Moonshine

first things first. kudos to the filmmaker for having the drive & ambition to make a film. for a no-budget production shot on video it looks fantastic. but that's where the kudos end.

it's a shame that he didn't use that same ambition to write a half decent script. a script with an unique premise, a good story, and with characters that are interesting. instead it's a film that is devoid of a plot, and whose characters are about as fascinating as a bicycle manual. it also doesn't help that the actors portraying these lifeless characters act as monotone and as wooden as humanly possible. a zombie from a george a. romero film has more gusto than these performers.

it's also a shame that he didn't think about who the audience for this film is. is he making a film for intellectual vampire lovers? for people who like gore? for people who like thrillers that slowly get under your skin? i don't think he even knows, as this film doesn't deliver anything of substance to any possible audience whatsoever. it has no gore. no scares. no atmosphere. no chills. no intrigue. no mystery. no sex appeal. no wow factor at all. which is why it will never get distribution, because it fails to deliver what audiences want out of films - entertainment.

sadly, because the technology behind making a film is getting easier and cheaper every year, more films like this will get made - films that have no point, no purpose, and no audience, other than the filmmaker's friends and family in stafford springs, connecticut...

I actually caught the second screening this film ever had at the Sundance Film Festival at a theater in Salt Lake City. Let me first point out that the movie was made on a budget no more than $10,000 American dollars. Let me put that in perspective for you. 2005's King Kong, while a great achievement on Peter Jackson's behalf, it was made with a budget exceeding $200 million dollars. Yes that's right, more than 100x the budget given to this film. The young director, Roger Ingraham, did a magnificent job and should be commended over and over again. It's the story of a boy who, like many his age, is looking for a job to support his dying mother and handicapped father. He finds his chance at a small convenience store in his small town and from there, things can never be the same. A brilliant job by all the actors involved, the lead female is Ingram's sister and he has several supporting performances by his parent's. I guess you could say it really does run "in the family". As of now, the movie has no known distribution company and that is a sham, especially with some of the crap we see being released time and time again by these big production companies. Hopefully for Ingraham's sake, the movie is picked up and released to a wider audience and it is clearly superior to most anything you'll see in theater this year. I also have to give a big thank you Mr. Ingram and his father for taking the time to talk to me and give me pointers and information on film making. Best of luck to anyone that is involved with this fantastic picture.

Moonshine to me, for being a low budget local film, is quite amazing I love how they made it look like the store the film was placed in like downtown Stafford Springs.

The director Roger is an amazing person (went trick or treating with him a couple times) and worked very hard on this and deserved to win the Sundance Award I went to go see it at the initial screening of this, and it was sometimes hard to see or hear what was going on, but the cast and all the crew worked very hard. The Stafford Arts Collective has truly helped improve Stafford Springs and I can't imagine it going back to the way it used to be. Now because of it, Stafford is slowly starting to look like a nice place to live, full of art. Roger and his friends are truly making it an artists paradise slowly but surely, and giving many kids in town an outlet.

Kudos to Roger on this great film

I just wonder about the possibilities if this were made into a major motion picture..

MOONSHINE (www.moonshinethemovie.com) was an incredible labor of love by writer/director Roger Ingraham. At 19, he penned the subtle, quiet, but poignant script and began shooting the film in June of 2004 in Stafford Springs, CT, his hometown. This is a vampire movie. Or is it? Following the story of Peter, a young man with invalid parents who gets a convenience store job to try to help support them, and Danni, a shy, unsure co-worker of his who faces marriage in the near future, the movie focuses more on the boxes the characters have been put into over time, not so much the vampire on the loose. Shot over a period of 24 days (with many pickup shots later filmed) and on a budget of $9200, MOONSHINE has proved that money, time, and experience need not play as vital roles in completing a meaningful, interesting, and quiet story as Hollywood advertises with its $150 million all-star films. MOONSHINE is one to watch out for, folks. An original and smooth film with style and guts.