Big Sky Documentary Film Festival

Well we landed in big sky country. What a beautiful place and what an amazing festival. We have seen some really amazing documentary films and have met a ton of talented filmmakers. The staff here are true film lovers and Missoula is a real suprise to me - the restaurants here are amazing, food is unbelievable, amazing coffee shops/cafe's - there is so much the town has to offer even thought it is compacted into a smaller space than a larger city. I am impressed.

Our film plays on Monday at 3:00 and I think the turn out will be good. I will post my sense of the movies a bit later on. I have included a quick clip here.

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Home From Victoria

Well I'm home. It was a thrilling ride in Victoria. Playing to a full house and getting great feedback. We spoke with Distribution Reps, met other filmmakers and had an all around good time. My producing partner, Laura Bernieri, always said the film would have a life and it certainly had one of its best days in Victoria. Now we are onward to the Big Sky Documentary Festival in a few weeks and I am truly looking forward to that.

I have included a video of the beginning intro to the film and some of the clips with the audience response, they said not to bring cameras but I guess I'm allowed right?

Let me know what you think!!!

Sunday Feb 1 - Screening Tonight

Well we screen tonight, and as mentioned before we are sold out which is exciting. We have seen a few film here and one I truly recommend is called "One Week" and another is "50 Dead Men Walking". One Week is an inspirational story about someone coming to terms with a life threatening issue and the woman he intends to marry while he drives his newly acquired motorcycle across Canada. 50 Dead Men is an IRA/Irish story that is compelling and fierce.

Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan, Flags of our Fathers) is here and has been really cool to all the filmmakers and Charles Martin Smith (American Graffitti, Never Cry Wolf) s here too. The Victoria audiences are very enthusiastic film goers and more than one person told me - what else is there to do at night. Well for me, there are terrific pubs, restaurants etc. But it does get kind of chilly at night.

Festival Director Kathy Kay (pictured above) has been tremendous and I highly reccommend coming to this festival if it ever should be available to you. I have gotten to speak with distribution folks at Bravo, Foundry Films, IFC and still have a few more folks to speak with. I hope the screening goes well and am really looking forward to it. I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow.

Michael

We're SOLD OUT

WOW! Here we are in Victoria, Canada going to opening night parties, mingling with actors, writers, producers, directors and I get a call - Delta Rising is SOLD OUT. Our movie - Sold Out in Victoria. I jump up and down and few times and can't believe it - and partially because it was right after this terrific interview my wife Buffy got me on CFAX radio in Victoria, Victoria's largest radio station.

I was expecting to be interviewed for 10-15 minutes but the host, Murray Langdon, a Victoria institution (and all around decent chap) took us to an hour and said if he had another hour we could keep going. Thanks Murray!!!

The BUZZ - it's hard to tell where the buzz is. Tonight was opening night and we saw a really great film - One Week. It was a Canadian Film and it was warm, life affirming, well acted, really well written and just a beautiful portrait of things most people must come to terms with. A bit of a road trip off the end of a really high diving board - you gotta check it out.

The after party was fun and there were a lot of people partaking in Vodka/Choclate Milk concotions that tasted a bit like a malt but got you pretty wobbly after 1 or 2.
I feel priveleged to be here, and I love Canada and especially Victoria. I am looking forward to our screening on Sunday and I get a bit nervous about it selling out and all - but what could be better, truly?

It's the journey and the journey is the ride.

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Victoria we're here!

We're here, well across the street from here. The photo is the Empress Hotel where many of the filmmakers for the Victoria Film Festival will stay and where the hospitality suite is. I was excited to get here and when we did get here there was Trudy, our driver, was waiting for us. That is one thing about getting a film accepted to and then attending a festival - the treatment you get as a filmmaker is special..so much so that I had a driver - well for a day. We were drooped off at the hotel and immediately went to the hospitality suite to pick up our credentials and it was fun to walk through the entire length of the historic Empress Hotel to find the hospitality suite empty, vacant, unattended. Well the festival actually starts tomorrow, Friday but from what we understood the suite would be going strong but why we thought that...well I'm not really sure - but it is great to be here.

Tomorrow we officially go pick up our packets, hopefully get to chat with some of the other filmmakers, I have an interview on CFAX radio in Victoria at 3pm and then the opening night film and party follow. Delta Rising screens at 9PM on Sunday.

Now its time for a glass of red wine, putting Cooper to bed and kicking back with my wife. More tomorrow.

Two Festivals in Two Weeks

I'm on the train from San Francisco back home to San Jose and I am gearing up to go to both the Victoria Film Festival in Victoria, BC and the Big Sky Festival in Montana. The last festival I attended was in the Bahamas and this will no doubt be a different setting.

I have been to Victori a couple of times and always loved it. In 2008 the festival had over 18,000 attendees and the opening night gala is already sold out. I will be interviewed on Canadian Radio at 3PM on Friday 1/30 on CFAX 1070/107.3 KOOL FM and will be working with a host of distribution folks on Saturday and Sunday of that week. I am hoping to catch a number of films and meet other filmmakers and hope that I have the same luck with the quality of folks as I did in the Bahamas.

Following that I will be heading to Missoula, MT for the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival where some of the folks I met in the Bahamas will be in attendance, strangely enough our films kind of play back to back. This will be my first trip to MT and I am truly looking forward to it.

I have heard that both festivals are terrific and I am really jazzed to be making the trek. Please check back often as I will be updating this blog daily during the festivals to let you all know what I see and hear!

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Closing Night, Final Thoughts

I just got back from the closing night film "Miracle at St. Anna" where I got to meet a very talented young actor "Omar Benson Miller" who went to my alma mater - San Jose State. He is terrifically talented and has that Forest Whitaker kind of thing going for him. He was quite charming and friendly to us.

The Miracle at St. Anna was quite good but certainly could have been cut down by 10 minutes or so, nonetheless I liked it quite a bit. I am a big fan of Derek Luke who played one of the leads. The film was shown in the Bahamas Performance Arts center and was a treat to see. I thought Omar might be good for the TV series we are creating and he liked the concept, although I have been schooled to not suggest anything to do about casting to anyone.

The closing night party was at a really cool place on the water called Lucianos. We had appetizers and drinks and I hung out with my new BFFF's Ariel and Owen - two filmmakers who had a short here and who also reside in the Bay Area. Contacts, Contacts, Contacts. We both went out until way too late hour but it was a blast.

Overall I had a great time here. It is a really swanky festival that is marketed well and has some great opportunities for filmmakers that want to network a bit. I got to talk to a couple hundred people about my journey to this really cool corner of the world - CLARKSDALE, MS and what that place has to offer to individuals and the world really. I hope many of them take a trip out and have an ice cold beer in a juke joint or two and listen to some great blues music and have some great southern style food.

My entire family enjoyed the trip and I can't wait to compare the warmth, humidity, sun, sand and beach of the Bahamas with the Snow, cold and mountains of Montana - our next stop on this film festival ride.

I want to thank my co-filmmakers Laura Bernieri and Matthew Goff, as well as the folks that have supported me along the way: Bill and Francine Luckett, The People of Clarksdale, MS, Joerg Schumann, David Schwartz, Lynette Shelton, Greg Stimpson, Kevin Kissling, Sandy Surrett, Kim Cheadle and of course my wife Buffy.

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