film festival – LaDonnaWitmer

The Bear & Pony Show

mood: hanging in | drinking: some kind of Snapple tea

bear_pony_show

It’s about time for another film festival, wouldn’t you say? Been awhile.

This year, the Berkeley Video & Film Festival is screening our “Homeland Security” cinépoem, which features the lovely Alexis Woods and Carly Putnam. And their respective Bear and Pony alter egos.

I believe my cinépoem partner in crime Michelle Brown and I may be collecting some sort of shiny award, too.

So if you’re in the Norcal area and want to see some indie films lighting up the big screen, join us at the Landmark Cinemas on Shattuck Avenue in Berkeley this Friday night. Screenings start at 7:30 and “Homeland Security” should be shining through around 8pm.

Peace out.

-Lo, who needs to get her bangs trimmed before the big night.

A post-event update:
Michelle and I are happy to announce that, for the 4th year in a row, we brought home a Grand Festival Award in the Arts category for our little cinépoem. Huzzah!

Gooooold!

goldmedal
Mood: Buzzing
Drinking: Tea with melty ice

The Berkeley Film Fest is always a treat. Mel Vapour and crew are always incredibly kind, and this year was no exception.

This year they gave us gold medals. One for me, one for my cinepoetry partner Michelle. That’s my shiny piece on the right.

Award winning is always fun, especially when followed by a giant cheeseburger.

So after collecting our medals and watching the elderly people in the audience freak out a little during the bloody screening of Abattoir (when seen on a huge screen, it does look a bit more violent than it does on a wee web window), Shel and I and a bunch of our pals headed over to Nation’s for some giant burgers and, in some cases, pecan pie.

Nothing like following up a gross-out fest like Abattoir with some red meat.

Anyway, a big fuzzy thanks to all of you who showed up on Friday night for the festivities, and to all of you who couldn’t be there in the flesh, but sent your well-wishes.

And an even bigger thanks to the Berkeley Film Fest folks, my fabulous cinepoetry partner Michelle, and all of you who volunteered to get blood-spattered for free. You know who you are.

-Lo, feelin’ the lurve.

Festivus for the Rest of Us

berkeley08
Mood: Yup
Drinking: Yip

This weekend, the loverly berg of Berkeley plays host to the annual Berkeley Film and Video Festival.

One of our fine cinepoems, Abattoir, has been selected to play on the silver screen this year. It has also, for the 3rd year in a row, earned us a shiny trophy.

And by us, of course, I mean my partner in cinepoetry, Michelle Brown. The pair of us will make the trek across the Bay Bridge this Friday evening to collect our winnings and watch our bloody work freak everyone out, man.

You can come to, oh random blog reader, if you find yourself in or around the Bay Area. The film fest is playing at the Landmark Shattuck Cinema in downtown Berkeley. Tickets are $13. Abattoir shows up on the big screen at 7:55pm on Friday. Get all the details here.

And you can see the Abattoir trailer here. Yes. We have a trailer. Aren’t we snazzy?
Huzzah.

-Lo, who never gets tired of collecting shiny gold prizes.

Masterminding It

invitation Mood: All Business
Drinking: All Water

I found out yesterday that I and my cinépoetry partner, Michelle Brown, have been named finalists for the 2008 Masterminds competition.

The program is sponsored by SF Weekly, and promotes local San Francisco artists. There are 14 finalists, and 4 winners will be chosen to receive a $2,500 grant. We are crossing our fingers that our cinépoems win!

Everything we’ve done so far, cinépoetry-wise, has been without any budget to speak of, so imagine what we could do if we had some money to work with! I’m getting stars in my eyes just thinking about it…

Check out all the fabulous Masterminds finalists here, and come to Artopia on March 27th (at Mojito in North Beach) to get yourself a drink, check out all the art and cheer Michelle and I on.

As if that weren’t enough to get the party started, we also have cinépoems screening at the Sacramento International Film Festival!

If you’re in northern California, stop by and check out some great new work. The festival runs from March 29 to April 6, and our collection of cinépoems (titled “Slippery Shiny Feathery Things”) is screening at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 4, at 24th Street Theater in Sacramento.

Whew! I’m all worn out from all the excitment.

-Lo, with visions of Big Top cinépoetry in her head.

This, That and the Other

seventy6
Mood: Spaced
Drinking: Tea

Wicker Kid is writing again. I couldn’t be more delighted. Go read his latest, and you’ll be delighted too.

