The submissions keep rolling in for the Josiah Youth Media Festival. With a postmark deadline of Monday, June 1st, we received most of the local videos Tuesday. Today (Wednesday) we got submissions from Dallas, Houston, Austin, and one from Albuquerque. Tomorrow we should get some from further afield. Some stragglers Friday and Saturday. And our international submissions (well, there’s one that I know of) maybe not until next week.
We currently stand at 84 submitted short films. It’s not inconceivable that we’ll break 100 this year.
This is year three for JYMF. Our first year, if I recall correctly, we received 90 or so submissions. And over 40 came from the Film School at Harlandale, representing two years of hard work from the talented students under the guidance of George Ozuna. So, Ozuna’s kids stacked the deck back in 2007. And because young filmmakers aren’t allowed to resubmit their work, we received a smaller number from Harlandale for 2008. I forget what the final number of total submissions were, but it was less than 2007. But it looks like this year we’ve managed to push our out-reach so as to over-come the 2007 Ozuna effect.
Early this evening I checked my email. I had mail. And it was from Humanities Texas. I’d applied for one of their mini grants to help with the funding of the Saturday student workshops for the Josiah Fest. The mini grants top off at 1,500 bucks. We didn’t get the full requested amount. This is far from uncommon in the granting world. And, dammit, it can be rather frustrating. Not because the funds aren’t as much as you’d like (because, you know, they could have given you nothing), but because this can send ripples throughout your paperwork. In this case, it wasn’t so bad. All I have to do is send in a couple of forms. Budget adjustment and such.
Even though JYMF isn’t a personal creative project of mine, it is a film festival of which I’m the project manager. And it was me who generated the granting paperwork. So, in a tangential way of speaking, I just got my second grant. (My first grant was even more tangential.) (And in another parenthetical I should point out that I (and I mean “we”) would never have gotten this grant were it not for all the decades of hard fucking work the Cisneros put into URBAN-15. But, still, I want to claim a tiny little slice of this success.)
Pretty cool! URBAN-15 is kicking ass!
And Eric Lupfer and Humanities Texas — well, you guys just rock!!
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I was checking Twitter today and saw mention from Sam Lerma that he would be sending a live video stream of the San Antonio Film Festival’s press conference. I’m dismissive of these live streams. Usually I’m too busy to tune. However, if I remember later, I do go back and click on the link and usually it’s archived. And then I watch it.
Anyway, today I decided to give Dar Miller a call and see what was going on with her film festival, SAL (San Antonio Local Film Festival). When she answered, she asked if I was watching Sam’s live feed. As we chatted, I opened the browser on my laptop and clicked over.
There was Adam Rocha, film teacher at Jefferson High School’s Mustang Cinema department. He’s been running this festive for, what, 14 years? It’s currently on it’s third name change. You might remember it as the San Antonio Underground Film Festival. This will be the second year it’s the San Antonio Film Festival. It’s an integral part of the San Antonio cultural landscape. Sitting behind a row of tables were several people other than Adam. There was the glamourous and ever-camera ready Gabriela Franco-Palafox. She’s the director of the Instituto Cultural de Mexico. This is that great gallery space in the HemisFair. They provide incredible international art shows and film series. Ms. Franco-Palafox also has been kind enough to host the San Antonio Film Festival as well as the film component of the 2009 Luminaria Arts Night. Also on the panel was San Antonio filmmaker extraordinaire, AJ Garces. To be honest, I wasn’t listening to the press conference. But I hope he was there because his amazing short film, Death Rattle, will be in the festival — and it’d better win some sort of prize, dammit. A couple of men on the panel I did not recognize. Dar said they were Mexican directors whose works would be screening later this month at the festival. I’m thinking I really need to see if Sam archived this video stream.
Okay. I just looked it up. Sam comes through! Now everyone can suffer through all the 39 turgid minutes of history in the making.
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/1600926
First, let me get this important bit of info out of the way. The San Antonio Film Festival runs June 25 -28. Get more info on their website: http://www.safilm.com/ and please come out and see some great stuff. I know I’ll be there.
But, PSA out of the way, I have to come clean and admit I was only paying the vaguest attention to the press conference (I mean, I’m happy Adam is getting the press, but I already know I’m attending the festival). Mainly I was calling up Dar to get the inside skinny on this promotional concept she has planned for the SAL Film Festival. I’d mentioned it previously. It goes something like this: You’re a filmmaker, right, and there must be a film which has had significant impact on your work, yeah? Make a short film, taking this into account. Homage, pastiche, documentary, confessional, antagonistic inversion, whatever.
Look for updates on the SAL site: http://salfilmfest.com/
I’m still thinking of entering into this promotional showcase. In a previous blog I mentioned I might like to deconstruct The Third Man into a San Antonio specific short film. And I still see that as a possibility. I have also reconsidered a sort of Mercury Players radio show device where I find a retro home to use as a set. Old ’30s console radio. Depression family sitting around listening to the radio. They become increasingly agitated because the show they think is the news, is actually a play, a la Well’s War of the World. I thought it might be fun to do a comedy like Harvey. Maybe corny horror like Frankenstein of Dracula.
Does anyone who reads this blog have access to a parlor or a living room which is all early 20th century. A large period console radio preferred, but I might be able to find one to bring in as a prop (next question — who has an old console radio?). I need this location (and radio prop) for a half day shoot. Five hours max — to light and shoot.
If you know of a lead, shoot me an email at erikbosse@mac,com or call me on my cell at 210-482-0273.