We will be screening the New York premiere of WATW this Thursday, Oct 8th, 2:30 and Friday, October 9th, 12:00 at the Hamptons International Film Festival in East Hampton, Long Island.
Our New York City premiere will be the following weekend as part of the Royal Flush Film Festival on Saturday, October 17th, 3:00.
Hope you can join us.
Just returned from the Rhode Island Film Festival. Justin took “Best Editing” prize out of 235 films. Will have more info and pictures soon.
The Delray Beach Film Festival was simply a wonderful time and to be in south Florida in shorts and filp flops was a nice break from Manhattan. Festival Director Michael Posner and the volunteer staff went out of their way to make sure the filmmakers had a great time. It’s the only festival I’ve been to that offers surfing lessons as an event with an added bonus of being taught by a professional surfer, Scott Posner, Michael’s son. I decided to drive down from New York and while stopping in Baltimore I convinced my friend Brett from college to come with us. Jason, another college friend was living in Boynton Beach so we all stayed with him and his wife Macaire. It was really great of them to put us up for the entire time and all the mangoes you could eat!
The festival began and joining us all week was Ft. Lauderdale local Tim Gorski who we met at True/False. I forgot to mention Tim’s movie At the Edge of the World in the earlier blog. It’s a brilliant film documenting a group of environmentalists who sail the Antarctic ocean to do actual battle with Japanese whaling vessels. Another local was a college buddy of mine, Dave Rubenstein. Dave was in LA for years as an actor doing commercials and even had a television series with Steve “Urkel” Quincy. Hanging out all week was producer Steve Shor. Steve has been working in the Hollywood studio system for years and was alot of fun to talk with. We also spent time with Miranda Khan and Darrin Willhite. Miranda used to be a local news anchor on NBC and Darrin was her producer. Awesome couple and they’ve been married now for over 4 years. Met another fun couple, Margaret Nussbaum and Jim Steech who won the DBFF Reel To Reel script contest. Their short script M.I.L.F was interpreted by six different teams in a 72 hour film challenge during the festival. Also it was great to meet Cyndi Lenz, videographer of the festival, who also worked on a film in the festival lineup, Interrogate this: Psychologists Take On Terror, and Jack Mancini and Ana Paula Negrao, the two photographers covering the festival. Jack is just an awesome guy and was happy to take any pictures anyone wanted. Ana as well, and she introduced me to one of the world’s top women’s skateboarders, Leticia Bufoni. I’ll be rooting for her at X Games later this month.
We met filmmakers like Joe Consentino whose film Baghdad Diary is an eyewitness account of the Iraq War through the videotaping of an Iraq taxi driver and NBC News cameraman. Another documentary was An Unlikely Weapon, directed by Susan Morgan Cooper. It’s the story of the life of Eddie Adams, war photographer, whose profound photographs most people will recognize. Also met Jules Rubin of Julesworks. Director CJ Schmidt and Producer Samantha Colburn were at the festival with their beautifully made short Blood Money. Writer Susan Spinatto’s documentary Aerojet Dade: An Unfinished Journey explores the once cutting edge rocket testing facility. The Spitting Game, directed by Denice Ann Evans was an inside look at the college hook up culture. Another documentary was Rick Cohen’s Faded Glory, the story of a motley crew of over 40′s, reuniting to win the National Adult Baseball Association’s national championship. After watching the film I complimented Rick on how he could lay his whole life story out there for everyone to see. There is so much emotion packed into this film, it has you rooting for the underdog the entire time. Also met filmmaker Alyn Darnay who had two shorts at the festival, The Art Of Roadkill and Smooth Operator. Alyn has also written a book The Script, A Breakthrough Guide To Scriptwriting which he was nice enough to give me a copy. I would recommend it to anyone considering writing a script. Also on hand was Giancarlo Esposito with his directorial debut of Gospel Hill. Most people will know Giancarlo from Usual Suspects, Do The Right Thing or Law and Order. His acting career has spanned over 30 years and listening to him speak at a Q&A and chatting with him briefly throughout the week, he’s just an all around fantastic guy.
