#paff2014

“People Around Me Often Say I Should Start Doing More Cheerful Movies” – In Conversation With Lee Sang-il

More now from our PAFF14 coverage on Easternkicks.  I was fortunate enough yesterday to get some time with Japanese Director Lee Sang-il (Unforgiven, Hula Girls, Villain), and my interview with him is now up over there.

More coverage from me over at Easternkicks.com today.  A number of firsts.  My first review of a Cambodian movie, my first review of a Documentary, and my first time I have given 5/5 on that site. It’s a powerful and fascinating documentary, that uses a fairly unique method to get the point across. I have a couple more things in the pipeline with regards to the Pan Asian Film Festival appearing…

Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy

Continuing our coverage of the films on show at the Pan-Asia Film Festival 2014, I have a new review up on EasternKicks.com of Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit’s (who directed “36”) rather fabulous “Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy”. Go have a read, but promise to come back pretty please?

Meanwhile…. Over at Easternkick.com the team have been beavering away trying to get coverage of most of the films that are being showed as part of the Pan Asian Film Festival 2014.  I will have a couple of reviews up there myself, and to kick off, go have a look at my review of the Japanese remake of the Clint Eastwood Classic “Unforgiven”.

UPCOMING AUGUST 2014 SCREENINGS: 

Pan African Film & Arts Festival - ATLANTA (Atlanta, GA) - ‘Red’ Showtime(s): Saturday, August 9th 2014 - 11:15AM, at the Plaza Theatre, 1049 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Atlanta, GA 30306. 

INFO: http://www.paff.org/filmfest/2014-films/red/ 

RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1480446188860230/ 

Black Harvest Film Festival (Chicago, IL)  - ‘Red’ Showtime(s): Wednesday, August 13th - 8:15PM, at Gene Siskel Film Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 164 N State St, Chicago, IL 60601. 

INFO: http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/blackharvest_2014 

RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/1460397990891630/ 

Well as I write this the Pan African Film Festival had ended for the year of 2014, and it was a surreal experience I'll tell you.

Sunday was our final showing of Undercover,so we turned up to the cinema a little early to do some flyer hand outs...Richard dressed up for the occasion.

When we got into the cinema, once again we crept in not knowing if anyone would turn up for a Sunday matinee of an obscure unknown doco...but again - a good turnout with an amazing Q+A afterwards with lots of diverse and fantastic feedback. People seem to really respond to Richard's story and are surprised that they have been so engaged just watching a man's face on the screen for some 90 minutes.  And guess who else came to see our flick? Isaiah Washington!! And he loved it so much that straight after the movie we were whisked away to a nearby bar to have a quick lunch and drinks, courtesy of Mr. Washington.

You see, miraculously, Isaiah's elder Babou (spelling probably wrong), who is also the Executive Director of the Film Festival, had instructed Isaiah to come and see Undercover (we already knew that Babou felt our film was important..in fact he even gave a lovely introduction to the film for us before it screened). Aaand on top of that, unbeknownst to any of us, Richard and Isaiah used to be in the military together; something they discovered when they bumped into each other on the red carpet.

So not only did Isaiah love the film (boy did he stroke...and is continuing to stroke my ego) but he also has a personal connection to the subject, and he is very passionate about the message.

Pretty fantastic how the fates align sometimes, and we are really excited with the options opening up in front of us. Now I'm at the point where I'm not allowed to say any more - but we'll keep you posted when we can...trust us it's all very exciting! 

After that we had the closing night 'affair', which involved attending the premier and after party of the closing film, Blackbird, starring and produced by Isaiah. It was a lovely film...it will be interesting to see if anyone is brave enough to pick it up as it deals with a gay, black coming out story in the South...with a hint of High School Musical thrown in there...an odd mix. We'll see! The after party was a true hollywood bash: music, dancing, food, mingling and a tiny bit of networking, though very difficult over the loud music. Richard was able to blow off some steam (that boy can move!!)...and I...stood around. lol. I'm not a successful mingler at the best of times :)  

The morning brought us our last event of the festival: the awards brunch and ceremony...and like most awards ceremonies, it started late and went on a tad too long :) But it was lovely to see some of the film makers acknowledged for their hard work, and it was a privilege to be in that space with so many talented and passionate individuals. It's amazing to see how many people work on so many varying projects, and good to know that they are able to sustain themselves through their films. Hopefully we can do that some day soon!

