Jazz Series at 10th annual KC Filmmakers Jubilee
The big film event of the spring is the Jubilee... although there's always been an element of jazz favored in the festival, this is the first time that it's a specific series. If you're a jazz fan and a film fan, you've got some extra incentive to visit KC in April.
Karen Black has just been announced as a guest at this year's Jubilee, also.
Be COOL . . . . Be HOT . . . . Join us in celebrating the images, sounds and stories of JAZZ at the 10th Annual Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee - April 7-14, 2006.
The inaugural CinemaJAZZ Film Series during this year's festival will be at the Screenland Theater, 1656 Washington, Kansas City, MO.
It will feature:
- Special screening of classic jazz animations of John & Faith Hubley from the 50's, 60's & 70's - Emily and Ray Hubley will be in attendance and will discuss their parent's work. (This screening will be at the Tivoli Cinemas).
- Classic Cinema / Classic Jazz - University of Missouri Kansas City film and jazz professors analyze the images, story and score of Anatomy of a Murder with score by Duke Ellington - followed by a screening of the film.
- New feature documentaries:
'Tis Autumn-The Search for Jackie Paris - director, Raymond De Felitta
an exploration into the life of legendary jazz vocalist Jackie Paris.
Between a Smile and a Tear - director, Niels Van Doky
- a two day reopening of the renowned Copenhagen jazz club - Montmartre is captured with performances and commentary by albert "Tootie" Heath, Toots Thielemans, Johnny Griggin, Didier Lockwood, Lisa Nilsson & Niels Van Doky.
Music is My Life, Politics My Mistress - director, Donnie Betts
- Oscar Brown - singer, songwriter, actor and civil rights activist - a renaissance jazz man.
- New Short documentaries, dramas and experimental works:
Riffs: A Kansas City Coda - director, Glenn Stewart
Jazz Therapy: Recipe for Mom's Soul - director, David Rinck
Transition - director, Denny Dey
Once - director, Sainte Jose Adams
Donuts at Night - director, David Macasaet
Under the Harlem Moon - director, Liest Davis
The Cole Nobody Knows - director, Clay Walker
Dave Holland - A Short Documentary - director, Ulli Gruber
Live Jazz will be featured at every reception. Join us in the CinemaJAZZ Lounge at Screenland for cocktails and cool jazz after each evening's screenings.
This program is a collaboration of the KC Filmmakers Jubilee, Mutual Musicians Foundation and the American Jazz Museum.
Special CinemaJAZZ Festival Passes are available now for $25.00 - gets you admission to all the jazz screenings (single admission would total $42.00). A full Festival Pass is $50 (does not include opening night world premiere of Rob Nilsson's "Opening").
Send your check to KC Jubilee, 4826 W. 77th Terrace, Prairie Village, KS 66208 with postage paid return envelope for your passes.
Fred Andrews
President
KC Filmmakers Jubilee
www.kcjubilee.org
****
FILM OFFER-
Kansas City Jubilee is proud to partner with Disc Makers to send you this special offer for independent filmmakers: Get 300 DVDs for only $990. This retail-ready package includes DVDs in DVD cases, full-color covers, three-color on-disc printing, and poly wrap. For more info, visit www.discmakers.com/kcjub
Thursday, March 02, 2006
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
Chucky Lou returns!
The Chucky Lou AV Club presents
WONDER WOMEN
(1973 - Robert V. O'Neill - 82m - 35mm)
11PM Saturday, March 4
Screenland, 1656 Washington, KCMO
"We're thrilled to finally be able to offer you this holy grail of
made-in-the-Philippines madness. Everything is hyper-seventies in a
great way. In fact, if the seventies were a drug this would be the
ultra-potent, smokable rock form of it. The music is great. The
clothes are great. The women are beautiful and trashy. It's all you
could possibly want or need in a movie. Nancy Kwan plays a foxy
transplant doctor on an isolated island fortress who dispatches her
all-female kung fu squad to abduct healthy young male athletes,
whose organs she sells to wealthy senior citizens in search of the
fountain of youth. Loaded to the brim with incompetent kung fu,
reckless car-chases, cockfights, and even an electronic "brain sex"
scene that will blow your mind. Featuring Ross Hagen, Sid Haig,
Roberta Collins, and Maria De Aragon (Greedo from STAR WARS.)" -
Alamo Drafthouse
Preceded by a beautiful but deadly karate klatch of trailers and, at
10:45 (if time permits), the most wondrous women of all: the stars
of 1960s Scopitones belting their non-hits in glorious 16mm
Technicolor.
