A DOC'S JOURNAL by Scott Solary

This is an awesome piece the regional network, SNN was running through the weekend of our screenings:

Here's an inciteful podcast from Noralil Ryan Fores who interviewed us for her excellent site ShortEnd Magazine: thoughts on independent film. To listen to the interview please click here: shortendmagazine.com/content/view/536/71
or find ShortEnd Magazine on iTunes.

From the Good Hard Working People blog:
She asked some really great questions, not only about All God's Children and our process, but also about other projects and our thoughts on documentaries and changes in that market in general.

We talk rather candidly about some of the obstacles and frustrations in making this film. It makes it sound a bit worse than the experience really was. At first I wasn't sure if it's such a good idea to talk about the struggles, because it may make us or our film look bad. But then I think that it's important to be honest with other makers and the audience: it's not all just fun or easy and we all go through difficult times with our projects. It's probably one of the bigger frustrations when you think to everyone else it's a piece of cake and you may be the only one struggling.

When talking about how "ill-prepared" we were or how difficult it was to conduct the interviews with the abuse survivors because of how emotional it would be for us, I missed to emphasize that a lot of the difficulty came from realizing that this was causing pain to the interviewees and that we were lacking the psychological training to know if we were handling this and their stories well.

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I returned to New York to my job, but Luci was able to stay for the rest of the festival. While there, she did several more interviews with local press. I'll post the links and videos when we get them. She did web, radio and TV! Here's some highlights. James Israel, of indieWIRE, gave us a shout out in his summation of Sarasota and Michael Tully blogged some kind words and awesome photos of our panel and screening.

Being interviewed for local TV

Enjoying the nightlife.

and Florida's west coast sunset

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FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW: 'ALL GOD'S CHILDREN'
Joel Rozen
Published Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 11:58 a.m.

It was hardly the study abroad experience their parents thought they were having.

"All God's Children"

Directors: Scott Solary and Luci Westphal. 63 min. 3:30 p.m. April 6. Hollywood 20. A-

"There was no place to run, there was no place to hide," says American Rich Darr, of his childhood in West Africa.

Growing up missionary kids in the 1960s, Darr and his siblings were exposed to a world of routine beatings, playground humiliation and sexual manipulation. They weren't alone.

These, they allege in a sensitive new documentary by Scott Solary and Luci Westphal that premiered Saturday at the Sarasota Film Festival,, were among the horrors endured by countless students at Mamou Alliance Academy.

The parochial boarding school for missionary kids in Guinea had served as a sort of practical childcare system for members of the evangelical group Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) during their time overseas.

Some kids were raped. Others whipped with belts until they bled. One woman recalls nights of fearing for her life.

For years, the abuse inflicted by Mamou educators and dorm staff was unknown even to parents. But decades later, as alumni began to uncover repressed trauma, many realized they were victims of a perverse educational system.

"All God's Children" gives them the voice they claim they never had. Drawing from personal photographs, home movies, old Super-8 footage and a bevy of interviews with Mamou alumni, Solary and Westphal's film is sad yet unflinching, and demonstrates what can happen when unsuspecting parents put too much faith in an institution. The tone of the film may be more than just cautionary, however: It could be humanitarian.

Mamou was shut down in 1971, but of the roughly 110 missionary boarding schools still in operation throughout the world, the film's subjects cite 21 accused of similar acts of abuse. More troubling, while missionary school abuse may be endemic, legal action is seldom taken against those inflicting the pain. It certainly never was at Mamou — the C&MA still barely acknowledges the "psychological, physical and spiritual" abuse they once backed. (In one memorable scene, International Ministries Vice President Bob Fetherlin seems to grasp at straws for an explanation. "We were slower to act than we could've been," he says. To this day, not a single Mamou staff member has faced any serious consequences.)

The strength of "All God's Children" lies in the way it captures the emotional ripples cast by the abuse. At a post-screening Q&A attended by the filmmakers and six of their subjects, one viewer was particularly intrigued by the parents' reactions when they learned about what had happened at Mamou.

"It was an ongoing grief for them," said Diane Darr, Rich’s older sister and a also a victim. "And it still is."

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I've put off posting about this until everything was in place, but at last I can blog that "All God's Children" will have its world premiere! And it's in my home state of Florida. I feel like I've probably told everyone that reads this blog the good news, but wanted to make sure it gets its own post and that the words of happiness and thanks are recorded in the annals of blog history.

