I was notified today that I am one of the 2009 Awardees of the Leeway Foundation for my launch of the Flickering Light Film Series. I’m very honored to be selected for this since I have so much admiration for Leeway and the grants they give.
Everytime you think Ahmadinejad has said the most outrageous thing he can, he surprises you again.
Don’t get me wrong–I think it’s bold and commendable that any government attempts to stand up against the US. But I’d like a little more Chavez with strategy and thought rather than just straight up insanity and outrageousness.
Since he’s in the news so much these days with his crazy antics, you should learn how to pronounce his name. This clip from Maz Jobrani never fails to crack me up into hysterics. And after watching, you’ll never forget how to say Ahmadinejad’s name.
Getting curatorial again–this month I’m looking for films about relationships with fathers. Please feel free to repost this far and wide.
Call for Submissions
Our Father: Films About Our Relationships With That Guy
Every first Saturday some 90-100 people gather in an abandoned art deco theater in Philadelphia’s Mt. Airy neighborhood for the Flickering Light–a monthly screening of independent films. Our June 2009 theme is: Fathers. Filmmakers and distributors are invited to submit films of any genre and length for consideration. The only requirement is that a relationship with a father be featured somehow in the film.
The deadline to be considered for Our Father is Friday May 1, 2009. Please note that there is no submission fee.
Films will be juried by the film series coordinator and a featured co-curator. Films not selected for the screening may be considered for future screenings throughout the year.
Please fill out the submission form on our website: http://www.flickeringfilms.com/submission/.
I’ve had this idea for a film on Norman Schwartzkopf Jr. for over 5 years now. There are many interesting moments when his life intersects with mine–I don’t want to say more for now because I don’t want to give the good twists in the film away. The general idea is to use it as a creative way to talk about US foriegn policy in Iran.
There’s been many steps involved in making it happen. Last year I finally finished an important research step and finished reading his biography “It Doesn’t Take a Hero.” In it, he tells a story from his childhood of being enchanted by a robin singing in a tree and then seeing it die and making a vow to never hurt a living being again. I was struck by the contrast of this sort of idyllic, peaceful scene with the image of “Stormin Norman” who lead what is often referred to as an “effecient war” in the Persian Gulf.
This week I tried my hand at some old-school rotoscoping with a modern twist. I found a clip on you tube of a robin singing in a tree, converted it to a Quicktime file and then printed out frames from the video which were kinda botchy and distorted because of the low resolution after those two steps. Then, I traced the frames with my new lightbox, then painted it with water color.
Below is frame 1 of 2880 to create about 2 minutes of animated footage. Imagine that the colors will flow in a sort of magical dance once the frames are all stacked and animated.
