Where have I been since LAFF?
In between opening Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? for it’s theatrical debut in St. Louis, MO and going to San Diego Comic Con to work the booth for DKE Toys (I’m married to the owner, so it’s a week of toy mongering and hanging out with cool people), I made a film sale, which we can’t talk about yet, but it’s pretty exciting. And on top of that news, Mr. Smith is finishing up its third week at the Tivoli in St. Louis. And! We just booked Palm Desert for a week starting September 29th. With Boston, DC, St. Louis and Columbia we just need 3 more cities to complete the Oscar 8 city eligibility requirement. And it seems it will be all the easier to book even more cities than that before the end of the year. Plus, Homemade Hillbilly Jam had its Springfield, Missouri premiere tonight as well as a screening at the Dallas Film & Video Festival. So…while I’ve been reading the news, I’ve been a little slackery on reporting.
So…here’s a quick and dirty update…
The International Documentary Association announced their line-up for the Academy qualifying DocuWeek. It’s a solid slate. Tickets are available here. Their annual kick-off party takes place this coming Thursday night with doc screenings starting on Friday morning. As per usual each film playing DocuWeek plays once a day for all 7 days of the theatrical documentary showcase. Films include Toots, Black Gold, Jesus Camp, Deliver Us From Evil, This Film is Not Yet Rated and The Ground Truth. DocuWeek (along with its previous incarnations InFACT and DOCtober) has a great track record of spitting films into the Oscar pipeline of shortlist, nomination and win. So, get out of the global warming and into the chilly Arclight (my favorite place to see a movie on earth) and catch what could be the next Documentary Oscar winner.
Toronto announced their doc roster also. I’ll be heading there a few days of the fest. Watch for daily updates. AJ’s got a nice entry about it.
The 28th annual IFP Market gets underway September 17th and will announce their slate of docs soon. I’ll find out Monday if I’ll be heading there to check it out first hand.
Also, I’m deep into screening for AFI Fest 2006. I started earlier than ever before (April!) and now we’re quickly careening towards the end. Each week I pick up a bag of practically unmarked tapes and DVDs. I’m having an easier time digesting some of the more fun docs and then when I get down to the bottom of the bag it’s all war and disease. No wonder I’ve been eating more chocolate than normal…anyway, it’s a good batch of films this year and I’m excited to see how the final lineup will shake out.
Heading towards the end of the summer already so I can feel a little less guilty about spending so much time indoors watching movies.