Maybe you recall my Oct., 2007 interview with Chris Fuller, 26, a St. Petersburg native and businessman whose first movie, Loren Cass,  made a decent splash in the indie-scene pool.

Now Fuller's movie is going viral. You can see Loren Cass online through Amazon.com's Video on Demand. It costs $2.99 for a 24-hour rental, or $9.99 for a downloaded copy. Loren Cass will soon be available on iTunes, and a DVD version is planned later this year. The Web site for Fuller's Jonesing Pictures is currently under construction.

The abstract drama, set in St. Petersburg after the racial disturbances of 1996, earned slots at the 2007 CineVegas Film Festival, where Robert Koehler of Variety deemed it: "A starkly radical
film debut of uncommon power and artistic principle." Koehler also
described Fuller as "a genuinely original filmmaking talent."

Loren Cass was also showcased at festivals in Vienna, Helsinki, Finland and Locarno, Switzerland, among other locales. Last year, the IFP Gotham Awards nominated Loren Cass in the category of "best film not playing at a theater near you" and it was shown twice at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art.

I admired Fuller's pluck, including the fact that early financing for Loren Cass came from earnestly rounding up investors and selling steaks from the back of a truck. That job has grown into The Meatman gourmet butcher shop and catering on 4th St. in St. Pete. Fuller also dropped hints of a new movie project in a recent e-mail: "Work on our next film is also underway, lots of exciting people involved. Stay tuned."

(Images from Jonesing Pictures)