My name is Konstantin Stoyanov-Casey and I’m a USPS operations specialist in Philadelphia.
When I’m not on the job, you can find me working on my latest film, “Brass Band,” a kind of Bulgarian version of “La La Land.” I wrote and directed the movie, which is a story about underdogs, friendship and the redeeming power of love. It’s got a lot of humor and a lot of music.
It was filmed in Bulgaria and the United States, so I’m hoping for international appeal.
Right now I’m in postproduction and hope it will be ready soon. Then I’ll send it to festivals for consideration and look for a distributor.
I started with the Postal Service as a mail handler in 2000 and later joined the video department in what was then called Philadelphia District. I always dreamed of being a filmmaker and studied filmmaking in my off hours, eventually graduating cum laude from Temple University.
My experience as a USPS video producer — writing scripts, filming, editing, working with nonactors — really helped in the making of this film. The project is self-financed, just myself and some filmmaker friends in Bulgaria, and I needed to work with a lot of nonprofessionals for budget reasons. I had a lot of experience doing that, thanks to the job.
We made a video with letter carriers running up the “Rocky” steps to inspire postal employees during the pandemic. I thought of that video when I filmed a scene for “Brass Band” in front of the LOVE sculpture, another famous Philadelphia landmark.
Budget cuts put an end to the video department, but that’s the great thing about the Postal Service — there’s always something else you can do.
My wife, Krasimira Stoyanova, is a processing support manager at the Delaware Processing and Distribution Center, and we’re both very proud and happy to be part of the postal family.
“Off the Clock,” a column on Postal Service employees and their after-hours pursuits, appears regularly in Link.