Tickets $6.50. For more information call (913)522-8870.
The Chucky Lou AV Club meets the first Saturday of every month.
Attendance is mandatory.
The CL A/V C had been on a short hiatus, due to Gary Huggins' film, FIRST DATE, making festival appearances at Sundance and a festival in France. It'll be screening in Austin at SXSW in March.
For more about FIRST DATE, go here and here.
The Chucky Lou AV Club presents
WONDER WOMEN
(1973 - Robert V. O'Neill - 82m - 35mm)
11PM Saturday, March 4
Screenland, 1656 Washington, KCMO
"We're thrilled to finally be able to offer you this holy grail of
made-in-the-Philippines madness. Everything is hyper-seventies in a
great way. In fact, if the seventies were a drug this would be the
ultra-potent, smokable rock form of it. The music is great. The
clothes are great. The women are beautiful and trashy. It's all you
could possibly want or need in a movie. Nancy Kwan plays a foxy
transplant doctor on an isolated island fortress who dispatches her
all-female kung fu squad to abduct healthy young male athletes,
whose organs she sells to wealthy senior citizens in search of the
fountain of youth. Loaded to the brim with incompetent kung fu,
reckless car-chases, cockfights, and even an electronic "brain sex"
scene that will blow your mind. Featuring Ross Hagen, Sid Haig,
Roberta Collins, and Maria De Aragon (Greedo from STAR WARS.)" -
Alamo Drafthouse
Preceded by a beautiful but deadly karate klatch of trailers and, at
10:45 (if time permits), the most wondrous women of all: the stars
of 1960s Scopitones belting their non-hits in glorious 16mm
Technicolor.
Tickets $6.50. For more information call (913)522-8870.
The Chucky Lou AV Club meets the first Saturday of every month.
Attendance is mandatory.
The CL A/V C had been on a short hiatus, due to Gary Huggins' film, FIRST DATE, making festival appearances at Sundance and a festival in France. It'll be screening in Austin at SXSW in March.
For more about FIRST DATE, go here and here.
Saturday, February 25, 2006
More CSA stuff and tying some loose ends...
Dennis at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule gave a nice shout-out to C.S.A. (which opened on a few more screens this Friday and will be opening on more throughout March), as well as to this blog. For those who get directed here, looking for more info on the film and Kevin, here's an earlier post from October '05 which has links to several meaty interviews with Mr. Wilmott about his work. If you're looking for dates and theaters where CSA will be playing, look below at the previous posting.
And if this is your first time at the blog, hi! Hope you come back from time to time.
Over at the ThoughAGlass site, there are a few pictures taken at the NYC premiere.
The last disc in THE MONKEES Season 2 set has finally arrived, so I'll probably have my overview up in a few days... that'll do it for TV season set watching for awhile - well, at least from Netflix. I've just started on NOWHERE MAN and that might finish up before the month is up.
I mentioned quite awhile back that there appeared to be more film work on the horizon... the date is getting closer for production to start on a feature made at the University of Missouri-Columbia under the aegis of PROJECT: IT (I think that it's actually I.T., but I'm not a stickler) Production is scheduled to start on April 1 and will shoot the entire month, so the updates will more than likely dry up during April... maybe. I start ping-ponging back and forth throughout March for meetings and other business. It'll be directed by Chip Gubera, who did the zombie horror musical/political satire SONG OF THE DEAD.
That means that I'll be finishing up some article for the upcoming issue of Micro-Film, which will have features on C.S.A. and on fellow Kansas filmmaker Steve Balderson, whose FIRECRACKER will be available on DVD in May. So it's going to be a pretty busy Spring..
I also just upgraded my home site with selections from the print zine MIMEZINE and some of my short films (including the recent LENEXA) are now online at the Cheap Bastard Filmworks page. So if you're curious, click on over.
Dennis at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule gave a nice shout-out to C.S.A. (which opened on a few more screens this Friday and will be opening on more throughout March), as well as to this blog. For those who get directed here, looking for more info on the film and Kevin, here's an earlier post from October '05 which has links to several meaty interviews with Mr. Wilmott about his work. If you're looking for dates and theaters where CSA will be playing, look below at the previous posting.
And if this is your first time at the blog, hi! Hope you come back from time to time.
Over at the ThoughAGlass site, there are a few pictures taken at the NYC premiere.
