ANNOUNCEMENT: Coffeehouse Cinema Vol. 5 has SOLD OUT again. We are proud to bring you all another great experience with great shorts and great people. If you haven’t gotten a ticket and still want to go, be on the look out for updates on our tickets at the door.

Welcome to Filmmaker Fridays, where every week we highlight our Coffeehouse Cinema filmmakers and their amazing projects.

Today, we are featuring Alex Backes, an LA-based filmmaker from the Bay Area, who brought the amazing short That’s Our Time. That’s Our Time serves as a proof of concept where it won the Grand Jury Prize at the PROOF Film Festival.

We screened Alex’s short at Coffeehouse Cinema Vol. 1, and Alex (and his wife) were incredibly generous to let Alex stop by for the Q+A despite being a newly minted father.

In showing our appreciation for his time, we got Alex a gift for his son, Kian.

In the feature below, Alex goes into his craft and how hard it can be to translate yourself into the screen as a filmmaker.

Thank you Alex for sharing your time. More about Alex below:

For people discovering your work through Coffeehouse Cinema, how would you describe this film today?

A dark yet relatable story about a young man who finds meaning during a fateful therapy session.

Coffeehouse Cinema is about creating space for intimate stories. Looking back, what part of this film feels most personal to you?

Honestly, all of it. If the answer were anything less, I’d feel like I hadn’t done my job.

What scares you the most about filmmaking?