Los Angeles Latino Film Festival
By Kristy | August 24, 2008
Good news and more good news. As summer (which never really seemed to arrive in the Bay Area) comes to a close, we have a lot of events to announce for early Fall. First of all, we will finally be playing in California. We have waited a long time to share the film with our friends and family out here and we will be screening both in Los Angeles, at the LA Latino Film Festival, and up in the Bay Area at the SF DocFest. We will also be heading (or at least our film will be) back to New York for the South Asian International Film Festival in late October and far, far into the future at the Leeds Young People Film Festival in April!
So, first things first. We just got the date of our screening for LALIFF and here it is:
Saturday, Sept 13 at 1PM in Hollywood at the Mann Cinemas
Soon! We will both be down there for the screening and we hope to bring one of the girls. It would be great if Esmeralda could make it as she hasn’t been able to come to any events so far, but she is a busy, busy lady. Since it’s the beginning of the school year, it may just end up being us, the filmmakers.
As for the Bay Area, we will be screening both in San Francisco and Berkeley. That will be mid October. Stay tuned as we make further announcements. It seems like we sent out about a million press kits this summer. I am so sick of the post office.
And, I am getting close to wrapping up the DVD which we will be selling off of our website and for educational purchase with New Day Films. One thing I have been doing is sending the film out (more press kits!) to Librarians for review. I am interested to hear what they think as it is not a strictly educational film. We also finished the study guide which will be downloadable from the website and the DVD. Did I mention how amazing that turned out?! I was really moved how Lacey Louwagie, the author of the study guide and writer of the website: New Moon Girl Media, really got our film and how elegantly she wrote about it. I think she came up with some great discussion questions and activities. We even included a section on mixed-gender screenings.
The other thing I have been working on are the bonus scenes for the DVD. That has been a lot of fun to footage for. I am sad some of these scenes couldn’t make it to the final film. Some of what I think are our funniest scenes just didn’t make the cut. But they will be yours for viewing on the DVD should you chose to purchase one! So many ways to relive the glory of the middle school years!
So let us know who we should contact in LA for promoting our screening. And if you send me your address, I will send you a postcard.
Topics: Hollywood, Leeds Young People Film Festival, South Asian International Film Festival, SF DocFest, DVD | No Comments »
Summertime and living is easy…
By Dawn | August 15, 2008
The summer is nearing its end and I am trying to stay in the present and be grateful for all of the great things that are happening for the film and in my life.
Really, there is SO MUCH I am grateful for! For instance, I hung out recently with my friends from Patchworks Films, Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider to talk about our projects and got to meet their amazing sons, eat yummy food and walk through Golden Gate Park where the dahlias were in bloom!
This summer I have also had the opportunity to go to house sit (and Rigo was a cat sitter) at my friends Cathleen and Kevin’s in the great town of Elk on the Mendocino Coast and see the Frida Kahlo exhibit at SF MOMA (I HIGHLY recommend this show!)
I have spent much of the summer reflecting on all of the things I am grateful for, so I want to take a minute here to thank ALL of the friends and family members who have helped Kristy and I to get the film this far. This is a great experience and the film festivals are amazing. We are looking forward to the next ones! (More on that in a minute).
We really could not have done this without all of the people who have helped us. I want to especially thank my husband Andrew and our son Rigo for their encouragement, patience and support over the past 7 years and for being so helpful, enthusiastic and insightful. I also want to thank my family and Andrew’s family, especially William and Nancy Bigler for encouraging me throughout the years to pursue this ambitious goal (and for their financial support as well). I also want to thanks Rose Padilla Johnson, Daniel Johnson and my friends at Davis Street Family Resource Center.
Not only my “day job” I am so grateful for the encouragement and enthusiasm I receive everyday. I am so grateful for having such incredibly meaningful paid employment with a staff I couldn’t have done this without their love and guidance. Of course there are a number of friends that I am grateful to as well–you know who you are!! Thank you! I am so incredibly grateful and humbled by the love I receive daily.