The last disc in THE MONKEES Season 2 set has finally arrived, so I'll probably have my overview up in a few days... that'll do it for TV season set watching for awhile - well, at least from Netflix. I've just started on NOWHERE MAN and that might finish up before the month is up.
I mentioned quite awhile back that there appeared to be more film work on the horizon... the date is getting closer for production to start on a feature made at the University of Missouri-Columbia under the aegis of PROJECT: IT (I think that it's actually I.T., but I'm not a stickler) Production is scheduled to start on April 1 and will shoot the entire month, so the updates will more than likely dry up during April... maybe. I start ping-ponging back and forth throughout March for meetings and other business. It'll be directed by Chip Gubera, who did the zombie horror musical/political satire SONG OF THE DEAD.
That means that I'll be finishing up some article for the upcoming issue of Micro-Film, which will have features on C.S.A. and on fellow Kansas filmmaker Steve Balderson, whose FIRECRACKER will be available on DVD in May. So it's going to be a pretty busy Spring..
I also just upgraded my home site with selections from the print zine MIMEZINE and some of my short films (including the recent LENEXA) are now online at the Cheap Bastard Filmworks page. So if you're curious, click on over.
Friday, February 10, 2006
C.S.A. Screening Dates
Hopefully, one of these theatres will be near where you live:
Hopefully, one of these theatres will be near where you live:
2/15 IFC Center / New York / NY
2/24 Village Arts / Chicago / IL
2/24 Coolidge Corner / Boston / MA
2/24 Harris / Pittsburgh / PA
2/24 Academy / Pasadena / CA
2/24 Cinema Palme d'Or / Palm Springs / CA
2/24 Roxie / San Francisco / CA
3/03 Nickelodeon / Santa Cruz / CA
3/07 Theatre N at Nemours / Scranton /PA
3/07 Scranton Community Center / Wilmington /DE
3/07 Market Arcade Film & Arts / Buffalo / NY
3/07 Cinema Paradiso / Ft. Lauderdale / FL
3/07 Palm / San Luis Obispo / CA
3/10 Orpheum / Madison / WI
3/10 UICA / Grand Rapids / MI
3/10 Little Rochester / NY
3/10 Loft / Tucson /AZ
3/10 Starz / Denver /CO
3/17 Real Artways / Hartford / CT
3/17 Belcourt / Nashville /TN
3/17 Minor / Arcata /CA
3/30 Art Cinema / Salina / KS
5/02 Cinema 320 / Worchester / MA
Sunday, February 05, 2006
TV or not-TV?
CSA will be opening in KC, MO and Pasdena, CA on Feb. 24th.
Watched OPEN HOUSE, the "real-estate musical" from director/Slamdance founder Dan Mirvish... I'm not normally a fan of musicals, but the off-kilter ones I tend to gravitate to (even to the point of working on one...) I have to say that in this particular case, I liked the concept and the performances (from Sally Kellerman, Kellie Martin, Ann Magnunsun, James Duval and Jerry Doyle) more than I liked the actual songs, which had some clever word-play but suffered from anemic arrangement - but it's definitely worth a look.
How successful is a cross-over from movies to television? Not very, unless you have some involvement with the characters and situations involved, as SERENITY proved in its theatrical release last year. Months of hype and buzz abruptly crashed and burned when it was presented to the general public. Watching it on DVD at home, it was pretty obvious why... if you were a follower of the show, FIREFLY, then SERENITY is a pretty good capper to that program, since you already knew everyone and how they related to one another. Coming into it cold, as a co-worker did to whom I lent SERENITY to - she knew about FIREFLY, but had never seen it - and one is less than amused and entertained.
After all, there has to be some ground retread for the benefit of newcomers to the party, who have no clue of what is going on, but the converse of that is alienating the fan base, who has to sit through boring introductions of characters before getting to the meat of the action. Which leads to the other thing about such projects; they seem to be less cinematically inspired, but rather pumped up 2 hour episodes, with added production value, sex and blood. The list of these abortions is long - most of the STAR TREK films, The X-FILES movie, THE NUDE BOMB (an attempt to resurrect GET SMART)... and for the most part, they're not very profitable, except in the cases of the STAR TREK films... and possibly THE NAKED GUN series.
The one's that do succeed artistically are the ones that are tied to their television predesessors and that attempt to actually do something out of the ordinary - they're not entirely successful as stand-alone films, but in context with the shows they spring from, they're masterpieces - in my view that's David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS - FIRE WALK WITH ME and Bob Rafelson's HEAD.
