Screening: Friday, Sep 10, 7pm at Soo Theatre (Block 5) |
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Director: Jake VanKersen
Narrative Feature, United States, 2025, 76 min, Color
After canceling plans with friends on a rare day off together, Hector and Penny begin a game of role-play that threatens to undo their relationship. I Agree With You celebrates open communication, no matter how weird it gets.
Our director Jake VanKersen is a native of Muskegon. His first job was at Cinema Carousel, which is part of the West Michigan Celebration Cinema chain.
Our Executive Producer John Otterbacher was also raised in West Michigan. He is a graduate of Grand Valley State University. He served as the President of the Grand Rapids Film Festival and was a board member.
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Director: Jake VanKersen
Writer: Ross Compton
Producers: Scott Cupper, Tyler Core, John Otterbacher
Key Cast: Stevie Shale, Ross Compton
Jake grew up in the 1980s, a perfect time to be a kid who loved movies. He could watch Spielberg movies in the theater, watch the original Star Wars Trilogy on HBO, or rent Back to the Future over and over again from the video store. It was a great decade to fall in love with filmmaking.
That love for films never dissipated. The day after he turned 16, Jake was hired as an usher at his hometown movie theater. As fate would have it, he was working there during 1999, the much-celebrated year in film, which only solidified his love for filmmaking.
Jake tried to explore other career options but couldn’t shake his desire to pursue filmmaking. During an uncertain time in his life, he moved to Chicago and immediately fell in love with the city. From there, he turned his attention to Columbia College Chicago and decided to throw himself into studying film.
After graduating in 2008, he went to work for a Chicago-based company that made camera gear, rented equipment, and also produced a variety of web series. Working for this company allowed Jake to further his film studies by working on productions. During this time, he produced and acted in a web series called Hank Frisco: Galaxy Defender, wrote and directed a short film called Right, made multiple music videos for local artists, and made a web series documentary called Audition, which chronicled the lives of working actors.
Realizing that no one was stopping him, he went to work to finally make a feature film. Working with screenwriter Ross Compton and producers Scott Cupper and Tyler Core, Jake developed the film I Agree With You. The film was shot during five days in August 2023 and post-production was completed in June 2024.
With I Agree With You, I was looking to make a film like Kramer vs Kramer. Which is to say a character driven film about relationships, in this case long-term couple too afraid to confront their issues. I recognize that it is far too easy to romanticize the past, but these character-driven films used to be regularly made by major studios. I might have missed that time by a few decades, but I wanted to honor these films by making one like them. Or at least try.
Professor O’s Producing Festival #3 - “Ultra Low Budget” Feature Case Study!, Chicago, Illinois, February 2, 2025.
Lake Michigan Film Festival, Okemos, Michigan, February 28, 2025, Best Feature - Winner
Broad St. Film Festival, Sugar Hill, Georgia, March 7, 2025, Nominee - Best Feature
Touchstone Independent Film Festival, Online, April 7, 2025, Best Comedy Feature
The Davis Theater, Chicago, Illinois, July 29, 2025, Chicago Premiere
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