Olivia Mungal, 29, movie maker
S he’s a marketing manager and website guru on weekdays. But on the weekend she’s Olivia Mungal, indie filmmaker.
The 29-year-old is the director and producer for Layla Films, a production company made up of Greensboro short film lovers. They’ve created seven films so far with Olivia behind the camera.
“It is something that we have all kind of become addicted to and it’s a growing passion for us,” she says.
Olivia and her team follow the 48-hour film concept — where they are spend one weekend writing, filming and editing a movie. Their movies have played the local 48-hour film festival as well as Geeksboro.
This October they shot a horror film, The Lesson, the story of two friends trapped in an abandoned schoolhouse. The year before, it they made There Will Be Beets, a campy sendup of the horror genre. In the film, a pair of stranded women get help from a couple who love to can vegetables…or maybe something more sinister?
Spoiler: “The couple ends up being innocuous, until the very end. Then they stumble upon the dead body room,” Olivia says with a laugh.
But perhaps Layla Films’ crowning achievement was taking home the 48-hour film festival fan favorite and best soundtrack awards for PSA, a musical spoof on 1980s public service announcements.
“It is a labor of love, but it is a lot of fun for everybody involved…and we get to say, ‘Oh wow we made this, and it turned out really well.’”
