Brandon David is probably the most successful independent filmmaker you’ve never heard about. While his three feature films have all been released through national retail chains on DVD, they are just a little too commercial to have racked up festival accolades along the way to distribution. A native of Bristol, Connecticut, he studied film at New York University then, instead of seeking out industry jobs like his classmates, returned home to New England to shoot his first feature King Midas (1999) on the streets of Hartford, Connecticut and Springfield, Massachusetts. Like the ancient Greek myth, the movie is a cautionary tale, this time of a drug dealer trying to go legit by financing a friend’s hip-hop group only to learn his lesson the hard way; be careful what you wish for. As art imitates life, the executive producers of King Midas were all busted by the DEA and the FBI for running a large-scale cocaine and marijuana distribution ring within a month of the film’s premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2001. “I grew up with a rough crowd” David said, “and while I went off to film school, they stayed behind and became career criminals.”

While his friends were being shipped off to prison, David relocated to Hollywood and hooked up with attorney Mark Litwak who scored him a lucrative distribution deal for King Midas. Now bankrolled by his own success, the filmmaker wrote his next two features; a heist comedy called Six Figures (2004), which he began shooting immediately and Bristol Boys (2007), a movie based on the true story of his friends’ 2001 drug bust. As David describes it, “the movie is like a small-town Goodfellas” and tells the story of his friend’s rise and fall in the marijuana business.

As with his first feature, Six Figures and Bristol Boys were also filmed in Springfield, Massachusetts, largely because of the relationships the director had formed with investors and local businesses there. “The City of Springfield and the people there were very instrumental in getting my films made,” David explains, “it’s not like trying to shoot in New York or LA where everybody wants money for a location. In Springfield, business owners are happy to help just to be involved in something exciting or for the exposure they might get from the local media.”

With two distributed features under his belt, the director was able to attract a cast of rising stars for Bristol Boys including Thomas Guiry (Mystic River, The Black Donnellys), Dean Winters (Oz, 30 Rock, Rescue Me) and David Zayas (16 Blocks, The Interpreter, Dexter). Released on DVD April 3rd through Blockbuster, Netflix and other retailers, Bristol Boys will be shown for a limited time at the Two Boots Pioneer Theater in New York City beginning on Friday, April 6th at 7:00 pm. The director and star Dean Winters will attend the screening for a Q&A. See the trailer and learn more about the movie at www.BristolBoysTheMovie.com.

Story By: Mitchell Rosen