Bonjour, Mes Amis! I’m just back from French class and shortly off to ballet, but first a quick update on all things Deviant. It’s been an INSANELY busy summer with festival fun, writing, accolades, pre-production and teaching. Plus, tired of having no time for a personal life, I’ve just read FLOW by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and finally found the key to squeezing more hours into the day (hence the French and ballet). It’s a revelation! Seriously, read it. You will never waste another precious second.
On the festival front, DOLORES continues making the rounds from Melbourne Independent to Dragon*Con, Madison Horror, and the Netherlands. We’re just back from its screening in our nation’s capital at the very awesome DC Shorts fest. If you’re a foodie in DC, be sure to go to the following restaurants: Proof, Zatyina, Coco and La Tasca. The portrait museum is also amazing (and free!) and Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum is the best venue for a film fest party ever! (and just around the corner – a spy museum – sweet! BTW, that’s me chillin’ with fellow Sarah Lawrence alumnus, Yoko.)
Next up, we’re off to the Port Townsend Fest. DOLORES will also travel to Milan, Whitby, England and…BRUGES! I am particularly heartbroken to miss the always wonderful BRAM STOKER Festival and my p.o.-ed inner gypsy isn’t speaking to me as I must also forgo the trip to Bruges (fall on knees, arms raised, “nooooooo! whyyyyyy?!”), where both DOLORES and DEATH IN CHARGE will screen at the RAZOR REEL festival. But, alas, too much is happening on this side of the pond.
A joint documentary project is underway involving our upcoming short BRIDE OF FRANKIE, a Mary Shelley scholar and a group of Notre Dame students. As such, I’m flying back to Indiana next week to give some workshops and kick off the first stages of this ambitious project. Sadly, this means I will miss DOLORES’ L.A. premiere at the super fabulous SHRIEKFEST film festival. Do attend if you can – always a wonderful time and such great people.
Thereafter, I’m diving into an intensive 6-week-long directing workshop where I get to work with professional actors to further develop scenes from some of our upcoming projects. A year of intensive writing and rewriting has led to some promising leads with several features I’ve written. In fact, 5 of my scripts have all recently placed in several highly competitive competitions. It will be interesting to see which one makes it to set first – fortunately, I’m enamored of them all, so it’s win-win. Incidentally, filmmaking friends, I cannot stress enough the value of developing multiple projects at once. Half the heartbreak, 5 times the thrills. The nonstop activity has been positively exhilarating.
And just to avoid being a total slacker, I will likely teach another semester at the Academy – schedule permitting, we kick off shooting the new web series in November, and I’m also participating in a 6-week-writing workshop with an exciting new mentor. Meanwhile, we’ve raised 25% of our budget so far for FRANKIE (you can help us HERE – it’s tax deductible – thanks!), tentatively scheduled for an early winter shoot. More active financing efforts recommence for both that and PROM (the latter at the AFM. Gonna be there? Let’s do drinks!) as of mid-November.
So, that is why I haven’t been blogging (or keeping up with e-mail or returning calls – sorry for sucking). Admittedly, I have managed to steal a few nights out to the cinema because I refuse to become one of those filmmakers who never watches films. What’s up with that? I absolutely recommend the following: POINT BLANK, THE HEDGEHOG, BEGINNERS, THE FUTURE, and GAINSBOURG: A HEROIC LIFE. All have given me faith that inspired and inspiring films are still getting theatrical releases if you know where to look. FYI, I favor the Laemmle Pasadena ($7 tix on Tuesdays! great happy hour at Roy’s next door, and wonderful bookstore/cafe on the other side).
That’s all the Deviant news that’s fit to print for now. Thanks for not giving up on us. We will be back with new stuff before too long. Also, news on our DVD release and more trippin’ and other screenings are forthcoming…