like opened the door in my soul saying, oh, hold on. So this is what you're supposed to be doing. You're supposed to be making films. Ah, and from there on out, I learned about the 48 and how big it was and, people involved.
And from there on out, I started meeting people. I started learning how to produce, I started learning how to make films. I now have my own my own company in the auto audio visual industry. I run three cities in the Netherlands. I get to help produce film AZA for the second year in a row. What
little old me knowing absolutely nothing with no film related schooling or whatever. This is what the 48 can do for you. If have passion and have love for filmmaking, for storytelling for people it can bring you like in my case, [00:24:00] everything. Everything.
Kirk: Yeah. That's, I got involved in the 48, in a, strange way in that it was 2004, I was two year, two and a half years out of film school, looking to, still developing my career and just wanting to get into anything I could.
And we heard about this thing called the 48 Hour film project. And a bunch of my friends were like, this sounds really cool, it's totally doable. And we look at the website, no, Seattle, and I'm like. That's bullshit. What's up with that? Portland has it, and Portland, there's a friendly rivalry between, Portland and Seattle.
It's just three hours to the south. Which in European terms is like four countries away.
Indra: True. No lie, depending on what
Kirk: part of it you're up, you're in. And so I [00:25:00] just, I started emailing Mark and Liz, like, why don't you have this as bs? And they ever so politely put up with these terrible emails I sent 'em and they're like if you're interested, ever the diplomats.
Like we have a sibling competition called the National Film Challenge. It goes on internationally. It's now the four points. Ah. The National Film Challenge became four points. And if you're interested, it's the same thing except it goes on worldwide the same weekend, and you get 72 hours instead of 48.
I was like, cool, thanks. So I put out a call to friends and they said, we had way too much of a response. Enough that we actually split into two teams, registered two teams, and one team did so well making, a [00:26:00] film noir comedy, that it was invited to film A Palooza, which is in my hometown of San Jose, California in 2005, which is, really crazy.
San Jose has some culture in it. What's, that's weird.
We always kinda referred to it as like the armpit of the Bay Area.
That's our,
Kirk: that's San Jose. And the team that I ended up on our film, it was funny, but the poor director, he got screwed so hard like 2:00 AM He's okay, I am happy with where the script idea is going. He's I'm gonna go get some sleep and get ready.
And I'm like, okay, cool. Dave's happy. The writers are gonna write the script. So I'm like, I'm gonna take a nap too. 'cause I gotta produce two teams this weekend. They wait for me to fall asleep. We're in our office in, downtown Belltown, Seattle. They trash the script and start over. So 6:00 AM rolls around.
Director shows up and just goes what is this? And all [00:27:00] the writers had fled. They just, they wrote this new thing and Poor Dave, he had to you recreate. Everything from memory.
Indra: They just left.
Kirk: Yeah, I woke up. They were gone. There was a script and yeah, it was.
It was a case, it
Kirk: was a case of clashing egos and, young filmmakers, I don't bear anyone, any grudges from it.
Dave pulled it off, he finished it on time. But, it just wasn't great. It was funny. It was fun to watch, but not a solid story. So the other film, the other team, they were just laser focused and, they knocked it out of the park. We got invited to film.
It screened, it's in my hometown. I'm staying with my brother and my sister-in-law to be, and having a blast. I'm in my early thirties and, friends from Seattle came down and we drank with the boys from Sheffield, like you wouldn't believe. And [00:28:00] last night. A Filmapalooza at a hotel in downtown San Jose, which had cleaned up a lot since I, moved away.
And from San Jose in 1990, we were having drinks with he is blank on his name, but he was the library cop from Seinfeld. He was in a film called Duck that was playing at Squa and he's telling all of us youngsters to, just stay at it. Do what you love. It was great. He was fantastic.
At the end of the night, Liz comes up and she's yeah, mark and I, we really loved your film. And I'm like, I really had nothing to do other with that film other than get food to them, check in to make sure they're on schedule. They were really self-contained and I'm just wasted at this point, just wasted because I could do that back then.
