Film festival graft

This is the most incredible festival related news story I have seen all year. Apparently a US couple tried to bribe the Thailand Tourism commission to win the managing contract of this international film festival. The Bangkok International Film Festival is one of the biggest events of its kind in Asia and has been held annually since 2002.

To me this is the most damning evidence yet of film festivals being potentially too large and becoming more commercial prospects than cultural events. Much more so than the recent complaints about Sundance having an online store.

Full Frame Festival director is stepping down

I've been keeping an eye on the Full Frame documentary festival in Durham, North Carolina for a couple of years. It's gotten lots of good press and the programming has seemed excellent from the outside. This year I'm finally going to commit to going and checking it out from the ground level.

I'm interested to hear that the festival's artistic director is stepping down after helping to shape this organization for the past 10 years. It seems most of the programming staff otherwise is staying on so I'm still excited to check out this year's line up. Best of luck to Nancy Buirski as she departs this fine festival, I'm looking forward to my trip to Durham in April!

Ricky Gervais at the Kodak Theatre!!!!

My brother and I set the alarm and hopped on ticketmaster as soon as tickets went on sale for Ricky Gervais Live at the Kodak Theatre. I'm a huge fan but my brother is a full on obsessive, owning 37 hours of the Ricky Gervais show podcasts. His knowledge of all things Ricky is borderline scary. It's going to be a fun night, if anyone wants to come along I've got a few extra tix!

Los Angeles’ latest and possibly greatest screening series: The Cinefamily

In the wind up to AFI FEST I missed out completely on the opening of this new screening series in Los Angeles. I’m still learning more and more about it but the more I hear, the better this sounds. I first became intrigued with the Cinefamily when I learned that Mike Plante my old coworker was promoting this. (Be sure to click that last link!) His sensibilities in film programming are pretty much dead-on and any culture steering he does I follow gladly. The founder of Cinefile Hadrian Belove is running the Cinefamily and I’ve long felt that Cinefile is one of the best reasons to live in Los Angeles period. As soon as I get back into town this is my top priority.

Time Travel Mart opens in Echo Park

My buddy Jon Korn just helped open this convenience store for time travelers in my neighborhood. I haven't had a chance to check it out yet myself but I can't wait! If you want a little taste, here is an exclusive private video sneak peek. It's now open for business so go check it out!

Funny video from my friend Duncan Birmingham

Funny video from my friend Mary Elizabeth Ellis

New Duplass film looks excellent

I'm extremely excited for the new Duplass Bothers film that is playing Sundance called BAGHEAD. I was a huge fan of their film THE PUFFY CHAIR from Sundance 2005 and this one sounds like a real winner. Plus it's about desperate young actors, it will play great in Los Angeles! Let's hope they want to wait 10 months and play it in AFI FEST (it could happen!)

It's shaping up to be one of the most fascinating Sundance lineups in years. I'm especially excited to see Aza Jacobs, Lucky Mckee and the Zellners there. I'm even more excited for all the unknown (to me at least) filmmakers this year.

Jennifer Reeves at AFI FEST

Alright, one more picture of me introducing someone then I promise I'll lay off for a while. This is the world renowned experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves and myself at AFI FEST. I was first exposed to this amazing artist years ago at Boulder and have been following her stellar work ever since. Having her at our festival was literally a dream come true for me this year and made all the other crap worth it. Plus, she is also incredibly sweet in person, it's amazing to meet someone you idolize and have them turn out to be so nice. Anyway if you ever have a chance to see her work do not miss it and if you want to read what I wrote about her for the fest there is stuff here and here.

Ultimate Turducken

How come I never get invited to parties that serve this? It serves 125! There's not room at the table for me? Come on people!

Me and Ellen Page!

It's very cool that the guys from THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS put up this picture of me and Ellen introducing the film at AFI FEST. Also I'm pretty fucking cool. Just look how cool I am.

On sex on film

If you google my name and the word "sex" this is the first link you will get. I'm not really sure what this site Fest 21 is all about but if you guys want some more content from me I'm happy to help! Basically they pulled the article I wrote about sexuality and erotica in films from AFI FEST and re-published it. I'm not complaining, I love the exposure and I'm quite happy with this little essay.

Do want companion cube!

I wanted to buy this for my friend's 30th birthday. (If you have not played the most excellent game Portal, then you probably don't know what I am talking about.) Sadly the price skyrocketed well past my comfort level. Probably because it was blogged about on boing boing and kotaku. Oh well, all the money went to a charity anyway so it's probably all for the best. Still I want one now!

Movie magic

I love timelapse videos and this one might be the best I have seen yet. Timelapse of Skyscraper Construction in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo. I went to Tokyo with Susan and it's amazing. So huge and constantly being decimated and rebuilt over the years.

I high-fived Joss Whedon

So they had this BTVS sing-a-long and I took the missus with me and we had a killer time. Then at the end freaking Joss shows up and as he leaves I get the greatest high five of my life! The reason I'm telling you is that is was captured on some total strangers blog! Scroll down to the 6th pic please.

Scott Foundas vs. my old boss

These two old LA Weekly articles about former AFI FEST director Nancy Collet are interesting to pair together. In this one, Scott is basically kicking Nancy while she is down IMHO. There's not much news in the story, just kind of a announcement with a hint of Schadenfreude. Then this wonderful article came out right before the fest this year. I love Scott's praise of some truly splendid films but the guy just can't resist getting in more digs at Nancy! He goes from kicking her while she's down to dancing on her grave!

Deadly, dangerous, Kneedler

This old Salon article mentions me and the event in my life which I refuse to talk about. Streetwars.

I'm a reviewer!

Some how I got my write up credited as a "review" for Adam Rifkin's LOOK. Fine with me, an interesting google hit for HLK. I got lots more hits after the festival this year, I'm finally starting to pull ahead of my dear old dad.

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