NEWS

AS = Ashley Sabin
DR = David Redmon

DR 7-16-10 It's been a long time since we've written. We've been extremely busy working on our films and preparing to release other people's films. Exciting and unexpected news coming out of Carnivalesque Films: we've been awarded a Cinereach grant, Sundance Institute grant, a Radcliffe Fellowship from Harvard University, a grant from the Puffin Foundation, and a section during the IFP Spotlight on Documentaries. 

Upcoming films released by Carnivalesque include Citizen Architect, October Country, Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, and Loot.  

AS 4-9-10 Woodpecker will be having it's NYC theatrical premiere as part of the Anthology Film Archives For the Birds series.  The film will screen Thursday, April 29 at 9:00PM and Tuesday, May 4 at 9:00PM. There are also other great bird movies check them all out at Anthology Film Archives. 

AS 2-8-10 A great documentary, October Country, is finally making its way to theaters starting at the IFC center this Friday.  Please go and bring friends, roommates, co-workers, and strangers.  Check out the letter below from the directors Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher.

Hey everyone,
As you may know October Country opens at IFC this weekend and our resources are limited, so we are asking everybody to spread the word however possible - professional announcements, personal  e-mail lists, face book, smoke signals, drunken rants with strangers at bars - no method is too modest or beneath us. 

Here's the official info:
IFC CENTER, 323 Sixth Ave at West 3rd St.

"October Country", New York Theatrical premiere
Opens Fri, Feb 12 through Thurs Feb 18

The Family will be in attendance at the 7pm show on Fri Feb 12
Mike and Donal will be in attendance at the 7pm shows from Feb 12 - 14

More information about the film is at www.octobercountryfilm.com
Tickets are available online at the www.ifccenter.com website starting this Friday.
Much love,
Mike and Donal

DR - 2-2-10 Ashley and I just returned from Louisiana and Texas where we completed about 90% of our co-directed/produced film POTLATCH - a hybrid film directed by first-time filmmaker James Marsh. So far, the footage is excellent and we're looking forward to completing POTLATCH with the guidance of director James Marsh. Also, for the second year in a row we attended the excellent Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival in Lafayette, LA. Organizers Rebecca Hudsmith and Pat Mire - two of the most kind and thoughtful people we know - participated in POTLATCH while also screening excellent films from around the world. Cinema on the Bayou has really grown and the committed crowds packed the screenings over the weekend. I wish we could write more about the people they invited, the friendships we made, and the refreshing experiences over the weekend, but Ashley and I are in the middle of completing our Russian/Japanese film and it's time to craft it into a coherent story. Last, our film, INVISIBLE GIRLFRIEND, won Best Film at the Different From What Film Festival in Tempe, Arizona. More updates soon! 

AS 2-1-10

Etsy, a wonderful website where users can "buy and sell things handmade" has featured an article about Mardi Gras: Made in China.  Please join in on the discussion here.  Also, check out Etsy as it's a fantastic community full of crafty people!

AS 12-10-09

The New Year Parade is set to open at Facets Cinematheque Friday, December 11-Thursday 17.  If you are located in Chicago go see it!  More of a reason to go is to support Facets and all their wonderful efforts.  Read this NY Times article.  It's an amazing Chicago institution and had a similar start to most independent film organizations: passion, drive, and a little delusion.  New Year Parade was also recently reviewed by Roger Ebert.  The film is really building great momentum! 

AS 12-3-09 

Very excited to announce that our latest release, The New Year Parade, was nominated for a Spirit Award!  You can read about the nomination and other nominations here.  