Yeah. And so Liz says seems like you had a good time. I'm like, yeah, I can't wait to do it [00:29:00] again. She goes, how'd you like to start up the 48 hour film project in Seattle? And I was like, yeah, let's do it. Yeah. And I wake up the next morning, just hung over I'm an editor. What did I just sign up for?
What? Oh. And. This is 2005. 48 was still a baby. It was only in 25 cities at that point.
Indra: Yeah.
Kirk: And a lot of the tools that we city producers used, they didn't exist. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, none of that existed. We had to hit bulletin boards and Craigslist,
Indra: MySpace.
Kirk: MySpace wasn't even that big, oh,
Indra: go
figure then,
Kirk: yet, it was used and so it really was very DIY and the help that Mark and Liz, they were very hands on and I gotta thank Rob Hatch from Baltimore and Portland. He was [00:30:00] my mentor first couple of years 'cause he had a couple of years under his belt.
He's the only producer in the game right now that's been doing it longer than me. I.
Indra: Really
Kirk: by one year.
Indra: By one year. Oh
Kirk: yeah. Those three, they really helped me, get it off the ground, get it on good footing, and, help grow it. And then, Christina and Ben and Brian and Laura all came into the picture over the next come coming years and our, base of tools, started to grow, made it easier and easier.
I couldn't believe, I pulled it off in 2005 and only three months, wow. Between inception and getting it going with 24 teams, 20. I'm in a metropolitan area of about 2 million people, so
Indra: Oh yeah. The scale of everything still gets to me at you guys.
I swear to God. 'cause I've never been to the States, right? So Washington is gonna be my very first [00:31:00] visit and taste of the United States. And I think, because again, I live in the Netherlands, we're about this tiny
no,
Indra: if you drive from my place three hours, you are in France and you skip Belgium and Luxembourg.
The, and when you say, oh, we got 24 teams on the first try, I'm like that's really good. And then you say we have, 2 million people. I'm like, oh yeah. So we have six, six cities over 17 million. But a very, I'd say, I think a smaller film industry perhaps than for instance, Seattle.
Kirk: We're one of the flyover states when it comes to the industry because we got, Vancouver just to the north of us,
right? We
Kirk: have, massive studio system, massive tax incentives, right? And then we have Oregon to the south, which has a bigger film incentive than we do. And then to the east, we have Montana who just in 2019 fired up their film incentive.
And it started out at three times the size of [00:32:00] our, which had been around for over a decade at that point. It's we're working on it. I work heavily, lobbying on behalf of our film incentive. But yeah, the distances and the populations, Europe tends to be more densely populated, pockets of multiple cities.
And just to put it into perspective. When I go visit my brother and his family in Montana, I make this drive in one day. It's an 800 kilometer drive, and in between, let's see here, and in between, basically Seattle metropolitan area and the Missoula metropolitan area. It's only a city of 50,000 people and they live south of that.
Let's see here. I hit, there's really only one, two cities along the way, along that stretch, there's a bunch of towns. But yeah, there's only [00:33:00] two, two cities that you hit before you hit, Missoula. There's Spokane and Coeur d'Alene, and
Indra: I can't wait to get a taste of this.
I swear to God I can't wait. But you're gonna be
Kirk: on the East Coast, so it's gonna be. Much more similar to a European experience. It's once you get west of the Mississippi, that these distances just become way more vast.
Indra: As far as I know we're not gonna have film out in Europe anytime soon anymore.
There might be another challenge for me to visit the the West Coast. You never know.
Kirk: I, Chris and I are, championing at the bit to get film it back to Seattle.
Indra: Oh, that'll be cool.
Kirk: We don't have any formal proposals or anything in, but, we're gonna, it was.
It was good film, to be fair.
Indra: To be fair though, shouldn't it be the one year in the US and then the next year in Europe and
Kirk: that's, yeah. That's really been the goal.
Indra: There's quite a few cities that can actually pull it off. I'm pretty sure, London could pull it off.
