Multi-hyphenate Neil Mandt’s Last Stop for Paul is getting some major cable channel run in big city media markets, as well as some positive advance notices from Richard Roeper and other critics. In advance of its theatrical bow this weekend, Mandt submits to a brief email Q&A about his interesting indie travelogue, which chronicles an in-a-rut bathroom supplies salesman who sets off on a four-corners-of-the-world adventure to spread the ashes of a recently, suddenly deceased childhood friend.

Brent Simon: So what was the first seed for the idea of the movie?

Neil Mandt: I’ve traveled the world extensively, and my first big trip was backpacking Europe alone the summer after high school. It seemed that every trip I took left me with at least one crazy story I would tell at parties. It was only a matter of time and trips until I started to think all of these stories put together would make for an interesting movie. So I came up with the sprinkling of the ashes as the through-line and bingo, we have a movie of my crazy adventures.

BS: So I’ve seen the ads for the film all over MSNBC, which is impressive saturation for any indie. How exactly has that worked on your modest budget?

NM: When my brother and I decided to release the movie ourselves we knew we would have to find some affordable way to get the word out. As I was poking around trying to investigate all of the traditional forms of advertising, I remembered that I had seen spots on local cable for local restaurants. Time Warner is able to sell off some of the left-over inventory on the national shows. When I investigated I was shocked to learn that spots were as cheap as $1 on the Travel Channel. MSNBC was $5 in the daytime and $7 at night. Crazy!

BS: What country, or countries, presented the most logistical hurdles during production?

NM: There were many logistics that I had to deal with in making this movie. In addition to being the producer along with my brother Michael, I was the lead actor, writer, director and travel coordinator. Coordinating the travel for the people who participated in the movie as well as producing the movie was very complicated. Once we were on the road shooting, the biggest concern was to avoid getting arrested in every country. Since we were stealing shots everywhere, we were essentially breaking the law everywhere. The Acropolis in Athens was especially tight on security, and numerous signs [were] posted warning against any type of filming. We made an extra effort to be stealth there.

BS: Let’s say you’re graced with the powers of Hayden Christiansen’s character from Jumper, and you can jump around the globe effortlessly — where do you go for Last Stop for Paul that you weren’t able to go, for whatever reason?

NM: We went everywhere I wanted to go in the filming of Last Stop for Paul. There were additional countries which I considered shooting in, however, they were decided against because I knew they would just get cut out of the final product. It’s important for a comedy to move swiflty and I didn’t want to have wasted time in the movie.

BS: What’s it been like traveling to so many festivals with the movie?

NM: I am the first to admit that I am surprised (happily) that Last Stop for Paul has been such a festival success. When we finished the movie I thought it was good, however I knew I was very close to the picture. I never expected that it would connect so well with audiences. Once we started getting invited to so many festivals and then winning award after award, we started to feel very confident with the movie. Looking back at a year of having the movie at over 100 film festivals I feel very honored and appreciative of every single one of them.

Last Stop for Paul expands nationwide throughout March; for more information on the movie, click here.