A Civil War in 'Bushwick': Getting Your Film Made, from Pitch to Production [PODCAST]

Co-directors Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott discuss how they pulled off their one-shot, action-packed follow-up to 'Cooties.'

This week, No Film School producer Jon Fusco sits down with Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion, co-directors of Bushwick, a film that premiered in Sundance’s Midnight Section. The premise for a Neo-Civil War film in America may have seemed insane a decade ago when Millot and Murnion first came up with it; now, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched. 

Brittany Snow plays Lucy, a student on her way home to Bushwick while on break from grad school. She gets off the subway only to realize that her Brooklyn neighborhood is under siege from an unknown enemy. Later on in the film, it is revealed that Texas and a handful of other states have seceded from the union and are the force behind the attack. With the help of Stupe, a former marine played by Dave Bautista, they attempt to fight their way through the city to safety.

For Millot and Murnion, the road to making Bushwick was paved by a ton of hard work and self-education. Neither went to film school, but through a series of successful short film competitions, they were able to capture the eye of a producer at SXSW. That led to a directing gig on the 2014 horror/comedy Cooties.

In this podcast, they discuss the steps they took to win that film and how their process of making a movie evolved once they had one in the can. 

For more, see our complete coverage of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.