The Swell Season is in town, and Boy and I and a bunch of our friends are going to go see Glen and Marketa in person tonight. I’m tingling with anticipation. I expect it to be beautiful. After Once, how could it not!?

This weekend, in addition to being a birthday weekend for yours truly, is also Poppy Jasper Film Festival weekend down in Morgan Hill, CA.

Slippery Shiny Feathery Things, the same cinepoem collection that won the Best of Festival Arts award at Berkeley, is screening at Poppy Jasper on November 10 at 9pm and November 11 at 3pm.

Check the schedule if you’re in the area and want to stop by the festival for some big screen action.

That’s all for now, but it’s quite enough to keep you busy, yes?

-Lo, who’s ready for some fresh ink.

Adjusting to the Afterglow

berkeleyaward
Mood: Reluctant
Drinking: Tea

So there you have it, internet. Michelle and I and our pretty shiny thing.

The Berkeley Film & Video Festival this past weekend was lovely. It was downtown this year at the California Landmark Theatre, and there was a nice big crowd for opening night. Probably because that’s when the awards were being passed around, and everybody does love to add a shiny something to their shelf.

Our cinépoem collection was screened Friday night, after a short film about the beauty of man boobs. Tough act to follow.

It’s always more than a little astonishing to see your work glowing up there on a really really big screen. Especially when you’re looking at your own head magnified to the size of a small VW bus.

As I said during my hasty little acceptance speech, I really do feel like an imposter at these film festivals. I’m not a filmmaker. I’m a dabbler. I borrow the medium to give my poems a bigger voice, but I am not fooled into thinking of myself as a real live filmmaker. Even though that’s what my festival badge said.

The Berkeley Festival dudes, Mel and Paul, have always been extremely kind to our cinepoems, though. This was our 3rd year as part of the festival, and we’ve won an award every year. I’m very grateful for the inclusion.

But it’s Monday now, and time to hang the shiny thing up on the wall and get back to work. Shel and I are recording voiceovers tonight for the next cinepoem, Apres un Reve, as well as the next two after that, which are most likely going to be Matchstick Girl and Yellow. We’ll see how it goes.

-Lo, who has not yet memorized her lines.

The Amazing Amazon

Mood: Uppers
Drinking: Green Tea

Nothin’ but good news over here, folks.

Amazon.com now carries our little book, The Secrets of Falling. You can find it quite easily just by searching Amazon for the title of the book, or by entering my name or Kathy Azada’s name.

This is exciting not only because of the huge potential market of people we can now reach but also because, well, you just feel like a “real” writer when you see your book all shiny on the Amazon screen. Tingly feelings, that’s what I’m having.

So please, tell all your friends, neighbors, and distant relations – hell, you can tell the checkout chick at the grocery store, too. Tell them to put Secrets in their shopping cart, on their wishlist, on their list of Christmas presents.

If you already have the book and you feel all fuzzy about it, feel free to write us a little review on Amazon and tell perfect strangers that they should read it, too.

While we’re on the subject of online shopping, just a short click away from Amazon is the lovely Etsy.com, a site chock full of crafty goodness. It’s also another new online host, not only for Secrets, but also for my first book, Shedding the Angel Skin, as well as the new limited-edition chapbook, She is a Death Star.

Even better, you can now purchase fine photographic prints from our book at the This Blank Page shop on Etsy. This is the first time we’ve been able to make the prints available online. Before this, the only place to buy them was at our book release party or the recent Old Enough to Buy Art show.

But now, even if you live way up in Grand Rapids, Michigan (Hi EO! Hi Jillie!), you can order your favorite art print for yourself or somebody special.

Right now there are 16 prints available, in sizes of either 8×10″ or 16×20″. We’ll be adding more over the next few weeks, and soon all 35 prints that were featured at our book release party will be available for purchase at our Etsy site.

So. Next time you feel the urge to shop, poke your head in at Amazon or Etsy and say hi.

And don’t forget, if you’re in the Bay Area, the Berkeley Film Festival starts tomorrow, and our award-winning cinepoem collection “Slippery Shiny Feathery Things” screens tomorrow night at 8:55 p.m. at the Landmark California Theatre in Berkeley. See you there!

-Lo, who is learning how to run.