If you scroll down the right of my hompepage and in the Categories section and click on the "All God's Children" link, you'll see how long I have been keeping record of the progress of our film. Basically, right after we received the Jerome Foundation New York Media Arts Grant. We had interviewed the Beardslee family, but the Darrs and Shellrudes were yet to come.

I feel very fortunate to have been on the minds of the indieWIRE guys when they were thinking who to invite into the new world of blogs they would host. The only thing cinematic going on in my life was the doc, so I figured I'd use the blog platform to serve as a journal for the films production, hence the name, a doc's journal.

Regardless of why you make films, after you've shot and edited and often before, you begin thinking about who will see it and where. We thought we were finished many times before and have entertained many festivals as its' first screening. We've even contemplated the sad realities of not having that opportunity at all. But then comes the kind words of Tom Hall telling you that your film, "is a powerful story of abuse and the path to recovery and we would be honored to show the film at the festival." And we knew Sarasota was perfect. We have only heard rave reviews of the staff, screening venues, accommodations and hospitality from filmmakers and industry alike.

So we will have two screenings within the opening weekend of the festival: Saturday, April 5th at 2:30 and again on Sunday, April 6th at 3:30. All but two of the participants in the film (as well as their families) will be attending. Most of my family and even a posse of our dear old Florida friends will be attending. There is also rumor that there will be a press conference. And because the denomination has a large retired population living in Florida, we may even some controversy. We could only hope.

We are utterly ecstatic to be premiering our film at this years Sarasota Film Festival. We think it's a perfect fit and an awesome place for the film to begin this new leg of its journey.

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We successfully launched our new show, MobLogic on Friday. If you haven't seen our beautiful website, CLICK HERE. While you're there, please check out our archive, subscribe to receive daily updates and leave us a comment on your thoughts. We really want to be reflective of what the people are thinking so let us know. If you want to know what makes Lindsay the smartest and most talented actor/host in the world, read this interview in CNET. Here's some other press: Silicon Alley Insider got the inside scoop, followed by New TeeVee. Luci also has a great post at the Good Hard Working People blog.

I can't say enough about all the people I work with. Talented and driven would be a gross understatement. Check out our "ABOUT" page to see the faces behind the machine.

We have a Flickr page that we're trying to populate with pics from our misadventures and I'm trying to Twitter often. If you want to follow my silliness, search Scott Solary.

I've met a lot of filmmakers who will also be in Sarasota screening their films as well as some nice festival programmers who expressed interest in seeing "All God's Children" so keep your fingers crossed that they will like it enough to program in their festival.

We're having our launch party today at 3. I'm hoping the weather holds out. I'll have to post more later when I can catch my breath.

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Somehow amongst all the fury of Luci getting a rough cut of her film together and her heading to Germany whilst I crank on my 5th week of 10 - 12 hour days, we were able to team up to produce a special fall episode of ReelerTV.

Check it out. The Reeler feels fall in New York. Tamara Jenkins, director of The Savages talks about her bulletproof cast and Karen Wilson reviews Margot at the Wedding and Redacted.

Showing all the signs of relaxation, Luci sent a pic from Sylt, a beach in the North of Germany. Chilly, but beautiful.

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Despite a very late start, we were able to shoot, edit and upload the latest episode of ReelerTV.

This week ReelerTV provides a glimpse into the upcoming 45th New York Film Festival. "The Warriors", Coney Island, Harvey Weinstein and “Padre Nuestra” all make the news. We sit down with Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman, co-stars of Wes Anderson’s latest film, “The Darjeeling Limited.” Lisa Rosman from Flavorpill joins us in the lobby to talk about the grown-up side of Wes Anderson, how Ira Sachs blew it, the Cohen Brothers’ success and what’s wrong with Noah Baumbach. Enjoy!

An interesting aside:

My first “job” in New York was an internship in the development department at the now defunct, Good Machine. "Happiness" was making it's way to the video shelves and "Crouching Tiger" was being written. My immediate supervisor was Dan Beers. He used to have the VHS copy of “The Warriors” on his desk. He could and would defend it as the greatest movie of all time, or at least, one of the greatest. Dan was also a huge fan of “Rushmore” and Wes Anderson. Last I heard, Dan was working with Wes Anderson and had an Associate Producer cred on “The Life Aquatic.”

It struck me as an odd coincidence when Stu brought the news item of “The Warriors” into an episode so strongly latent with Wes Anderson’s new film, “The Darjeeling Limited.” It made me realize that I haven’t seen Dan in a very long time and I'm sure he'd really like today's episode.

