A couple of weeks ago I had to chance to screen my film "From Salem to the Salon" at the Bossanova Ballroom in NE Portland. It was part of a joint event with the Portland Film Festival and the Portland Independent Film Networking Group. The lineup was all about screening filmmakers from a diverse background. It was a great crowd and the film received a great reaction.
My movie on OPB!
Exciting news! My documentary will air on OPB August 25th at 10PM. I'm very honored that From Salem to the Salon will be a part of the Oregon Lens Film Festival. This is the 18th season. The festival "showcases some of the best independent films in the Pacific Northwest."
#ProducedByHer
I was recently invited to the Vox Siren #ProducedByHer documentary program to screen my short film, From Salem to the Salon. The program is a five-week long documentary filmmaking camp for girls ages 12-17. I also did a Q&A and the participants had a lot of great questions. And it was a lot of fun to be in a classroom setting. I watched their rough cuts and gave feedback. They are putting together documentaries on such bold and interesting topics and their footage looks amazing. I'm really looking forward to the screening of their work next month at the Hollywood Theatre. Their documentaries cover:
-The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in Oregon
-The Importance of Safe Space in the LGBTQ Community
-Women & Street Art
-The Experience of Black Girls in Portland
D.A. Pennebaker in person!
Loved hearing the legendary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker talk about how he made "Don't Look Back" and "Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars." And awesome to see the double-feature on the big screen!
“Hard to explain what you did 50 years ago. Try it sometime.”
“Since I was working by myself, there was no one to tell me ‘you’re full of shit... you’re making the wrong movie.’”
2001: A Space Odyssey in 70mm
The first time I saw this movie was in high school. I'm sure Kubrick never intended for 2001: A Space Odyssey to be screened over two school days on a small television wheeled into a high school film class. Watching this movie in a packed theater, on a giant screen in 70mm is the way it should be seen. The Hollywood Theatre is one of only about a dozen theaters in the country that can even screen 70mm film. All five screenings sold out and it was worth it. There was even a giant monolith outside of the theater. And how fitting that a day after the screening, NASA's Juno spacecraft arrives in Jupiter's orbit.
Watching/Listening: 'The Fits'
I've been waiting for 'The Fits" to be released and now it is playing in a Portland theater. It's is one of those movies where the summary tells you everything and nothing. It is definitely more than a "coming of age" story and I love the turn it takes. It's one of the my favorite movies of the year so far. The soundtrack is eerie and impressive too. The Playlist has the entire soundtrack and it is worth a list after seeing the movie. You can get a sample of it in the trailer below.
Method Design
Absolutely in love with this piece from Method Design. It's all motion capture, cool textures and great dance moves. Incredible. I would love to be on a team making something like this.
They say "Our aim was to showcase the AICP sponsors as various dancing avatars, which playfully reference the visual effects used throughout production. Motion capture, procedural animation and dynamic simulations combine to create a milieu of iconic pop dance moves that become an explosion of colorful fur, feathers, particles and more."
Now I've just fallen down the rabbit hole looking through their portfolio of work:
