A film written and directed by 20 year old Sassy Mohen. Happy Holidays is the story of five young people coming of age; grappling with love, careers, and dreams. This site is dedicated to the fans and supporters of Happy Holidays Film - with their support our dreams are becoming reality.
Clarissa, Thomas, Charles, John & Margaret deal with some intense things in the story of "Happy Holidays." But their secrets are just like yours and ours,
Pictures often lie or say more than we intend them too. With these pictures you can get a look into what is really going on beyond the exterior. They will be turned into postcards and will be available to mail.
Help spread the word or put a one of these pictures on your website/myspace. Just copy the link inside the box and you can tell a secret without having to say a word.
Starting Thursday July 7, 2007, the HH team will begin test screenings in Orange County, CA at Chapman University at 7PM. These screenings will occur every thursday through mid August.
This is not only to show the film, but to get critical and necessary feedback on how to make the film better. Everything you say will be taken into consideration for the cut of the film presented the following Thursday.
If you would like to be one of the first people to see this movie, please comment to this entry or email happyholidaysfilm@gmail.com.
We will only be taking eight people every week (besides the crew), so RSVP as soon as possible.
There will also be a major test screening on August 4, 2007 where the screening will be open to 50 people!
Recently Happy Holidays has teamed up with another Independent film titled Local Color
The story: A successful artist looks back with loving memories on the summer of his defining year, 1974. A talented, but troubled eighteen year old art student befriends an elderly alcoholic genius painter who has turned his back on not only art, but life. The two form, what appears to be at first a tenuous relationship. The kid wants to learn all the secrets the master has locked away inside his head and heart. Time has not been kind to the old master. His life appears pointless to him until the kid rekindles his interest in his work and ultimately gives him the will to live. Together, they give one another a priceless gift. The kid learns to see the world through the master's eyes. And the master learns to see life through the eyes of innocence again. This story is based on a real life experience
It stars Trevor Morgan and Armin Muller-Stahl
Right now the film is playing in Phoenix, AZ and is expected to be released around the country in the next few months. If you are in the area or interested check it out at www.localcolorthemovie.com
If you keep watch on this website over the next 4 weeks. You are guaranteed so see some awesome stuff! Festivals, Distribution, Competitions, Selling of DVDs, More screenings....Just you wait.
In the mean time, check out our new Poster! Help Spread the word! Put it on your myspace/facebook/whatever!
S. Mohen recently graduated from Chapman University, but before academics achievements she graduated as a filmmaker, when I asked her who are you? she said "I am just a regular girl, I love dancing, love to go to the movies and I have a cat, but if I have to define myself, I've to say that I'm a filmmaker".
I don't consider her to be an ordinary girl though, at 20 years old she already made a feature film against all odds, including some teachers at Chapman that said to her, "you cannot do this it's just too ambitious". It took determination, but she recouped her money, she's developing her second feature and she's producing a web series call On the verge. I think the risk was worthy.
She writes about what she knows. After finishing the script of Happy Holidays her friends started encouraging her to do it. 33 days on set over 6 months, a winter break, a summer vacation and $5,000 later she had it in the can. (A winter break and a summer vacation, I'm wondering if the title of the movie comes from doing this).
It took a lot of courage and support from the crew and actors, sometimes they had to bring their own food to the set, sometimes they took advantage of the meals plans at Chapman but the reality is that they confronted every obstacle, they endured they learned and they made a movie. Dillon Morris, director of photography of the film gave me this trivia: All the people involve in this film were under 22 years old. Kudos to them.
Here the interview.
...and if you want to see the film, you can get it here.
Check out the interview at : http://guerrilla-filmmaking.com/
On the Verge is a new...well it doesn't really have a category. First conceived as a web series following four girls in their quest for success, it went through so many ups and downs, it verged itself silly.
.. Well now, it's going to be turned into something. A webesodic-reality-docu-film.
It will follow the successful, final three verge girls, Sarah, Ana & Katie; a film-maker, Actress and Chef in Los Angeles. This WRDF will show the girls struggle with their lives, their careers and also to make the web-series. How the crew struggled with no money, the harsh realities of life and worst of all...divas (an evidently rampant plague in LA).
This WRDF will take the footage of auditions, partying, crying, drinking, working, car crashes, evictions, friendship, betrayal, hopes, failures and who knows what else and turn it into 10 episodes of a full feature. In the hopes of showing that even when something seems so bleak, the best can be made out of it.
For this is the ultimate purpose of On the Verge. To deal with the messed up world we all live in. To show that through bills, debts, silly rules and the large majority of people who's main ambition in life is to keep everyone else down, you can overcome everything if you believe in not only yourself, but your dreams.
Stay tuned as the film goes through pre-production with our monthly updates! Get ready for On the Verge 2.0 the best WRDF ever!
Created to empower, connect, and influence up and coming artists; the aM Network operates much like a not-for-profit. Providing the technical framework to support a new generation of alternative art, aM and it's subsidiaries (including ABSTRACTmall, ABSTRACTcore and interACTiVE) arm themselves with a graphically balanced product stock and then deliver them via the sleekest, most creative and most secure system possible. Forwarding the creative agenda »
