On April 23, the front of the Plaza Theatre is packed with crowds at the opening night of the 50th annual Atlanta Film Festival, where stars like O’Shea Jackson Jr. walk the red carpet to promote the local premiere of “Idiots.”
Most are lined up to get into the screening. But another, smaller line has formed across the parking lot in front of a small U-Haul decked out in sequin green fabric and a sign that says “MEET THE FROG KING.”
It’s official: “Frogtown” has hijacked the Atlanta Film Festival.
Brave members of the growing line take their chance on the Frog King, sticking their hand blindly inside the U-Haul to “feed” the king some bait. In return? A handmade pin that declares “I believe in the Frog King.” O’Shea Jackson Jr. even met the king, though his assistant took the pin.
The display plays like a carnival sideshow. And that’s the point. According to writer-director Costa Karalis, “Frogtown”plays like a “magic trick.” His promotion for the micro-budget indie film had to match.
“Frogtown” tells the story of a small, swampy Florida town and its eclectic residents, including a woman obsessed with proving the existence of the Frog King. That’s all Karalis wants viewers to know, though. He prefers they go in blind.
“The way to watch it is with a childlike mind,” Karalis said. “When you enter the theater, what we’re hoping for is that you’re about to come see something new, something you haven’t seen before.”
His vision paid off. “Frogtown” sold out its Atlanta premiere at the Tara Theatre, and earned an “encore” screening on the festival’s last day. Letterboxd is packed with rave reviews from audience members, and the film earned “Best Florida Feature” at the Florida Film Festival.
“Frogtown” is both strange and down-to-earth. It is authentically Floridian, without trying to be a “Florida Film” covered in Disney logos and palm trees. It is full of true, eclectic documentary-style interviews with real people, alongside a small group of actors telling a fictional story.
The result is not a “mockumentary,” but it isn’t a cut-and-dry documentary or narrative. Karalis calls it an exploration of childhood, set in the place he knows best.
“I’ve been calling it an exploration of growing up in Florida,” Karalis said. “I think if we call it a documentary or call it a narrative film, it sets expectations, and it’s both and neither.”
Karalis pulled from his childhood as exploration. “As a kid, every day there’s something new, you learn something new, experience something new,” Karalis said. Now, he thinks phones make it hard to discover anything. He wanted to preserve a sense of “childlike wonder.”
“Frogtown” also captures a sense of place. Karalis lives in Atlanta today, working on major productions like the television show Atlanta. But he grew up in Palm Harbor, outside of Tampa, to Greek and Kuwaiti parents. Movies were an early education in American culture and language.
Eventually, he started making short films with friends on YouTube. Then he attended Florida State University’s film school, where he met several “Frogtown” collaborators, and began making several short films.
“I love short form content, I love that format,” Karalis said. “But the feature is the thing everybody talks about.” It created a question for the filmmaker: “What can I do, and how can I do it, while keeping it low budget?”
“Frogtown” comes from that line of thinking. Using limited resources, Karalis turned to documentary style filmmaking with a small and nimble crew. He used the Mike Mills short documentary Paper Boys as inspiration, hosting an at-home viewing as a “reference.”
During a conversation inside the Plaza Theatre’s lobby, Karalis gestures at the walls covered in iconic movie posters. “These are million-dollar movies,” he said. “We can’t compete with these.”
“I wanted to do something totally unlike these,” Karalis said. “You don’t want to make, like, “Jurassic Park” on no money. What kind of story can you tell with the resources and money you have?”
He paid the crew a modest sum, and gave everyone involved part ownership of “Frogtown” to “say thank you.” But now the film faces a new question: What comes next?
It’s a challenge for independent filmmakers everywhere, especially at regional festivals without a heavy distributor presence, like Atlanta Film Festival. Karalis knew it would be a challenge to even get people out to an unknown screening.
So he got creative. Alongside the Frog King meet-and-greet, Karalis worked with producer and Reel Friends head Rocco Shapiro to throw a “Frogtown” party at the Supermarket. It was free to attend, with THC drinks and a DJ tucked behind a “Frogtown” banner.
“We put lots of effort in self-promoting this movie,” Karalis said.
While the director doesn’t want to be a rebel, he knows “Frogtown” is not a studio film. Several major festivals already turned it down. Getting it to the world takes effort. And an unconventional approach. He’s prepared to take the film on the road, or print his own DVDs. Whatever it takes to get an audience.
“We know that we’ve made something good, and it took a lot of work, and I’m proud of it,” Karalis said. “But we need more places to just show us. We need more places to take a chance on us.”