Our screening was well received. My brother Dean flew down from New York. Our neighbors growing up, Madeline, Laura and their mom Kathy all now live in south Florida and came to the screening. In attendance was another college friend and local, Amanda with her husband. Another local Shannon Best of Best Kiteboarding showed up who I met a couple years ago when I filmed him and the team kiting in the Utah snow. Also joining us was Anna Kuzminova with her husband and son Marcus, who played one of the infants in our film. It was a really great crowd and even better having friends and family with us. A little later in the night they had the awards ceremony. Giancarlo was give an award for lifetime achievement. Rick Cohen’s Faded Glory won the Audience Award for Best Documentary. Denice Ann Evans’ The Spitting Game won the Special Award for a documentary that raises awareness of contemporary issues. And War Against The Weak wound up winning Director’s Choice for Best Documentary. So an all around great festival and another award for the film. Thanks again to Festival Director Michael Posner for a wonderful festival and having everyone to his house for a filmmaker breakfast. Up next is Maine International on the 16th and 18th of July.
MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Thursday, July 16, 2009 3:00pm
Railroad Square Cinema #3
Saturday, July 18, 2009 08:45pm
Railroad Square Cinema #3
War Against The Weak has been accepted to the Delray Beach Film Festival screening on Saturday, May 23rd at 5:00pm. Join us if you can and please let anyone you may know in the Florida area from Palm Beach to Miami to come out and support. Here is a link to the festival website. You can click to buy tickets at the bottom of the page.
The Beverly Hills Film Festival was certainly an interesting and validating trip. Our screening went well. Justin Donais, Glastonburykids, who we met at True/False showed up and one of our actors in the film, Brigitte Hagerman was there as well. While waiting in the lobby I had the pleasure of meeting Mardik Martin, the writer of such films as Mean Streets and Raging Bull. The man is 79 and so full of life and funny. I watched him give a seminar to screenwriters as he shared his experiences of working with Scorsese and how to pitch your script. Really nice guy.
At the Friday night party I wound up meeting a group from Alaska with a short film titled Way Up North. Levi A. Taylor’s creation is a 20 minute Rock Opera that’s a mix between Sin City and the last half of From Dusk Till Dawn without the vampires. Lot’s of blood and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Very entertaining. Also had a good time talking with Way Up North Cinematographer, Mike Collier. He told me when someone learns he’s from Alaska they always ask him about Gov. Palin. I don’t know about Palin but if other Alaskans are like this group then Alaska is ok with me.
Sunday night was the awards dinner held at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Real swanky place. Before it started I wound up meeting John Stamos in the lobby. He was there with Bob Saget, not for the awards show, they just happened to be staying there. In the back of my head I was thinking Full House reunion? The awards dinner started and I wound up sitting at a table with the crew from Way Up North and sitting next to Larry Hankin. Most people will know Larry as the upstairs neighbor on Friends. Super nice guy who also had a short at the festival called The Outlaw Emmet Deemus and The Porno Queen. Larry was kind enough to give me a copy. It’s hilarious. As he says, “It’s Don Quixote on a motorcycle”.
The awards part of the dinner started and Way Up North wound up winning Best Short and Best Editing. Best Documentary went to Life After Death, written and directed by Shawn Thompson. When we lost I figured, oh well, no big deal, we didn’t win. They then moved on to the next award and opened the envelope, “and the award for Best Feature Film goes to…” I was absolutely shocked. I honestly could not believe they called out War Against The Weak. I’ve never heard of a documentary winning for Best Film. It truly was a great feeling especially for anyone that works in this business. We’ve been working on this project night and day for almost 2 years and anyone can tell you it’s a grueling process. We do it because it’s what we love. I just wish Justin and the rest of the crew were with me. It would have been that much more if everyone was there. Still, it was an incredible night and I hope more good things happen for the film as we move forward.
