It's FilmFest Time!!

Happy New Year, everyone! Yes, I know that it's just a tad late, but you know how these things are.  Personal turmoil and all that comes along with it -- The Good News is that everyone made it through surgery and they're recuperating nicely. The Christmas Miracle of December transmorgrified into January's Fresh Hell, as Christmas Miracles sometimes do.

With Spring, comes FilmFest to Kansas City - excuse me - The AMC Kansas City FilmFest, as the official titling goes. That kicks off this Wednesday, April 6 through April 10.

Here's a two-part interview with founder Fred Andrews, who provides some history, from when it started as The Kansas City Filmmaker's Jubilee to its current incarnation as FilmFest. This was intended for an article last year about the festival, but the publication it was intended for no longer exists... so, not one to waste material, it became the latest from Cheap Bastard Filmworks.







My personal picks are:


WED.
Togetherness Supreme
Rainbow Town
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
Anatomy of Vince Gauaraldi

THURS.
Andy Anderson Shorts/Detention
Seminar: Art Direction for the Indie Filmmaker

FRI.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Brotherhood

SAT.
Au Pair, Kansas
Homecoming
Pruitt-Igoe Myth
Seminars: The Big Idea


And I recommend any and all of the shorts programs.

You can find trailers for some films, as well as information about tickets and a link to a downloadable program on the FilmFest site.

Disclosure: I did work on AU PAIR, KS, and the FilmFest is the place where it will be making its world premiere, then on to festivals in Minnesota and Oklahoma.

Coming in April...

Screenings! An excuse to get out of the house and see something that was intended for people over the age of 14!! Granted, that may not be incentive for most people, but I'm sure there's at least a few of you still around out there...



Starting this Friday, April 2, THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN (award-winning western drama directed by Kevin Willmott) will have public screenings at Screenland Armour Theater in North KC beginning Friday, April 2 and running through Thursday April 8th. Kevin Willmott is scheduled for a Q&A after the first screening Friday, April 2. After this, it'll go into blackout, prior to its debut on Starz, so this will be your last chance to see it on the big screen for awhile.



April also brings the Kansas City FilmFest (merging of the KC Filmmakers Jubilee and the Kansas City Film Society Film Festival) - this is the second year under the FilmFest name, and it looks to be a good one. Among those in attendance is director/actor L. Q. Jones, who will be screening the classic A BOY AND HIS DOG as a special presentation.

Very appropriate since KC artist Richard Corben did a graphic adaptation of the Harlan Ellison story; and the latter part of the film is set in an odd environment called 'Topeka'...

Making its premiere is San Francisco filmmaker Chris Brown's new feature, FANNIE, ANNIE & DANNY -- I worked on Chris' first feature film, DAUGHTERS some years ago - and attend some of the seminars, parties, after-parties, etc.




A little further away - Atlanta, GA to be exact - BUNKER HILL (now with 'The Battle For' appended to the title) will screen at the Atlanta Film Festival in mid-April. BUNKER will be playing more dates on the festival circuit this year, and I'll pass 'em along as soon as I hear about them. It recently screened at my old, abandoned college stomping grounds SIU-C, at their annual Big Muddy Film Festival.

TOGI & RHUBARB PIE Logrolling

Because there's no such thing as bad publicity...

My behind the scenes pics from THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN;

'Up To Date' with Steve Kraske on KCUR interviews Kevin Willmott about TOGI, and has info about KC Filmfest; and an additional interview with Kevin on 'KC Currents' from late March of this year. It's about 12 minutes - it starts at 10'18" in and ends at about 22'14";

My behind the scenes pics from RHUBARB PIE;

and an article about the short appears in the current Urban Times paper - pg. 4 in the .pdf file.

LAST BREATH Logrolling

In light of its premiere at KC FILMFEST next Saturday, here's a ton of stuff related to the film. For a synopsis and info about the film, check out the website, which has a trailer.

Here's a behind the scenes featurette:



and for more wacky behind-the-scenes action, check out 'The Joys of Lo-Budget Filmmaking' series.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

Here's my collection of pics from the set of LAST BREATH.


Watch 'em, enjoy 'em, and come stoked for the premiere!

KC Filmfest 2009

It used to be known as the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee... apparently they have combined forces with another local festival. The emphasis is on local work, or work that has local ties.

For the past few years, it's usually been that I've been unable to make the festival due to working on some production scheduled at the same time. This year, there's incentive to attend, like the productions that I worked on:








So, this is a big event for me... usually there's only one project that gets screened, but it's a rare occurrence to see several all at once. In some instances, festival screenings may be the only exhibition that the work gets -- it's happened on a few films that I've been on. As I've stated before; you go onto a film hoping to get paid, but in indie film, even if you get paid, it's not a lot... I like to be able to see the finished product, and if you're lucky, it turns out to be good or better than you expect.

So, hit the KC FILMFEST if you have the chance. It kicks off next Wednesday - I'll of course have plenty to say about the films after I see them... maybe I won't piss off too many people.