SEEN O' The Day: Don't Vote For Me!

Since today is Election Day, what better film to show than the 1999 flick Election?? This movie is one of my faves. Below is a scene of Tammy Metzler's campaign speech urging her student government to vote for her...or don't vote her.

Job Openings

JOB OPENING: DIR, PROGRAM LICENSING & ACQUISITIONS/iN DEMAND/NYC: Oversee licensing/acquisitions, programming & packaging of content. Degree + 4-8 yrs exp in TV. Apply: resume@indemand.com

(11/11)JOB OPENING: DIRECTOR, ANIMATION PROGRAM SALES: Resp for coordinating prgrm sales to domestic, internat'l free-TV & pay-TV broadcasters as well as home entertainment distributors. Resumes to: directorofanimationprogsales@hotmail.com

(11/8)JOB OPENING: DIR PRODUCTION OPERATIONS/National Geographic Television: Oversee the production management of documentary programs. To apply, visit http://enews.cynopsis.com/c.asp?3/blUQtVLL7GxYcoomZkdAuzjYU7HcTzEZEPAE3bh0yQ Job ID 3676. EOE

(11/8)JOB OPENING: MGR, NEW MEDIA INVENTORY/DISCOVERY/NY: Mng stewardship/optimization of dig. accts. Frcst inventories, analyze site activity, work closely w/ad sales client to guarantee deliverables. Apply: http://enews.cynopsis.com/c.asp?pzSGRmVbDJ+AWZGD0iMsRguzjYU7HcTzEZEPAE3bh0yQ Req#8394

(11/8)JOB OPENING: DIR/PROG DEV/TLC/SS: Communicate/Coordinator w/Ind. Producers-Prod, other Companies/Depts outside of Discovery; serve as network liaison btw prod/dev. Apply: http://enews.cynopsis.com/c.asp?YBcl70mIwDI40f0mVY4r2AuzjYU7HcTzEZEPAE3bh0yQ Req#8335

(11/7)JOB OPENING: DIR RESEARCH/NY: Min 5 yrs exp in TV/Digital research, primary research(banners &tabs), exp w/Comscore, Nielsen's, strong written & analytical skills, BA/BS or equiv exp, Rez: http://www.mylifetime.com/about-us/jobs

(11/7)JOB OPENING: SERIES PRODUCER/Chorion/NYC: Experienced show runner with children's animation experience needed for upcoming TV series. Send resume to csljobs@chorionsilverlining.com Must be based in NY

(11/6)JOB OPENING: CLIENT SUPPORT SPECIALIST/NY: Liaison between clients & tech. suppt & dev. groups in co. for software defects, user q's, tracking, advert. or media indust. exp. DealMaker exp. a + Resumes to: Rosalie@Hrinnovations.us

(11/6)JOB OPENING: SALES MKTG MGR/Univision Online/NY: Resp for creating/mngng mkt prgrms/materials that will enable Bus Dev to enlist new websites to Ad Ntwrk, in addition help sales close new client bus. adnetwork@correo.univision.com

Christian Baleman Begins

This trailer is pretty impressive. What happens when you take Batman Begins and blend it with American Psycho??

Check out the trailer trash below:

CMJ FILM FESTIVAL 2008 INAUGURAL CINEMINI CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED

November 4, 2008 - New York, NY –CMJ Film Festival, the cinema division of the annual CMJ Music Marathon, marked its 15th year by hosting its first Cinemini Short Film Contest last week during the festival. The festival has grown to become a leading event among tastemaker movie fans, hosting over a decade of premieres and advance screenings.

In search of the freshest new voices, the CMJ Film Festival launched the inaugural CMJ Cinemini Short Film Contest. Narrowing the field of entries down to six short narrative and six documentary films, the Cinemini’s competition awarded two grand prizes in each category. The winners received a prize package with essentials for their next shoot from partners Avid, JVC, Media Services, Manhattan Edit Workshop, and Tekserve.

I Met The Walrus, written and directed by Josh Raskin, won for short narrative film. The film is an animated illustration of a 14-year-old's interview with John Lennon in 1969. “I'd like to thank CMJ for this massive honor. I'd also like to thank John Lennon,” commented Raskin.

In Bed With A Mosquito, winner for documentary, was directed by Sarah Frank. The film is an intimate portrait of activism and aging in New York City focusing on the life of Betty Brassell, a 78-year-old anti-war activist living in Manhattan's Lower East Side. “It was a total joy making this film with Betty, and I was thrilled that she could finally see it on a big screen,” stated Frank. “Being a part of the CMJ festival in the heart of the city … was truly an honor.”

Legendary film producer David Picker (The Jerk, The Crucible, A Hard Day’s Night) chaired the narrative jury alongside Emmy winning documentarian Mark Marabella (FBI Files, Grounded on 9/11) who chaired the documentary jury.

