More TOGI articles/reviews... plus a mention of STINGRAY SAM and the KCK Film Festival 1/31.


Now that the Sundance Film Festival is over, the reviews and press are starting to trickle out, now that there's time to write stuff instead of having to get to screenings and parties and schmoozing, apparently.

On YouTube, a nice segment featuring Kevin and DP Matt Jacobson, prior to the festival:




Robert Butler, of the KANSAS CITY STAR has an interview w/Kevin as the festivities die down; another interview can be found at Flavorwire.com, and at Lawrence.com ...

NEWSPAPER ROCK, a blog featuring news and commentary on Native American culture featured a segment from an online show 'On Native Ground' that interviewed several cast members (Winter Fox Frank, Thirza Defoe & Wes Studi) and Kevin at Sundance... and looking further on YouTube, there are more segments of 'On Native Ground' with Winter Fox Frank and Delana Studi.

Also on YouTube (see a pattern forming here?), is a nice exchange with Kevin and director Tze Chun talking about their films at Sundance.

PBS also gives TOGI a mention on their Newshour blog, along with two other films that they highly regarded.

As to the reviews... more lukewarm reviews at CinemaStrikesBack and the Onion AV Club, along the lines of the previous Hollywood Reporter review linked in the previous post; but there is a rave review at TheFilmtalk.com, and Variety also showers praise on the film.
So more to come, as soon as news comes in. It does appear that TOGI has a spot in festivals overseas (it has a spot at the Berlin International Film Festival), and it does appear that foreign distributors may be interested.

The other film I was interested in at Sundance (other than BLACK DYNAMITE - Sony scooped that up, so that will be in theaters at some point) is Cory McAbee's new project STINGRAY SAM. Flavorwire.com has a short review up (as well as a review of another KC film, STAY THE SAME, NEVER CHANGE) -- and MustangDaily has an article about McAbee and the new ep's from the band, formerly The Billy Nayer Show, now American Astronaut.

According to the Butler article, The KCK Film Festival is an event on Saturday, Jan. 31st that will feature several short films from local filmmakers (Lisa Marie Evans is one of the filmmakers exhibiting work), along with a screening of BUNKER HILL. So if you haven't seen it yet, grab a friend and check it out.

The event is from 2pm - 5pm at the YWCA, 1017 N. 6th St. (6th & Minnesota), Kansas City, KS.
A donation of $5 is requested.

T.O.G.I Countdown



In roughly two hours (from when I'm writing this), TOGI will make its premiere at Sundance.
The Huffington Post and SproutBlog already has some articles up... and if you're free on the 25th, you can even get some tickets.

I'll post some of the first reviews when they start to come in.

ADDENDUM 1/22/09:
Well, not as much news as I'd hoped for - not necessarily a bad thing...
Indiewire had an interview with Kevin Willmott prior to the screening - and for a more personal view of Sundance, check out Making The Movie - John didn't work on TOGI, but he's a BUNKER HILL alumnus.

So far the only review that I've been able to find is this one - and it's lukewarm, at best.
Comments left by people who've seen the film are decidedly not.

Happy 2009!

OK, so I'm a couple of weeks late... oh well.

The first thing was finishing up the work on AU PAIR, KS -- on my end, that's mainly paperwork to go to the editor/director. Coming back, there was also my grandmother undergoing open heart surgery in late December... she's doing well, currently undergoing rehab therapy to build her strength back up. She should be back at home soon.

Then there's the prospect of finding more work. No idea when the next film job will come up -- in the meantime, there's polishing up some work for the next MICRO-FILM issue, to be published in March or April; and trying to drum something up using my prodigious assets.

This week will be the premiere of THE ONLY GOOD INDIAN at Sundance; so look for some links to show up about its reception. I have had a chance to see the film, but I'll wait until there's a local screening before writing about it.

And I think I'll be posting a bit more DVD stuff - there's a huge backlog of stuff to watch, so I may start working through that when time allows.

Hope your year is starting off well - though, to judge from my previous two postings, things aren't looking up in the near future.

Border Incident - Original Trailer 1949

Ricardo Montalban R.I.P.

2009 is really getting off to a lousy start...

The Prisoner Remix

Patrick McGoohan R.I.P.

"I am a free man!"

The Only Good Indian

The trailer for TOGI.

More to come...

Au Pair, Kansas

Time again for a few weeks of work away in a foreign town... well, Lindsborg, KS, is not all that foreign, but it is new for me. The above mentioned film is a Christmas family picture, and it will certainly be shooting in authentic conditions - none of that 'shooting in July and pretending it's cold' bullshit here. I'm working with some familiar faces, and with some new ones, so we'll see how this works out.

Obviously, I won't be blogging during shooting. I should return to the warmth of home right before Christmas, so the next entry should be before the New Year.

To tide you over, and also to shout out to some of those people I'll be working with again, here's something that Script Goddess brought to my attention... Cube-Tap's "It Was A Good Day".