Definitely. Gideon could pull that off. Gideon for listening. I'll [00:34:00] fly over and come and help. It's fine.
Prog Prague. I want P David.
Indra: Yes, Prague would be great. Yeah. I would love to bring it back to Netherlands, but it will be very hard to talk what our dear friends Hans Sper have done because that was,
Kirk: killed it.
Indra: Fantastic effort.
Kirk: That was amazing.
Indra: Killed it there. There was so good and it was all very well organized and so fun and so streamlined and so pretty and
wet.
Indra: Especially because like literally days after the whole world turned upside down. Yeah. And I remember sitting at home, I ca I think, 'cause we were there until the Sunday and I think I, I sat at home the day after I, I came back and then, the whole COVID Corona thing started sprouting was showing his ugly head and I'm.
I was hugging like a hundred people yesterday.
What's going on? And I remember Mark being, the clever man that he is. I saw him and I hadn't seen him since Barr [00:35:00] and I really wanted to give him a hug. So I did the little slow moral kind of thing towards him and I went like this. And he went no, I know. He said, I'm sorry, but I'm just gonna tap my foot.
So he stuck out his leg and he tapped his foot against mine and I'm very unbalanced person as is. So it was quite, awkward, but I'm like, this guy is nuts, right? This guy is nuts. Turns out he was the cleverest of all.
Kirk: Yeah. Yeah. I remember, flying out of a SeaTac airport. I flew out on February 29th and because I like to.
Even though I wasn't working a film that year, I wanted to have, I like to, feather my trip with a day on either side and spent the night in Amsterdam and learned that in Amsterdam, people don't get up early. Very hard to find coffee when jet lag wakes you up at four 30.
Indra: I remember you posted that picture on Facebook.
Kirk: Yeah. No one's here. [00:36:00]
Indra: What's happening. Yeah. Yeah. But,
Kirk: sea Tac Airport and Kevi in Iceland were both, packed on the flight out. And I actually, I caught my flight home. It was again skippo to Revic to Seattle, and I was actually on the flight from Amsterdam to Revic with Chris and Jesse from Toronto.
And, they're. Chris has been a dear friend since I met him at Film Palooza in 2013. I met Jesse, his wife in film Palooza Paris, and it was funny 'cause, I go to more film paloozas than he does, he messages me in 2018. You go into Filmapalooza. I'm like, I am.
And he is I'm bringing Jesse. I'm like, I'm bringing Kasha. And so all of a sudden I know that, at that moment in Toronto, there's a conversation. It was like, oh my God, I can't wait for you to meet Kirk. [00:37:00] And I turned, and there's a conversation in Seattle. I turned to Kasha. Oh my God, I can't wait for you to meet Chris.
And then, we all got together and, Jesse and Kasha hit it off immediately. Kasha, and, Chris hit it off, Jesse and I hit it off and we, we hit 'em. Blast together.
Indra: It's lovely. They're lovely people. They're like, fantastic. And of course the three of us are linked for life.
Yes. Through the power of Ike. But I think you would never, ever make friends with people from, over there or over here if you weren't involved in the 48. That's, 'cause I went to right after so after. In 2017 I had the pleasure of being in Paris for Filmapalooza and I both Filmapalooza Palooza for that matter, two of the best weeks of my life.
Hands down. Hands down. Then after I also got to go to Ken and they have the 48 hour screening there and the parties and I met people [00:38:00] from Ula Batar, the boys from Lum Batar were there. Gorgeous film. I it. Oh, it makes me cry every time. Beautiful. The people from from Buffalo shout out to Jordan and this hashtag Buffalo crew.
We had the best time with them in Con and I just found out there's like this promotional video for 48 and for Film Palooza and that, and we're all in that. So Patrick and I are in there and the Buffalo crew is in there. And I met Jordan there, really hope to see him again in in Washington.
