tagged w/ Cinevegas
-
Hello Queens!
We're taking a slight detour with the theme of this episode and going back to a film I had previously seen in CineVegas 2009: Impolex.
Short Version: A World War II soldier must go find two unexploded V-2 Rockets.
Long Version: Alex Ross Perry's film is an homage to Thomas Pynchon, film, what goes into an independent production and why Pynchon fans are a little annoyed by what he's done.
Joining me are Perry (writer/director, Impolex) and Vadim Rizov (IFC's Indie Eye.)
audio egins at 1:00.
-john lichman
Hello Queens!
We're taking a slight detour with the theme of this episode... more
-
-
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430" caption="NO CINEVEGAS? GET OUT!!"][/caption]
Shocking and utterly depressing news today: CineVegas will be on hiatus for 2010, starting the first in what will be many loud murmurs about other festivals for next year.
Of course, it is economic concerns that have put the freeze on the festival, per a press release:
CineVegas has become such a well respected film festival, and rather than allow the economy to affect its level of quality we have opted to put the event on hold,” said Robin Greenspun, Festival President.
While the event itself won't be held, CineVegas continues to put on events and screenings of previous films throughout the year at the Brenden Theater in the Palms.
Conincidently, today I had an interview with Jon Steingart and Jillian Apfelbaum, who are producers for Black Dynamite and behind the FSITO! campaign viral marketing campaign. It just so happened that Dynamite played CineVegas '09 and was also at the Los Angeles Film Festival this year. But to them, could a film like Dynamite survive solely by a viral campaign in place of a film festival?
"In our case, no," Steingart said. "This film couldn't have succeeded if there were no bloggers. Everything was a stepping stone for us: if there were no bloggers who liked our first trailer, then we would have never gotten into a festival. If we didn't get into a festival, a distributor would've never picked us up. If we didn't go to multiple festivals, we wouldn't have created word-of-mouth in multiple communities. The only reason why we're opening in Seattle is because we won the Audience Award there.
I don't see how a movie like this could succeed without film festivals."
-John Lichman[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="430"... more
-
-
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420" caption="Cory McAbee and Willa Vy McAbee in Stingray Sam"][/caption]
One of the things I caught at CineVegas this year was Cory McAbee's Stingray Sam. At first, it's an impossible concept to get behind unless you're remotely familiar with McAbee's The American Astronaut. After all, you try telling someone to watch a film that's split into six parts about a western set in space.
As a genre nerd, it wasn't hard to be convinced, but how does someone who isn't a fan of Serenity/Firefly or a Wild West set in Space become convinced to sit down for the exploits of a guy nicknamed for a Stingray?
It's easy--just be Cory McAbee.
Developing a film intentionally for the small screen, Sam harkens back to sci-fi serials that literally bring something for everyone; in this case every episode is ear-marked by a song that sums up the theme of retro-futurism like Episode 1's Mars (done on the stage of Union Pool, which instantly redeems it from Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.)
Set in some distant and possible future, or maybe it's the past, Stingray Sam (McAbee) is a lounge-singer and haphazard owner of a club on Mars, whisked away by the surprise arrival of his old partner The Quasar Kid (Crugie) to help find The Carpenter's Daughter, Girl (Willa Vy McAbee). And who kidnapped her? Why Fredward (Joshua Taylor), the king of an entire planet who also happens to be the most stupid person...but there's more. There's always more.
McAbee's lo-fi approach drags tired terms like "steampunk" out of the gloomy basement goth kids threw it into, dusts it off and hops into jams like "Stingray" and the reprises version about giving birth to Stingrays. It's like a rock-a-billy call and response gig set at a mad scientist's party. So does Stingray save the girl? What is Fredward's secret? Why does The Quasar Kid eat olives?
You just have to tune into Stingray Sam to find out the rest.
[You can purchase Stingray Sam digitally here, or watch tonight (9/15) live at 7 pm PDT here.]
-John Lichman
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="420"... more
-
-
We caught Bobcat Goldthwait's latest film, World's Greatest Dad, on the closing night of CineVegas this year. Dad is considerably darker than anything you'd assume a comedian in Police Academy was capable of creating, much like how Gawker was utterly disgusted by his commercials for Microsoft. Yet that's the charm behind Goldthwait, whose first directorial feature, Shakes The Clown, focused on alcoholic and drug dependent clowns and their scene in Los Angeles.
Any parallels you saw between that and say, the 1980s Comedy Club circuit, were fairly obvious and apparent.
As a director, he takes a tone that's humorous, but only if you think the media being forced to accept their consequences is "funny." Or if redemption in the form of tragedy, like Dad, is in fact pitch-black comedy gold. But, as he said to BusinessWeek, " It's like finding out that Screech is directing a movie."
In the ads for Internet Explorer 8, the tone is relatively lighter, but still the playful and mocking tone you can find in Shakes, Dad and Let Sleeping Dogs Lie/Stay, which...we won't get into now.
We're also partial to G.R.I.P.E.S.
[youtube 2aA_PEltVTw]
Of course, one of the ads that featured vomiting was proclaimed "Worst.Ad.Ever." by Technologizer. Because god knows, it's not like you can find sicker shit on the Internet with kids lighting rockets out of their ass, now can you?
The rest of the ads can be found here.
