LA CHIMA FILMS NEWS

2010-09-08T08:54:00.002-04:00

MOUTH LIKE A DESERT makes it to the 2nd Round of the Austin Screenwriting Competition. From a round of 4400 to the round of 400.

News Section Archive (10/29/07 - 8/13/10)

2010-08-18T10:20:00.010-04:00

8.13.10

JUST ANNOUNCED - The official premiere of I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN will be on October 6, 2010 at the Moore Theatre in Seattle.

8.12.10

Happy to report that the feature-length version of PICKUP AND RETURN has been selected as one of IFP’s 25 Emerging Narratives for 2010. INDIEWIRE ARTICLE.

8.10.10

BUMBERSHOOT will be hosting “A Celebration of Steven Jesse Bernstein” on September 4th at 8:30PM. We’ll show 30 minutes of the film, 30 minutes of extra footage that was didn’t make the final cut, as well as readings, music and a Q & A with Pete and I, as well as Jesse’s family.BUMBERSHOOT INFO .

3.9.10

I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN will have its world premiere at the 2010 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

2.1.10

Both THANKSGIVING and PICKUP AND RETURN are now online in the their entirety.

1.7.10

Picture locked on I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN. We have a facebook page, now - please become a fan! I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN on Facebook .

7.6.09

Last leg of filming for Pete Sillen’s doc, I AM SECRETLY AN IMPORTANT MAN about to start. Portland, Seattle and many rural areas in-between.

6.22.09

Rewrites of PICKUP AND RETURN, IN UNITY THERE WAS STRENGTH and MOUTH LIKE A DESERT are done.

1.6.09

PICKUP AND RETURN has been accepted to THE 3RD Annual SOYS Film Festival.

12.17.08

IN UNITY THERE WAS STRENGTH was named a finalist in the Latino Screenplay Competition.

10.18.08

PICKUP AND RETURN has been accepted to the 2ND Annual Vines Short Film Festival.

10.1.08

PICKUP AND RETURN has been accepted to the 5th Annual Big Apple Film Festival.

9.18.08

PICKUP AND RETURN has been accepted to the 8TH Annual Red Bank International Film Festival.

9.8.08

The first wave of acceptances are in for PICKUP AND RETURN. The film will be screened at the 8th Annual Coney Island Film Festival, the 10th Annual Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival, the 14th Annual Cucalorus Film Festival, and the 25th Annual Olympia Film Festival.

4.22.08

LA SOBRINA has been accepted to the 2008 Hamptons Film Festival Screenwriters’ Lab.

3.30.08

Finalizing color correct and sound mix for PICKUP AND RETURN. Special thanks to Goldcrest Post (audio) and Edgeworx (image).

2.26.08

GOLD PAINT is finally up in the film/videos section. A new music video of some old footage from Chris Crofton and the Alcohol Stuntband.

11.21.07

Production stills from Pickup & Return: here.

11.19.07

New, similar website. Simpler, cleaner, easier to update. Enjoy.

10.29.07

Ended principle photography on the new short. Will be cutting into December with probably one day of reshoots in January.

Thanks to all involved.

Back to the Blog

2010-08-18T10:17:00.004-04:00

Will start posting here as well as the news section. Massive archive coming up and then single posts.

The blog/news format is dead!

2007-11-21T12:28:00.001-05:00

No longer going to use this format for news entries. Redid the website (slightly) and will just update via iweb. That's it, never really did much with this anyways.

Till then, production stills from Pickup and Return are here:
stills.

Check out the newish website if you feel so inclined: I feel SO inclined!

Lenny!

2007-04-25T11:51:00.000-04:00

WFMU

2007-03-14T14:49:00.001-04:00

FREE AND ACCEPTED site is up...

2006-11-22T00:07:00.000-05:00

The website for Pete Sillen's FREE AND ACCEPTED film is live. Check it out. If anyone has any links to Freemasonry, stories, photos or archival footage, please be in touch.

FREE AND ACCEPTED

New website up...

2006-09-18T17:26:00.000-04:00

Looks a little like the old one. Alright, pretty much exactly like the old one. But slightly improved. I do hope to get a gallery up soon. The best news is that THANKSGIVING and JOHN: ONE WAY are up in their entirety, in various levels of res. I have finally caught up to the technology of five years ago.

Enjoy.

My sister, the Treehugger.

2006-03-20T23:59:00.000-05:00

My sister (also the Public Programs Manager at Stone Barns Farm) was interviewed by TreehuggerTV. She knows things about food! And farming! Watch!