This is still one of my favorite openings of a film ever:

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I haven't blogged in a while because I've been working incredibly hard to kick off a couple new projects. First, I have been hired to produce another series for Magnet Media. Whereas the first series is about the tech behind post-production houses, this one spotlights the hottest producing talent of the music industry. I'll have more details when we get closer to launch.

I was also recently approached by my friends over at CBS Interactive to edit some mash-up videos of their TV shows. So far, I've concentrated on David Mamet's foray into television, "The Unit". I have total freedom to be as creative as I want. So far it's been great to just let my imagination run wild. I'm not sure how these will be promoted or what the master online plan is, but stay tuned.

Here are some of my latest online favorites:

"Don't Tase Me,Bro!" - or - what I like to call, "Celebrating the First Amendment: Southern Style!"

John Kerry was speaking in Gainesville, Florida where Luci and I met and were married. This is the same University where I saw Spike Lee and Timothy Leary speak.

CLICK HERE to listen to the kid's entire rant and here's another link if you want to see the aftermath.

I still don't understand why the cops were there in the first place. And while his rant is a little annoying, convoluted and aggressive, if you're giving a lecture at a state university and provide an open mic for audience questions, freedom of speech is kind of on the table.

The funny thing is, I don't think he was speaking out against Kerry at all. This kind of fascist behavior by police makes my stomach turn. They actually charged him with inciting a riot! Escort him out, ban him from lectures, but a TASER?! Come on.

I wish I could embed this video, but the proprietary people over at Cadbury, won't allow it. CLICK HERE!

I don't really get the connection between the video and chocolate, but damn that gorilla sure does commit to a scene!

Sir Ian McKellen breaks down the acting process for Ricky Gervais in a scene from "Extras".

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Luci and I went hiking up in Cold Spring with our friends Erik and Tina. They are over from Germany for a few weeks. We've been trying to get out of town for a day trip for a while. Here are some photos of our successful exodus.

Some old gas pumps welcomed us to Main Street:

The Main Street marina:

Crossing the tracks:

A birdhouse in "Vulture Valley." Named after the circling vultures we were sure were waiting for us to die.

A strange cotton-like wind dispersed seed pod growing in Vulture Valley:

Luci's view of us all finally sitting on the rock to relax:

Erik is donning his one-off Good Hard Working People T-shirt:

Canada beckons from above. Luci snapped this one too.

And the sun went down:

I couldn't resist:

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In this final installment of ReelerTV from Toronto, we talk with filmmaking legend, Peter Bogdanovich who's in Toronto to introduce John Ford’s film, “Bucking Broadway.” The recently found negative has been restored and a brand new print has been struck. Karina wraps up the Spout reviews with her Toronto regrets and a few thoughts on “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” ReelerTV will return to it’s usual weekly format beginning on Wednesday.

What a cool gig this was. I'm seldom starstruck, but Mr. Bogdanovich is just so calm, cool and collected, I was in awe. You can see my camera shaking a little bit. Another one of my Top-10 directors crossed off of my "I Want to Meet Them" list.

This was one of the most inspirational films to me so long ago. It's like a filmmaking manual in directing, acting, blocking and photography. Watch and learn:

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ReelerTV continues its coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival. In today's special episode we have an interview with legendary media personality and writer, Phil Donahue. He is in Toronto with the documentary, "Body of War" that he co-directed with Ellen Spiro. The film will have its world premiere tonight on September 11th, the day that moved Iraq war veteran and subject of "Body of War", Tomas Young to enlist in the Army in the first place. Karina reviews another one of the Iraq-themed films at the festival, "Operation Filmmaker."

Here is Keith Obermann reporting Bush's true plans for the future of American troops in Iraq:

Can't we just arrest him for war crimes now?

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In this episode ReelerTV goes retro in black and white in tribute to the forthcoming biopic about Joy Division singer, Ian Curtis. The Reeler talks to legendary rock photographer turned director Anton Corbijn about the making of “Control” and Karina Longworth wraps it up with her thoughts on the atypical rock film. Enjoy!

The clip teases the song, "Transmission". Here's a live performance brought to you by the fine folks at YouTube:

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I'm heading back to New York bright and early in the morning. Toronto's been nice and all, but it's not New York. There are too many little quirks here for me to ever be comfortable enough to stay. Then again, I didn't see nearly enough of it to fairly judge.