They were joined by Producer Lydia Dean Pilcher (Darjeeling Limited); feature film producer Brian Peter Falk (The Loomis Gang, Embassy Row Pictures); Vice President, Non Fiction and Alternative Programming for A&E Elaine Frontain Bryant; documentary and feature film Executive Producer John Schwally (Frontline, Dateline NBC, Nature); Executive in Charge of Production for BBC Shirley Escott; and international documentary producer Tanja Medding (Sally Gross: the pleasure of stillness, The Gates).

“I am extremely proud of the winners selected for this year's CineMini Short Film Contest,” said CMJ Film Festival Director, Rachel Klein“It was a very difficult decision for the jury as we had six tremendous documentary and six amazing narrative finalists. The general feel of excitement in the room during the screenings and impressive winning films made for a fantastic launch to the CMJ CineMini Short Films Contest.”

This year’s CMJ Film Festival also included several New York City premieres such as Kevin Smith’s new film, Zack And Miri Make A Porno, Johnny Cash: Live at Folsom Prison, American Swing, and the US premiere of AC/DC: No Bull. The film festival also featured independent films What About Me?, Pressure Cooker, and Israeli film For My Father.

GET OUT AND VOTE

Today is Election Day and you better get up off your ass and vote! Only you can determine the outcome of our future by casting your vote!

Day Dream Reading Next Monday

NewFest is pleased to present the first staged reading in our NewDraft series: Day Dream, a new script by Rodney Evans, featuring Andre Holland, Marc Damon Johnson, Lonette McKee, Adriane Lenox, and Aunjanue Ellis, as well as a live jazz quartet with musical arrangements by Aaron Diehl!Monday, November 10The Theatres at 45 Bleecker St(Bleecker at Lafayette)6:30-9:30PMTickets: $20 General / $15 NewFest 2009 Member Discount In Day Dream, gay African-American composer Billy Strayhorn travels to New Orleans to investigate the life of Buddy Bolden, the forefather of modern jazz, who spent his last 24 years in a mental institution.Rodney Evans is the recipient of the Independent Feature Project's Gordon Parks Award for Screenwriting and the 2004 Sundance Film Festival's Special Jury Prize in Drama for his first narrative feature, Brother to Brother. He is a Creative Capital Grantee and a Guggenheim Fellow for 2008/09.

NewDraft is NewFest's Screenplay Competition & Reading Series, dedicated to discovering and fostering LGBT feature screenwriters and/or LGBT feature screenplays. Day Dream was one of the two winners of the inaugural competition at this past June's festival. Before NewDraft was formalized as a new program, NewFest presented screenplay readings of Another Gay Movie, Were the World Mine, and Another Gay Sequel, all of which went on to be made into films!

Purchase tickets now!
DATE: 11/10/2008
TIME: 6:30-9:30PM
LOCATION: The Theatres at 45 Bleecker St (Bleecker at Lafayette)
FOR TICKETS: click here!

We need a few volunteers who can help the evening of the event by maintaining the RSVP list, selling tickets, handing out programs, crowd control, and generally helping staff. You will be able to watch the performance as soon as the attendees have been seated. We would need you to be at the theatre, which is The Theaters at 45 Bleecker St (Bleecker at Lafayette), right off of the 6 train, from 6-10PM. If you can help, please reply to this email ASAP, and I'll send you a confirmation with more information. Thanks!

Basil Tsiokos

Artistic Director

Indie Pick O' The Day: New York Lately

Loosely connected characters living in New York City trying to find out who they are. Yes, the genre has been done a number of times, but somehow New York Lately makes us realize that each obstacle a character faces is one that we all inevitably face in our lifetimes. The film is about a group of New Yorkers who have specific burdens in their lives they have to come to terms with.

The film opens up with introducing us briefly to each of our characters at a New York bar. The first crisis starts with Mark, who just broke up with his girlfriend Andrea. He can't break away from his past with her and every girl that comes within his sphere of influence, looks and speaks just like Andrea. He turns a blind eye to anyone who isn't Andrea and has to decide if he wants to stay living in the past, or move on to living in the aftermath of a long term relationship.

Jared works in the human resources department at his company and tends to have a soft spot for his employees. After an employee abuses company phone policy, Jared feels hesitant to fire him, but knows that it has to be done. As a result, he offers the employee and opportunity to extend his benefits to make the termination less harsh than he intended.

Jared meets Truly a cute aspiring folk singer who works at a coffee shop and resembles Corinne Bailey Rae, is saved by Jared by an oncoming bicyclist. They meet and are instantly attracted to each other and have great chemistry.

