From The Tribune staff reports
BIRMINGHAM – The independent, feature-length film, “Jublowski,” produced by Birmingham-based Chog Media LLC, is set to release on Amazon Video on Friday, July 28, 2023.
Credit: Chog Media LLC
“Childhood friends Chaz Jublowski and Wendell Benson have known each other for years and have stuck by one another through thick and thin,” said Director and Chog Media CEO Austin Scarborough. “Now, during their senior year of high school, Chaz is ready to coast through until graduation. However, Wen’s motivation to make a student film before graduation and involve most of their school’s student body throws a curveball into Chaz’s plans. Along the way, the kids face all the difficulties that come with growing into adulthood, facing heartbreak and trying to accomplish a goal they couldn’t accomplish alone.”
The film previously premiered on May 26 at Birmingham’s Sidewalk Cinema and was subsequently selected for the Cobb International Film Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, which will take place next month.
“It’s very much been a process,” Scarborough said to The Tribune. “We’d already made several other films, which in many ways had a more difficult time on set. … Because (with ‘Jublowski’) we were making a movie that was about making movies, we knew how to do that.”
“Jublowski” is Chog Media’s third film in three years, following “Remember the Light” and “New South Cottage,” the latter of which won a prize at the 2022 Texas Faith and Family Film Festival for Best Actor for Kate Hindman.
According to Scarborough, the subtitle for “Jublowski” is “or What it Feels Like to be the Main Character,” which he said “is intentionally a self-referential comedic reference, in that it’s referring to both musicians who like to put together playlists with humorous or ironic titles – like, this is a playlist that will make you feel like the main character – and that the main character of this film, Chaz Jublowski, is a musician and an actor in the story and the type of person that would put together a playlist like that.”
The film also comes with the tagline: “Despite what you might think, this is not based on a true story. Or is it?”
Scarborough said the purpose of this is to encourage viewers to guess at what events actually happened and what events didn’t.
“I can safely say that quite a few details were turned around,” he said. “Some of these things were fabricated; some of them were entirely original; some of them have been all too real. It’s a combination of it and we want to keep people guessing.”
Scarborough was a junior in high school when he and some friends founded Chog Theatre Troupe in 2019. Chog, he said, was an acronym for Creatives Helping Out in Groups. From there, the group grew into what is now Chog Media LLC.
The Chog Media team consists of Scarborough, CFO and Production Manager Anthony Berneche, Creative Director/Cinematographer Josh Hale, and Composer/Department of Music Head Ryan Owens.
Chog Media’s mission is to be, “A group of creatives helping others produce stories with excellence,” according to the company’s creative director, Joshua Hale.
More information on the film can be found on Facebook @ChogMediaLLC and on Instagram @ChogMedia.