We had a full day of production doing three interviews, intros and outros for two shows and the last installment with Karina. What we did today will be the content for the next 3 daily shows. I would have to call today "legendary" for 3 reasons. Two of them, will be apparent in the last 2 daily episodes of ReelerTV (Tues. and Wed.) Not to slight Anton Corbin at all. He's a legend in his own right. And the last reason was a run-in with Mr. Pretty Woman himself, Richard Gere. We were getting off the elevator to interview legend #2 as he (#3) was getting out of the next car. Kinda cool.

Because I didn't see nearly enough films, but instead, spent the majority of my time producing the daily videos, I feel like Toronto was more of a tour of the most posh, exquisite and expensive hotels than an International Film Festival. For some reason, publicist seem to think that a hotel room provides the best interview space. They are usually nondescript and could be anywhere in the world as far as the camera is concerned. Despite all that, we did every one of our interviews in hotel rooms or lobbies. Oh well, at least they were nice ones. This is the main reason we do the opening and close of the show outside. It gives a feeling of a specific location to each show.

Here's a moody shot of the lobby in the swankest of them all, The Fairmont York. The picture doesn't really do it justice. (I didn't take it)

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As expected I was unable to see any more films due to shooting and editing. The timing has just been bad. The plus side is that the films I wanted to see will be coming to New York's screens and soon after, Netflix.

Back in Brooklyn, Luci has diligently finished digitizing all the footage for her upcoming doc, "All's Well and Fair." Somehow while attaining that feat, she is also keeping ReelerTV alive and well amongst all the outlets (too many to link to) . She's the epitome of work ethic.

I was still exhausted today from Thursday's night late edit . I finally got to sleep around 4am, but had to be up and taping the Scott Hicks interview by 10am. You can see the results of that interview in episode 2 just below this post.

There won't be a show on Sunday, but we'll return on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to wrap up the festival coverage. Not to take away from the first two, but I am especially excited about these last 3 episodes. You won't want to miss them.

My exhaustion was compounded on Friday by a couple of parties. The great people at Renew Media, namely our friend, Brian Newman, had an early celebration. There, I was able to catch up with a few people I haven't seen in a while, namely film critic, Anthony Kaufman, Florida Film Festival's Programming Director, Matthew Curtis and NewFest's programmer Basil Tsiokos.

For you cigar fans, there was a vast display of Cubans for sale on the patio. I took this picture for my cigar-loving friends to salivate over:

After a quick bite to eat, I walked to the Control party. I was expecting to hear lots of Joy Division and New Order, but, alas just the typical 80's party music. Despite how tired I was, I was glad I went. I made a handful of new friends. Doing so much work at home lately, it was great to be able to get out and socialize. I also don't go to too many film events in New York, so I was happy to be able to see everybody face to face in the offline world.

Regarding my review of "Captain Mike Across America" check this post on the Toronto blog site that has nothing but praise. Biased?

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ReelerTV begins its daily coverage live from the Toronto International Film Festival. In this first episode we go to the red carpet for Neil Jordan's latest film, "The Brave One" and Karina Longworth from Spout Blog gives her recommendations. Tune in daily for more Toronto Film Festival coverage. Enjoy!

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The first day of the festival started for me with a screening of Michael Moore's latest doc, "Captain Mike Across America."

A QUICK REVIEW:
The film follows "Captain Mike" across the country as he tries to get out the youth vote to oust George Bush 5 weeks before the 2004 election. His failure to sway the election is acknowledged in a lengthy title card sequence that opens the film. What follows is Michael Moore's brand of the tent revival with himself as the charismatic evangelic leader as he speaks to college campuses across America. There's lots of funny moments and great music performances by Eddie Vedder and Steve Earle. The film fails to give any new information to the converted and comes across as a little self-absorbed. It's documentary melodrama at its finest. It's not hard to let your emotional buttons get pushed if the Iraq war, the Bush administration and the lazy mainstream media already sadden and anger you. He obviously cheaped out on the photography and more than half of the film is lo-res. No digital projector in the world can make this film look good. In the end, I enjoyed it, but felt that it was nowhere near its potential. All it needed was a lot more money and a little more foresight. Weinstein Co. is sure to make a mint off this one. Wait for the DVD, this is no Fahrenheit 911. (did someone say Bit Torrent?)

Production of ReelerTV got in the way of me seeing "Control" and "My Winnepeg" (see previous post below), but we have a great episode that I'm really proud of. "My Winnepeg" is playing again on Saturday night and "Control" is being released in a couple of weeks in NY so I'm sure to see at least one in the near future.

