Canoofle craziness

Ahh...the horrors of Cultural Events. Suffice it to say, this has been a rough week at the Clinton - summed up by a fun, but technically nightmarish tag-team show with improv band Canoofle.

Thursday was a warm day - hot in the projection booth - but, I managed to get all the shorts cut together in good order without sweating too much. Attendance looked to be friends of the band and a handful of others....ah well. First reel went smoothly - the band dug the Woody Woodpecker cartoon and such...and then came reel #2. In short, the second reel I had prepared wasn't compatible with the projector, so I had to punt to the reserve "drug film" reel. As soon as that was loaded and running, the film decided to break, unspool and generally make my life a chaotic mess. Dripping sweat in an increasingly muggy booth, I had to handreel 30 minutes of footage as it came off the projector. UGH!

Thankfully, beer makes you forget all of this...

The perils of investigative journalism...

Ok....it would seem that folks just aren't interested in the great exposes' of the past. Despite bringing in a couple excellent investigative features - the response could be best termed as "light". I won't say how many showed up, but it was an intimate gathering.

Next stop, Canoofle.

Speaking of which, I just received a great 16mm film on Fungi that I'll be screening for the Thursday Canoofle-fest. Now I just have to slap these films together....

Clinton Street Shuffle...

So...this week is my marathon at the Clinton Street Theater. I go from making movies to showing them, it seems. Anyway....I ended up at the CST on Saturday night for the Darren Stein (director of Jawbreaker) event, which drew a small but engaged crowd. Stein was also screening his new documentary "Put the Camera On Me", an examination of his early films and the friends who helped make them. A great window into adolescence and very fun to watch. Jawbreaker was a kick as well. Like "Heathers", but even more so. Those in attendance had a great chance to talk with Darren - who was very candid at times, and put everyone at ease. He had some great stories about moviemaking craziness and looked like he was having a good time. Apparently, he used this event as an excuse to hang in Portland for the weekend...he flew back to L.A. the next day.

Last night, I cued up Trailermania 2 to a crowd just slightly larger than what Darren got. Aside from the usual technical/projector jitters, things got going without a hitch and the audience was humming along - laughing and hooting at the occasional hyperbole or cheesy bit of dialogue. As the second reel got spinning, I had a splice break - and film started unspooling all over the projector room floor. Thankfully, I was still rewinding the first reel, so I was there when it happened, and managed to rescue the reel. The only other hangup came during the second show - when the sound dropped out of phase during the Magnificent Seven. Thankfully, Seth showed me a quick projector fix - the "reboot" button - which saved the rest of the first reel. Ahh....the joys of analog technology.

Tonight is the Investigative Journalism show - which I hope gets a decent showing. Both features are largely out of the public eye - and merit a viewing by anyone interested in corporate greed and public policy on the enviroment. "The Killing Ground" was even nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar in 1980 - the only investigative television production to me recognized as such. Anyway...the material is solid....we'll just see how it goes.

Black Panther Party

I love it when the CST hosts events like this...

We had a little bit of radical history grace our halls the other day. Specifically, the arrival of several former Black Panther party members - including Elbert "Big Man" Howard - one of the six founding members of Black Panthers. It was great to hear the voices of 60s radicals with a message for today. "Now, more than ever..." as Tricky Dick used to say...

After the presentation and a couple Panther films, I talked with Howard and got the sense that he was coming out of retirement to tell people what's up.

"Bush has got to go", he said - autographing his new book and talking to those in attendance. I couldn't agree more. Now...if we could only get the next generation to step up to the mantle.

All power to the people!

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NOW PLAYING @ the CST
THE CALAMARI WRESTLER - 7pm
UP IN SMOKE - 9pm
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