We have been selected to distribute our film to the educational community through New Day Films. If you don’t know about New Day please take this opportunity to check out their incredible list of films. Many of my favorite documentaries and filmmakers I admire are member-owners of New Day. One of the really incredibly unique aspects to New Day is that it is a member owned company. This idea from the 60’s and 70’s was made real by a group of groundbreaking filmmakers. Tired of trying to distribute their films through the corporate maze that ended up leaching money from already struggling artists this group of mavericks decided to create a truly democratic and egalitarian institution. Many years later New Day is perhaps one of the most successful member owned business in the US. I am SO PROUD to be a member of in New Day!
We are in the process of creating our packaging and hope to have the film ready for the fall start of school. As you can imagine this is a HUGE endeavor! Kristy and Jenny (our graphic designer extraordinaire) are taking the lead on creating a unified and unique package for the film. It LOOKS GREAT!
I think we’ll try to create a special promo code for those of you who are consistent readers of our blog. So watch for it!
The other BIG news I think Kristy shared awhile back is our screening at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival. Our screening is on Friday August 22 at 8 pm. Please share the good news with your connections in the Atlanta region. Unfortunately we can’t afford to get out to Atlanta but we are hoping for a great turn out!
We also just found out that GOING ON 13 has been accepted to two California film festivals. One in LA and one in the SF Bay Area. As soon as the notification is public we’ll post it here!
Keep checking for up-dates. I have a feeling that the fall, winter and spring are going to be crazy busy!
Topics: educational outreach, artists, friends, documentaries, festivals | No Comments »
One more review I didn’t even know about…
By Kristy | July 22, 2008
It’s summer time and even though not a lot is happening right now with festivals or broadcasts or screenings, we are staying busy. We have a new postcard (thanks again Jenny), we’re hammering out the logistics of our DVD (!), and sending the film out for reviews, quotes and endorsements for educational outreach. And as always, we are fundraising, fundraising, fundraising.
So for the most part, my Google Alert in-box has been quite empty. But somehow this review slipped through the Google cracks and I found it when I was googling our film title and looking for something else. We were one of 8 films this blog reviewed at Silverdocs and even though I have never heard of it before, I love the name: Tiny Mix Tapes. My boyfriend and I have been packing and we came across the one and only mix tape he made for me during our courtship process. We both lamented the fact that their really is no replacement for the Mix Tape. A Playlist or a Mix CD is simply not the same thing. Nothing can replace the care, time and thought that was once put into a Mix Tape. And some of you out there will be so young, you won’t even know what I am talking about!
This is what they had to say and I think they summarized the film quite well:
Going on 13
Going on 13 follows four young girls for four years as they traverse life in school and at home through their difficult prepubescent years in Oakland, California. Filmmakers Kristy Guevara Flanagan and Dawn Valadez gain incredible access to the lives of these girls. They are eager to talk about themselves, play, and simply enjoy what life has to offer at age 9 but gradually find life more difficult to manage as they get older. Each of the girls has a unique family life, and their stories are fascinating, each struggling with self-image issues. One says, “I don’t like anything about myself,” when asked to describe her best trait. “I am ugly. Everyone tells me that I am ugly.” These heartbreaking words are common to many young girls, and it’s both compelling and disturbing to watch it on film. As the girls enter puberty, questions about sex, boys, and even marriage rise to the surface in often amusing, yet genuine ways. Isha, who comes from a traditional Indian family, is already concerned at the age of 13 about whether she will be allowed to choose her own husband. The film tackles issues of race, gender, cultural diversity, a problematic public education system, post-traumatic stress disorder, and divorce; but, in reality, this is a story about four ethnically diverse young women, who, like all of us, have unique obstacles and opportunities through which they must maneuver during this formative time in their lives.—Magritte
Here is the rest of the article. And well, it’s just cool. I particularly like the line about gaining incredible access. That one may have to go onto the quote page!
I never know how reviewers are watching the film, whether they see it with an audience at one of our screenings or are watching it in a stuffy press room on a laptop with headphones. But I am always impressed when they seem to take the time to watch the whole thing and then come up with something thoughtful and moving to say!
Thank you. For the most part the reviews have all been kind.
Topics: DVD, educational outreach, reviews | No Comments »
“It’s title may sound definitive, but AMERICAN TEEN is not the only doc about American teens on the festival circuit.”
