Brooklyn is synonymous with a lot of things: hipsters, Orthodox Jews, the Beastie Boys, literary geniuses such as Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem and Jonathan Safran Foer, and of course, independent cinema. The latter’s presence can be felt and seen all around—there is often a film shooting at one corner or another on a regular basis, especially in Park Slope—and financed feature films are often screened at theaters such as BAM’s popular Rose Cinemas. But when it comes to short film and their respective indie filmmakers, many whom are tired of seeing their hard work end up at the tail-end of a film festival, screening rooms are harder to find, that is until filmmaker Joe Pacheco got involved.

Pacheco runs the Brooklyn Independent Cinema Series, a FREE series that showcases some of the best in independent short film every first and third Monday of every month at Barbés, a bar/performance space in Park Slope. Pacheco’s 2005 documentary As Smart As They Are: The Author Project, which told the story of One Ring Zero, a band whose music features lyrics composed by Auster, Lethem, Rick Moody and Dave Eggers, among others, won awards at several festivals across the country, including the Jury Award for Best Music Documentary at the 2006 Park City Film Music Festival.

Pacheco is currently working on a new documentary entitled After the Fall that follows two American journalists who return to Vietnam for the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. In between making the film, serving on the jury of several film festivals and running the BICS (when does he have time to actually just watch films, you ask?), Pacheco took time out to speak about Wholphin, the trials and tribulations of running a successful movie series and the resurgence of the short film.

Lily Percy (SM): When did you first get into film?

Joe Pacheco: I've always been interested in watching films, but it wasn't until halfway through college that I bought an inexpensive video camera and actually shot my first short.

This was over the summer, and when I got back to school in the fall, I switched my major to film. I met a group of people who had also just switched over into film from other majors and we all started working on each other’s projects. The film program was minimal, so a lot of what we were doing was trial and error. In retrospect, I think that this was the best way to get my feet wet as opposed to going to "film school."

SM: How was the Brooklyn Independent Cinema series born? Where did the idea come from?

JP: I had started on the festival circuit in 2005 with my first feature documentary, As Smart As They Are: The Author Project, and was able to see so many amazing independent films that people generally wouldn't get a chance to see.

I was talking with Olivier Conan, one of the owners of Barbés, about how many great films I've been seeing, and he suggested that I start showing them there. He had been doing a regular screening series called “Traveling Cinema” which screened classic films on a 16mm projector from prints that he would take out from the library, so we thought that the newer independent films that I wanted to show would be a great complement.

I started with the first Brooklyn Independent program in December of 2005 and continued to show films the first Monday of every month. Since there was already a built in audience at Barbés from the “Traveling Cinema” series, the response to the new series was really positive and we expanded our screen-time to every first and third Monday.

SM: How do you go about choosing the films that will screen in the series?

JP: The films are made up of a combination of films (shorts and features of all genres) that are submitted through the Website, and films that I see at festivals and other screenings. Each program has a loose theme; a lot of times I start with a film that I want to show and build the program around that. For example, I saw the feature doc, Fatboy, and knew that I wanted to show it. So based on that, I put together a "food-themed" program and found a couple of great shorts, “Buffet” and “Grand Luncheonette,” to show along with it. The timing for that program also worked out so that it screened the Monday before Thanksgiving.

Another example was our "puppet-noir" program. When the series started in 2005, we were going to show the feature, The Lady from Sockholm (a noir sock puppet movie), but didn't have any shorts to fit with it so it wasn't until the summer of 2006 that I found two shorts, a noir short by Chase Palmer and a puppet short by Marcel Dzama, [to run alongside it].

SM: How did the DVD come about? How did you finance it and choose which films would be featured on it?

JP: The DVD is just another way to try to get more films seen by more people. My friends at IndiePix have been doing some great things to get films out into the world and (similar to how the series started) I was just talking with them and we came up with the idea to put together a compilation. It's still so hard these days to get shorts distributed, so I thought that this would be a great way to provide IndiePix with content and also provide another outlet and some revenue to short film filmmakers (the filmmakers are all equally sharing in the proceeds). I'm already thinking about Brooklyn Independent Vol. 2 and will hopefully be able to put out a new compilation each year. 

SM: In January you featured some of the short films from McSweeney's “Wholphin” series. How did that come about?

JP: I been working with the Brooklyn-side of McSweeney's for a while and McSweeney's was also a big part of my last doc, As Smart As They Are. So when they decided to start “Wholphin,” I thought that the translation of the McSweeney's sensibility from the literary journal to the short film journal was a great idea. I think that we were actually the first to do a "Wholphin screening" (Jan '06) when issue one came out, and we've continued to show films from their subsequent issues (Jan '07).

SM: You yourself are a filmmaker. How does that come into play in managing the Series?

JP: I think that, most importantly, I can appreciate how hard it is to make an independent film and also how hard it is to get it out into the world (especially with limited financial resources). You put your heart and soul into making your film, but then after the production and post-production, you have to deal with the post-post-production.

Truly independent filmmakers don't have the support system that Hollywood (or even Indywood) films have. So in addition to wearing many hats during production and post, micro-budget filmmakers have to be their own publicist, booking agent, graphic designer, shipping clerk, etc. I've become good friends with the staff of my local post office from going there almost everyday when I was sending my film out to festivals. So I try to provide another outlet for filmmakers to put their work up on a screen for an audience. 

SM: What has been the hardest aspect of maintaining the Series?

JP: The hardest parts so far have been limited time and resources. It's a really really small operation and no one gets paid, and being filmmakers ourselves, we always have other projects going on to keep us busy. Aside from the programming aspects, it's always an uphill battle to promote the series among all of the other great film happenings around the city, but luckily we've developed a dedicated audience who continue to try to spread the good word.

We actually lose money on a regular basis, but it's important to me that we keep everything free—free for the audience to come watch films and free for filmmakers to submit films.

SM: In your opinion, what is the current state of independent short film?

JP: I think that short films have had a strong resurgence and that their audiences are growing.

You often hear about filmmakers making shorts as "calling cards" or as vehicles for larger projects, but I think that there are just as many people making shorts because they love the form. People will always be making short films, in the same way that people will always be writing short stories, plays and poems.

The outlets for shorts are also growing. Since theatres now show commercials in front of features instead of shorts, filmmakers have found other venues for their work. Short films have always been an important component to film festivals but the increased accessibility to the shorts online has really helped [them] thrive.

So much of it is about accessibility. Advancements in technology and relatively low costs not only get more cameras in peoples hands, but also get those people wider audiences. With the online sites for video hosting anyone can make a short, upload it and see how many people are watching it. Of course, with that accessibility, you might have to dig a little to find the highest quality content, but it is out there and people are watching.

To purchase a copy of Brooklyn Independent Vol. 1 visit: http://www2.indiepix.net/film/2523. and to find out more about the Brooklyn Independent Cinema series go to www.brooklynindependent.com.