The Third is Manuel’s first feature length narrative project. He wrote, directed, and edited the film across 2020-2023. Partially funded via a successful IndieGogo campaign as well as personal savings, Manuel realized his indie filmmaking dream of making a feature length project. The film was shot in eleven days in Nashville, Tennessee with a small crew of Manuel’s friends from film school. The crew utilized two BlackMagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, often shooting simultaneously to create a sense of immediacy and documentary style realism. Manuel was heavily inspired by the early films of Andrew Bujalski, the Duplass Brothers, and Sophia Takal to focus his lens on extremely small, off-beat stories about people in their early 20s.

You can see a list of films that influenced The Third on Manuel’s Letterboxd account.

After some small reshoots, ADR recording, and lot of time in Avid Media Composer and DaVinci Resolve, Manuel had completed The Third. The film went on to make it’s festival premiere virtually via the 2023 Chattanooga Film Festival where it was welcomed with open arms as a pleasant, hangout-film foil to the darker and more dramatic fare at the festival.

Here is a small excerpt from a review of the film’s run at the festival from Justin Lore at CinePunx:

“The Third is a deeply honest film, holding little (if anything) back. That is not to say it’s an unpleasant film; far from it. Rather, it is a cathartic film, and catharsis is by definition uncomfortable. This is a movie that will make you squirm. It will make you feel sorry for some of the characters in how pathetic they act. But in the end, it’s a movie about people getting through whatever it is they’re going through, and it’s beautiful to watch unfold.”

Manuel and many of his collaborators from The Third have only continued to create more films, learning new things about how to navigate independent (and often DIY) filmmaking with each project. His two cinematographers from The Third have gone on to make a feature and a short on their own. The location and post-production sound mixer has gone on to produce multiple short films as well. Manuel is currently writing a new project that will hopefully bring many of his talented colleagues back together soon…

If you’d like to see The Third, you can do so for free by simply reaching out on the contact page of this website.