"To Live and Paint in LA" aka the Graff Lab documentary is moving into its 2nd year of production. We have been documenting the public art space since July 4th, 2010 and continue to film the changing art and artists of the Graff Lab. Another goal of the film is to reflect the larger socioeconomic changes in the Pico Union district of Los Angeles, particularly with the development of an NFL stadium in downtown, joining forces with Stapes Center, Nokia Center and the Ritz Carlton. Right now my best guess for a release date for the Graff Lab documentary will be sometime in 2013. We have over 4 terabytes of footage so far so the editing process will be grueling. However, the final product will definitely be worth it. We are also planning on releasing a coffee table book of Graff Lab photographs in conjunction with a DVD with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the Graff Lab. Be sure to "like" Graff Lab on facebook. Cheers to Suzanne Wu for putting this video interview together on the Graff Lab documentary.
Silver Sierra Award
This week "Mountain Man" was recognized with a Silver Sierra Award at the 2011 Yosemite Film Festival. This is great news just a week ahead of our London premiere at the Raindance Film Festival on October 3rd. Also, because of the encouraging response to "Mountain Man," P.G. and I are considering cutting at least one more short doc from the footage that was originally shot for "Toxic Soup." The short will be about two-party politics in America, but what makes it unique is that it tells the story of the Mountain Party candidate Jesse Johnson's run for governor of West Virginia in 2008. We hope to have the film complete and ready to hit the festival circuit in 2012 just in time for the elections.
Through such efforts we hope to continue to promote "Mountain Man" as well as the larger brand of "Toxic Soup," while also encouraging people to take third party candidates more seriously.
Last weekend I met up with director Andy Lauer from Reel Aid and Dr. Koen Van Rompay from Sahaya International to work on the editing and general post-production of their short documentary. The meetings were a huge success and we made a TON of progress on the film. Although there is still some work to be done, we are very close to a final cut and a 2 minute trailer will be available even sooner.