Theatrical Premiere of Same Sex America

2006-03-09T02:04:00.000-05:00

The film I produced last year about gay marriage in Massachussetts is having its theatrical premiere this weekend in Chicago at the Facets Cinematique. If you live anywhere near Chicago, I highly recommend you go see my name in lights, goddammit. More info about the screening here. It screens from March 10-16.

It opens on March 15th in San Francisco at The Roxie. Go there, too. More info about that screening here.

Read the Variety review. Discuss it at parties. Print it out and mail it to friends.

Archived News 2002 - 2004

2005-09-15T12:05:00.000-04:00

January 20, 2005
One full year since an update. Been extremely busy. Back producing for Corra Films. The majority of the year has been spent producing SAME-SEX AMERICA - it will ultimately air on Showtime, later in the year. We are on-lining at Edgeworx next week, design and titles are happening now. It's actually kinda exciting. We do our sound mix the week after at Sound One with the legendary Michael Barry. Once, again... very exciting stuff.

I promise more updates on more projects...

January 26, 2004
Balgavy.com (both the brand and lifestyle) has posted pictures from the Christmas party Anne and I threw last month.

January 23, 2004
After serious amounts of complaining to Hypnotic about their basically not even attempt to distribute Thanksgiving, they finally made one sale... to HBO Latin. Didn't know they dug the gringo shorts. Waiting for word on the TV stations that broadcast in english. Don't hold your breath.

November 6, 2003
New, permanant, gallery page is up: La Chima Gallery.

October 20, 2003
The new site, as you can see, is up. Cleaner and quicker and easier to update, it was built with Wise Edit, through the good people at Wiselephant (one of which is me, I am quite willing to admit). Videos are also now for sale in the Wiselephant Member Shop.

Wiselephant Member Shop.

No news on anything from Hypnotic Films. Frustration mounts. DR. JOKES flash movies will hopefully find their debut up here some time before the New Year. Jon Bloom and I are plotting as we speak.

Send some feedback, for Christ's sakes.

July 25, 2003
All right. Admittedly it's been awhile. Here's a very basic update. Hypnotic Films has Thanksgiving and the wheels are turning. Hopefully it will soon be repeated endlessly and annoyingly on some very basic cable system very, very soon. Rewrites on Mouth Like a Desert continue at an impressively slow rate. The majority of my focus has been with Wiselephant. I have partnered up with Jason Moriber, Sheila Shidnia, and Eric Hynes to create what we hope is great, affordable, DIY style marketing tools to a sector of artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers, performers and craftspeople that have long been ignored. Check out the site and let me know what you think. Launch is August 1st.

April 22, 2003
Thanksgiving is screening at The Best of the Wellfair Film Festival Night at The Stinger in Williamsburg. It's all very strange because I never submitted to the Wellfair Film Festival and even more so because I never actually screened at the Wellfair Film Festival. Evidently the programmer saw the film at some other festival and really wants to screen it. As always I make no promises for the quality of anything being screened. But it is a bar, so there will be other distractions. Screeening information: Tuesday April 22, 2003 8-11pm @ The Stinger 241 Grand St. (between Driggs and Roebling) Brooklyn,NY 11211 718-218-6662 Directions: L train to Bedford stop in Brooklyn. Walk on Bedford against direction of traffic to Grand Street. Take a left onto Grand Street and walk 1 and 1/2 blocks to 241 Grand Street.

March 12, 2003
Finally got our screening times for The Fourth International Short Film Festival of Amsterdam: Thursday, March 12 at 5:15pm and Friday, March 13 at 7:45pm. Our shorts block is entitled "Stigmata". Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it, so if anyone manages to catch it, let me know how it went. February 10, 2003 I am the first participant in the Borrowed Camera Project over at Balgavy.com. From time to time, Marc is going to be lending out a still digital camera to various people. After a few weeks, ten of the photos will be posted on his site. Check it out and let me know what you think.

February 18, 2003 Upcoming screening: The Fourth International Short Film Festival of Amsterdam, March 12-16 2003. Right now I'm planning on attending. I'll post the specific dates and times when I figure them out. I have a feeling this will probably be the last festival for Thanksgiving, bringing our total up to 31. February 1, 2003 Got our screening time sorted out for The Santa Monica Film Festival. We are playing at The Yard on Saturday, February 15th at 7:00PM as part of Shorts Block #3. Drew O'Doherty will be here in NYC playing guitar for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, at the Village Underground on February 14th. Take your other, significant or otherwise.

