Rotterdam

DAVE MARKEY AT ROTTERDAM

The screening in ROTTERDAM for the "Reinactors" the documentary I cut went great.
It was in the top 10 with audiences. Every screening was sold out and we got invited to 8 other European festivals. Now we wait to hear about Los Angeles Film Fest.
Goal is to get this film in the fest plus my short film
"A Nice Day For An Earthquake."
We shall see.

The Melvins were also at the fest.

LYNCH

The New Year has started out great. Kris and me are going through escrow for our first house.

Dave Markey and Kevin Church will be leaving this week for the Rotterdam Film Festival. The documentary I cut for Dave got into the festival. I’m staying back to finish my new short film and get it done in time for Los Angeles Film Fest.

And on top of that I’m writing a new project.
So things have been a bit on the busy side.

Last night Kris and me went to LACMA (The Los Angeles County Museum of Art)
And saw the documentary LYNCH. A film about filmmaker David Lynch.
I thought it was for the most part a fairly good documentary.
The film says its directed by BlackANDwhite with is a pseudonym for David Lynch.
He wanted to shroud the fact that he made a film about himself.
Not really sure how I feel about a filmmaker doing a film about himself. It feels very protective. Very controlled where what I was searching for was something not controlled.
The film concentrated more on his eccentricities than his filmmaking process.
The film is bound with witty and funny stories he tells about his youth. We do get see moments when he’s directing “Inland Empire.” Of course he also speaks about his meditation that he’s been doing for 34 years. But still I didn’t feel this film was telling me anything that I didn't really know about him already.
Don’t get me wrong it was fun to watch but I guess I was searching for more.
I wanted to dig deeper and get to know more about the man, his life his process.

"In Hollywood, more often than not, they're making more kind of traditional films, stories that are understood by people. And the entire story is understood. And they become worried if even for one small moment something happens that is not understood by everyone. But what's so fantastic is to get down into areas where things are abstract and where things are felt, or understood in an intuitive way that, you can't, you know, put a microphone to somebody at the theatre and say 'Did you understand that?' but they come out with a strange, fantastic feeling and they can carry that, and it opens some little door or something that's magical and that's the power that film has."

"Film can do amazing things with abstraction, but it rarely gets a chance. People are treated like idiots, and people are not idiots. We're hip to the human condition, the human experience, and we love mysteries."

"I keep hoping people will like abstractions, space to dream, consider things that don't necessarily add up."

-David Lynch

Final Thought for the Year

Hello and thanks to all whom have been reading my blog.
Another year has blinked by.
The year for me has been full of positive change in my life.

I'm fortunate to have such a great circle of inspiring and artistic friends that always keep challenging me.
Thank you all and you all know who you are.

I finished writing my feature script this year.
It was a great experience, I learned a lot.

I met and got to work with filmmaker Dave Markey.
His films inspired me as a kid and I never thought I would end up working with him.
The documentary I cut for him got into The Rotterdam film festival 08.

And the biggest thing that has happened to meet his year, I got married.

She's great. She makes me live in the moment. Or what Kafka called "the existent moment."

I plod along into the New Year very hopeful and very grateful.

So what’s in store for the new year?

A house purchase?

I’m working on finishing a new feature script called “Floodwood.”
I’m taking some courses at MIT. That should be interesting.
Working on a documentary about 80’s punk band SIN 34.
I’m also adapting a book written by Dave Markey.

And of course you never know what kind of surprises will spring up during the year.

The roller coaster is headed to the top and just about to plunge down over the peak.

Happy New Year.

Sin 34

My new documentary focuses on the punk band SIN 34. Forming in the early 1980's.
Sin 34 was a seminal band of the time. Now 24 years later they tell their story.

Fortune Teller

Only in America!

Once again greed and the horrible insurance racket is playing games with peoples lives. Just more proof of how peoples lives are truly controlled by big business.
Companies can now condemn our children to death in this country, how truly sad.

It's all slipping away from us before our eyes.


17-Year-Old Cancer Survivor Denied Transplant
Health Insurance Company Denies Liver Transplant That May Save The Girl
GLENDALE (CBS) ― 17-year-old cancer survivor Nataline Sarkisyan has been denied a liver transplant by CIGNA insurance company that doctors think could save her.

Sarkisyan, of Northridge, is in the intensive care unit at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood. According to her mother, Hilda Sarkisyan, she has been in a vegetative state for weeks and will die without the transplant.

Nataline was diagnosed with leukemia at age 14. The cancer went into remission after two years of treatment, but re-emerged this summer, Sarkisyan told the Daily News.

Doctors recommended a bone marrow transplant, and her only sibling, Bedig, 21, was a match. He donated marrow, but Nataline developed a complication from the bone-marrow transplant. Because her liver was failing, doctors recommended a transplant, according to an appeal letter sent to CIGNA earlier in December, the Daily News reported.

Doctors said in the letter that CIGNA was denying the liver transplant because Nataline's plan does not cover "experimental, investigational and unproven services."

The Sarkisyans have filed an appeal with the California Department of Insurance, but the agency sent a letter this week saying it needs more information.

Registered nurses, members of the Armenian-American community and Nataline's family and friends planned to march in protest in front of CIGNA's local offices Thursday.

Why I make Films

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to contribute to a magazine asking the question, "Why do you make films?" This question was asked to a bunch of new up and coming filmmakers.

Here was my answer.

Asking a question about why I make films is a complex question.
Not very simple to answer, it's almost like asking why do I breath.
So in some ways for me to make films is to live.
For me it has nothing to do with making money or being famous.
It's not as shallow as that.
For me film is an artistic expression such as painting or composing music.
It's a radical convergence of luck, art and patience.

Some make films to be famous.
Others try and try to say something profound but in the end really have nothing profound to say at all.
There is of course room in the big gooey pot of filmmaking for everyone.

And in the end no one is more right then the other.
That's what makes it an art form.
One might like Nora Ephron while others prefer
Gaspar Noe.

"The most difficult thing in the world is to reveal yourself, to express what you have to. As an artist, I feel that we must try many things - but above all we must dare to fail. You must be willing to risk everything to really express it all."

-John Cassavetes