| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 |
« September 2007 | Main | November 2007 »
Journals 2431, 2432, 2433, and 2434 have arrived on John Wildman's desk. John had just set up the AFI Fest press office in a tent on the 7th floor of the ArcLight parking structure, and was incredibly busy, but he said the journals are in good hands. If no one can find them, check his bookshelf or in-tray…
Counting down the days, hours, minutes… Someguy gets to L.A. on Thursday, Linda on Saturday. And the four AFI Fest journals just came in the mail. You can track them on the 1001 Journals Project website:
journal 2434 | journal 2433 | journal 2432 | journal 2431
Linda's cool card for the festival.
In preparation for an interview tomorrow I compared the weight and
thickness of an empty Canson sketchbook, which Someguy used to make the
journals, with the Journals I have here on hand for the press:
Empty Journal: 15 ounces (425 grams), 0.9 inches thick (2.25 cm)
Journal 526: 1 pound, 10 ounces (737 grams), without the pouch, which
weighs one additional ounce (28 grams). It's 2.2 inches (5.5 cm) thick.
Journal 550: 1 pound, 7 ounces (652 grams), 2.4 inches (6 cm)
Journal 878: 1 pound, 9 ounces (709 grams), 2.5 inches (6.5 cm)
Journal 987: 1 pound, 14 ounces (850 grams), 3.7 inches (9.5 cm)
Ink or paint doesn't weigh much, but the journals get heavy and
sculptural because of all the actual, physical objects people have
added: photos, stones, coins, fold-out pages, fabric, spices, coasters,
half of a California driver license, braids, cockroaches (still very
dead, fortunately)… 987 is literally bursting at the seams.
A nice little "scandal" is boiling up over the weekend. One of the sponsors
of the AFI Fest, supermarket chain Gelson's, pulled their support and
the 5,000 program guides they were to distribute to shoppers because one
customer complained about one image in the program guide. The image in question is from Adam Rifkin's surveillance-camera film "Look." The irony is,
whenever I'm at Gelson's waiting in the check-out line, I just cannot
not look at the in-your-face covers of all these yellow press mags they
are selling: the behinds of celebs with cellulite, the behinds of
celebs who gained or lost weight -- obscene, sexist, silly, and boring.
But as they make money with this stuff, they place it right in your eyeline. Such hypocrisy.
The film's description in the guide: "There are approximately 30 million surveillance cameras in the United
States capturing covert images of average Americans as much as 200
times a day. They're watching in department stores, gas stations,
changing rooms, public bathrooms — seemingly no one and nowhere are
free from the dispassionate eye of the hidden camera. LOOK pieces
together this rush of information, finding several provocative,
interwoven storylines amid the noise of life in a random city."
In yesterday's Times was an eight page Supplement on the AFI Fest, and on page 2 was this story:
AT AFI FEST
THE BEST OF WORLD CINEMA
With 148 films from 37 countries, AFI FEST 2007 is a window onto the individuals and cultures that make up our world. Finding a single film that embraces such a large concept seems impossible, but Andrea Kreuzhage’s documentary 1000 JOURNALS, which makes its world premiere at the Festival, does just that.
The Festival has always been home to the best in international filmmaking. And this year’s includes Academy Awards® entries from many countries, including Mexico’s SILENT LIGHT, Romania’s 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS, Lebanon’s CARAMEL, Germany’s THE COUNTERFEITERS, France’s PERSEPOLIS and South Korea’s SECRET SUNSHINE.
JOURNALS follows a sociological experiment and art project by San Francisco-based artist “Someguy,” who left 1000 blank journals in public places to see what people would do with them. As people discovered the books, the journals spread over the globe and recorded the thoughts, hopes and dreams of people from Europe, Australia and even remote Alaskan villages.
In the film, Kreuzhage finds that the Journals Project creates a culture of its own, as people set up Web sites to track the books’ progress, expectantly await the journals’ arrival in the mail, and experience—sometimes unexpectedly—the manners and customs of all kinds of people.
“The 1000 Journals Project is an unmonitored social experiment, which relies on trust, and people’s generous, creative ‘donations’ of time, effort, and love for a global community spirit,” says Kreuzhage.
“The task is seemingly simple: Put something in this book, and pass it on. The challenge this presents fascinated me. People took the risk of collaborative black holes, of ‘their journal’ getting stuck along the way. To possess and consume wasn’t the goal; this was all about creating and sharing, and it was a chance to take part in something no single person could achieve alone.”
AFI FEST has invited “Someguy” to create and place journals in random areas at the Festival Village for anybody to pick up, write in and read. It’s a chance for filmmakers and festival goers to record their thoughts about the films, the Festival and their experiences.
In its small way, the AFI FEST Journals Project hopes to open up yet another window, one that shows how the experience of seeing a film brings us together.
- Marc Lee
I scanned the story; here's the link.
I just posted a "status update" on Facebook: "Andrea is so nervous. At 12:00 noon today the AFI is screening 1000 Journals to the press, and I'm not invited. The film is on its own! Post partum, big time." Indeed, the film is out of my hands, since Friday afternoon when I delivered the HDCAM tape to the AFI. And it feels… really not so great. In moments like these I realize how much I'm invested into this piece, how much it is a part of me. You see these poker face directors bravely facing their audience, the critics, the peers, and we all are scared shitless. If it is even fear, it is hard to describe. Failure? Indifference? My relationship to the film is perhaps best compared to parenting: responsibility, protection, absolutely hoping for the best, challenged by a sense of uncontrollability, for lack of better words. Ugh.
What makes this "uncontrollability" so emotionally difficult is that it is the opposite of how we work, as filmmakers, or as actors, writers, painters… We control and tweak the minutest detail of our work. And suddenly, we have to let go and smile. It's a tough job!
The AFI Fest film guide and box office is now online, and this is (more or less) what loads onto your screen when you click the link. The number 1000 puts us in first position! When you navigate deeper into each title, there's even a blog where people can post their opinions on each film. This is going to be interesting. Check out the festival program, it's pretty amazing. I started to fill my iCal with movie dates.
Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from John Wildman, the Director of Press and Public Relations at the AFI Fest. You've already met John in the funny little clip that Jose Guzman shot with us. John asked me if I would be up for some talk radio. Yes, of course! This morning, we met at KSPN-710 AM, to tape a segment for the show The Southern California Experience, hosted by LaFern Watkins and Desiree Vanderwal. It will air at (gasp) 5:00 AM on Sunday, October 14. Just imagine: a lonely rider listens in and remembers that journal he's stored 4 years ago in mom's garage. I'll be up at five. I want to hear him call in!
LaFern Watkins and John Wildman.
Speaking about PR… The AFI Fest's Press and Public Relations office at the AFI campus in Los Feliz. I took this picture on September 26th. In front, Filmmaker Press Liaison, Shannon Dunn. In the back a colleague, and David Magdael, our publicist, talking to John Wildman. There will be more pictures of David, I promise.
Where's the hair? The beard? The bike? Yes, it is our very own Joshua Callaghan, editor. In the background is "Imperial Walker," one of two pieces he showed at LA Louver's Rogue Wave 07 art show. I didn't recognize him, but I recognized his "Futility Poles," which fascinated us endlessly looking out of the editing room on Sycamore Ave. Josh will be at our premiere on November 4th. With or without hair.
Recent Comments