January 2003
The year starts low, so I'm assuming it's going to get better. In between my working on the second draft of Mouth Like a Desert, listening to the last Jim O'Rourke record and continuing to stare out the window, I put together my best of 2002 movie list for Marc Balgavy over at his website The rules seem different for everyone, but mine were that I had to see them in the theaters and it had to be between Jan 1, 2002 and Dec. 31 2002. My total: 55. Dan's Total: 106. All hail the pinball king. Go check it out. Half of the movies are from festivals. One may be yours. Some very good news: Hypnotic Films will be distributing Thanksgiving. Working on the legal stuff this month, and hopefully it will be on television shortly. I will let you know. Drew O'Doherty, one-third of the scoring team for Thanksgiving, will be on tour from February to April playing guitar for the wonderful Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Go see them. Upcoming screenings: The Santa Monica Film Festival February 13-16. When I know our specific screening times, I'll post them.

December 2002
Thanksgiving had one screening this month: a best of the Long Island Film Festival night over at Anthology Film Archives. The heaviest downpour I've seen in a long time, and people still managed to come out in the rain. Thanks. Most of the month has been spent listening to the new Beck record, not sleeping and staring out of the window. But within all that, I did manage to finish the first draft of Mouth Like a Desert. Very different from my previous feature scripts, this one is primarily plot driven and takes place down in Ecuador. Look for a summary to be on the screenplay page, shortly.

November 2002
You'd think this would be a pretty damn busy month for a film called, Thanksgiving, but it was fairly mellow. I can feel the festival life of the film beginning to wind down. The month started with the Ohio Film Festival in Cleveland, Ohio. I didn't attend and they really didn't offer up much information about how we did, but I'll assume it was fine. If anyone can confirm or deny this, let me know. Middle of the month was the fest that I'm sure I'll always regret not attending. We were lucky enough to get selected for the 46th Annual Regus London Film Festival in London. It's sponsored by the British Film Institute, and a pretty big deal. Here's what the said about us: "At this time for friends and family, people find themselves forced into each others company simply because they have nobody else. A bittersweet and darkly funny tale of urban isolation." Not bad. We were also in a screening with Rachel Griffiths film Roundabout. Thanks to Sarah Lutton of the RLFF for helping me plan for the festival when I thought I'd be able to make it. And a special thanks to Casper Newboldt for his stepping in for me when I realized I didn't have enough money for postage, let alone airfare. He stood up and said a few words. Thanks. Check out his website. The month ended up where a lot of things have ended of late: Italy. Thanksgiving screened at the 7th Fesitival internazionale del Cortometraggio in Siena, Italy, and in a very strange scheduling move, they screened it the day AFTER Thanksgiving. Strange. But I heard good things from people that managed to make it there.

October 2002
Another pretty good month. Five festivals this time, but some heavy hitters. It started off on the great Northwest, at the Olympia Film Festival. It's non competative, but pretty damn selective. We were one of just a few shorts screened. I really wish I could have gone to this one, but scratch is low. Bob and David were there, showing films and making what I'm sure were very snide, funny comments. I really wish I was there. Unless they made snide comments about Thanksgiving. Then I'd rather just hide on the east coast. I do that so well. The next festival was honestly one of absolute best of this whole year of festivals. The Austin Film Festival in Austin, Texas was just a wonderful experience. I have to immediately thank Jarod Neece and Lisa Albracht for taking such wonderful care of all of us filmmakers. Jarod let me crash on his couch AND walk his dog. Both were generous offers. Austin was great. Daytime lectures, evening movies and booze at the hotel bar at night. Just a bunch of good times. And I met some wonderful people with wonderful films: Eric Escobar (eric_escobar@hotmail.com) and his film Night Light; Ron Faris (rfaris@sbiandcompany.com ) and his film Running with Scissors; Damian Griffen (damian@bigtoeproductions.com ) and his film Blink; Andrew McAllister (roadfilms@yahoo.com) and his film Shag Carpet Sunset; and Chase Palmer (rivalpix@earthlink.net) and his film Neo-Noir. All are worth checking out. Unfortunately Austin conflicted with another festival I really wanted to attend, The Denver International Film Festival. Everyone I spoke with over there was really very nice and seemed to truly like the film. Thanks. The month rounded out with two more fests: The New Hampshire Film Expo and The Winslow Film Festival in Winslow, Arizona. Yes, like the song. I just want to especially thank Jennifer Lee at the Winslow Film Festival for saying such nice things about Thanksgiving. It was appreciated. I also managed to get a year older this month.