And we just had a blast there. It was just so special because, gun in itself is a crazy business. It is mental. It's like it's own little universe and it's completely mad, but fantastic and like I would've, I remember standing there in on like the strip or whatever you call it, the Boulevard. Let's keep it the Boulevard standing there in my.
Black tie dress with my blue [00:39:00] hair and my blue dress thinking I'm at the film festival in, can I have a film screening at the film festival in can. And when that hit me, I'm thinking I'm here because of the 48. I would've never ever gotten here if it wasn't four to 48. And old people I met throughout the years.
And I remember standing there thinking, I wish my dad could have seen this for, first. And then this is absolutely insane.
This is insane. Yeah.
Indra: But I think that's, that sums up the 48 pretty well. Yeah, it's insane, but it's insanely awesome and insanely loving. And crazy and 'cause, yes.
It's crazy. It's
Kirk: crazy. Yeah. It's, it's my favorite time of year I can't wait to go to dc It's, it's been a long time in coming, for DC to host [00:40:00] it. And I, I'm really, excited for mark and Christina. 'cause definitely they get to, show us the birthplace and, I haven't been to DC since my senior year in high school.
I've been twice and when I was in eighth grade and then my senior year, I'm really excited to, see it again and terrified at the same time with, the political tenor of this country at this point. Yeah.
Indra: And corona of co COVID, obviously, I have weekly nightmares about.
Ships hitting the fan again, and, it's, it get falling through. And especially now I'm closely involved in the organizing of it all. I say all I do quite a few bits, but I do various bits and I'm, I feel so honored and so blessed to be able to help out and be involved in that and work together with Mark and with Brian and Christina.
And with everyone that's involved, obviously, because it's so huge and it means so much to so many people that you really want to do your absolute best. Meaning [00:41:00] that I'm, working 60 hours a week. So I doing my own having my own company and doing all the work for, because I love doing it for everyone, for myself.
And then being able to go there and see Mark in, his natural habitats and where it all started. I'm so pleased for them that, that it's looking, this good that we can actually go through with it. But it's very scary world right now. So it's also always in the back of my mind that it might fall through and that would absolutely break my heart.
Kirk: Yeah. Just 'cause yeah I feel, super bad for, Seattle's 2020, winners 'cause they got a virtual Filmapalooza, which, yes. Granted, you and Chris really rocked that, event. Chris
Indra: was amazing. Chris is amazing. This woman is Dynamized, I'm telling you.
Kirk: Yeah. Chris Link is my co-producer here in Seattle, for those of you that don't know. And she started, what kind of Chris's origin story is we met taking a directing class of Freehold theater here in Seattle [00:42:00] and, just hit it off immediately. Working together and we just liked each other.
Got along well and she invited me and another filmmaker friend of ours to follow a friend of ours who had stage four lung cancer do the a beer combiner cross country race in Lily Hummer Norway. And, we went over and, never cried so much while traveling because, as we went along to, 'cause he has a ton of family over there and he spent a lot of time over there and that's why he wanted to do a this race.
But we knew he was saying goodbye to everyone as we were. That's tough, visiting family. It was, it's an experience all, never regret, but it was tough, solidified that Chris and I could work together. And then she started, she'd done the 48. Volunteered at kickoff and drop off to, help me out and hit the screenings.
And then in [00:43:00] November of 2017, I was getting my horror awards together and I got a call from my brother on a Sunday saying, you need to get out to Montana now. And I tried at 4:00 PM to get on a 6:00 PM flight to Missoula. 'cause my mom was not, she was in a hospital in Missoula not doing well. So I didn't get that same day flight.
I had to wait until the next morning. But I called up Chris. And I said, can you run my, the awards event for me if necessary? I don't know if I'm gonna be back in two days or, three weeks. Turns out it was three weeks. Wow. And so she lives in maple Valley and I live in Burien. And the halfway point is the city of Renton where Boeing is.
And, we met in the parking [00:44:00] lot of this kind of sports complex community theater, it was like, must have looked like a drug deal to anyone who came by. But I was just handing off a hard drive with all the, award-winning films. And later the next day I texted Chris and just said, yeah, you're gonna have to run the awards for me.