We went to an unruly red carpet to cover "The Brave One", Neil Jordan's new revenge flick set in NY starring Jodi Foster and Terrence Howard. I had to yell at a Belgian videographer to stop hitting me. I nearly grabbed his camera and pulled him off his step-ladder perch. The "funny" thing was, if I can be snotty for a second, is that despite their HD gear, step-ladder(used for a better view) and obnoxiously long microphone, they were unable to glean a single interview while we, with our unassuming Panasonic DVX were able to get time with Neil Jordan and Terrence Howard. You can see their bombastic yellow wind muff shoving in to our frame.

Here she is trying to shove it in Jodi Foster's face!

They did, however, provide us with light. Jodie Foster's Army of publicists kept her walking at a brief pace past us. We vowed to never do another red carpet again. Let's hope we can stick to it.

Watch the episode in the post above.

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During a day before the festival begins and a couple of days before any production happens, I had a chance to go for a solo walk through some of the hippest sections of Toronto. We had beautiful weather making for a relaxing day. I walked up and down Yonge and Bloor Streets and wound up at the By the Way Cafe for lunch and a local pint.

We should start production for ReelerTV on Thursday or Friday and have the first episode posted Friday or Saturday morning. It all depends on interviewee availability. We have some great interviews lined up with some legendary filmmakers.

Tomorrow I hope to be able to see some press screenings. I have to wait until 5 minutes before the projector rolls due to the pass I have, but after the miscommunication(s) with the press office, I'm happy to have a pass at all.

I am going to try and see:

Michael Moore's new one "Captain Mike Across America"

Anton Corbijn's Ian Curtis biopic, "Control"

and end with a personal hero of mine, Guy Maddin's latest, "My Winnepeg"

I'll post my thoughts tomorrow as to how it all went. There's a chance I won't be able to get into any of the screenings, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Unlike Sundance, where I only found the time to see one film, Toronto is looking like it might be more of a "festival" for me.

If I have the time and can get in, a major highlight will be watching the latest David Cronenberg film, "Eastern Promises!"

I thoroughly enjoyed "A History of Violence" and "Existenz" remains on my top 10 list and on my shelf in its old school VHS format.

A few Toronto observations:

There are little aggressive bees everywhere. They are quite pesky, but don't seem to mean any harm. I was told by a waiter that there's no need to be afraid. I have a pure hatred for flying bugs, flies first and bees a close second.

Torontoians (I made that up) don't blow their horns nearly as much as New Yorkers (but who does), but they seem to drive rather haphazardly. I saw one driver nearly run another car off the freeway right before a semi almost ran us off the same road. All of this happened without horn blowing.

Obviously, I'm thrilled to be here and look forward to all the films I'll get to see and all the fun I'm sure to have, but like everything, I have a few complaints:

The BIGGEST of all: Sponsored by Starbucks! So now I have to wear a Starbucks branded lanyard. At least it ain't Sanka.

There are a LOT of films. Here's a couple fest-goers trying to decipher the slate at one of the three box offices:

Their is NO signage to look for if you need to know where anything is. The lack of billboards and ads everywhere is a little refreshing, but annoying when you're looking for a locale hidden in a mall.

I ended my day with dinner at Spring Roll, one of the many Thai restaurants in the area. It was amazing. Stu and I were joined by Scott Tobias and Noel Murray, film critics for The Onion's A.V. Club.

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I'm very excited to be going to Canada to cover the Toronto Film Festival for the Reeler. Our weekly show will become a daily for 5-6 days. It will have a similar format to the Tribeca episodes, except this time, we have Karina Longworth from Spout Blog wrapping up each episode with S.T. VanAirsdale discussing the festival's films.

This will be my first time to Toronto and I'm really looking forward to it. I've heard only good things. I imagine I'm going to be super busy shooting, editing and encoding daily episodes. Luci will be holding down the NY headquarters and posting the videos in all the usual places for your viewing pleasure.

OTHER NEWS:

We began to work the Super 8 footage into "All God's Children" the other day. It's going to be a big improvement. While looking for potential places to overlay b-roll, Luci and I started playing with the structure of the ending. An edit here and a copy-paste there and it feels like a whole new film. Luci is going to continue to work on it while I'm gone. We hope to have it locked and finished soon after I get back to New York.

My Miss South Carolina video has hit another milestone: it's over 2 million views! I still can't believe the amount of people clicking in.

Check out the new Google Earth feature, Google Sky:

With some camera moves and screen capture functionality, we could see the birth of a new sci-fi filmmaking movement. Maybe it'll be called Galacticore.

