Friends & Family Screening A Success

A bit delayed but I am sitting down a week later to report on the debut screening of my long awaited second film The Culinary Browns. All 3 screenings in the lovely Screening Theater at Georgia State University's Digital Arts and Entertainment Lab (DAEL to those of you in the know) were packed full and after screening I spent the rest of the night toasting myself with champagne and answering everyone's thoughtful questions. The film achieved what I hoped which was to provoke people to think about their own family dynamics and to take them on a journey that would be visually memorable and poetic. It feels great to now have this film out in the world and I'm now embarking on the arduous chore of picking fests and sending out screeners.

I have a telephone appointment with the aquisitions manager at SnagFilms this week to discuss the possibility of distribution for my previous film 99 to 1: Ovarian Cancer and Me. I hope they go for it. If not--I'll have the entire film available on YouTube shortly. I'm only leaning toward Snag because they specialize in documentary films and I hear they are great folks.

For my graduation gift I am going to send myself to Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School--a 4 day workshop in Los Angeles in January. I'm not sure what to expect but no matter what I'm sure it will be memorable and I will post!

Brand New Blog

After yet another lecture on the power of online eyes I'm back at blogging. Be forewarned that my previous attempts at blogging have been--at best--spotty. But, this time darlings, I swear it will be different.

In filmmaking news: My new film The Culinary Browns is merely a week away from it's friends and family screening. I'm having palpitations. Really, I'm incredibly excited to debut this work. It's been a year in the half in the making and I think it is a real leap forward for me as a storyteller. I wanted to look at the ways families deal with dysfunction--what they repeat--how we break these patterns--what scripts we can rewrite and did so by putting my own family under the microscope. My great grandfather, Bob Brown, was a writer who begat my grandfather Bob, also a writer and their dysfunction trickled down in ways small and large to their progeny. I went back to their writing to figure out what of my own family narrative was fact and what was fiction.

I will be screening to friends, family and GSU students next Friday and coming soon to a festival near you.

Today I had the pleasure of hearing two great lectures: Brian Newman (formerly of Tribeca Film Festival) speaking on new routes for filmmakers online in the realm of fundraising, marketing and distribution. If I could sum up his message in one sentence: Be online, be everywhere you can, tweat, blog, connect, make yourself accessible and authentic while providing something unique and experiential for your fan base. I'll take it to heart and do the best I can--my only brief thought was with all the tweeting and blogging and connecting online when am I going to actually be making films?

The second speaker Jason Reitman is hoofing it for his new film Up in the Air. Saw the film at a free screening last night and thought it was great. Really smart, great vehicle for Clooney who gets to work his chops a little, Vera Farmiga is absolutely captivating and Anna Kendrick is great. Kendrick delivered one of my favorite numbers in the musical gem Camp. If you haven't seen that one--do it now. Reitman in a nutshell: do what brings you magic; this film thing is a long shot but if you work hard and tough it out and surround yourself with good people you might make it; tell stories that interest you in your own voice (again authenticity); "I'm the boss applesauce" is what being a director is at the end of the day.

So after next week it's a new round of festivals and making it work for me and the new one. As my academic career comes to an end--the safety net vanishes and hopefully that one glimmering project will come to the fore in the next couple of years. In the meanwhile I'm sure I'll have plenty of tales to tell about making or breaking it. Stay tuned.