Totally f****ed up situation. Even if it is IFC doing the work to set up & promote the screening(S),it is still a LOT of work, can't believe they would pull the plug on it at the last minute. Lawsuit? Payment for all the time & money spent on promotions? What about just the sheer amount of personal suffering that you have to go through now? What's that worth? Yeah, like the person said before me, a non-chain indie theater would not have created this problem. Hope this gets resolved right, & fast.

Sujewa

http://www.diyfilmmaker.blogspot.com/

whatever misunderstandings and/or misgivings occured on the part of the IFC and comcast relationship, i just sincerely hope that the exposure of caveh's film in no way gets hindered within the select marketplaces. if anything, i would hope that any kind of publicity that this landmark theater pullback causes sparks interest from potential audiences. i personally champion a lot of independent films (and actually, i really respect a lot of the work that mark and HDnet has produced in the last two years). as a filmmaker, caveh truly deserves recognition that i feel has been long overdue on a larger scale. and "i am a sex addict" is the one which i sense has the best potential to be a breakout hit for the indie film scene.

man, not much surprises me on the internet any more and seeing mark cuban post a response to caveh's blog and then put in his e-mail is huge. cuban makes a good argument that perhaps IFC knew and or should have known better, but really, without regard to Landmark vs. IFC -- and for a moment, without regard to IAASA -- i really just want to say that i respect Caveh for posting, directly, honestly, and without vitriol, how he felt and what he hopes can happen, and that cuban, who could easily be demonized as a corporate monster, would take the time to craft and post an articulate and compelling response . . . wow. good stuff, gentlemen.

and to both of you: i'm going to san francisco next week, and i pledge to go see IAASA at the landmark in Berkeley if you guys can get this worked out. please do!

best to both of you.

marc

very cool indeed. dialogue is happening, let's hope it benefits Sex Addict & other indie films that need Landmark Theaters. i do not know too much about Mark C's position (what's up w/ Comcast?, & on Mark's side - is this the best way to influence a corporate decision?), but I am sure people will write about it soon (or probably already have written about it, I'll read up tomorrow).

Sujewa
*******

Man, the indie world has just much soap opera crap as Hollywood. I know artists have a tough time getting in the middle of all this stuff between businesses. I have yet to see "Sex Addict," and I'd prefer to see it theatrically. I hope it all works out with "Sex Addict", IFC, and Landmark.

As for the Mavericks, good luck except when they play the Pistons.

Cheers to all,

Josh

Dear Caveh, Steven Soderbergh, who is in business with Cuban, is also on the advisory board of the IFC Center in New York. Perhaps he could intervene in this nonsense. It's awful for you to be caught in the middle of corporate hard ball, and your situation has lots of parallels, one major example being the deal between Showtime and the Smithsonian, which will effectively destroy most serious documentary filmmaking in the U.S. And you can be sure Showtime isn't interested in documentary but only in beating down HBO and PBS. All the best. Your film is wonderful. yrs., amy taubin

SEX ADDICT played my festival (the Fort Lauderdale Int'l Film Festival) as part of our Indie Section during our 20th anniversary last November. The film won a Spirit of Independent's Award at FLIFF and was extrelmely well received by our audiences. Hope this situation corrects itself and the film opens as planned.
Gregory von Hausch

Caveh, Amy Taubin's advice here is sage. Hopefully you'll get it straightened out. I'm crossing my fingers for you. I'll post about it tomorrow on selfreliantfilm... Let me know if there's anything readers can do.

As for the Showtime-Smithsonian thing that AT points out, it is indeed serious. Anyone interested should check out the NYT story, Daily Kos, and Anthony Kaufman's blogs. I've just posted about it, too, at www.selfreliantfilm.com.

I will be there this Friday. Well done to the Elmwood! I didn't actually realize that they booked first run films.

Caveh, Sorry to hear the whole sad story. Business trumps art one more time. That's the sad part: It's not even about you and your movie. You and it don't even exist in Cuban's (and the IFC's ?) world of business maneuvers and counter-maneuvers. What's the Dylan line? "Your only a pawn in their game." Not even a Knight or a Bishop. Your movie deserves better. It deserves a real release. Let me know if I can help in any way. Though how that might be, I have no idea. I've lost all of my own battles of this sort, so I guess I'm not much of a model for success.

Ray Carney