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As unbelievable as it may seem, my little video hit the 1 million views mark. In 2 days. Check it out:

I tried to have some merchandise for sale (not for profit), but Cafe Press shut me down before I could even buy a T-shirt for myself. I had men's organic cotton T's, women's tank-tops, coffee mugs and buttons all lined up for purchase. Cafe Press expressed concerns with my compliance to their corporate "Content Usage Policy (CUP)" namely the part pertaining to "...designing, manufacturing, marketing and/or selling products that may infringe the rights of a third party, including, copyrights (e.g., an image of a television cartoon character)..."

"I personally believe" that their concerns are totally unwarranted. But here's what the T-shirt would have looked like had they let it go. A screen capture from the video with her famous first words subtitled, "I personally believe" gracing the front and my alter ego, POPobscura's logo stamped on the back.

Of course, all this means is that I'll have to find an alternate route for printing. Leave a comment to place your order.

Miss Teen South Carolina was on the Today Show where they let her off the hook so easily and gave her a second chance to answer the "confusing" question on LIVE television. Golly, aren't Ann and Matt swell? I don't think they should have laughed in her face, but they could have given her a little harder of a time. Watch:

"ALL GOD'S CHILDREN" UPDATE:

We received a DVD in the mail the other day containing some nearly pristine Super 8 footage from the early 60's of the Mamou Alliance Academy, the boarding school that is one of the central subjects of "All God's Children." Over the next week, Luci and I are going to work it into the cut. It is absolutely amazing. There's children traveling to Mamou in the back of a jeep, getting out at the school, scenic Africa shots, children playing and more and more. It's unbelievable.

The woman who sent it to us saw our current version of the film and her response reinforced the reason why we're making the film in first place. It's not to please festivals and/or distributors, but to help all the adults that are still dealing with surviving an abusive childhood under the dogma of a "tortured theology." (to quote my Uncle Howard) But her words of praise and thanks for our filmmaking efforts moved Luci and I deeply. Most of our faith in ourselves was returned in one short email. We can't wait to unveil yet another (and this time final) version of "All God's Children."

Unbeknownst to me, Luci was writing an entry in her blog about the same thing. The similarities are uncanny, but then again, that's what makes us such a team. Read it here.

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Luci and I are producing a new series with Magnet Media for Zoom-In Online. We're producing 12 episodes (season 1) of the most entertaining post-production-tech-geek-fun that can be found on the Internet.

I know that's a big claim, but we just shot our pilot and I started editing it today - it's going to be great. The plan is to tour the most exclusive, highest profiled, post-production and studio spaces. We'll examine their gear under a microscope making sure the hype and budget is all what they say it is. And we've got the guy to do it.

I'm sure he knows what this is a picture of (I don't. I just thought it looked tech-y) and not only that, he probably knows what piece of equipment would be newer, better and faster.

Our host is Evan Schechtman, the boy genius who dropped out of film school to open Outpost Digital and eventually sold to @Radical Media before he was 23. He claims he can't be out-teched. From what I've seen, not only does he know his gear, but he can recite model numbers and specs for minutes at a time without breaking stride. On top of all that, Evan has impeccable comic timing and camera presence. He's a natural and we have great things planned for him.

He really won me over while pointing to an array of 10, 500 GB LaCie back-up drives, Evan said, "...These things might as well have an expiration date on them. It's like playing Russian Roulette with your data." I couldn't agree more. (SEE MY EARLIER RANT/POST)

The release date for the series is still to be determined, but be sure that when it is, I'll be blogging all about it. We're very excited with this new venture with Magnet Media. We all feel like it's the beginning of a great relationship.

And here's something funny from Black20. This is the episode that hooked me for good.

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Last month we sent out a mass email asking for help qualifying an episode of ReelerTV Weekly for New TeeVee's Pier Screening event. Even though we had one of the highest ratings and view count, our episode was a little too long and we didn't quite qualify. They're having another screening this month and we would really like to get in, but we need help. Please go to their website: screenings.newteevee.com/ and find our video titled, "ReelerTV @ Tribeca Film Festival #06". Click it, watch it (if you haven't already seen it) and if you don't mind registering (should be quick) you can vote. We suggest 5 stars, but we're a little biased.

While you're there, if you like reading web 2.0, online video and tech stuff, click around New TeeVee. It's part of a larger web community called GigaOm. It's all my daily reading.

Here's some details below about what the Pier Screening series is all about.