Full Frame is considered the premiere documentary film festival in America. Out of 1200 documentaries, 60 are selected. We were in some good company and the filmmakers we met were great, as well as seeing familiar faces from other festivals; Gita Pullapilly and Aron Gaudet with their wonderful film, The Way We Get By, David Simpson, Milking the Rhino, and Ondi Timoner, We Live In Public. I met a bunch of students from Dayton, Ohio that came down to watch films, interact and get advice from filmmakers. For all you Deadheads it was definitely a trip to meet Wavy Gravy. There was a documentary made about his life called Saint Misbehavin – The Wavy Gravy Movie, directed by Michelle Esrick. Michelle told me they have been working on it for ten years. We were also able to reconnect with co-directors Donal Mosher and Michael Palmieri, October Country.
We had a great audience for our screening and the care that goes into the technical aspect is amazing. We had a 350 seat makeshift theatre in the conference center at the Marriott Hotel in Durham. Nothing against the other festivals but it was the best looking projection we’ve had so far. Afterwards the crowd kept us for an hour. The questions didn’t seem to end but Justin handled every one very eloquently, as he always does. Again shock and awe at discovering how America influenced the Holocaust. The location of the festival had more significance for us being in North Carolina. Sterilization didn’t officially end in North Carolina until 1974. Very disturbing. Today the Governor as well as State Representatives are trying to give reparations to those who were wronged.
Southern hospitality was in full force. Peg Palmer, Executive Director, Sadie Tillary, Director of Programming, Stephanie Barnwell, Manager, Programming and Special Guests, and the whole staff were absolutely fantastic, especially Lani Simeona, Hospitality Coordinator. She went above and beyond the call to help us with whatever we needed. All around an exceptional festival for documentary filmmakers and film goers alike. I highly recommend Sons Of Cuba, the festival’s opening night film. It’s a fantastic documentary about young boys in Havana who train to be champions. Unfortunately it was the only film I was able to watch because our film was screening at the Beverly Hills Film Festival the following day. Justin stayed to represent the film at Full Frame as I boarded a plane for Los Angeles.
2 interviews with Justin.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdVWC1Pt-NY&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk6zowbuj7Q
It was 4 days of nothing but documentaries and interesting people. The opening of the festival began with a Mardi Gras like parade which took us to the grand ballroom where food and drinks were served. The whole community comes out for the event. When talking with festival director David Wilson, I asked him about the elaborate trees that adorned the hall. He explained that volunteers had been working for months on weekends to have them, and all the other decorations ready for the festival. I was really impressed at the amount of care that went into everything.
What I liked most about True /False was it’s laid back atmosphere. David summed it up in an interview when he said, “Most important advice I find myself giving filmmakers coming into T/F is to relax. They’re not going to make a sale (though they may make some good friends). They don’t need to stand out on the street and hand out postcards (their screening will be full already). They don’t need to constantly be texting people from a party to see what else is going on – that’s it. That party. It’ll probably be a good one, so just enjoy.” His words rang true.
The films and panel discussions were great. Our audiences again stayed for the Q&A’s and kept us for at least an hour after each screening. People again could not stop talking about the film. I was able to meet fellow filmmakers and network with industry professionals in a relaxed setting and have actual conversations. The festival was more than just a festival and the standing ovation and wild cheers of over 1000 for festival directors David Wilson and Paul Sturtz at the closing night film affirmed that. Attached are some pictures.
Next stop is the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival on Thursday, April 2nd and the Beverly Hills Film Festival on Saturday, April 4th. If you have friends and family in the Raleigh/Durham, NC or Los Angeles area, please have them come see our film.
Justin talks on The BXR Morning Show with Simon and Leslie.
We’ve been having a great time in Santa Barbara. This is one of the better festivals we have been to and it doesn’t hurt that it’s warm. We’ve had both our screenings to almost packed houses, getting great reviews, and everyone on the street is talking about our film..so much so the festival organizers are giving us an additional screening. Will have more info later.
-Pete
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