By Kristy | July 9, 2008
Check out this really cool review comparing our film alongside American Teen, and Hard Times at Douglas High. Guess who “touches more often and more deeply than these other two films, so if it stops short of offering a Grand Statement about The Way Kids Live Now, that seems okay––as a portrait of the inner lives of teen girls in a single community, its most complete” ??
Thank you Karina Longworth whomever you are, for having such deep insights into our film (the jab about our animation not included!) This is one of my favorite reviews, because American Teen has really been a festival favorite and a film that we suspect we are often seen as being in competition against. But this review really sheds light on the fact that they are completely different stories and films.
And if you happen to be in Seoul, Korea next week our film will be playing at the Cinus Movie Theatre as part of the 10th Seoul International Youth Film Festival in the “It’s OK To Be Different” Feature Documentary section. We wish we could be there!
Topics: SILVERDOCS, reviews, documentaries, festivals | 1 Comment »
Support your local artists
By Kristy | July 3, 2008
Well we are back home are rested and cleaned and no longer having to share one hotel room! Not that we would mind doing it all over again. Festivals are fun and I actually clocked in more films at SILVERDOCS than at any of the others we have attended. We recently found out our film was selected to screen at the Atlanta Underground Film Festival, August 20 - 24, 2008 in Atlanta, GA. So whoo-hoo to us! A formal announcement to come as the event nears for those of you in the area or with friends, family or colleagues in the area. And we have many, many pending applications out there.
I want to take a moment here and thank a couple behind-the-scenes folks who are still working hard to keep us looking good. First of all, since we are on our website we have to thank J Bradley Johnson, our web and flash guy extraordinaire. Brad is so nice to keep updating and maintaining our website way beyond the call of duty. Plus he is an awesome comic book artist and illustrator to boot. Support your local artists by hiring them!
Also I’d like to thank Jenny DuPont who keeps us knee-deep in postcards, stickers, stationary, labels and posters. Another artist–this time a painter and printmaker–Jenny came to us late in the game, but, as you can see, she totally gets our home-spun, handmade, whimsical style. Jenny, everyone loves your posters! All those late-night phone calls going over 8 point fonts, logos and laurels have paid off!
There are so many more people that have helped us out and continue to bail us out! The list is long and I am gonna try to remember during the down time to recognize a few of them here.
Thank you and good night.
Topics: Atlanta, artists, SILVERDOCS, reviews, friends, festivals | No Comments »
SilverDocs and the Zoo!
By Dawn | June 28, 2008
When Kristy and I heard that we got into SilverDocs we cried. No I mean it. Ok, maybe I was the the one who cried, Kristy said, NO WAY. I think even with the success of the film we are still THRILLED and surprised when GREAT and COOL festivals accept our film. We really wanted to be in the Washington DC region because we KNEW that we’d have a great audience there. And we did!
Thanks to all of the great groups and people that came out to see the film. We had girls and staff from Girls Inc of the Greater Washington DC region, Big Brothers, Big Sisters (Big Sisters and Little Sisters came!! and talked with us afterwards). We met a cool film maker Lydia Douglas. She made a film called “NAPPY” a few years ago. She was super supportive of our film and really “got” it! We had a few professors from the local universities and lots of teachers. The audiences were great and had wonderful questions. I wish we could have talked with the audiences more!
The SilverDocs crew were awesome!
Thanks to everyone at SilverDocs! Especially Sky, Sarah, and the theater house manager (sorry! I forgot her name!).
The two days that our film screened were great. In between Kristy, Ariana, Rigo (my 12 year old son) and I really did a good job of seeing the sights. We were there for 3 days (Kristy for 4) and packed in a lot!
The two hour memorial walk ended up being 4 hours and as Kristy says I probably was the one who loved it the most. I love history! I love knowing about what happened when and where. I know that monuments represent a specific version of the history of the battles we have fought and all wars have multiple realities. I have no illusion of the U.S. as the great savior of the world. In fact, I was pleased to hear Rigo ask at the Korean and Vietnam memorials, “How many Koreans, Vietnamese, Chinese and others died? Why do we only document the people from the U.S.? This is sad. We need to remember everyone.” These, of course, are the questions we must ALL ask during any war. We are citizens of the world not one nation, not one country. For war to end we have to see ourselves as part of our true global community. I was proud of Rigo for asking that even if he was rude and read his book the whole time he was on the walk! 12 year olds are FUN to travel with and I know his public display of disinterest is really his way of protecting himself from his un-cool, history loving mom! I can’t believe I am on this side of the child-parent equation. I thought only MY PARENTS were un-cool! How and when did this happen?!