August 29 Pier Screenings: Citizen News
We’re closing out our summer San Francisco Pier Screenings series, and are bringing the event back to the pier. For the month of August, we're soliciting contributions in the category of "citizen news." What does that mean? Any non-fiction, short-form video created that tells a story about something out there in the universe.

Could be a documentary, could be a news spot, could be an interview, could be a cellphone-cam clip of an important event. Please keep it under five minutes and make sure you own the rights. We're looking for compelling videos that showcase a unique perspective or analysis.

We’ll be judging the videos this month based on number of views, votes cast, and stars received on the NewTeeVee Pier Screenings site. The top six videos will be shown at the live event on August 29 on a large 16-foot outdoor screen at a pier in San Francisco. The live audience at the event will choose the top three winners for the night. Metacafe will promote the top three audience winners from the live event on its front page, and Fabrik will be giving away high capacity hard drives (think 1 terabyte).

Thanks for all your continued support.

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We received great news at Good Hard Working People HQ on Friday: Luci received a Jerome Foundation New York Media Arts grant for her doc, "All's Well and Fair"!

The doc interviews three punk rock moms and their kids twice, once in 1996 and again ten years later in 2006. The film marries the old footage with the new into an up-close and personal look at welfare, punk rock and parenting in America. The 1996 footage was shot on VHS and the current footage on mini-DV. The two stocks look great when cut together, particularly because of how the VHS footage truly captured the mid-90s feel.

Plum TV recently turned the cameras on Luci to feature her on their documentary series, "Doc Stock". Former editor for The Independent (RIP) and current editor for Paper magazine, Rebecca Carroll, graciously conducted the interview and we're anxiously waiting to see the show.

The Jerome Foundation was the same generous grant giver for "All God's Children" three years ago. Luci wrote a nice piece on our blog about the foundation and I share her sentiment whole-heartedly.

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This week's ReelerTV News reveals Film Forum's fall film slate, pays tribute to Bergman and Antonioni and discusses Picture NY's efforts to keep indie filmmaking cheap and easy in New York. We dropped in on Jeffrey Blitz to talk about his latest film, "Rocket Science" and Logan Hill from New York Magazine sits in the lobby to preview and review Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony's biopic, "El Cantante" and David Wain's biblical comedy, "The Ten". Enjoy.

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In the tradition of the New York summer, we're taking a couple of weeks off. We'll have new episodes starting at the end of August. See you then.

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In this week's episode, it's Norman Mailer week in New York, Harvey reads Harry Potter and Taste-a-Vision is explained. The Reeler takes it to the red carpet to ask the cast of "The Ten" about their cardinal sins and Time Out New York's film critic Josh Rothkopf hangs in the lobby discussing "This is England" and manages to praise Lindsay Lohan's acting chops at the very moment she was trying to run down her ex-assistant's mother in Santa Monica. Pure kismet. Enjoy.

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This episode of ReelerTV Weekly talks about Leo DiCaprio's latest ecocatastromentary (can't find that one on Google yet), Todd Hayne's latest YouTube leak and Sydney Lumet. Then we prod the public for their latest movie going faves and wrap it up in the lobby with Karina Longworth from Spout Blog and New TeeVee (my daily reading).

ReelerTV is easy access! We have our own tab on The Reeler's homepage.

We were a featured video on Veoh's front page as well as a "Hot Episode" on Blip (our amazing hosting service) on Wednesday. We even got a little elevated status on iTunes.

Keep watching and subscribe with RSS through The Reeler or iTunes.
Drop in to YouTube, Veoh, Facebook, MySpace or blip.tv and be our friend, leave a comment or grab an embed code to toss around to other sites.

Enjoy the show. This was really fun to make.

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In this episode of ReelerTV Weekly: Is it 1.18.08 or Cloverfield? New York's weed scene, Steve Buscemi sits down press junket style and Matt Singer from IFC News reviews "Talk to Me" and "Interview" from the lobby of the Pioneer Theater. ENJOY!

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Luci and I are very excited to be producing the Reeler's brand spankin' new weekly show about New York cinema. This one is on location at the East Village's Pioneer Theater. Hope you enjoy it. Please share your thoughts at the Good Hard Working People's blog

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This week's episode features Steve Zahn, the co-star of Werner Herzog's latest, Rescue Dawn, recalling the physical toll and creative rewards of working with the great filmmaker. Our "In the Lobby" segment welcomes Reeler critic Vadim Rizov to discuss both Rescue Dawn and this week's bad-kid thriller Joshua. Stay tuned on the site for more about each of these films and much more happening around New York, and please continue checking in during the weeks ahead for the latest on ReelerTV.

