Today we’d like to introduce you to Mikhail and Veronica Howell.
Hi Mikhail and Veronica, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
We built Cinevite with the idea of providing a platform to create community around cinema. At the time, while the pandemic was still raging, people could not fully have the communal experience with film as they had for decades. Mikhail, a Creative Technologist, looked to technology as a solution that could solve this problem so he built the Cinevite platform. Cinevite was designed to facilitate connections and discussions wherever films and other media were screened and featured.
With the Cinevite platform, a key focus for us is film festivals and independent filmmakers. The film festival industry is sprawling and decentralized. Between festivals, there is little connective tissue that connects these events, the filmmakers, the audience at the festivals, and their films. We were able to use our web and mobile app to be that connective tissue. In early 2024, we successfully launched Cinevite at the 2024 Short. Sweet. Film Fest., the largest festival for short films in Cleveland, Ohio. We also launched the pilot of our Debut program in 2024 to spotlight unique independent filmmakers and provided them a supportive framework to guide them through the festival and event circuit.
Beyond the filmmaking community, creators across every medium are going to face the onslaught of Generative AI devaluing their work. Creative people are going to need new ways of making a living and making the connections that push their creative careers forward. That is something we are thinking a lot about.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Finding our footing was winding road. Our focus was supporting independent film makers. The independent film scene is fragmented which made reaching filmmakers and film organizations extremely labor intensive. Also, the film industry and film production has been depressed since the pandemic and the strikes in 2023. While these have been challenges for us and the independent film community, it also allowed us to better understand where to focus. We have had the opportunity to meet a lot of independent creatives that are looking for the next turn and we were able to be nimble and quickly dial in on what is effective.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
A big part of what we’ve done is establish partnerships with organizations that screen or feature the work of independent creators. We designed our Cinevite platform to be malleable and easy for organizations to be able to offer our platform at no cost and with little to no lift on the part of the organization. In the context of an event, the platform is a digital layer that sits atop the in-person event, providing both a monetization opportunity for creators and an additional touchpoint for networking and community building at the event.
Last year our big push was our Debut program pilot which spotlighted unique creatives that were getting their new projects out to the public. The program leveraged our platform and brought together emerging voices at the intersection of career and culture. The November 2024 pilot of our Debut program spotlighted three filmmakers from the independent film community.
* TEDRA (Tedra Wilson), most notably known as TT The Artist, is a multi-hyphenate master of both the visual arts and music. Fresh off her success distributing her documentary feature Dark City Beneath The Beat (co-produced by Issa Rae) to Netflix, TEDRA is now chronicling LGBTQIA+ artists. This chronicle includes Project Runway finalist Bishme Cromartie in her short film and series pilot, “DENIM”. TEDRA bounces between Los Angeles, New York and Baltimore as she produces music and film projects.
* Keshav Shree is practicing NHS medical doctor with a keen interest in the use of AI in medicine, and who doubles as a filmmaker. With his new film, “Where are you really from?”, Keshav explores his cultural identity as an Indian British immigrant through a comedy that uses accents to explore multicultural idiosyncrasies. Keshav is currently in Los Angeles screening his films at various LA film festivals.
* Alessandro Pulisci is a Los Angeles resident and guitarist who was previously in a traveling band that toured the entire United States. Since then he turned to indie horror cinema where he has worked with companies like Snowfort Pictures and Eli Roth’s Crypt TV. His latest film “Hi I Just Moved Here” follows Kat as she learns a terrifying secret about her new home in the Hollywood Hills.
TEDRA, in particular, was a special highlight for the November 2024 pilot. She is a director and founder of Artistland Studios with a passion and focus on “Black cinema and stories by BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and women centered communities.” Her first feature length film, “Dark City Beneath The Beat,” is a musical documentary about the rising Baltimore club music and dance culture. In Dark City Beneath The Beat, the people she covered weren’t just characters for a story, they were also the characters in her story. Driving attention and support to filmmakers like TEDRA and films like DENIM is at the heart of what we do and we were excited for the premiere of DEMIN at SXSW 2025.
Since our Debut program pilot, we partnered with several events in 2025 including the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival, New York CineFest and NOHO CineFest, Denton Black Film Festival, Melrose Hill Short Film Festival and more. We authored professional reviews for several films on the festival circuit. We’ve also partnered with the Central Coast Film Society to support their November 2025 Central Coast Entertainment Expo event with the Cinevite platform.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
The adage says that luck is hard work meeting opportunity. For us that very much rings true. A lot of how we’ve blossomed has happened organically and serendipitously. Cinevite started as technology platform to bring the film community together and over time grew with a focused mission to support independent film and the creative community at large. The spark that kicked off that transition was a lucky run-in with a festival director at one of our early community events. If not for that run in, we may not have gotten on the path to be able to provide tailored support to independent filmmakers through our platform.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cinestruct.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cinestruct_media/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CinestructMedia
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/cinestruct/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cinestruct_media
- Other: https://www.cinevite.com
Popular
-
What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
-
Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
-
Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
-
What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
-
Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
-
What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
