You can't walk backwards into the future: AFF, IFFB, nice people in UK and more!

Hello everyone!

I went to the Atlanta Film Festival, Independent Film Festival Boston and I have discovered couchserfing.com
Let me catch you up on some movies I saw first.

FROWNLAND! FROWNLAND! FROWNLAND!
Whoa....that's my review of Frownland. For the first chunk of Frownland, I wasn;t sure what was going on, at all. But PLEASE watch this film because it is jaw dropping in how good it is, and not indie film "awww, those kids made a movie" good. The acting in this movie can be help up against any performance in film history. It brings to mind A Woman Under the Influence - if that means anything to you, its not the same at all, but still an amazing performance. After the film I saw what was probably the most entertaining and insightful Q&A I've ever seen. if I win the lottery, I'm financing a Ronnie Bronstein film.

Glory at Sea - I worked on this short film from Court 13 in NOLA. these kids are nuts and they made a really wonderful film. There is something going on in this film that allows it to cut right into me. It was an extremely emotional experience watching this film, I can't put my finger on exactly what it is, but something visceral that shouldn't be overanalyzed - just appreciated.

BIG MAN JAPAN - you may remember me RAVING when I read the synopsis for this film and yes, I LOVED IT. I don't want tohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif go nuts and tell you it is the greatest thing for monster movies, comedy and my own reasons to be a filmmaker (but it was) you have to see it, the awesomeness is in the last reel. I almost broke myself laughing at it. I.....Lost.....MY....MIND at the end of this film. I like to laugh, everyday, every hour, as hard as I can and I can seriously count on one hand the films that made me laugh this hard. The movie kind of meanders around in parts but I loved that about the film. It could be tighter, but ot wouldn't be the same film.

Transsiberian- not for me.

Secrecy- I missed this film at Sundance. It was full of information, that was interesting. But as far as the film goes- it was a little thin a lot of talking heads and I got a little bored. It presents a pretty awesome paradox about what it means to be safe and the nature of secret intelligence that always leads me back to a Ben Franklin quote that I will paraphrase- Any person willing to give up civil liberties for safety, doesn't deserve to have civil liberties.

Wild Blue Yonder - this film is made by the daughter of David Maysles and the film seems to be about this girl making a film to get to know her Dad, who if you didn;t know- died too young. But that is not what is really going on. The film tries to make some sort of case against Albert Maysles and put us in the middle of a family squabble about who should have the rights to the Mayseles brothers' films- or one film in particular (ummmmmm, the other brother that made them, or the family that decided to start a court battle- no brainer there) the film is full of emotion that seems to be because this girl can't get what she wants and paints Albert Maysels as a bad guy, but the film does the opposite of what it intends and makes me root for Albert because he was never wrong. See it, it will get a good dialogue going after, but mainly about the delusions of the filmmaker. During the Q&A after the film the filmmaker said that "anyone can get a camera and make a film, and that's part of the problem" that comment makes me so mad I can't begin to describe it. I can't even go into what that comment means to me in less than 10,000 words.

that was at IFFB

at the Atlanta Film Festival I was on a panel with a bunch of big shots- here's a pic.

Mark Wynns (blurry), Alexis Fish, Me, Craig Zobel and Alexander Motlagh we talked about distribution

movies in theatre:
I saw a Streetcar Named Desire, Last Tango in Paris double feature- uhhh awesome
My Blueberry Nights- so terrible it broke my heart because I ADORE the films of Wong Kar Wai
Standard Operating Procedure- go see it, it is Errol Morris so its interesting but i think the really disturbing thing is that these things happened and I really don't care anymore. I hate to say that, but it is true. I am over the Iraq War film so much. No more evil empire for me for just a minute. we fucked up, it will stain our country for 100 years or even more, but I am burnt on it in film right now and there is no easy way out of the situation.

I WENT TO FENWAY!!!

I sat 5 rows from the Red Sox on deck circle. Saw them give out 2 golden gloves and a silver slugger award (just coincidence), saw a AA pitcher throw 6 innings of 2 hit baseball and saw an Ortiz home run. great game but the Sox lost.

here are a couple pics:
Ortiz HR! that's the view from our seats!

me and my old friend Clay Neely, who now lives in Boston

we also went Candle Pin Bowling. you use this little ball and get 3 throws at little pins. its fun! you can get a "crazy wicked" curve going on the little ball.

I also did a walking tour of historic Boston- which I love that American History stuff! Here is our guide and our group and Paul Revere's grave. I like those guided tours full of historical info, I recommend them. we did the Freedom Trail and our guide was AWESOME.