Review Fix Exclusive Queens World Film Festival Coverage: Inside A Favor

Review Fix chats with A Favor director Tannia Kustka, who lets us know all about the creative process behind the film and what to expect from it at this year’s Queens World Film Festival.

Review Fix: What was the inspiration for your film?

Tannia Kustka: Me. I was my own inspiration. I wanted to tell a story that made people feel, see a different side of people they don’t see…show that we are all human and we all struggle in our journeys in life. Where better to pull from in writing this story than from my own life experiences. I think as people we have become accustomed to using words as labels for people. We like to put them into categories based on what we briefly see on the surface. But human beings are complex. There is always so much more underneath than just a military woman. She is a woman who is a mother who is in the military who has viewpoints and makes decisions. Whether good or bad, it’s all in who is looking. All these are layers, or colors if you will that make up this very unique human being.

Review Fix: What did you learn about yourself while making?

Kustka: I learned that I kept the faith I have in me in my project as well. Even though filmmaking is an arduous process, and when I had the idea and passed it around for feedback I could see the doubt in people’s faces, I didn’t steer from making it. Their opinions were only important in that it brought me back to the drawing board. I made changes and flushed out parts to make the story stronger but I didn’t think of dropping it. I didn’t give up on it. If a door closed, I looked for another one. Sometimes I just crawled through a window. Slowly but surely I put one step in front of the other and it got done.

Review Fix: What was the most challenging part of making it?

Kustka: Finding the cast and crew that I wanted! Schedules and budgets were factors in having to go back to the drawing board sometimes and find alternate solutions. I learned how to balance finding alternative solutions and still maintaining my level of expectation for excellence. The bar must always be met or superseded.

Review Fix: How do you want it to be remembered?

Kustka: I want people to be curious of what makes others tick, be more compassionate because you do not really know people until you walk in their shoes. If someone who sees my film remembers it and approaches someone in their life with more understanding, more patience, more compassion, then I have succeeded in what I set out to do.

Review Fix: How does it feel to be a part of the festival?

Kustka: It’s exhilarating and surreal! I had an idea of what I thought it was supposed to be like but actually experiencing it has gone beyond what I imagined.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Kustka: Shoot! I have a couple more stories I want to shoot and get out there for people to see.

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Kustka: I am grateful to my grandfather for giving me a strong foundation in staying curious, storytelling and the belief in myself to accomplish anything.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13819 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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