Miscellaneous
Other kinds of films
If we're interested, we might make a film for a good cause, or a worthy organization, or in support of a writing project. Here are a few examples.
On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Queens World Film Festival, Preston and Katha Cato asked filmmakers to make short videos explaining why they like the festival. We are huge fans of Queens World, so we answered the call by making this video love note explaining why we think the festival is really great. Queens World's website has moved on now, but it was on the splash page for the 10th Anniversary for awhile, and that was a big honor for us from a festival that has been very supportive of our work.
In 2019, Pam and Jack went to SXSW in Austin TX, where they saw Naho Matsuda's data poetry installation. Outlier thought the installation raised interesting questions about the nature of poetry in the information age, so they made a little film as part of an an article Pam wrote about the installation for Moving Poems Magazine.
"Teddy Roosevelt and Fracking" was part of the first Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Museum and Library's American Presidents Film and Literary Festival in Fremont, OH. Jack was really excited about this, since he was born and raised in Fremont, visited the Library on school tours when he was a kid, and spent many snowy winter afternoons sledding down the tree covered hill on the Museum grounds together with his daredevil friends. Now his film with Pam about an American President was part of a prestigious festival in his hometown, where it received the first Peoples Choice Award. So Jack and Pam were both honored when this groundbreaking festival asked them to make a short film for the festival's website. Maybe not quite up there with Rutherford B. Hayes, who became President, but another hometown boy does make good! Our film is still up on their festival website if you scroll down until you see "2018 People's Choice Award Winner." The festival is on hiatus for 2020 due to the pandemic, but we have another film in the running for 2021. Fingers crossed!
Follow the link above to learn more about some of the issues we tackle in our films.