Silver Spring is a sweet suburb of the greater Washington DC region. I enjoyed being there and we hung out at the mall along with HUNDREDS of other people. It was warm, there were kids playing in the beautiful fountain, teens checking each other out (I had to keep a close watch for Ariana, she is beautiful and many of the young men wanted to talk with her–yet another way I made myself in the un-cool auntie. Harolina you would have been proud of both Ariana and myself!) and lots of families enjoying the summer. Ariana and I both felt the outdoor mall reminded us of Emeryville Bay Mall but with three times the people (and hopefully no shell mounds!). It was fun and made me feel like summer was really here.
On our last day Rigo and I got up early. We were determined to go to the Smithsonian! There are so many to choose from it was tough. Before we left we TRIED to get Kristy and Ariana to wake up and go with us but they both said NO WAY! Originally we had decided to go to the Space and Air Museum, perhaps that’s why K and A didn’t want to go. But once we were on the metro (I LOVE THE METRO!) and looking at our options the ZOO was the obvious best choice. GIANT PANDAS! and the 2 year old baby panda. We saw a lot of the zoo, got very hot and tired and still made it back in time for the screening.
After the screening we were all tired! We wanted one last great meal and decided to go back to Ceviche a really nice tapas place on the mall. You have to try the Lomo Saltado (Latino-fusion food, this is a Peruvian dish!) YUM! and the Ceviche camerones YUM, YUM! It was a good thing we had this meal too because our flight was delayed. After dropping Kristy and Ariana off, Rigo and I made it home at 4:25 am. YES, in the morning. Rigo did not make it to his music class at 8:10 am.
We’ll keep you posted for the NEXT big screening and event. Thanks for all of your support and love. B-T-W all of my photos are from my iPhone. They are a little fuzzy because of that but basically ok.
Topics: DC, sleep deprived!, SILVERDOCS, youth, food!, festivals | No Comments »
SILVERDOCS Round-Up Before Our Screenings
By Kristy | June 21, 2008
I have had a chance to see a few films, visit with a few friends, meet filmmakers from all over, and get to know downtown Silver Spring, Maryland. Which seems like a very new, somewhat mall-ish community, that is both incredibly well-planned and surprisingly and refreshingly diverse. Yesterday we took Ariana and Rigo (Dawn’s son) on the DC Walking Tour of the Washington Monuments. We were all excited to see the fireflies (!) come out at dusk…something we don’t get to see in California…and we were also excited to see the national monuments.
Ok, maybe Dawn was the only one super excited to see those, but it was pretty cool to stand where Martin Luther King Jr. stood and delivered his “I have a dream” speech on the ‘63 Civil Rights March on Washington, DC.
I also got a chance to see the Douglas High Marching Band, as featured in the Raymonds’ film–coming soon to HBO–Hard Times at Douglas High…
–and I got to see the World Premiere of The Garden–a truly great film about the aboslutely outrageous demolition of the South Central Urban Garden by the city of Los Angeles. You go Scott Hamilton Kennedy! I loved it and it made me cry a few times over!