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Check out our latest blog at Good Hard Working People.

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Here's a picture from Jack White's P.O.V. It's his mic after all.

It's been a while since my last update. "All God's Children" is still waiting for that festival to come down, swoop it up and champion it to the world. Unitl then, I'll have to just keep chatting about the rest of my life.

Most recently, I was hired as a camera guy to shoot artist interviews with Alan Light @ this years Bonaroo festival. I was told that Bonaroo was a jam fest and was really dreading it until I looked at the roster of bands playing. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to see everyone I wanted, I made a short list consisting of Day 1: Clutch, Day 2: Lily Allen and Tool, Day 3: Ween and Flaming Lips and Day 4: The Decemberists and White Stripes. The best thing about all these shows was my access. I could go right down to the press pit and look up the artists' noses. Or, even more fortunately, could be backstage like I was for the Flaming Lips and Decemberists. As I walked backstage for The Flaming Lips, I found myself amid an assembly line of people passing huge orange balloons to each other to get them on stage and eventually out to the audience. "Race for the Prize" played as I nudged the balloons along. Surreal to say the least.

MORE BONNAROO PHOTOS HERE

I could go on forever about the Lips show. If you are even remotely a fan, try to see them on this tour. You will not be disappointed. I have never seen a band put their audience through such emotional highs AND lows. Can you say, "funeral song?" That's right. Wayne Coyne plays taps in remembrance of all who have died in Iraq and manages to pull everyone back to elation immediately after by dropping into Superman. Amazing. I won't be able to listen to any of their songs the same way again. Okay, I'll stop.

Blue Note Records hosted the Somethin' Else tent with continuous jazz inside the Village Vanguard mock-up. Total darkness was an oasis amongst the blazing 90 degree sun and the cloud of dust kicked up by the 100,000+ festival goers. Thanks, Zack!

The best metaphor I was able to find for the long weekend's events was that of an old fashioned tent revival. They literally have all (most) the stages under tents and a majority of festival goers camp throughout, so the tent is definitely a motif. Many of the headlining bands seem to have this spirituality to them as well as an uber loyal following. So when you're witnessing the show, it's as if you're seeing this sermon of sorts in front of an electrified and captive congregation. If you weren't a convert before you came, you will be by the time Tool or Flaming Lips finish playing.

I think I'm allergic to flying: Luci and I took a quick trip to Germany for a wedding and KLM managed to lose my luggage on the way back. 7 days later after dealing with Swissport (the lost luggage knuckleheads) I was returned my back around 3am. Thanks a lot. This was just in time for me to fly to Nashville for Bonnaroo. The promoters (Superfly) booked my flight on American Airlines. We arrived at the Nashville airport to return on the 3:45 to LaGuardia. Storms delayed the flight a couple of hours, but we took off. While in the air, the New York corridor was closed and we began to circle. That is until we ran out of fuel and the captain landed in D.C. at Dullis airport. We were told that we'd refuel and be on our way. Oops. The crew is about to go over their 15 hours on duty and since it was 1:30 am by this time, there isn't a replacement crew so we're canceling the flight. We were given blankets and canned soda (corn syrup) and told the plane will leave @ 8 am. They wouldn't offload the luggage and I wasn't about to leave it behind. Fortunately for me, there were several really cool people on the flight and we hung out all night keeping each other's spirits up. If we were a band, our named would be "Canceled Flight".

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We did it. We managed to create, shoot, edit and post 11 four-minute+ shows in 11 days. This was also an experiment in our capabilities of viral campaigning. Through hosting the video on two places (Blip.tv and You Tube), utilizing our existing blogs, websites and mailing lists, we were able to get over 4,500 hits within a 10 day launch. These aren't huge numbers, but considering the short amount of time and small scale of our operation (2 people), we're quite proud of all our efforts. Today's episode doesn't count and we're sure the numbers will grow in time as these films are released and reviewed.

We hope to have more exciting news about our web 2.0 endeavors soon. Meanwhile, we'll anxiously wait for an acceptance letter from a festival delivering the good news about "All God's Children". We know it's out there.

In the meantime, enjoy Eva Mendes chatting it up with S.T. "The Reeler" VanAirsdale. Luci and I saw her movie, "Live!" last night and it is awesome. The film is directed by multiple oscar award-winning documentarian, Bill Guttentag. Despite how much you think you are above being interested in witnessing the demise of others, this film pulls you in and unlocks and excites your inner voyeur to the point of guilt. But that's the point.