FiveCent Productions'

Newsletter: October 11, 2005

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This is gonna end up being a little long, so please bear with me. I’ve got an award to talk about, the festivals we were at last month and our upcoming screenings in three countries (!!!!!) this month.

1) September Festival Summary

Grim now officially has more awards than I have fingers.

Grim has won the award for Best Short at the Twisted Spine ‘Micro’ Film Festival in Cleveland, Ohio held September 24-25th. You can find info about the awards and festival here:

http://www.twistedspine.com/Micro/2005/Micro_Fest_Show_Info.htm

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this awesome looking festival as I was in Frederick, MD for a screening of Grim at the equally awesome Frederick Festival of Film on September 24th.

Frederick is an amazingly cute town, like something out of a movie. And the festival had some great movies that I was honored to be screening alongside. In fact, the festival only screened 18 films this year (as well as a bunch from the 72 hour filmmaking contest); to be one of so few (and so amazing) films screened made me feel warm and fuzzy.

You can check out what they screened here:

http://www.frederickfilm.org

And at the very beginning of the month, Grim screened at the Valley Film Festival in Los Angeles. (Fun fact: if the San Fernando Valley became its own city, it would be the fifth largest city in the country.)

Any chance I have to go to Cali I jump at and I’m never disappointed. The VFF was five days long and ran in the beautiful El Portal Theater. (Another fun fact: LA has more theater than Chicago, you just never hear about it.)

The fest screened some great films that are online and easily downloadable. If you like funny and monkeys, take three minutes to watch Things You Do With Your Hands here:

http://www.5thwallentertainment.com/tydwyh.php4

And there are two very cool music videos at the link below. Death is a Flower is amazing with its catchy song and cool video. I See Pretty Girls is really groovy because the song is sung by a group of mentally handicapped kids who also star in the video. Be warned: you will have the song stuck in your head all day (in a good way, not in a horrible Tom’s Diner way).

http://www.prettypictures.com/films/

However, proving just how screwed my priorities are, the coolest thing for me was on closing night, when Grim screened. The evening and the awards ceremony were co-hosted by two actors who had parts in Joss Whedon’s Serenity that just came out in theaters. At the reception I went up and shook their hands and said, “You’re in Serenity. That’s so fucking awesome...I really don’t have anything else to say but...well, that’s just so fucking awesome.”

I am, indeed, quite the geek. (For those of you not in the know, I want to be Joss Whedon when I grow up.) For those of you who haven’t seen Serenity, you’re missing out; it’s an amazing movie.

More info about the Valley Film Fest can be found here:

http://www.valleyfilmfest.com/

Lastly, but in no way leastly, both Grim and Why We Had To Kill Bitch screened at the Pathways Digital Studio International Film Festival September 15-17th in Kansas City, Missouri:

http://www.pathwaydigitalstudio.org/

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend. I’m waiting to hear back on how everything went down.


2) October Film Festivals Screenings Around the World

Grim will be screening in THREE COUNTRIES in the month of October.

The first is IndieLA for Heal the Bay on Sunday October 16th. They might also be screening Why We Had To Kill Bitch.

From Adam White, the festival’s organizer:

“IndieLA for Heal the Bay is a 12 hour movie marathon to raise money for the Echo Park Film Center and the Heal the Bay, a non-profit organization dedicated to cleaning up Santa Monica Bay. Their work has been tremendous in the past but they still need help in protecting our ocean and beaches for the future.

The benefit is a 12 hour event in which all films viewed be from independent Los Angeles filmmakers. The 12 hours will be split close to evenly between features and shorts. It will be from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Sunday, October 16th at the Echo Park Film Center. The schedule has not yet been compiled.

You can read more at www.GrassrootsCinema.com <http://www.GrassrootsCinema.com> .
Other: www.healthebay.org <http://www.healthebay.org> , www.echoparkfilmcenter.org <http://www.echoparkfilmcenter.org> .”

As I’m sure you know, Five Cent Productions is always looking for charity events and ways to promote a clean environment, so I’m proud to be asked to be a part of this.

During this time, Grim will also be screening at the Digital Narrative Arts Film Festival, DNAFF, in Toronto, Canada October 14-20th. This will be our Canadian premiere.

We will screen in the festival’s closing block of films on:

Thursday, October 20th at 9:30pm at
Camera Bar
1028 Queen St. W.
Toronto, ON
M6J 1H6
Phone: 416-530-0011

Oddly, (or maybe not), we are not screening in the Comedy themed block. We are the second of four films to screen in the Death themed block. You can check out their website at:

http://www.dnaff.com

And on the very same day, October 20th, Grim will be screening in Sydney, Australia at the Kings Cross Arts Festival (October 13th-22nd) as a part of the Best of the Melbourne Underground Film Festival’s Short Films 2005 (ie The Best of Mini MUFF 2005).

Thursday 20 October at 9.30pm
Aussie Rules Club
28 Darlinghurst Road
Kings Cross
Further Info: 02 9357 2038 or gavinharris@nexon.com.au

http://www.kxarts.com/

So, not only do we screen in three countries in the span of 5 days, two of those screenings will be on the same day on opposite sides of the world. C’mon, that’s pretty shiny, isn’t it?


3) Helping our friends

And, while I’m sending you scouring the net, click here and vote for Made-Up:

http://online.tvguide.com/special/nytvf2005/comedy.asp

David Fishel, a NYC friend from the Melbourne Underground Film Festival, has a short film that’s up for being made into a pilot through TV Guide or some such thing. You should click on it because David’s a good guy and Made-Up is very, very funny...if you like reality show spoofs about clowns.

Well, I’ve run over my normal self-imposed two pages of babbling limit so I’m gonna sign off.

I hope all is well with everyone out there.

Best,
JP