-John LichmanWe caught Bobcat Goldthwait's latest film, World's Greatest Dad, on the... more
-
-
The 19 minute, 53 second interview I conducted with Bob Byington and Kristen Tucker (Harmony and Me) along with John Gatins (Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story) that I agreed to shoot & edit in camera.
The film follows Harmony (Justin/Justice Rice) after his girlfriend Jessica (Tucker) abruptly leaves him, unsatisfied with what he represents. From there it's equal parts mediation on life, sleeping with your neighbor and wondering about the changes in your life. One of the best things I saw while at CineVegas this year, Harmony comforts you with the knowledge that everything won't be ok; but you'll wind up doing just fine.
That said, I also brought a copy of Kirk Honeycutt's review of Harmony with me to ask Bob about his thoughts on one of the few negative reviews he's received. We also learned Kirk wrote the 1992 film Final Judgment, which is about a stripper and a priest. And the priest fights to clear his name because people think he killed the stripper. Hilarity.
-John Lichman
The 19 minute, 53 second interview I conducted with Bob Byington and Kristen... more
-
-
Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox join forces with bloggers, comedians, students and citizen critics to review "Saint John of Las Vegas."
The Rotten Tomatoes Show is a movie review show that airs on Thursday nights at 10:30 e/p on Current TV. From reviews of the newest releases to commentary on cult favorites and movie trends, each episode of The Rotten Tomatoes Show is a fast-paced, comedic journey through the week in cinema.
For more from the Rotten Tomatoes Show: http://rottentomatoesshow.com
For more about movies from Current: http://current.com/moviesBrett Erlich and Ellen Fox join forces with bloggers, comedians, students and citizen... more
-
-
Hello Queens!
We're taking a slight detour with the theme of this episode and going back to a film I had previously seen in CineVegas 2009: Impolex.
Short Version: A World War II soldier must go find two unexploded V-2 Rockets.
Long Version: Alex Ross Perry's film is an homage to Thomas Pynchon, film, what goes into an independent production and why Pynchon fans are a little annoyed by what he's done.
Joining me are Perry (writer/director, Impolex) and Vadim Rizov (IFC's Indie Eye.)Hello Queens!
We're taking a slight detour with the theme of this episode and... more
-
-
Shocking and utterly depressing news today: CineVegas will be on hiatus for 2010, starting the first in what will be many loud murmurs about other festivals for next year.
Of course, it is economic concerns that have put the freeze on the festival, per a press release:
CineVegas has become such a well respected film festival, and rather than allow the economy to affect its level of quality we have opted to put the event on hold,” said Robin Greenspun, Festival President.
While the event itself won’t be held, CineVegas continues to put on events and screenings of previous films throughout the year at the Brenden Theater in the Palms.
Conincidently, today I had an interview with Jon Steingart and Jillian Apfelbaum, who are producers for Black Dynamite and behind the FSITO! campaign viral marketing campaign. It just so happened that Dynamite played CineVegas ‘09 and was also at the Los Angeles Film Festival this year. But to them, could a film like Dynamite survive solely by a viral campaign in place of a film festival?
“In our case, no,” Steingart said. “This film couldn’t have succeeded if there were no bloggers. Everything was a stepping stone for us: if there were no bloggers who liked our first trailer, then we would have never gotten into a festival. If we didn’t get into a festival, a distributor would’ve never picked us up. If we didn’t go to multiple festivals, we wouldn’t have created word-of-mouth in multiple communities. The only reason why we’re opening in Seattle is because we won the Audience Award there.
I don’t see how a movie like this could succeed without film festivals.”Shocking and utterly depressing news today: CineVegas will be on hiatus for 2010,... more
-
-
The 19 minute, 53 second interview I conducted with Bob Byington and Kristen Tucker (Harmony and Me) along with John Gatins (Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story) that I agreed to shoot & edit in camera.
The film follows Harmony (Justin/Justice Rice) after his girlfriend Jessica (Tucker) abruptly leaves him, unsatisfied with what he represents. From there it’s equal parts mediation on life, sleeping with your neighbor and wondering about the changes in your life. One of the best things I saw while at CineVegas this year, Harmony comforts you with the knowledge that everything won’t be ok; but you’ll wind up doing just fine.
That said, I also brought a copy of Kirk Honeycutt’s review of Harmony with me to ask Bob about his thoughts on one of the few negative reviews he’s received. We also learned Kirk wrote the 1992 film Final Judgment, which is about a stripper and a priest. And the priest fights to clear his name because people think he killed the stripper. Hilarity.The 19 minute, 53 second interview I conducted with Bob Byington and Kristen Tucker... more
-
-
Photographs of television personality and actress Maria Menounos at the CineVegas Film Festival in Las Vegas, NV on Sunday, June 14, 2009.Photographs of television personality and actress Maria Menounos at the CineVegas Film... more
-
-
Current will be on the ground at Cinevegas for a meet & greet and pitch sessions on June 18th, at 2PM in the Cinevegas HQ at Palms Casino. Contact vc2outreach@current.com if you are a Vegas area filmmaker and want to come meet us!Current will be on the ground at Cinevegas for a meet & greet and pitch sessions... more
-
-
saskia
-
added this
-
5 years ago
- |
-
Another one.
xoxo
-
-
JT
-
added this
-
4 years ago
- |