Slippery Shiny Feathery Things

filmfestival1 Mood: Accomplished
Drinking: Absolutely

For the second year in a row, my cinepoem partner Michelle Brown and I have been invited to the Berkeley Video & Film Festival.

As one of the 2007 official festival selections, our cinepoem entry, titled Slippery Shiny Feathery Things, is being screened next Friday night, October 5th.

If you want to attend the festival, it runs October 5-7 at the Landmark California Theatre at 2113 Kittredge Street in downtown Berkeley. You’ll find the screening schedule here and can get tickets in advance from the East Bay Media Center or during the festival at the theatre box office.

Michelle and I are also extremely proud to announce that we have a shiny new accolade to add to our modest collection: The 2007 Grand Festival Award for Arts. We’ll be giving awkward, hasty speeches and collecting our award at the film fest next weekend.

The only place you can see Slippery Shiny Feathery Things is at a film festival. (It will be screening in November at the Poppy Jasper Film Festival, as well.) Once we complete our next big (BIG) project, however, you’ll be able to see all of our cinepoems, including all film festival entries, on DVD. But I wouldn’t hold your breath because that’s going to take awhile!

Until then, come on out to the theatre or eat some popcorn while you watch cinepoems online. It’s almost the same…

-Lo, who confesses a ferret-like affection for shiny objects.

Date of Birth

Mood: Preoccupied
Drinking: In-between drinks

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to outgrow birthdays. I blame it on my Dad. When I was growing up, he was always the first to get excited about his own birthday, even singing “Happy Birthday to Me” weeks before the big day.

I think it’s genetic. I do the same thing. When I called my Mom last week the day before my birthday and sang the birthday song to myself, I could hear her eyes rolling. “You’re as bad as your father,” she said.

But I can’t help it. There’s just something magical about my birthday, no matter how high the numbers go. You just walk the whole day with a kind of glow about you, passing strangers with a smile, half expecting them to know what day it is and to stop and offer their well wishes.

So even when the number is 73, my birthday will probably still be a big day for me. The day that’s all about me, unapologetically, all day long. This year, that day was last Friday, and I made the most of it, even dragging it out into the weekend. (I called it my birthday weekend.)

My friends didn’t disappoint. They lined up with long-distance phone calls, an extended lunch-hour shopping spree, completely unnecessary but totally appreciated gifts, and even an ear-splitting Christina Aguilera-like rendition of the birthday song, courtesy of my adorable sister.

Of course, the “birthday weekend” was made even better by the addition of a film festival, complete with a Best Female Filmmaker award that was appropriately shiny and now sits in my dining room awaiting a good polishing.

So here’s to all my friends and family, who put up with my annual birthday antics. And to Boy, who never fails to weather the event with good humor, and this year went so far as to bake me a homemade ginger cake that was quite possibly the best thing I’ve tasted all year long. Heart shapes to all of you.

-Lo, who now turns her attention to the stockpile of supplies for the upcoming European adventure. Maps? Check! Guidebooks? Check! Outlet adapter thingie? Check! Supercute Red Hat for Parisian Cafe Outing? Check!

Hi, Ho, It’s Off to Work We Go…

Mood: Nose to the Grindstone
Drinking: Watery Tea

The weekend was exactly what I needed. A nap, a stroll with the Loo, a bit of bowling with the boys, a bowl of chili with some friends, and I’m back!

This week promises to be busy and then some. K and I moved our Chapter Two review to the weekdays, so that’s coming up. I have a never-ending list of writing projects to complete, all with various looming due dates. And then there’s the Poppy Jasper Film Festival this weekend, featuring heaping spoonfuls of “art in 30 minutes or less.”

If you live in the Bay Area, check out the Film Screening Schedule and stop by Morgan Hill to check out some short films. Our cinepoem project, “The Way She Walks”, will be screening on Friday, November 10, at 5 p.m. and Saturday, November 11 at 7 and 11 p.m. Michelle and I will be there on Saturday for both showings, doing some question and answer stuff. We’re skipping the Friday screening, though, because November 10 is the day everybody gets to celebrate me with cake and candles and assorted pointy hats.

We’ll be at the film festival on Sunday, as well, to pick up our “Best Female Filmmaker” Award. Good stuff, that is.

So I’d best quit writing about it and get to work. Happy Monday to you, Internet.

-Lo, who, as a rule, is not on friendly terms with Monday, but will sometimes make an exception.