SERENITY doesn't quite make that short list - it's not an outright failure when in context with the show (and I suspect that if people watch FIREFLY in its entirety, then the movie, SERENITY will be a more satisfying experience), but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table either.
CSA will be opening in KC, MO and Pasdena, CA on Feb. 24th.
Watched OPEN HOUSE, the "real-estate musical" from director/Slamdance founder Dan Mirvish... I'm not normally a fan of musicals, but the off-kilter ones I tend to gravitate to (even to the point of working on one...) I have to say that in this particular case, I liked the concept and the performances (from Sally Kellerman, Kellie Martin, Ann Magnunsun, James Duval and Jerry Doyle) more than I liked the actual songs, which had some clever word-play but suffered from anemic arrangement - but it's definitely worth a look.
How successful is a cross-over from movies to television? Not very, unless you have some involvement with the characters and situations involved, as SERENITY proved in its theatrical release last year. Months of hype and buzz abruptly crashed and burned when it was presented to the general public. Watching it on DVD at home, it was pretty obvious why... if you were a follower of the show, FIREFLY, then SERENITY is a pretty good capper to that program, since you already knew everyone and how they related to one another. Coming into it cold, as a co-worker did to whom I lent SERENITY to - she knew about FIREFLY, but had never seen it - and one is less than amused and entertained.
After all, there has to be some ground retread for the benefit of newcomers to the party, who have no clue of what is going on, but the converse of that is alienating the fan base, who has to sit through boring introductions of characters before getting to the meat of the action. Which leads to the other thing about such projects; they seem to be less cinematically inspired, but rather pumped up 2 hour episodes, with added production value, sex and blood. The list of these abortions is long - most of the STAR TREK films, The X-FILES movie, THE NUDE BOMB (an attempt to resurrect GET SMART)... and for the most part, they're not very profitable, except in the cases of the STAR TREK films... and possibly THE NAKED GUN series.
The one's that do succeed artistically are the ones that are tied to their television predesessors and that attempt to actually do something out of the ordinary - they're not entirely successful as stand-alone films, but in context with the shows they spring from, they're masterpieces - in my view that's David Lynch's TWIN PEAKS - FIRE WALK WITH ME and Bob Rafelson's HEAD.
SERENITY doesn't quite make that short list - it's not an outright failure when in context with the show (and I suspect that if people watch FIREFLY in its entirety, then the movie, SERENITY will be a more satisfying experience), but it doesn't really bring anything new to the table either.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Geeked!
Oprah Winfrey interrogating James Frey
A diet of poultry does wonders for the figure...
Not only the requisite dish of crow that got served up, but judging from the figurative blood & feathers around her mouth, several members of her staff were geeked... if headless bodies start turning up in the Chicago area, you now know why.
Now if only j.t. leroy could be served up... or better yet, the entire Bush Cadre.
Oprah Winfrey interrogating James FreyA diet of poultry does wonders for the figure...
Not only the requisite dish of crow that got served up, but judging from the figurative blood & feathers around her mouth, several members of her staff were geeked... if headless bodies start turning up in the Chicago area, you now know why.
Now if only j.t. leroy could be served up... or better yet, the entire Bush Cadre.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Stirrings....
Some more CSA news... IFC Films should hopefully be releasing CSA into the larger arthouse markets during Feb. (AKA Black History Month -- it somehow seems a natural fit rather than BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE 2) It's currently scheduled to open Feb 15th at the IFC Center in NYC, no other dates/places are on the schedule as of yet... keep checking the IFC Films site.
If you're near the Topeka area, then you have another opportunity to see the film at Washburn University:
What if the South had won the war? Please join us (and announce to
classes, friends and family) for a screening of Kevin Willmott's
Confederate State of America (a hit at Sundance, and soon to be in general
release). This celebration of Kansas Day will take place on January 27,
2006, 7:00 p.m., Henderson 100. Commentary by Dr. Tom Prasch, History
chair, and Q & A with CSA director Kevin Willmott will follow the film, as
well as refreshments.
Owen Gleiberman called CSA, "Mind-bending! Scandalous, fearless and
hilarious." Kevin Willmott has recreated the USA as though the South has
won the Civil War, all seen through the eyes of a documentary film crew
sent from Great Britain to the Confederate States of America in the late
20th century. What do they find out? Please come and see.
