Friday, November 25, 2016

Rough Cut Retreat

When you google something and nothing comes up, does it exist? Apparently not.


This Summer I toiled over a secret new True/False initiative: Rough Cut Retreat. Catapult Film Fund, a grant organization based in the Bay Area that supports documentary storytellers in the inception stage of a project, teamed up with T/F to produce a four day retreat high in the hills of Calistoga California. Think Mediterranean climates, monstrous jack rabbits, blankets of hummingbirds, a chilled screening room and tons of talent, all poolside with a Summer Camp vibe.

Five documentary film projects, at or nearing rough cut stage, mustered up the courage to share with us their new, beautiful and wildly different endeavors. From enigmatic dream poems beating within the heart of Istanbul, to intimate portraits of African Americans coming of age, the projects all hummed with vibrancy and potential: the room felt downright electric.


An instant community was born up on that hill as conversations filled the arid air. Dialogue began in a group discussion following each screening but quickly spilled out onto the landscape; in the pool, on a hike, over meals and, hopefully, beyond. Both True/False and Catapult did what I think they do best: foster community, create discourse, and promote vital projects for and about this strange and beautiful world. I don't know the future of Rough Cut Retreat but I do know that this experience was infused with a caring artistic integrity that reminded me of why I choose to do this work. As we roll into Winter and the fostered projects begin to find premiers it is only making me more proud to have helped produce this clandestine event.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Hi, How Are You?

A brief moment of reprieve from the tropical sludge that is the Summer air of Missouri. And by reprieve I mean a moment to catch my breath. A big old air conditioned inhale. I'm still out here in Columbia MO where I've continued to work for the True/False Film Fest! Branching out to their annual Summer Boone Dawdle (a bike ride along a surprise/music filled trail ending at a dinner, concert and outdoor film screening! This year it is the Ross Bros' Contemporary Color! More on that later!), working some Box Office shifts at T/Fs' sister cinema Ragtag and also working on a new, top secret project that's about to drop this weekend (bites fingernails, gets a haircut, tries to pack 12 pair of shoes for 4 day trip). More to come soon on the beauty and power of indie film but, for now: San Fransisco here I come!

Monday, April 18, 2016

H2N Tribeca Review: All this Panic

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Film Fest Coverage for H2N: Sundance premier, The Lovers and the Despot

"What we know about North Korea is only what North Korea wants us to know. The mysterious nation feeds the world images and legends that at times feel absurd and others absolutely terrifying. It is a self perpetuating image machine whose thin facades are methodically being cracked away at, mainly through the realm of documentary film." 

 Click here for full review on Hammer to Nail