And. On the night of the awards, I saw pictures popping up on Facebook and everyone was saying what a great time they had. And I'm like, okay, that's it, Chris. You're just you have to be my co-producer. That's, wow. So she came through, at the time that I needed it the most, I'd never missed a 48 event before, but, the death is one of one's mother kind of it surpasses most things. Yeah.
Indra: Yeah. When my dad died six years ago my dad died of cancer and two weeks after we were supposed to do 48 and my whole team was like, you don't have to, and it's [00:45:00] fine. And, I'm a producer, so I produce and but they would be, lost without me.
Great people. A team needs a producer and a proper one. And I'm like, no, I really wanna do it. And, 'cause it's important, it was important to my dad 'cause I always showed him, the films I made. Yeah. So he would've wanted me to go through it and I can really use a distraction and fun people around me now.
So that really helped me get through that. Yeah. Those first weeks and just having the support and the love of the people and getting your, your creativity out. And a year later I met someone through, someone I met 5 48 who essentially designed logo that I have for my company now, which includes my dad's profile.
Oh, nice. So even that. I got through someone I met at the 48. Yeah. And I think people like Chris, I had the pleasure of working with her earlier this year on the online event. And she is a machine, but a machine with such a big heart, and I think [00:46:00] she is just a fabulous woman. Yeah.
Kirk: Yeah. Once she's a dear friend. And I think, once we achieve a post pandemic normal I think she, she's gonna be the magic element to help us get into triple digit registration. That's, it was like, I had done all I could basically by myself. And I want, we have the population, we have the desire that I think we should be a triple digit city.
Gotta beat San Diego. That's a fun ride because there's, yeah, there's like competition between all of us as well. Oh
yeah.
Indra: We cannot, let's be honest here, let's be honest for one second. We cannot compete with cities like Mexico. With all the French cities, 'cause what they do in Mexico, like 200 teams mental 220,
Kirk: it's just insane.
Indra: It's mental. Camilla. It's mental.
Kirk: But that's a city. A city with a population of 28 million. A
Indra: city.
Kirk: [00:47:00] It's,
Indra: I mean we do about an average. I think Rotterdam is still always the biggest one here with roundabout 50 teams outside of a pandemic. That's, because we all know the numbers have been, decreased in 'cause of the pandemic, which makes sense.
So like you said, let's hope that after this is all over and we can get back to normal, whatever that's gonna be like. Everybody can go out and make films again. And, but it's fun to to have a little competition amongst ourselves saying, how many teams did you get?
Okay. And I think that's fun. I think that's healthy. Yeah. Yeah.
Kirk: It's like for, years I was like, okay, I gotta be Portland. Gotta be Portland, gotta be Portland. 'Cause the funny thing is in, 2005 when I started here, no one thought of, Portland as a place with a serious, film or TV industry.
Fast forward a couple years, they've got five TV series going and, several feature films going every year. And I.[00:48:00]
Indra: We have one of my cities, ESHA is a very small city with I don't know I don't know how many people live there. I don't know. I don't know numbers, I don't remember those. But it's small and not necessarily a very lively, film industry or anything. There's a short film festival, Oscar Qua, Oscar Qualifying short film festival that we used to work with.
And, but that's about it. But the beauty of being in a small country is that people come from everywhere. Yeah. Yeah. So we get teams from the other side of the country. That's not something that you guys get to do,
yeah.
Indra: Clearly, logically. So we have a few teams, a few teams that all of us know because they always go to, I used to be one of those teams, they'd always go to every single city and do them all every year.
'cause it's an addiction really. Even as a city producer, I feel addicted. 'cause I, we started out with two and now we're gonna do the [00:49:00] special. Which is very exciting. Yeah, it's super cool and especially for geeks like me it's a dream come true to, do a 48. That is, especially for the, genres, the sci-fi war fantasy.
