I think one of the biggest complaints I hear about cinema these days is "There's no original movies, so why should I waste $15 to see something that I'll probably like but not love?" And as a filmmaker who heavily believes in running to a theater to see a film, I admit that I find myself asking the same question. At this point, I see a handful of films a year in a cinema, but more times than not I'm running to The Metrograph in Manhattan and seeing a classic film on a 35mm print as opposed to something new.

Well, believe it or not, there are a number of events in New York City and around the world that offer the remedy to this dilemma for film starving people looking for something new: film festivals. There are a lot of film festivals in NYC, not just Tribeca Film Festival or New York Film Festival, that offer original and daring films. Especially more indie festivals will offer more daring projects not subject to "Let's show films that will be more attractive to distributors." This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the completely indie film festival in Brooklyn called the Bushwick Film Festival. It's in its 9th year and its very small and contained; only spanning half a week in a variety of places throughout Bushwick, Williamsburg and Northern Brooklyn. Festivals like BFF will always have vastly different films because everyone of them are run by people with vastly different tastes. It's like if Netflix had collections specifically curated by film lovers, critics, and filmmakers ready for you to watch. So depending on your tastes, you could devote yourself to one festival or hop around to a few in a year to get a swarm of different contemporary cinema.

Which leads me to my personal favorite discovery at this year's BFF. What if the only way you could save your wife is if you went back in time to stop the person ultimately responsible for it: you? That's the premise behind the debut feature of James Morrison 'Diverge.' It's a film that meshes a lot of different styles and genre ideas and neatly puts them together in a solid and tight 83 minute feature. Chris Towne, played by Ivan Sandomire, is a man whose life was destroyed by nuclear war wakes up in a parallel universe where his pregnant wife and everyone he loves are still alive. He is brought back by a scientist who created this parallel universe, played by Andrew Senseing, to save the cure from being put into the wrong hands, a pharmaceutical company who's only end game is profits.

It opens up as being completely silent, allowing the sterile yet vivid imagery to give you all the details you need about the world Chris lives in (pictured above). It's refreshing not being told a lot of exposition, though there are moments where it is needed and Morrison, who also wrote the film, gives it to use at the right moments. The science behind it is never fully explained, but who really cares? In this science fiction universe, the scientist, named Jim Eldon, has theorized and figured it out and will do whatever it takes to save humanity, even though he has a more selfish agenda driving his character. His aim is to change, or diverge, history to go back to the way it should be. The performances are fit for this film; no one stands out specifically and never interferes with the narrative or the audiences understanding of it. That's not a complaint, it's the test of a good director and talented cast to acknowledge that sometimes a film can't have its cake and eat it too. It's a script driven film and everyone follows along well and the performances feel really natural.

For a debut feature, this is a hell of a script to run with, especially on a shoe string budget. This is thanks to producers Noah Lang and David Mandel, who used the crazy limited resources the best to their advantage to make a film this film not only possible, but not feel like it should have waited for money to come through. It's key is its simplicity. It's no wonder why the Tallgrass Film Festival nominated it for the 'Stubbornly Independent Award.'

Morrison, Lang, and Mandel are offering audiences a chance to see something unique and daring, not your typical studio indie film, that will definitely have them on your radar as filmmakers to watch. It's a ballsy first feature and it plays really well on a screen, but chances are most of you will end up watching this flick on VOD, and that is fine. At 82 minutes, it's tight and to the point with no lolly-gagging, so your interest will never be lost and your focus will be on the screen 'til the very end.

'Diverge' will be playing at the Tallgrass Film Festival on October 16th and will surely be available on VOD soon.