Counting Down and Looking Back - We are the Mods Update

So, as you can see from our lovely countdown widget to the right, there are only 31 days until the magnificent hubbub of Independent Film Week. I will start looking forward by looking back and reporting on the progress of some of last year's alums, particularly those that blogged for us at Filmmaker Magazine. First up, is E.E. Cassidy, director of the film WE ARE THE MODS.

The film, according to Filmmaker Magazine's Scott Macauley is "a teen drama that references (with, by the way, both imagination and restraint) the classic “good girl corrupted by the bad” storyline familiar from films like Thirteen and Poison Ivy. But it‘s also an affectionate and good-hearted homage to not only seminal films of the 1960s but also to the heady rush of young artistic discovery familiar to any sensitive ex-high schooler. Cassidy‘s tale of the contemporary mod subculture — teens in geometrically balanced dresses and suits who listen to British-flavored rock and ska and drive Vespa scooters — is full of knowing nods to Antonioni‘s Blow-Up, Godard‘s Bande à part and the films of William Klein.

is a dual alum of IFP - first IFP Narrative Rough Cut Lab and then last year's Independent Film Week. In her first entry, Cassidy wrote of her first meetings. An excerpt: "My first meeting was with Stephen Raphael of Requiring Viewing a very cool guy who is working with Lance Hammer and his film Ballast.I also met with the awesome Scott Macaulay, Sam Sibble of the Film Sales Company, Jared Moshe of Sidetrack Films, and Josh Green of Emerging Pictures. It was an invaluable opportunity to have access to such amazing film people."

Since her time at Independent Film Week, Cassidy has been featured in IndieWire, played several festivals – from San Francisco to Brisbane, Australia, and won three awards at OutFest - The Outfest 2009 Audience Award For Outstanding First U.S. Dramatic Feature Film (Cash Prize Of $5,000 From HBO), The Outfest 2009 Audience Award For Outstanding Soundtrack, and The Outfest 2009 Grand Jury Award For Outstanding Screenwriting.

More updates daily on past Independent Film Week filmmakers, and if anyone else has a success story to share, please comment.