There’s been some exciting news for local filmmakers. Director John Whitney’s award-winning independent drama The Street Where We Live is now available for home viewing.
“The film is on Amazon right now and VOD,” says co-writer/producer/co-star Dino Tripodis. “Amazon Prime members will be able to get it for free in October. It’s available on Dish TV, Sling TV, Tubi TV and has also sold internationally.”
The film premiered at the Columbus International Film & Video festival in 2017 before making the festival rounds.
“We were also at the Buffalo International Festival, one in Cincinnati, we won best feature at Glass City in Toledo,” Tripodis says. “And then we got a call from ITN Films, distributors who said they wanted to rep the film. We put it in their capable hands.”
Tripodis says the road to distribution can be difficult for dramas.
“We came up with an indie drama, and those are tougher sells,” he says. “Street Where We Live takes place at the height of the most recent recession that we had in this country. A lot of people always say they’re two paychecks away from being out on the street and basically that’s kind of what happens.”
Shot exclusively in and around Columbus, The Street Where We Live follows a single mother as she struggles to keep her family afloat in tough times.
“Kristina Kopf plays Mary,” Tripodis says. “She’s working in a factory that closes up due to recessionary times but keeps a positive thought, thinking that something will be coming around the corner. Because of that thought process she doesn’t take any help, she just keeps thinking that something’s going to come. And when it doesn’t, the long and short of it is that they end up living in their car. And the story deals with that whole journey from where they were to where they end up and to where they might go before it’s all said and done.”
Though Tripodis admits that genre films like horror tend to be more successful for independent filmmakers, he’s glad this is the tale his film tells.
“It’s a story about family, it’s a story about life, it’s a story about love and hanging in there and hope,” he says. “We took the less traveled road as far as distribution goes, so I’m thrilled that much more that it got released.”
He’s gratified for the entire team on the project that the film is now available for a wider audience.
“I’m just excited that it’s out there for other people to see,” he says. “Everybody worked so damn hard on it and it’s just a nice piece of independent filmmaking punctuation, saying, boom, it’s out there.”
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