 "A Walk-Up with Five Stories" was not a planned film. In 1998 I moved to NYC after writing my first screenplay in the University. I came to make a film. After spending three days on the train, I began work writing my second screenplay as soon as my feet hit the urban pavement. I had never worked with 16mm film so I decided to enroll in a few classes at Film/Video Arts. Though the old F/V A had some of the nastiest carpets in the film underground, they had teachers, fellow students, flat beds and Bolexes. What more did an aspiring filmmaker need? The original 1300 feet of film I shot while at F/V A was intended for "Divisions," the screenplay I began after arriving in NYC. Of course, this is where the unplanned became the planned. The organic nature of film grew from one of those editing flats where the lights never worked. They say Warhol edited all his films in there. The creation would take place. I knew "Divisions" was a long way from completion and that my budget could not afford for much more film. In the meantime I figured it would be good to have a piece to show. After cutting the film for so long, another story came from the footage. I had shot some scenes for "Divisions" where YOUR MAN climbs the stairs and sees VENUS getting busy with another guy. I also had shot some of the other sequences for the film. At the time, I lived in a walk-up with five stories. I showed the work print sans soundtrack at the end of class with F/V A. From that day on, I would show the film at parties, at my house, in cars, wherever. Later I would take it down to WRS (HINT: BEST student discount in all of NYC!) and show it to Marv Salliway. He told me there was one man to see: Jonas Mekas. I dropped the film off with Jonas at the Anthology Film Archives. Of course, I had to call him every other day for the next three months until he watched it. He added it to the schedule as a Friday and Saturday night screening. My first film premiere! The film would then make its way to a packed house in my hometown on New Year s Eve. From there, it would be exposed to all via festivals and through collec.tv distribution.