It’s an ensemble party movie with 75 characters, but 14 main characters. So we probably should have thought that challenge through a little more, but we never would have made the movie if we thought about it too much, so no regrets in that sense. We knew we wanted to make something together, write something together. We knew we wanted to get people together, and we knew we wanted to make something that wasn’t cynical. The last two years of living [in 2020 and 2021] had been so cynical that we said, let’s just make a fun movie while we can.
Aaron Bartuska is a Drexel graduate, filmmaker, and current high school film teacher. His latest feature, These Are My Friends!, recently played at Philadelphia Film Society’s SpringFest, which is especially meaningful for Aaron and the film, as it was shot and produced locally in Philly. The film is a single-night comedy that follows various mid-twenties drifters over the course of one party.
Co-Writer and Director Aaron Bartuska joins us to discuss the production process, which mostly took place four years ago across multiple weekends during the COVID pandemic. He is also in the midst of releasing a loose trilogy of films all created in the Philadelphia area, with The Yardley Boys available now and Everyone’s Here coming later this year.
Follow our interviewees online:
Aaron Bartuska IMDb, Instagram
Follow our interview host online:
Danny Jarabek
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Credits:
- Theme music: Eugene Rocco Utley & Karl Vincent
- Artwork: Danny Jarabek
- Editor: Danny Jarabek
- Assistant Producer: Evan Miller