And that's a rap for the Pan African Film Festival 2014!!! We are at the beignning of a new stage, and we don't really know what comes next. As I was coming back from the bathroom I bumped into Isaiah leaving the event. As we were chatting he asked me who else was involved in the project...i.e. cinematographer. I told him...no one! Our films are made by just me and Colin (and the wonderful Bruce Gainsford who helped me with the final sound mix)! He couldn't believe it...so he gave me a high five and again congratulated me. Colin and I are starting to see more and more how unusual our way of doing things is - but I like the way we are doing things...with honesty, with passion, with hard work and with only the aim to inspire and motivate our fellow humans into seeing eachother in a more positive and loving way!

And tomorrow, I'm sure we'll have more to share about our unusual way of doing things as we head over to Chicago to meet with one of Oprah Winfrey's Producers...as you do.

Hello again from L.A!!!! We have had a wonderful few days, a mixture of work a play - and we've done the extreme of both!! We've explored our area here in Santa Monica, cruised Venice Beach and even taken a day trip to Disneyland for some serious queuing and some serious fun!

On a long walk along the beach - Santa Monica Pier in the distance.

One of the many characters at Venice Beach!

It was great to have some time to explore the area and to have a little fun - although we did accidentally pick a bad day to hit Disney. it was the 14th - Valentines Day...and come night time there were loved-up couples everywhere and the queues to the rides had doubled (although it did make for some excellent people watching entertainment). One of the rides however, had a 120 minute wait...we didn't go on it :) 

You're never too old!!! The big kids at Disneyland!! 

Then today it was back to work! We had a special event day involving the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa. This involved two screenings of South African movies and a forum/lunch to network. The first movie was a narrative feature called State of Violence and the second a documentary called Sobukwe. If you haven't heard of the South African anti-aparthaid activist Sobukwe, which you probably haven't, you should look him up. Although I didn't particularly enjoy the style of the doco, the subject was very interesting and very relevant for us having another film (Stomp It Out) which we shot in South Africa.

The forum was fascinating for all of us. It was an opportunity to learn about the government film funding process in South Africa and how they want to help make connections and collaborate on projects with film makers and producers - and to share all of our knowledge and do some networking. Now those that know me, know that I am about as good at networking as a stuffed dog - but the dog would get more attention. I'm more of the hide-behind-the-camera/drumset/computer/under the table kind of person. Thankfully though, we had Richard, star of UNDERCOVER and Malcolm, long time friend of Colin and Stomp it Out Productions supporter. Those two are the best networkers I have ever met. We gave them a pile of flyers and some cards and set them lose. Look - this lady below is proudly smiling with our flyer! She is an established film maker. She hasn't seen the movie - she doesn't know us...but look how nobly she holds that flyer. That, is all down to Richard and Malcolm. They rock - they are my networking saviours.

And much to my giddy, gleeful delight, we had a few celebs in the room, most notably, and most to my giddy, gleeful delight, star of movies such as Predator and Commando, Bill Duke.

If you're having difficulty picturing him, here he is in the amazingly classic 1987 film Predator...one of my favourites. It's Mac!! 'I'M GONNA HAVE ME SOME FUN TONIGHT!!!!'

Richard and Malcolm continued to do their amazing flyer handing out, trying to whip up some patrons for our final showing of UNDERCOVER tomorrow. As we were hanging out at the cinema, a man came up to Richard who had watched UNDERCOVER on Wednesday night for it's first showing - he loved it, he wanted to talk to Richard about some specific scenes in the movie and he was trying to convince others to go and see it tomorrow, saying that he might even go and see it again. This is after we also had some fellow film makers tell us that 60 people is a really really good turn out...so we are pretty happy with what we are hearing! :)

Tomorrow is that last big day, starting with our daily breakfast at Urth Cafe, followed by some pre screening flyer handing out at the cinema, then the final showing of UNDERCOVER!! Then we are hanging around a bit until the closing night movie and after party. The closing movie is Isaiah Washington's new film, Blackbird, which I am looking forward to seeing!