By Nathan Duke
Realtor Tasos Makedon has seen it all when it comes to the methods for tracking down a cheap apartment in Astoria. This weekend his writing, executive producing and acting debut will draw on his rental experience in two shorts that will screen at the Queens International Film Festival in one of the program’s top slots for that category.
“The Affordable Apartment” shorts, which Makedon wrote and starred in as a womanizing real estate agent, will premiere at 6 p.m. Saturday at Astoria’s Frank Sinatra School of the Arts as part of the seventh-annual Queens festival. The screening will include “The Apartment from Hell,” a 33-minute film about two girls from Kansas being plagued with bad luck while attempting to find an inexpensive apartment in Queens, and “The Toilet of Tomorrow,” a 26-minute movie about a young man who considers renting an apartment with a commode designed by a crazy scientist.
Makedon, who lives on Long Island but operates his Astoria Apartments business on 31st Street, said the short films will be screened at the height of the festival in the prestigious Saturday evening slot.
“It’s the biggest night of the festival,” he said. “They put us in as the opening act. I’m very honored.”
The two films were written by Makedon, but directed by Steve Jambeck. Makedon is featured as a lead character in both films, as the lothario realtor who originally appeared in a script he wrote several years ago about a Greek American who attempts to earn a slot on Donald Trump’s show “The Apprentice” and uses both legal and illegal means to win.
The apartment films are also both based on Makedon’s experiences in the realty business but slightly exaggerated.
“They are based on true incidents that happened to me while renting apartments,” he said. “I’ve had my car vandalized, I’ve had barking dogs attack me, I’ve seen supers on drugs, I’ve been chased by guys with knives and I’ve had tenants come after me with baseball bats because they didn’t know what I was doing in their building.”
Makedon, who worked as a financial officer for a division of USA Television in the 1990s, and his crew, which was comprised of employees of CBS Television, shot the two films during the first 12 days of June throughout Astoria for under $1 million, all of which he financed himself.
“If you believe in your product, you’ve got to put your money where your mouth is,” he said. “I’m looking for sponsors as the film goes into the festival circuit. Most people look for investors first, but I decided to produce it myself.”
Makedon said he has also sent the two films to the Sundance and Slamdance film festivals for consideration and that he would be selling copies of the DVDs at the Queens event.
“This will be our first film festival,” he said. “The reason we shot this in June is because we wanted to get it into the Queens festival. It’s in our backyard.”
Makedon said he hopes investors at the festival will take interest in the shorts and he plans to contact major television networks to gauge interest.
“We’ll be pitching this as a sitcom to HBO, Comedy Central and Showtime,” he said. “It’s ‘Seinfeld’ in a real estate office. And it’s a New York film but instead of Manhattan like ‘Sex and the City,’ it’s in Queens.”
Makedon will also serve on a panel discussing Queens filmmakers at the festival. That event will take place at noon Saturday.
The festival, established in 2003, will screen 297 films of varying lengths at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts from Thursday through Sunday. Films this year hail from Iran, the United States, Afghanistan, Turkey, Ireland, Iceland, Australia, Germany, Guatemala and Mexico.
Country music legend Kris Kristofferson will play with Guy Forsyth and Waylon Payne Nov. 15 in a tribute to Levon Helm, former drummer of The Band, as part of the festival. Tickets can be purchased at queensfilmfestival.com or at Frank Sinatra school’s box office. The complete schedule of films can be viewed online.
Tickets for the screening of “The Affordable Apartment” films can also be obtained by calling Makedon at 347-556-4555. The film’s Web site is maximumexposurefilms.com.
Read film reviews by Nathan Duke at criticalconditions.net.
