ice cold

Sometimes when you make stuff you feel like you're just putting it out there into some kind of black hole where it disappears forever...then you find your project on some website in Australia that deems it "cool" and you're like "what? how did you end up there?" Especially since I know no one in Australia? Except my elementary school penpal Miranda. (Miranda, is that you? She was so cool with her nose piercing before anyone in the States even knew that was a possibility! O, and another thing, Miranda? I think I still have your stamp collection you sent me when you became too cool in case you regret that decision and want those stamps back.)
 

 Normally I don't really care about external validation but it is really nice to get some positive hellos now and again that remind you that people are actually seeing (and enjoying!) the work!

Spaceport America

Another screening to announce: a special near midnight (10:45pm) showing in Albuquerque New Mexico on August 14th at Guild Cinema! After spending a month in the southwest last year (pic from outside Site Santa Fe & a New Mexican adobe fireplace sullen portrait of me, hehe) I really can't wait to go back,  it is such a beautiful place and such an oddly supportive area for the arts, and film too! In fact, when we were down there plans for a new Sundance-inspired Robert Redford produced film program was being discussed whose goal was to provide a way to foster Hispanic and Native American filmmakers in the area. The Southwest! Such a magical place! I wonder how close to the Spaceport we'll be? 

Not So Small Screens

Another screening added along the Arizona route: 8pm on April 12th in Columbia, Missouri at the RagTag Cinema! Can't wait to show the film at Rag Tag! And in a town we've never been before which, oddly, shares a name with the capital of South Carolina which Brent did a live shorts show in a few years back (here are some pics from that show) as part of the awesome Indie Grits film fest and which also contains it's own wonderful non-profit movie theater, the Nickelodeon! As a person who grew up in a place where there was one tiny arthouse movie theater a few towns away I definitely recognize the importance of places that program an alternative to the local multiplex.

These small town cinemas seriously deserve some applause for exposing audiences everywhere to something new- I can't imagine who I'd be if I hadn't seen Life Is Beautiful as a teenager in a little, dark, brick theater in a small New Jersey town. This post also reminded me of that recent NY Times article about the importance of even the older, mainstream theaters too! Despite their hesitation to show edgier films they still help foster a local community audience which is just as important- watch locally think locally? Watch locally think globally? Watch global films, locally? Either way, every small town/independent cinema is important and the chance to share our film in these venues is something I am really proud of!

the stars at night shine big & bright

The Dallas screening had an audience despite the multiple art related events occurring throughout the city! Our internet even cooperated for the q & a! With the poorest of image quality of course but still, nice work internet! One Dallas reviewer said some wonderfully nice things and I really liked the way she described the many stories that make Gravity what it is:

At the surface, "Gravity" looks like a love story; it’s about Leonard (Michael McGinley) and Mary (Donna K) and their relationship, but I balk at titling it so simply. It’s more of a life story. It’s about the sacrifice that both of them made for each other’s well being (however misguided that was), and the journey that Green and his cast and crew went on re-creating the story.

 

It definitely was a journey! One that is still ongoing as we share the film and the stories with audiences all over. Speaking of which, Bad Lit had an amazing post recently about the importance of underground cinema in keeping stories, especially marginalized ways of being, alive through marginilized means of film production. In doing so a relatable voice of multiple ways of life, and even varied images to expand our ways of seeing, can be heard. It was a really insightful read, as inspiring and motivating as underground film itself!

space, place & location

Brent constantly says that his art looks like the place he lives. At first I thought this was just a broad understatement fasioned to ward off getting into long arty conversations about inspiration and whatnot but after being surrounded by the same environment for a few years I can now strongly say that Brent's art is exactly where he lives.  While sitting in my friends outhouse, one similar to the one Brent spent his early childhood years running out to in the yard, I realized that the small wooden moon cut into the door has a striking resemblance to the Brent Green moon I have grown to love! This has happened a few other times before too- the curved tops of pine trees identical to the hellish tree limbs in his drawings, the coal mining row houses slathered in Brent Green signature reds & greens- all of these instances of him internalizing simple realities around him and turning them outward into his own intense vision of the world.  Whenever anyone points out a supposed influence it is usually just coincidence unless it happens to look be inspired by the landscape or objects of Appalachia that Brent has spent his entire life submerged in.