Finally, I read an interesting article today in the Washington Post about the last day of 5th grade and all that it means emotionally, psychologically and practically to graduate from elementary school in our public school system. The article, “On and Up, With a Longing Look Back,” reminded me once again about some of the reasons we made Going on 13, and some of the experiences we had as we followed our girls from fourth to seventh grade. I suddenly remembered how poignant the 5th grade promotion (yes, they do not call it a graduation) ceremony seemed–no longer in the film, but which will definitely be on the DVD extras; how dramatic the last day of school was: saying goodbye to their teacher, their elementary school, their classroom, on the brink of something unfamiliar, scary and puzzling; how viscious the rumors about middle school seemed and how inevitable that everything was going to suddenly and uncontrollably change overnight. And indeed, kids returned after that summer to middle school with schedules, and lockers, no more recess, and many of them–mostly the girls–well on their way to adolescence, the others left behind in the dust.Even as an adult I have always felt that pang of sadness at the end of the school year. Remembering how sentimental I always felt as a student, leaving what I had survived and conquered behind to enter a wide-open abyss of unknowables. As a teacher, watching the students I had come to know move on without me, only to have their memory of me completely erased by the long string of teachers to follow. The article captured the essence of all this quite well and just reminded me of how we were once very much in touch with these same emotions for the girls in our film. And how once upon an even longer time ago, I was going through the same exact thing.
Topics: DC, leaving elementary school, SILVERDOCS, friends, documentaries, festivals | 1 Comment »
The weather in DC is 60 degrees and rising…
By Kristy | June 19, 2008
So I arrived to SILVERDOCS a day ahead of the gang to check out the scene and hit the ground running. I’ve just gotten in from a four and half hour red eye flight–which is about three hours too short–only to realize my room reservation for the morning was canceled because I wasn’t spending the night! So here I am typing away in the hotel lobby, feeling very bleary eyed and scrappy. But we make the best of things. Ticket sales for our weekend screenings look really good and I have a ton of posters to give out. Only thing is I have no place to put them! What did happen is that we ran outta postcards and it was my brilliant idea to save money and not print out anymore. Oh well. Maybe I can do some creative origami on the posters and hand that out instead.
Not much to report as of yet. I hope to see Scott Hamilton Kennedy’s The Garden today and meet up with other filmmakers. I did want to mention that Dawn and I recently had an interesting chat with journalist and blogger, Melissa Silverstein of www.womenandhollywood.com for her article, “Doc Film Makers Keep Women’s Issues on the Agenda, posted at the Women’s Media Center. While we didn’t make it into the article, she does mention our film and it makes for some interesting reading.
So lemme get back to you all. Wish us luck! And let’s hope I get some nap time in later today.
Topics: sleep deprived!, DC, SILVERDOCS, festivals | No Comments »
And counting…!
By Kristy | June 17, 2008
Check out this guest blog I wrote on the Washington Area Women’s Foundation website. Its basically a retooling of our Directors’ Statement, but a bit more in-depth. It’s so hard to write about the film now that it’s done. I tore my hair out writing it and then realized it was pretty similar to what we already had!
We are T minus 2 days to departure to the East Coast and trying to connect with all the DC organizations we can for our weekend screenings. Know anyone out there? Let us know!!
Other than that we are running around trying to get ready. Printing, emails, phone calls, packing, laundry and I really wanted to get my nails done, but I think that’s got to be a low priority. The packing is especially important as we need to basically pack an entire office and I am not even sure if my laptop–which suddenly decided to start failing–is going to be ready. We need to print out press-kits and postcards, stickers with the screening dates and bring copies of the film and I don’t even know what else. I sure am glad Dawn got that iPhone as it really came in handy last time we traveled.
Well, wish us luck. We’ll actually have more time once we land to catch up. And I sure am looking forward to seeing more films this time around. I hear there are a lot of doculinkers with films screening and I hope to catch them all.
Topics: DC, SILVERDOCS, festivals | No Comments »
SILVERDOCS here we come!
By Kristy | June 8, 2008
OK. We are applying to a bazillion festivals–many of them abroad–and just found out we got accepted to the 10th Seoul International Youth Film Festival this July! Too bad we don’t get to go! WE can’t wait to hear more about it and the competition. But for now, it means I have to transcribe the entirety of the shortened version of our film and send it to them. Yuck! What a way to spend a Sunday!
We are super excited about our upcoming trip to SILVERDOCS in DC. Ariana will be coming with us, and we are only going to be there a few days, but we have two great screenings and a few friends who will be there as well.
Here is the official announcement that we are sending out this week:
For Tickets And Information Visit
www.silverdocs.com/festival/films/2008/going-13/
Click here to forward this email to a friend
Topics: International Seoul Youth Festival, SILVERDOCS, abroad, friends, festivals | No Comments »