Brooklyn Magazine: Meet The New York Filmmakers You Need to Know At Slamdance This Weekend

Three truly independent (and low-fi) films that grapple with intimacy, family and early adulthood you can stream from home for just $10

“Hannah Ha Ha”
Producer and actor: Roger Mancusi
Actor: Hannah Lee Thompson

The story: “Hannah Ha Ha” is a hyper-realistic slice of life family dramedy that questions the story American society tells millennials about what constitutes success. The 30,000 foot view is full of cynicism, but the heart of the film is the relationships and connections to one’s immediate surroundings that bring comfort and fulfillment to our daily lives.

Hannah, how did you get involved with the movie? Was your character named after you on purpose?
Hannah Lee Thompson: I’ve been friends with Jordan Tetewsky for nine years now and we’ve worked together on a number of projects mostly related to my musical endeavors. He’s a mad genius and someone I would follow into war any day but also be arguing with the entire time. As a director/actor partnership, Jordan, Josh and I had a blast making a short film a few months before we filmed “Hannah Ha Ha.” It was my first time acting, and we wanted to use the chemistry/workflow we established for a feature length project. The character was written for me, so that’s where the name comes from, but our similarities are more superficial than most people assume. I share a sense of humor and vernacular with her, but our personalities are very different.

Hannah, you’re from Brooklyn but moved away, and Roger you live there now. Did you ever cross paths?
Roger: No, we met on day one of the shoot if you don’t count our pre-production Zoom meetings! However, Hannah is a musician and one of the venues she’s played at, Jalopy, is located on one of my favorite Brooklyn bike routes (Joralemon to Henry, down to the BQE, then up Columbia to the waterfront, and back down at the top of Henry). So each time I pass it I think, oh that’s the bar Hannah’s played at! We have plans to have a screening and party there one of these days.
Hannah: Yeah, Jordan introduced us on this film! I grew up in Brooklyn (and playing music Jalopy), so I’m really excited about showing the film there. It’s the first place I go whenever I’m home.

Roger, how do you handle acting in the movie and producing it?
Roger: It was a lot! And all I’ll say is thank god for our co-producer Emily Freire. She was originally brought on as a PA, but when the male lead dropped the day before production due to Covid, I replaced him and she got an on-the-spot promotion. Emily inherited a lot of the minutiae which allowed me to hone in on the script and work with Hannah on our scenes. I had to balance what the production needed as well as what my character needed, which was a fun challenge, bouncing back and forth between skill sets depending on what scene we were shooting.

Tell us more about Emily Freire and how you met in Brooklyn.
Roger: Reel Works is a great nonprofit here in Brooklyn that trains NYC high schoolers and college aged students the art of filmmaking. They offer free after school programs for students to be prepared to enter their desired filmmaking profession after graduation. I met Emily through their producing fellows mentorship program, and we’ve struck up a great partnership over the last year and a half. She’s the type of young professional that people say “we’ll all work for one day,” and I’m really excited for her future as an amazing producer.

Read the full article by Joshua Encinias at Brooklyn Magazine.