DR 11-26-09 Carnivalesque Road Tour Part II
Phase Two of our Carnivalesque Road Tour brought us to Mark Lacy who is the executive director of the Houston Institute for Culture. Mark arranged three screenings in Houston in three different venues. Similar to previous screenings, the audiences were robust, enthusiastic and inquisitive. Audiences in Houston supported our body of work and we sold close to a total of 35-40 DVDs and sold out of Cecy’s handmade tweed items. Face to face screenings bode well for small time filmmakers like us in that audiences are personally invested in the creators of the stories. As a result, they can argue with, critique, or compliment the filmmakers and their story. Likewise, dinner afterwards and gathering for sweets or treats before the screening creates a friendly and communal environment that exceeds an economic imperative. People like Mark Lacy know how to create friendly spaces and develop a committed audience where attendees feel open to ask questions and argue with responses.
One of our most memorable screenings hosted by Mark was his 7th grade afterschool program in a middle school in Pasadena (outside of Houston). Ashley and I screened Intimidad for a small group of mostly Hispanic students who directly interacted with the characters on the screen. For instance, in one scene Camilo is preparing to kill a chicken for the main dish of mole’. The entire class collectively screamed, “M-O-L-E-E-E-E-E-E!” when the pot of food appeared on the screen. It was perhaps the most enthusiastic response we’ve ever had to a specific Mexican dish appearing in Intimidad; it was a true expressive moment of cultural connection between students and the food they eat.

The second screening (Invisible Girlfriend) took place in The Artery. The Artery is hands-down the most hospitable homemade media space we’ve ever screened our work. It’s complete with sound and video recording technology, water, wine, beer, food, cushions, an outdoor and indoor screening venue, and numerous artistic creations ranging from paintings to landscape designs to sculptors. We are very fortunate to have screened our films there and we’re very much looking forward to returning to the Artery in the future. If you have a chance, support their venue because they don’t charge a penny to use their space.  Donations only (and good luck if they even accept the donations!).

Our fourth screening was a presentation of scenes combined with a discussion at Bellaire high school in Houston. The experience lasted a quick 45 minutes but the focused attention of the students and questions they asked indicated they piqued by storytelling through a nonfiction genre.
After our high school discussion ended, Ashley and I drove to Denton, TX to screen our rough cut to an Introduction to Women’s Studies class taught by Beverly Yuen Thompson at Texas Woman’s University. The feedback was excellent and afterwards Beverly took us out for pizza along with a few students from her graduate and undergraduate classes. Beverly also happens to be a filmmaker herself, existing somewhere in between the seriousness of academia (which values written articles) and the documentary world (which values storytelling through visual means). It’s a tough place to exist for any professor due to the social science’s devaluation of documentary in most of academia. Almost all social science departments consider documentary storytelling a hobby whereas published articles are considered rigorous research.   

We left Denton and immediately made our way to Ft Worth, TX to meet our favorite professors Carol Thompson and Jeff Ferrell at TCU. Carol and Jeff is two reasons alone to move to Ft. Worth, TX. They arranged a rough-cut screening of our most recent film (mostly scenes with title cards) for patient audience feedback. Approximately 100 people showed up and we stayed more than an hour discussing different scenes and approaches to telling our story. For the most part, the audience was captivated and asked numerous questions. As filmmakers, we believe it’s important to walk away from a film with questions in addition to answers to an ambiguous and complex story. We have about six to eight more months to finish our film and we think we’re moving in the right direction.

We rushed to East Texas where my parents live and were immediately greeted by her FIVE dogs! It was a brief trip but we'll return again January. Lake Fork is the location where they live and James Marsh will be shooting a scene there in his upcoming film POTATCH (see below).

Our final stop on the Carnivalesque Road Tour was Shreveport, LA where Chris Jay blew us away with a packed audience and a beautiful theater and restaurant located in the heart of downtown. If you’ve never been to the Robinson Theater, then you’re truly missing out on the materialization of dreams inside a fantasyland of cinema. Ashley and I were stunned by the organization and sheer love of cinema conveyed collectively by the Robinson employees and audience members. Charles, his invisible girlfriend, and his personal friend Kimberly showed up for a Q&A after screening Invisible Girlfriend and turned a magical viewing experience into a magical question and response session. It’s one of those rare moments where we wished we had a camera, but glad we didn’t have one so we could be part of the experience. We sold out of DVDs and the majority of people purchased our previous films in addition to Invisible Girlfriend. We’re already having withdraw symptoms and can’t wait to return to the Robinson. It was a special moment we’ll never forget and it was the perfect destination to end our seven-city tour.
After our Q&A, our friends Pat Mire and Rebecca Hudsmith (who founded the Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival) surprised us with a celebratory evening of food and drinks. If you’re a filmmaker interested in original festivals that showcase bold nonfiction narratives, then either submit your work or attend the Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival located in Lafayette, LA. You can also check out Pat’s work here. His films were some of the first nonfiction stories I watched before I ever became interested in nonfiction. Pat will also appear in James Marsh’s upcoming film, POTLATCH (see below).