I think that is needed and important. But, also, I think speaking to people at Filmer, speaking to, you guys like this via Zoom, you get insights from different cultures, from
Yeah.
Indra: Different people, different backgrounds, different everything. Exactly. And that, that, that grows you as a person so much.
Yeah.
Indra: And that's just priceless.
Yeah.
Indra: Because you gain insight into things that, I didn't know a lot about America. I live in Europe. I don't know a lot about America. I don't watch some news. I can be a little ignorant sometimes I can be, but. Knowing all you guys over there, talking to you guys about it, made me more aware of the world around me.
It's true. And and
Kirk: you met us [00:50:00] all during a very interesting time in American history.
Yeah.
Indra: Yes. But also that, every time I, I would go on, we would go on the Zoom calls and we're like, okay, how are you guys doing? Are you okay? Yeah. And it's, but it's so interesting.
And I think that is just thing. Yeah.
Kirk: Yeah. And it's. I've always been, an advocate of travel. I've traveled, I've been to most of the United States. It's a big damn country. Texas is the size of France. Yeah, I know. And France is not a small country. And in 1989, I got to go to the Soviet Union for three weeks.
St. Petersburg was still Lenin grad back then. Wow. I was 17-year-old kid and, I spent 4th of July Independence Day in Red Square in Moscow. Talk about just having your brain blown wide open and, just, as a [00:51:00] child of the eighties in the United States of, a child of the Cold War learning, which, you know, having a bunch of stereotypes and misconceptions busted, about the people of the Soviet Union, but also a lot of 'em confirmed as well. It was just, very eyeopening for me as a 17-year-old. And then didn't travel to Europe for a long time.
And in 2011 I got to go on tour with the band Culture Shock, and we went to Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and Bulgaria. And again, just my brain blown, wide open. I, came back a fundamentally different person.
Yeah, in a
Kirk: lot of ways. Angry that I can't get coffee that good at a reasonable price here.
Even the garbage coffee in Italy, it would be like a $7 shot here. Yeah. But you get it for a euro out of a vending machine there, and that's their crap. Coffee, travel, being able to travel and just, [00:52:00] meeting people and, eating different foods and, just even, I'm always struck by, this memory of just how different the clouds were in Italy, compared to where I live, in the Northwest.
It's, it just, it's a very perspective, enlarging event traveling and meeting people.
Indra: Yeah, definitely. A hundred percent. Hundred percent. And I think it, it fuels. Not only personal growth, but also creativity. And passion for the people that we do this for, yeah. That we organize these festivals and these competitions for, and after, working on it or working towards it, and then actually being there at the Oak. I remember being in Paris at the at the award show, which was in the in city hall where nobody gets to go.
Nobody gets to go
Kirk: there.
Yeah.
Kirk: That was amazing. Everybody
Indra: got in there and it was just out of a, it was just out something out of a movie. It was so pretty.
Yeah.
Indra: And in all the lights and the gold and the colors and the [00:53:00] beautiful architecture and it was just amazing. And I was there in a very uncomfortable dress and
Kirk: I was in a tie, so I was in hell.
Indra: I'm not a dressy kind of girl. We get
Kirk: along,
Indra: you gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah, exactly. You can't show up to a pretty place like that in, in jeans and a t-shirt. But I just remember sitting there thinking, I'm so privileged to, to see this on the inside because nobody gets, and then Yeah.
It's just, yeah, it's all very cheesy, mushy, gushy, but it's it's what? It's, yeah, it's what it's, and I know, from the people in my, for like my friends and stuff, most of them who I met through 48th, they moved, I wouldn't say moved on. 'cause they still sometimes do one, but none of them are as crazy about it as I am.
Now I do realize that there's not a lot of people that are as crazy about it as I am, but the feeling that you belong to something this big and are being appreciated for [00:54:00] who you are and what you do. Yeah. And that there are, that you appreciate everyone around you. For who they are and what they do.
And for all the different people we are, for all the different backgrounds, all the different colors, all the different, sexual orientation whatever you are, whatever your pronoun is. We're just one big family that loves our makers and creativity and film. And I just think that's the most beautiful thing.
