AFTM 2024 Edit Final Director’s Cut

This is the Extended Cut of the film Aspirin for the Masses. It was completed in September 2024 after film festival competition. We have no plans for future distribution or revenue from this extended cut. I simply want it to find a free audience on YouTube. I will post a Final Director’s Cut with cleaned audio when the project is complete and publish a companion book about our adventure in making and distributing this film.

Aspirin was shot non-professionally for $500, possibly the cheapest feature film ever shot. Made by an army of volunteers (more than 50 people) as a Ph.D. student project, we wanted to see if it could be done using a cheap digital camera, an inexpensive microphone and a bunch of our friends. It took two years to shoot, and another ten years to edit this director’s cut.

The dissertation was completed in 2018–see the pinned comment where it is linked for free… I’m now Dr. Nixon (insert crying/smiling emoji). Over this auto-ethnographic journey I learned that digital cameras can capture good–even great–images dirt-cheap, but that good audio costs money…except that finally, AI can clean audio tracks from cheap digital cameras.

The rough-cut of the the film (2015) and the first Directors Cut (2022) garnered a total of 54 Film Festival laurels — official selections, nominations, prizes and trophies. I think most of these are a reward just for finishing, the film-festival community is deeply supportive of outsider film projects, and that’s enough for me–would I work this way again, with no money? Simple answer, no. I prefer having access to professional tools, budgets and workflows:

* San Francisco Global Movie Fest 2015 – Best Feature – United States
* Mountain Film Festival 2015 – Jury Prize
* Cannes Underground Film Festival 2015 – Winner – Audience Award
* San Tropez International Film Festival 2015 – World Premiere/Jury Award Nominee/Best Director Nominee/Best Actor Nominee/Best Actress Nominee/Best Editing Nominee/Best Makeup Nominee
* Italy International Film Festival, Milan 2015 – Best Cinematography Feature Film Trophy / Best Feature Film Nominee/Best Director Nominee/Best Screenplay Nominee/Nominee/Best Editing Nominee
* Film Fest International–Berlin 2016 — Best Feature Comedy Trophy / Best Screenplay Nominee
* Los Angeles CineFest April 2015 – Official Selection
* New York – Audience Now 2015 – Official Selection
* TOFF The Online Film Festival March 2015 – Official Selection/Online Premiere
* Depth of Field International Film Festival 2015 – Official Selection/Official Nominations – Best in
Show & Best in Category
* IndiFest 2017 – Official Selection
*Sensei Online Film Festival, 2023 Gold and Silver medals
* Khajuraho International Film Festival 2015 – Official Selection Short List
* Beverly Hills Film Festival 2012 Screenplay Competition – Official Selection/Finalist
* Sundance Screenwriting Competition 2012 – Finalist/Second Round Selection
* Mountain Film Festival 2011 – Sir Edmund Hillary Award in Screenwriting
* Los Angeles Film and Script Festival 2011 – Honorable Mention
* Shenandoah International Playwriting Competition 1997 – Finalist
* Live Arts Play Festival, Theatre IV 1997 – Official Selection/Production
* Sibiu Festival for Young Professional Theatre 1996 – Official Selection, Publication and Staged Reading in English/Romanian

All music in the film was licensed for free thanks to the generosity of many great artists including Moby, Trent Reznor, and local DC bands who support no-budget cinema. Please follow them on Spotify. The theatrical cut is repped by Adler Productions, our producing partner and is available on VOD. This version is free.

#digitalcinema #filmfestivals #fullfilm #freefilm #comedy