satellite of love

I was on the internet today and read somewhere that Brent agreed to do a q&a via videochat this week for his Dallas screening. I found this particulary interesting because our rural satellite internet does not support such new technology! It's true folks, we live in a place without broadband access (I'm sure you've heard of it on the news, politicians were even briefly concerned sometime last year!) and we even (gasp!) have a limit on how much information we can download/upload per day with the (overpriced) internet we do have! I'm pretty sure limiting the amount of virtual information I am allowed is illegal somehow being that it is an imaginary world of free-use bytes but I shouldn't complain, it still beats the dial-up internet we had when I first moved in! The only high speed internet access available at 9:30pm our time, which is when the q&a is scheduled, is at the 24hour chain donut shop! People should cc me on more of Brent's e-mails I think...

Columbus

Yes, it is (somewhat) official, the Gravity end of Summer tour is going to start at the beginning of August! The first stop is in Columbus Ohio at the Wexner Center on August 11th with a q&a following. And, according to their website, I will be on hand for the q&a. Wha? Really? Ever since Freddy in San Fransisco asked me for advice on how to propel his filmaking forward after the PFA screening, to which I think I just replied with a gaping mouth/blank stare of confusion, I have tried to stay away from any form of after film talking! Wish me luck!

O, and here is a (blown out/distorted) screen shot I just took off of my computer from the film...wading through the thousands upon thousands of film stills we have from this project to get better quality images seems like a daunting task...but I really need to. I don't even know where to start there are so many hardrives! Eek!

viewers like you

 The Dallas PBS show Thinktv interviewed the co-curator of The Program, the art film fest that Gravity will be screened at in July, about how this showcase came to be & about some of the pieces being shown! Here is a video of the segment which includes footage from the final edit of the opening of Gravity.

This also reminded me that the film was featured on another PBS show in our own Pennsylvania sometime last year during the fatal state budget crisis that took a chunk out of arts funding in our area, a common story in most places it seems. This video (the first one in the article when you scroll down) has a nicely edited overview of footage from Brent's films in addition to some rare on set (in the yard) action of the director ambling around and discussing the important role art can play in a local economy! And...support public television already! In a time where a tv show can consist of watching a girl get punched in the face it's really important to show that we're better than that!

on tour

An impromptu decision was made a few weeks ago when we decided that, on our long haul down to Phoenix for the upcoming Gravity installation this August (the whole set! is going to Arizona! including everything in this picture! except those trees! and, of course, that snow! ), we would try and schedule some screenings of the film along the route! I'll have more info soon but I am pretty sure that stops in Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma and New Mexico are being planned as part of our Gravity mini-tour! Exciting!

sampler

So, how did you spend your day? This is how I spent mine: trying out various silk screens to get a bit better before offering up some new merch! The materials we have are for the screen filler/drawing fluid (?) method which is cool but I think if I try out a photo light emulsifier method I can get some nice Brent Green-esque tiny, curvy lines going? Or film-like stills even? Maybe? Anybody? I have my queries out to my team of silk screening experts (the creative lovelies behind Peep Accesories and Drew whose screened band merch has infiltrated both mine & Brent's everyday wardrobe) so we'll see where they lead me in my Gravity inspired silk screening adventures!

the dissolve

I completely forgot to mention that Site Santa Fe's 8th International Biennial, titled The Dissolve, opened in New Mexico recently which Brent's stop motion piece Paulina Hollers is a part of! The show is composed of 30 (!) animations- when we were down there installing Brent's solo show (an odd photo of which is pictured above) awhile ago I remember the architect for the biennial flying in to discuss his ideas & plans with the museum, expertly building out the huge space to simultaneously screen all of these pieces at once. I can't imagine what seeing an entire show comprised of thousands (millions?) of, literally, moving pictures would feel like? Each at their own frame rate, each medium mildy moving along frame by frame in a different way. I  really hope we get a chance to see the results when we go to the Southwest at the end of the Summer for the Gravity show in Arizona. At least for now I can read about how awesome it is! And, even read about Brent's piece in it too!

hip, hip, hip-ster?