It really is.
Kirk: I don't know what I can say beyond that. I think that's, I we're coming up on an hour here and I think that was just a beautiful wrap up of the whole thing.
Indra: I mean that nothing I say at the beginning.
Kirk: Then that's that's such a wonderful, wrap up of this and, focusing on, Filmapalooza and just the family that, that, the 48 creates. It's, we haven't hung out. You and I haven't hung out together much in person. I've, I feel we have, very, developed deep friendship at this point.
Indra: I agree. And whenever we
Kirk: talk, it's just like we just.
There's no real [00:55:00] catching up. It's just boom, we pick up from where we live and it's fantastic. And, I hope we gotta, get the band back together in
Indra: yes.
Kirk: In March.
Indra: I cannot wait. I cannot wait. And I please universe I'm as atheist as they come. But if there's something out there, please make sure this can happen because I.
I need it. Like my soul needs it.
Kirk: Yeah. We gotta see all our pals and, meet the new pals and
Indra: have a drink. Get things. Yes. Yes.
Kirk: Exactly. Watch great films from around the world.
Indra: Oh, I've already seen a few.
Kirk: Oh yeah. I've seen I'll finish up for you. My judging today my pre-judging. Yes.
And yeah, there's some good stuff.
Indra: Oh, there really is. There really is.
Kirk: I don't wanna say which cities I like, but there's some surprises.
Indra: Definitely. I think. But that's a cool thing, right? 'Cause for the people we like review all the [00:56:00] films before they go to the judges, right?
So we make sure that all the elements are in order and all that kind of stuff. So we get to see all these films from all around the world. And in one afternoon I'm going from Vegas to Osaka, to Melbourne to Warsaw and they're all so different. In not only in, quality, but also in feeling.
And you can sometimes taste some culture in there, but it's all the same.
Kirk: Can't I can't wait for pe I can't wait for people to see the Shanghai film.
Indra: The, I watched that yet.
Kirk: It's all about the bucket.
Indra: Oh, I watched that A Oh, that nearly me. I was laughing. There are three. There are four. I, the guy killed me.
I thought it was so clever and so funny. I love it. I had
Kirk: to watch it several times just because I kept laughing and I was missing stuff.
Indra: Yeah. I [00:57:00] love that. Yeah, I loved it. I love it. But that's so cool because it's a film from Shanghai, we're going to say. Yeah. And then. There's these two beautiful Chinese people that are doing beautiful job acting.
And then there's this weirdo speaking English, doing something very funny. It's like a mix between
Kirk: a soap opera and a noir.
Indra: Only a 48 hour Yeah. Can make this happen. There's nobody in his right mind that has time on its hands and says, you know what? This weekend I'm gonna do something crazy.
Ah, there's only 48 hour films that are that great.
Kirk: And the prop was a water bucket. And it's just talk about embracing, using the required elements. Yeah. Not finding a way to fit 'em in, but just embracing it and, running.
Indra: That's, I think to me that was always always a challenge. Yeah. I'd always say to my script writers use it because it's not there to just, wiggle in or put on a shelf somewhere. Use it as an inspiration to build the story around.
[00:58:00] Exactly.
Indra: Now, another part of being a serial producer is obviously, coming up with the elements with the props and the lines and the thing.
And I'll, I love that bit. I love that bit. Yeah. Because I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit of a sadist, so I love to make it really hard. So I came up with an aroma therapist for our last city and the, it's so funny because you, I wake up in the middle of the night, I think of Aromatherapist for some reason.
Random.
I
Indra: have very much A DHD. So just random things pop in my head all the time. And two weeks later there's 18 films. A therapist in it. It's just, it's weird, but it's also so fun. We
Kirk: had 48 films about Chris Cherry bartender this year.
Indra: Nice. I used I used Barton Anton, our friends from Ard, another city over here because it was their last year.
