‘The Devil’s Filmmaker’

Astoria resident and filmmaker Andrew Montlack will have the first New York public screening of “The Devil’s Filmmaker: BOHICA” at Hell Gate Social on Sunday, March 30.
Originally from Cleveland, Montlack first became interested in films when he was just four-years-old while watching “The Wizard of Oz” on television. In high school he was a fan of slasher films. While reading a fan book for “Nightmare on Elm Street,” Montlack started to become more interested in the actual filmmaking process.
Montlack’s first attempt at filmmaking came while he was a senior in high school interning at a post-production company. He was allowed to use the company’s equipment to shoot and edit the piece, entitled “20 Minutes,” which was a “60 Minutes” parody.
After graduating from Ithaca College in 1994, Montlack came to New York City to pursue a career in the film industry. He said that he didn’t want to go to California because of the distance and because it didn’t seem like the best place for an independent filmmaker.
“I was determined to be a filmmaker,” said Montlack, who won several awards for his short film “Him.” “I thought that this was a place where someone really interested in the work and the art of filmmaking could do some good work.”
“The Devil’s Filmmaker” is Montlack’s first full-length production. It focuses on Sam, a filmmaker who is willing to go to any means to create his movie. Montlack said that it illustrates “the path not taken” because he was in a situation where rather go to extreme lengths to make another film he decided to make a different one.
Montlack, who also works in a professional editing business, began developing the story in 1999 and wrote the script over the course of three weeks in early 2001. It was shot that same year in Cleveland, with editing taking place in 2002.
Although “The Devil’s Filmmaker” has never been publicly screened in New York, it was shown at a festival in Cleveland in 2003 and was released on home video in the summer of 2004.
“When you look back on it you feel like the hero on a hero’s journey,” Montlack said of completing his first full-length film. “You feel a sense of transcendence.”
Montlack has now been working on developing a new story that is a corporate satire. He is also looking to take his work to the next stage.
“At age 36, my future goal is to move to the next level of filmmaking,” he said. “What I’m interested in is being a director for hire at this point on the right kind of project. I’m interested in finding material that I have a sense for.”
“The Devil’s Filmmaker: BOHICA” will be screened at 8 p.m. on Sunday, March 30 at Hell Gate Social, which is located at 12-21 Astoria Boulevard in Astoria.
For more information on Montlack and his work, contact Kate Haley at 603-340-0617.