 A few reviews of Gravity have referred to Mike McGinley and I as hipsters. This is hilarious being that I distinctly remember explaining to Mike what a hipster is since he wasn't familiar with the term- I didn't really have a good answer except that they are young people (superficially?) interested in (a supposed counter?) culture and, perhaps, (ironically?) interested in pop culture? Eh?

Anyway...At first I got defensive leading to me asking Mike's fiancee to comment on how un-hipster-like Mike is (he plays college baseball for fun despite never having gone to college & admires/envies peoples hedges!) and she said that he has changed his mind on his position. Basically, if a hipster is a person under 40 who appreciates good food & music then yes, Mike is one! I lived in Brooklyn (that's a view from my old city roof above & below my country yard) so I think I am tainted forever, sigh...Brent though? He is a born & bred country boy and I don't think anyone could ever argue against his distinctly un-hipster-like personality!

I am interested in what makes people who see the film call us this? Even more interested in why people don't say, "They are so Louisville-ian," there is no mass idea of what a person from Louisville Kentucky (where the story takes place) is like? I can't wait for a new term describing a large part of  the population to come into style- who knows, maybe Louisville-ian will be next! Speaking of which, Brent is headed down to the Louisville area this Fall for their annual Idea Fest as part of a Creative Capital lecture (not for Lebowski-fest which I have been rallying to attend which I think makes me more of a nerd than a hipster, right?) and I think someone down there is talking about a Gravity screening to coincide with the event? Will let all you Lousville-ians know!

get with the...

For all of those in or around Dallas in the great state of Texas you will have a chance to see Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then on July 22nd at the Dallas Museum of Art! The screening is part of The Program film/art series, an offshoot of the Dallas Video Fest/Video Association of Dallas, which features a great line up of work (including The Rape of the Sabine Women by our brilliant friend Eve Sussman). I will admit I am a bit bummed that we are competing with the Hitchcock classic Rebecca at the same venue, at almost the same time but the festival fan page insists you can see both if you don't mind skipping out on the first half of Rebecca...? I mean, it's not like that's the hour that builds up all the suspense or anything...cough-cough...but at least the Hitchcok-centric film Doubletake is also playing this festival- a film I have heard so many great things about over the last month during our travels so, get your Hitchcock fix there and make it out to Gravity!

The Greatest

I've been meaning to say this for awhile so here it goes: Brendan Canty is the best. Whether he is playing drums in a legendary punk band or he is filming concert tour portraits of rock star musicians or he is doing sound at his kids school talent show he is an amazing, talented, hilarious person who we should all be more like! He plays with Brent often for his live shows (most recently the first two live shows of Gravity ever! Yay!) but he has meant so much more to this project that he deserves a proper thank you ode!

When people ask Brent how he met Brendan Brent tells a story about how he was doing a live show of his shorts in Baltimore and he asked a cellist he knows, Amy Domingues, if she would play. She said "Sure, can I bring my band?" When she arrived at the show, to Brent's surprise, Brendan Canty tumbled out of her van! From there Brendan asked Brent to tag along to some of the things he was working on at the time, namely Burn to Shine.

Burn to Shine is a series of films where a local musician in a city curates a show of bands from that city. They then play one song each in a house that is to be destroyed (whether it be condemned, or sold or being used for fireman practice) in that city. The end result is a kind of beautiful swan song of a place, sung by those who have a connection with the area, who leave a presence & remembrance that rises from the ashes. One of these houses was in Louisville, KY and is the very house that Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then is based upon.

Brent came upon Leonard Wood's story through Brendan, curated in Louisville by William Benton, which has since led to, well, a lot of stories! Brendan's support and guidance has been more than anyone could ask for from the inception, and even into the future, of Gravity...and even beyond the project as well! I can't put our thanks into words & I can't believe how lucky we are to have this awesome human being as a friend! Again: Brendan Canty is the best! Hurrah!