So I took Anton's first name and Bart's last name and put them [00:59:00] together. Nice. And they were like, whatcha? I'm like, this is fun. Yeah.
Oh
Indra: yeah.
Kirk: I've used friends in, friends of mine in, in the past, with their permission of course. So when we held Film Palooza in Seattle.
One of my best friends in the world Val Kovski he owns Solo Bar in the lower Queen Anne portion of Seattle. And he's also the guitarist for the band Culture Shock. Nice. And just one of my dearest friends and he is been such a huge supporter of the 48. Since his bar opened that one year in the horror competition I made the character Val or Valerie Kovski.
And Val's full name is actually Vati Kovski. It works perfectly. Musician
Indra: who's the last name?
Kirk: Yeah, he is. He escaped from Bulgaria. Oh wow. 1990. Yeah. Amazing story. And very successful, has successful band, two successful bars slash restaurants. [01:00:00] Wow.
It was the official hangout for, Filmapalooza Palooza in 2017. But I'd forgotten, I thought it was funny enough that I was including Val in the, as the character, but I'd forgotten that one of the participants was also a friend of Vals. So he actually got the Val Kovski to play Val Kovski.
Indra: That is genius. That is genius. I would've done the same thing. That is fantastic.
Kirk: And to top it all off, the film was basically one gigantic fart joke.
Indra: The things you see sometimes, right? It's just, it's, the creativity of people, the humor
Kirk: sometimes you wanna call, some sort of health service on people, but yes.
Indra: Are you okay, talk to me. Are you okay? Really?
Kirk: That was an awful lot of vomit in that film.
Indra: It's an
Kirk: awful lot of unexplained vomit in that [01:01:00] film.
Indra: Should we get you any help? Are you sure? Yeah. But see in the faces, when you do the awards ceremony and stuff and my hair's little freezing, seeing the happiness of, and the Yeah. How proud people are of something that they've won is just so cool.
It's just i've done 42, I won once, which is a really bad track record. But I remember the feeling, and now facilitating that feeling for people. Yeah. So cool man. So cool.
Kirk: Yeah. I don't see a time in the foreseeable future where I'm gonna stop doing this. I, I love helping advance people's careers.
Indra: Exactly. Exactly.
Kirk: Alright. I love doing,
Indra: you know what people have done for me.
Kirk: Yeah. I gotta wrap this up. Yeah, I have to go see Spider-Man in, in a Oh,
Indra: you're gonna love it. It is so good. I
Kirk: can't wait. I saw Alfred Molina and went, okay, I'm in.
Indra: Oh, you're gonna love it. It's gonna be your,
Kirk: in the heat of [01:02:00] Filmapalooza, it's gonna happen.
Just, I'm putting that out there. It's gonna happen. Yeah. I am enlisting you officially on camera as a a co-producer in. The 48 hour film project documentary, I wanna do.
Indra: A hundred percent got me in. You got me.
Kirk: Yeah, absolutely. Here's, okay. Here's a surprise twist that I wanna make. Not a surprise twist.
I wanna get Mark and Liz the founders. Two Antarctica. I want, even if it's only one team, I want a 48 produced in Antarctica with a screening with Mark and Liz present,
because the joke is, we're on six to seven continents. Let's get to that seventh continent. I love it. I love it. Mark and Liz with a 40 flag planting it at McMurdo.
Indra: That is goals. That is.
Kirk: Gold. You and me, we're gonna [01:03:00] make that happen.
Indra: Oh. We have the
Kirk: network. We have the network of people through the 48 and FOMO Palooza.
We can do this.
Indra: I don't dunno anyone in an article part of my head, but Yeah, that is,
Kirk: we could run it up the flagpole, send the feelers out in the, into the 48 verse and yeah,
Indra: let's see what we can let's see what we can cook up.
Kirk: Alright, thank you Indra. Thank you. Thank you so much.
I sincerely hope I'm gonna see you in a couple of months.
Indra: Same my friend. Same. I've got a really big fat hug, big fed hug waiting song.
Kirk: Fantastic.