Truly's friend Veronica is an aspiring actress who also works at the coffee shop. She is waiting for her big break, but lack a great deal of self esteem in her image and confidence in her career. She questions whether or not becoming an artist is truly what she wants and if its worth fighting for.

Ringo Barnes who is a close friend of Jared's finds himself in compromising situations with women---he likes to pay for them! He also has a warped sense of who and what women really are. However, his friendship with Jared is threatened when Jared is forced to make a business decision that that his boss chooses for him.

Elliot George is a down-on-his-luck writer, who has given up his craft--and whom also suspects that his wife is having an affair. He decides to hire a P.I. to investigate. His P.I., a lovely woman named Samantha, becomes more than just a detective for Elliott and teaches him to trust himself again as a writer and stop giving up on himself.

The film has an interesting style and at times can be jarring using jump cut edits and loops that look more like a music video than a movie. However, it's not overdone and it's used in just the right places that allows the scenes to make some sense. Need to see a New York Indie flick?? Check out New York Lately.

NEW YORK LATELY will hit the film festival circuit in 2009 for more info go to this link

Here is the trailer for the film below:

Craptacular Flick: Dark Floors

Most people on Halloween go out to costume parties, trick or treating, or crazy parades. However there is a certain number of folks like myself who prefer to stay home and watch a horror movie marathon with friends. The movie of choice was Dark Floors directed by Pete Riski. I have to say it was pretty "risky" for Mr. Riski to make this film. The script wasn't very good. The film is about a father treating his autistic daughter for a brain condition. He sees that the hospital is not very successful in treating his daughter Sarah, so he decides to leave the hospital.

Sarah's nurse Emily, insists that the little girl stay for some further "experimental procedures". At that moment, Emily, Sarah, and her father Ben get on an elevator with three other passengers. The elevator suddenly stops and they find themselves stuck. Several moments later the elevator resumes down to the 4th floor and as the elevator doors open...no one is in the hospital! I mean...nobody! Pretty scary right?

Well here's the thing, the movie takes an awful turn from this point, because we are first led to believe that they have arrived in another dimension of time---which we presume is quite possibly the future. However, all the sudden ghosts appear out of nowhere haunting the floors of the hospital and monsters dressed like members of the band Kiss come out attacking the 6 hospital patrons.

This movie just got a little weird and its ending was soooo ambiguous. I mean it actually lacked any logic and I was very dissapointed that I invested 2 hours into a film that had an ending that meant absolutely nothing. After doing some research, I found out this film apparently was the most expensive Finnish horror film to be produced. Ever. Wow...I'll hold my tongue and not insult the entire country of Finland, but they need to take some tips from American horror films...or better yet Japanese horror films.

Anyways, maybe you should check out Dark Floors and judge for yourself. Maybe you'll like it. Or maybe you'll agree and think that it sucked major monster's balls. Either way, this is being archived as a shitty indie. It may not necessarily be an "indie" per se, but it's still shitty.

The New York City Horror Film Festival

America's largest and most recognized genre film festival focusing solely on Horror and Science Fiction. Each year the NYCHFF celebrates both the horror classics we grew up with and the new horror films & filmmakers who created them. the NYCHFF fills the city with special screenings, parties, celebrity guests and free giveaways. The New York City Horror Film Festival is the Halloween time event not to be missed. So, keep your eyes peeled right here for full festival information, submission info, lineup, tickets, details about the huge, open-to-the-public kickoff party, and info on all the cool events the NYCHFF does throughout the entire year to support genre films and filmmakers!

11th Annual African American Women In Cinema International Film Festival 2008

African American Women in Cinema in partnership with Save Africa Concerts Foundation is proud to celebrate it’s 11th Annual International Film Festival on November 12-15, 2008 in New York City. This four-day star-studded event celebrates and highlights the work of aspiring and prominent women filmmakers of African, Latin and/or Asian Descent throughout the Diaspora.

For over a decade, AAWIC mission is to expand, explore and create business opportunities for minority women filmmakers while providing a platform and showcasing amazing bodies of work. We are pleased to announce the history making event program which includes the Kick-Off Reception hosted by Power 105 FM On-Air personality Malikha Mallette on Nov. 12th, a Special Red Carpet Screening, November 13th, International Day at the United Nations, November 14th, Special Forums on the Artist&Financing and the debut Actress/Actors workshop hosted by Hollywood Actress-Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, November 15th and the Closing Award Ceremony, which include the following honorees, Hollywood Actress--Tamara Tunie, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney and Nollywood Superstars Patience Ozokwo (Mama G) and Ini Edo.

Come meet and greet some of the industries most powerful women in entertainment today! Seats are very limited!!

Life As I See It

Take a minute out of your day and check out this blog:

Life As I See It

"Life as I see it, the blog is about lifestyle, love and relationship, home and garden, travel etc, everything that is happening in life."