"Consignment" interview makes the FRONT PAGE of the Richmond Register
Posted April 23, 2013
Justin Hannah's interview with Crystal Wylie of the Richmond Register was featured on the front page (just below the fold!) of the newspaper's April 23 edition.
Indie film with local connections to be shown at Richmond movie expo
RICHMOND - Every day, Justin Hannah would drive by a tiny consignment shop in Lexington on his way to work as a marketing coordinator for Meyer Natural Foods.
While stopped at a traffic light, he would look into the windows of the old-fashioned storefront and “for some reason, that place really got to me,” he said.
He began thinking about the vintage items in that shop and “the kind of stories that could happen in a place like that,” Hannah said.
He thought to himself, “I should make a movie there.” However, just a week or two later, the consignment shop closed. But this didn’t stop him.
His film, “Consignment,” will premiere Friday and Saturday in Richmond at the World Independent Film Expo.
This is the third year for the event, with movies airing at both Gillum’s Sports Lounge and Eastern Kentucky University’s Student Success Building auditorium.
“Consignment” is set in 1954. In style and mood, it is a “love letter” to the dark, dramatic films of the 1950s, Hannah said. It’s about objects for sale in the consignment shop and “finding a connection to items that have a life of their own, from whomever owned them before.”
For Hannah and lead actress Abbra Smallwood, the World Independent Film Expo will be “kind of like a homecoming,” the director said.
Both Hannah and Smallwood graduated from EKU and lived in Richmond for several years. The film’s casting director, Chris “Drizzle” Davis, is a Richmond resident and was known to tend bar at local hotspots in town, Hannah said.
The three met while living in Richmond and came together on this project years later. Smallwood graduated in 2008 with an art degree and Hannah graduated in 2001 as a psychology major with a minor in art — neither has had formal training in film or acting, he said.
But Smallwood immediately came to mind to play the lead in this film, Hannah said. “She just had that look, like the heroine of an Alfred Hitchcock movie or Betty Draper from ‘Mad Men.’”
Hannah was inspired by film noir and Hitchcock, he said. He became “sort of obsessive” about watching films from the 1950s and '60s.
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Update: "Consignment" went on to win Best Short Film at the World Independent Film Expo!
"Consignment" is a stylish period drama written and directed by Justin Hannah, starring Abbra Smallwood, Margaret Wuertz, Jake Gilliam and Jessica McGill, with cinematography by Lee Clements and music by Robert Casal.
Described in reviews as "an alluring, multi-layered film experience" and "a beautifully realized, thought provoking short film," the movie has drawn comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch. "Consignment" won awards for Best Cinematography at the 2015 Blaquefyre Independent Film Festival, Best Kentucky Short at the 2014 Autumn Shorts Film Festival, Best Short Film at the 2013 World Independent Film Expo, and Most Original Film at the 2013 Floyd Film Festival.
Justin Hannah's "Consignment" is now available for instant streaming on Hulu and Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, Vimeo On Demand, and IndieFlix.
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