First Festival

My first film festival is now behind me.  There were four films shown over two days.  Since this was the first Earth Charter Film Festival presented by Citizens For Peaceful Resolutions in Ventura, it is not surprising that they started small.  But I went to both nights so I could see all the films and listen to everything that was said.

It goes without saying that I was honored to have shown at this festival.  Certainly no other festival I have submitted to has been all that interested in screening my film.  And when I saw the quality of films shown at this festival I was again honored because some of these films were pretty high end pieces of film art.  Mine was made thanks to our local Ventura public access station.

But this is what I really want to share about screening my film, "Voices of the Homeless" last night at the film festival ~

On my way out, I saw that someone had anonymously left me a note.  It said all the nice stuff: beautiful film, relevant film, and all that.  But what got me and what reminded me that if you can help just one person you've done your job was this:

"I could write a book (non-fiction) about the last 3 years of my existence but for now I will just say ...  thank you and bless you."  Below that, the person drew a heart with a peace symbol inside.

And that's when I began to cry.

Earth Charter Film Festival

Here are more specifics about the Earth Charter Film Festival and the screening of my documentary, Voices of the Homeless:

Friday
October 11th
7pm
MCW 113 Lecture Hall
Ventura College
Ventura, California


Admission is free


The festival runs Thursday Oct. 10th and Friday Oct. 11th with two films showing each night and filmmaker discussions after each screening.

The Cappies

Note the lower case.  The awards ceremony tonight was fine.  The food was good.  Well, I'm on a diet, but at least the food looked good.  Very good, as a matter of fact.  But I digress.

I want to say "I lost" because I didn't win.  It feels more dramatic if I lost.  But I'll just say I didn't win because I didn't.  The award went to a film that I couldn't resonate with at all.  I would have felt better if at least the film and the filmmaker I admire would have won.  But he didn't win either.  A rap music video won.

I hate that it meant so much to me.  I hate that I attached to it.

But I did.

And now I can stop blogging and feel thankful that I only have three followers because this is something I don't want a lot of people to know:  that I cared about winning, that I felt somewhat robbed, that I put my heart and soul into this documentary about jazz musicians trying to help the homeless and that is going to have to be enough for tonight.

Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions Film Festival

More news on CPR's (Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions) first film festival.  It will be October 11th and 12th.  My documentary, Voices of the Homeless, will screen on Friday October 11th and I will be there for the Q&A after the screening.  It will be held at Ventura College.  I don't have times yet, just the date and the place so far.

More to come . . .

THE CAPPIE AWARDS

They're called the CAPPIE's.  Community Access Partners (CAPS-TV), our public access station here in Ventura, California, has an awards ceremony every year for the films that are made at the station.  I hate to admit how excited I am about this year.  The ceremony is tomorrow night and I hope I win one.  Voices of the Homeless was made thanks to CAPS-TV.  I spent two years making the documentary and I could not have done it without the classes and mentoring of the professionals there.  This year I have submitted Voices of the Homeless because I missed the deadline last year by a hair.  I just finished editing and the submission deadline had already come and gone.  So this year is it.  I don't want to post on Facebook or tweet on Twitter because I know I'll be so embarrassed if I lose.  But here I can say that, deep in my heart, I hope I win a CAPPIE.  I love that station and I love my documentary.

My FIRST FILM FESTIVAL!

Finally -- and just like I was told it would happen:

I was ASKED to show my film in a festival.  A festival that I did not submit to.  I've heard that submitting to festivals can be very iffy because of competition and festivals with particulars that may not vibe with your film.  But now I have been asked.  I am in my first festival!

I can't wait to advertize this.  The festival will be a part of Citizens For Peaceful Resolutions' Earth Charter Day event that happens once a year.  This is the group that gave me an award last year after someone from their organization came to the downtown library in Ventura to see the film.  They then gave me an Earth Charter & The Arts award.

The festival will be in October and I will be blogging about it again soon.

Thanks for reading.
Toni

VIMEO, VIMEO, How Art Thou VIMEO?

Well, July certainly flew by in an evil rush.  I'm grateful for all the gigs I played but once again I did much less with Voices of the Homeless than I meant to.

I Meant To upload it to VIMEO.  Instead, I submitted it for an award to our local public access station, CAPS-TV Ventura, who told me THEY were going to upload all the entries to VIMEO in September.  That gave me a little financial breathing room since my documentary is larger than the site comes, when it comes for free.

So here we are in August and I'm waiting for September for CAPS-TV Ventura to upload my doc for me.  I know.  I know.  What a cheapskate she is.  But at the moment, that's my best option until I get a little more "flush."

Thank you CAPS-TV Ventura for uploading everybody's project.  As soon as it goes up, I will post a link so that anybody interested in seeing the entire documentary, will be able to.

And thank YOU -- all three of you, my subscribers -- for reading what I blog, maybe even on the same day I blog it, and for your support for this project which stays near and dear to my heart.  Three is a mighty number.  And who knows when that number may suddenly grow and surprise all four of us!

Toni