We left Shreveport and returned to Ft. Worth, TX to meet our friend James Marsh who is directing a hybrid film called POTLATCH. After meeting his girlfriend and discussing how to complete the film, we started hearing strange noises in his newly renovated building. Jamie lives in a former convent that he believes is haunted (his dog hears noises that we can’t hear and his cat chases images that we cant see – but aren’t all cats that way?). After a quick tour of the building, we left for Austin, TX to meet with Joanna Rabiger who provided invaluable feedback on our rough cut. Joanna has a way of seeing the story even if the story isn’t actually in the film and this film will certainly be shaped by her vision and helpful direction. And thanks to Lucia for housing us in Austin and my grandma for housing us in Ft. Worth!

Now, Ashley and I excited to be back Brooklyn where we’re both working on several projects and preparing for our next Carnivalesque Road Tour! Be on the lookout for several completed film projects in the next two years. After seven years of working together, we’re just starting to find our rhythm…

DR 11-20-09 DWR Ashley and I kicked off our Carnivalesque Films Tour with a screening of Invisible Girlfriend in front of a packed crowd at Pratt College in Brooklyn, NY. Thanks to Josh Koury and Aubrey Smith for hosting our film and generating a large and responsive audience. Our next stop was a screening of Invisible Girlfriend at the Boston University screening series hosted by critic and filmmaker Gerald Peary. Again, the audience was robust and the enthusiastic crowd of students mixed with journalists stuck around afterwards. We met Gerald a few years ago at the Independent Film Festival of Boston where he viewed Kamp Katrina one year and Intimidad the next and subsequently invited our films to BU. Since then, he’s screened three of our films and some of the same students have returned every time to watch our most recent films.

Our next destination was Hartford, CT to meet Eric Bowen who screened 37 minutes of our work in progress for audience feedback. The experience was helpful and the feedback was precise, mostly filled with intrigue and curiosity. As filmmakers, we’re trying to show and create original stories that unfold over time. In this sense, our stories tell themselves and the characters and their circumstances influence its structure.
We left Hartford and Ashley and I made our way to Austin, TX to visit some friends we haven’t seen in a while and catch a quick movie at the Alamo Draft House.  One person we met is Joanna Rabiger, a close advisor for our projects and someone who understands stories from the inside out. We imagine her as an advisor for the story, but she also provides direction on how to accomplish a vision. We highly recommend her and Mark Becker as advisors and editors. We’ll be meeting with Joanna at the end of our trip to evaluate the structure and poetics of our most recent film set in Russia, China, France, Japan, and the U.S.

The next morning brought us to Texas A&M at Corpus Christi for our highly anticipated rough cut screening of our most recent filming endeavor in Russia and Japan. Edward Tyndall and his producing partner Patrick Weaver (both of Mobius Films) eagerly welcomed us into their home just before a brief discussion in his advanced filmmaking class. Afterward, we did interviews with the local radio stations and hung posters in downtown Corpus Christi to promote the film-in-progress. 