Thanks,
Tom Averill
for the Center for Kansas Studies
I've been sick this past weekend, so it's been a good opportunity to catch up on DVD watching, the majority as of late, being dominated by TV season sets: am almost halfway through THE MONKEES Season 2 (for some reason, Netflix has the shows in hubs near the coasts rather than in the midwest, so they're taking the longest to get through); have started the TWILIGHT ZONE, 80's version (which had some outstanding episodes, and the set has some invaluable commentary tracks by Harlan Ellison) - don't confuse it with the misguided version with Forest Whitaker as Rod Serling; and surprisingly, SLEDGE HAMMER!, a show I remember fondly from the 80's, which is much funnier now, knowing a good portion of the films/shows they're parodying... all definitely recommended. After these, I'm taking a break from TV sets for awhile - the latest acquistion is NOWHERE MAN, a well-regarded show from the fledgling beginnings of UPN Network. The set is a staggering 9-disc collection, packed with extras... so it'll be awhile before tackling that monster.
Tried reading Chuck Palahniuk's HAUNTED... despite loving FIGHT CLUB and having read most of his other novels like CHOKE, INVISIBLE MONSTERS and LULLABY, I get the distinct feeling that I'm basically reading the same novel over and over again, just with slightly different characters and situations. It might be too much to call Palahniuk the 'Hanna-Barbara' of alternative lit, but HAUNTED definitely pushed me towards that concept...
Not a lot about films seen in the theater recently, you'll notice... not a lot of the interesting films tend to stick around in Topeka for long, and if it's between driving a half-hour/hour to either Lawrence or KC to see something, or scrounging in the pool of DVD's, it's a no-brainer as to which option I tend to lean towards.
Some more CSA news... IFC Films should hopefully be releasing CSA into the larger arthouse markets during Feb. (AKA Black History Month -- it somehow seems a natural fit rather than BIG MOMMA'S HOUSE 2) It's currently scheduled to open Feb 15th at the IFC Center in NYC, no other dates/places are on the schedule as of yet... keep checking the IFC Films site.
If you're near the Topeka area, then you have another opportunity to see the film at Washburn University:
What if the South had won the war? Please join us (and announce to
classes, friends and family) for a screening of Kevin Willmott's
Confederate State of America (a hit at Sundance, and soon to be in general
release). This celebration of Kansas Day will take place on January 27,
2006, 7:00 p.m., Henderson 100. Commentary by Dr. Tom Prasch, History
chair, and Q & A with CSA director Kevin Willmott will follow the film, as
well as refreshments.
Owen Gleiberman called CSA, "Mind-bending! Scandalous, fearless and
hilarious." Kevin Willmott has recreated the USA as though the South has
won the Civil War, all seen through the eyes of a documentary film crew
sent from Great Britain to the Confederate States of America in the late
20th century. What do they find out? Please come and see.
Thanks,
Tom Averill
for the Center for Kansas Studies
I've been sick this past weekend, so it's been a good opportunity to catch up on DVD watching, the majority as of late, being dominated by TV season sets: am almost halfway through THE MONKEES Season 2 (for some reason, Netflix has the shows in hubs near the coasts rather than in the midwest, so they're taking the longest to get through); have started the TWILIGHT ZONE, 80's version (which had some outstanding episodes, and the set has some invaluable commentary tracks by Harlan Ellison) - don't confuse it with the misguided version with Forest Whitaker as Rod Serling; and surprisingly, SLEDGE HAMMER!, a show I remember fondly from the 80's, which is much funnier now, knowing a good portion of the films/shows they're parodying... all definitely recommended. After these, I'm taking a break from TV sets for awhile - the latest acquistion is NOWHERE MAN, a well-regarded show from the fledgling beginnings of UPN Network. The set is a staggering 9-disc collection, packed with extras... so it'll be awhile before tackling that monster.
Tried reading Chuck Palahniuk's HAUNTED... despite loving FIGHT CLUB and having read most of his other novels like CHOKE, INVISIBLE MONSTERS and LULLABY, I get the distinct feeling that I'm basically reading the same novel over and over again, just with slightly different characters and situations. It might be too much to call Palahniuk the 'Hanna-Barbara' of alternative lit, but HAUNTED definitely pushed me towards that concept...
Not a lot about films seen in the theater recently, you'll notice... not a lot of the interesting films tend to stick around in Topeka for long, and if it's between driving a half-hour/hour to either Lawrence or KC to see something, or scrounging in the pool of DVD's, it's a no-brainer as to which option I tend to lean towards.
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