Heartland Film Festival Summer Rewind – June 26-28, 2014
Heartland Film Festival Summer Rewind showcases some of the best Heartland Film Festival movies of the past in an abbreviated, three-day mini-festival format, giving moviegoers an opportunity to see an enlightening slate of independent films and to meet the filmmakers who crafted them. Today we interview one of the attending filmmakers, Director Andrew Mudge. His film, The Forgotten Kingdom, was a Festival Award Winner at the 2013 Heartland Film Festival.
Filmmaker Bio
Andrew Mudge is a filmmaker based in Brooklyn, New York. He has directed numerous award-winning short films, documentaries, and music videos. A Sundance alumni, his music video Knights of Bostonia won the MTV viewer’s choice award. His debut feature film, The Forgotten Kingdom, was selected for the 2012 IFP Filmmaker Labs, and has garnered top awards at over 10 international film festivals, as well as three awards and seven nominations from the African Movies Academy Awards. When not making films, Andrew enjoys kayaking and kale salad.
Heartland Film Interview
Heartland Film: You weren’t able to attend last year’s Heartland Film Festival when The Forgotten Kingdom was being shown as a Festival Award Winner, so we’re extra excited to have you here at Summer Rewind. What have you heard about the Festival from T.R. Boyce, and what are you looking forward to the most?
Andrew Mudge: I’ve heard about the great community at Heartland, a really enthusiastic and film-savy audience. I know Heartland shows great films, from seeing the lineup of the past few years. I’m looking forward to checking out your theater, and the city of Indianapolis too. I’ve never been there before! I really like small town diners near rail yards. Will I find that?
Heartland Film: Give us an update on The Forgotten Kingdom since it was shown at Heartland last October. Any big updates?
Andrew Mudge: We’re just winding down the festival tour, which has been fantastic, with over 10 festival wins – either audience awards or jury prizes.
We also took the film back to Lesotho in March on a three week screening tour, which was absolutely the highlight of the year so far. We drove all around Lesotho showing TFK on a blow-up movie screen, under the stars, among roaming shepherds and their wooly flocks. Our audiences consisted of mostly people who had never never even seen a film before. They’d shriek with delight when the recognized a location where we filmed, or someone who was in the film as an extra.
Earlier this week we returned from Nigeria where The Forgotten Kingdom had nine nominations at the African Movies Academy Awards. We ended up winning Best Sound Design, Best Cinematography, and Best Child Actor – for Lesotho’s own Lebohang Ntsane, who boarded a plane for the first time in his life to travel to Nigeria to pick up an “African Oscar”! It was one of the greatest moments of my life to see him jump up on stage to accept that award. I found him in a tiny school house in Lesotho, he had never acted before in his life! It was one of those rare moments in life where I could say, “okay, I’ve made a difference here.”
Heartland Film: Heartland Film Festival moviegoers love filmmaker Q&As. Let’s say a Summer Rewind attendee wants to earn some brownie points—what is a question that you’d love to answer, but haven’t yet been asked?
Andrew Mudge: Wow, that’s a good question. Here’s a few, take your pick:
- Can you discuss the original score (music)? What was your process of working with the composer?
- As the director, what is the most rewarding part of the job for you? What’s the worst part of the job?
- What project are you working on next?
Meet Andrew at Summer Rewind
See The Forgotten Kingdom and meet Andrew and Producer T.R. Boyce, Jr. at the Heartland Film Festival Summer Rewind, June 26-28 in the Fountain Square district of Indianapolis.