Ashley and I met Edward at the Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, AL a few years ago after he screened his mesmerizing short film, Deconfliction. Since then, we’ve stayed in touch and he’s now an Assistant Professor of Communications at Texas A&M at Corpus Christi and also in charge of creating its documentary program. Edward launched the South Texas Cinemateque Screening Series at the Art Museum of South Texas. The result of his hard work and longevity in promoting press for our film resulted in netting ninety people who welcomed our work in progress (i.e., incomplete film, series of sketches and broken scenes with title cards) with open arms, patience, and generous feedback. The turnout was exceptional given that Edward is starting from scratch. Corpus Christi doesn’t have a film festival, a screening series or a movie theater. However, the demand is so high in Corpus that the Alamo Draft house has committed to building a five-screen theater in Corpus. Likewise, the response to our screening was so fantastic that people were asking for more films and we sold 20 DVDs of our previous films. 

The next stop on our Carnivalesque Film Tour was Reynosa, Mexico to see Cecy, Camilo, and Loida who all appeared in our previous film Intimidad. Loida is now 8 years old and she’s grown so much that we could hardly recognize her. Intimidad recently won best documentary at the VideoFest in San Francisco, which came with a $1,000 cash award. We’ve been sharing our TV, DVD, and prize money with the family for their contribution to making Intimidad. It was a nice surprise for them when we arrived with an extra gift and will certainly help payoff their land. Their house still doesn’t have electricity (or running water) but the neighborhood has power lines and street lights, so it’s getting slightly closer to a somewhat functioning electrical infrastructure.

After we left Reynosa we made our way to Houston, TX to screen Intimidad and Invisible Girlfriend at the Houston Institute for Culture and The Artery. We’ll also be visiting a middle school and a high school to show Intimidad to 7th graders in a school that's 90% Hispanic. After Houston we leave for other screenings in Ft. Worth, Denton, Shreveport, LA and other cities. More updates about Houston and other cities coming soon!

DR 9-16-09 In Tokyo working on our film. If my previous posts indicated everything is going "well" for the film, then I must admit that what's written here is very much related to Erving Goffman's analysis of front stage and backstage typology. What is the purpose(s) of an online journal news page? To reveal everything? To present an image that all is well, construct a public virtual self as if it comes from an internal 'truthful' self? I like the words of Wiseman - "Be fair" when making a film. Lucky for everyone in Tokyo, Wiseman is here! See the Japan Times for more information.

DR 9-11-09 Still in Tokyo working on our project. Everything is going well. This morning I came across a funny article in the LA Times. Here it is! 

DR 8-31-09 Yesterday's afternoon of filming was exceptional as we were able to document verite scenes and conduct a few on the spot interviews. This morning we woke up to earthquake tremors, an election, and a typhoon. It's currently raining outside and we're inside our apartment doing work. 

On another note, we wanted to remind readers about Kamp Katrina. Booklist named it as one of the best films of the year. It's currently available on Netflix, Amazon, and several more places including our personal webpage. From Booklist's webpage: “Kamp Katrina smartly avoids retelling the events of the hurricane or railing against government ineptitude. Ms. Pearl and her husband’s efforts are a story told best at ground level in unflinching detail, devoid of nostalgia, through beautifully bleak—at times psychedelic—images as the couple attempts to create order and raise humanity in a neighborless neighborhood. Powerful viewing.” —Elliot Mandel, Booklist

DR 8-19-09 Well, it's been a while since we've updated our news! Sorry. No excuse, except we've been busy shooting almost every day, working around external issues that make for a much richer and complicated story, and outlining the beats of the story as we move closer and closer to finishing the production of the film. Tokyo has been good to us so far - visually cinematic, lots of thin streets, bright lights, a culture that embraces the youth (in several different ways), and new stories on every corner. It's difficult to stay focused, but we've done a hell of job so far. Fantastic footage, arcs, and a heck of lot more creativity than in previous films. 

On another note, I'm very proud to say that a film I'm shooting, producing and editing in Texas called POTLATCH just received the Texas Filmmaker Grant from the Austin Film Society. Congrats to first-time director James Marsh who resides in Mansfield and Fort Worth! We plan to wrap up shooting at the end of February. 

DR 7-1-09 In the country to get another visa (we were issued a 30 day visa), but leaving again soon. Will have frequent updates in Tokyo through September. Let us know if anyone recommends an area in which to film, stay, or visit while in Tokyo.