September 2002
September was probably the biggest month we've had with Thanksgiving: seven festivals total for the month. It started in LA, with both the Longbeach Film Festival and the SIlver Lake Film Festival which were both screening the same week. Then back to NYC for the young, but very impressive Coney Island Film Festival. Rob Leddy put together a fantastic group of films. I was very impressed. And with all those very very good films, we still managed to win "Best Comedy". I even got a medal to prove it. Next it was Sidewalk Film Festival in Birmingham, Alabama. Too many festivals in one month means I can't afford to travel to them. I found out later that Tara from Buffy had a feature film she directed screening there. Goddammit. Closer to home, we had a great screening at the WIlmington Independent Film Festival. They bought me Amtrak tickets and I was happy to attend. We managed to come away with "Honorable Mention: Drama". Strange. First "drama" award. I'm not complaining. Thanks to all there. Finally, the long month wound down with Roguefest2002 in El Paso, Texas. We didn't win there, but I heard good things, and they did screen us on the best of the fest day. They also have a cool elephant as a logo.

August
Three festivals this month. First at the Rhode Island International Film Festival in Providence, RI, later at the Georgetown Indy Film Festival in Washington, D.C., and closing out the month at the One Reel Film Festival in Seattle, WA. One Reel is part of the almost overwhelmingly huge Bumbershoot Arts Festival that takes place in Seattle every year. I can't go, but you should. Somehow, strangely, we have been put into another program with the wonderful short, The Donut King, by Angela Ottinger. Another reason for you to go. RIFF screening: Sunday, August 10th at 5:30pm, followed by "Blue Vinyl". Georgetown screening: Friday, August 16th at 11:45PM. Part of shorts Program 8: "All the Young Dudes". One Reel Festival Screening: Monday, September 2nd at 1:00PM. Part of the "Are You My Mother?" shorts block. As always, check out the websites for specific information:www.film-festival.org, (RIFF) www.georgetownfilmfest.com (Georgetown) and www.bumbershoot.org (One Reel) Also, we won Honorable Mention at the Hardacre Film Festival. Thank you to everyone there. Upcoming Festival Screenings: Silverlake, Sidewalk, Antimatter, Winslow and London. July Thank you to everyone at the Dahlonega Film Festival for all their hospitality and for liking Thanksgiving so damn much. We did really well. Chris Crofton and Regina Dreyer Thomas each won best acting awards, Scott Craggs, Klaus Hubben and Drew O'Doherty won best score, and the film won best comic short as well as best director. Thank you again, to Dahlonega, especially Dean Treadway. Thanksgiving will screen at two festivals this month, first at the Philadelphia International Film Festival at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and later in the month at the Hardacre Film Festival in Tipton, Iowa. I don't know anyone in Philadelphia, or in Tipton, but if you happen to be either place, please go. Check out their respective websites for more information: www.philafilm.org and www.hardacrefilmfestival.com

June
So far, Thanksgiving is scheduled to screen at three festivals this month, first at the 11th Annual Florida Film Festival (Orlando, FL - June 7th - 16th), next at another leg of the Long Island Film Festival (Huntington, LI - June 20th), and finally at the 2nd Annual Dahlonega International Film Festival (Dalhonega, GA - June 27th - 30th). We already know that we are a finalist for Best Narrative Short at the Dahlonega Festival, and that both Chris Crofton (Rich) and Regina Dreyer Thomas (Aunt Ruby) have won the awards for Best Acting at the same festival. Congratulations to both of them.

Check out the festivals' respective websites for more information:www.enzian.org/fff/index.html,www.lifilm.org, www.diff.tv/index2.html

May
Thanksgiving won "Honorable Mention - Narrative Short" at the 34th Humboldt International Short Film Festival in Arcata, CA. This month the film will be screened at the Long Island Film Festival (May 2-5th). Check out their website for specific scheduling information: www.lifilm.org,

April 2002
Thanksgiving won a Bronze Award at the Big Muddy Film Festival in Carbondale, Illinois. The film was also incredibly well received at the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina. Thank you to everyone at Cucalorus for making the festival such a wonderful experience, with special thanks to Alan and Dan.

Thanksgiving will be screened at two festivals this month: The 35th AnnualHumboldt International Short Film Festival in Arcata, CA (near San Francisco) and also at the Kansas City Filmmaker's Jubilee in Kansas City, Kansas. Please check out their respective websites for more information: http://www.humboldt.edu/~filmfest and www.kcjubilee.org

March 2002
Thanksgiving will screen at two festivals this month: The 24th Annual Big Muddy Film Festival in Southern Illinois, and the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina. Contact their respective websites for more information: www.bigmuddyfilm.com and www.cucalorus.org. SNAKESKIN SNAKE, Chris Crofton's latest music video, should be edited and available for viewing soon. Check out the videos link for more information.

January 2002
After much stress and strain, picture on Thanksgiving is finally locked. Mix and timing sessions to follow. Special thanks to Jeremy Medoff for shooting the re-shoots of the footage that was lost at the lab. Thanks to Crofton for his patience on a cold night.

This is not a Blog!

2004-07-07T17:32:00.000-04:00

Go away!