archives

im really excited to meet Julie Taymor tomorrow... she is in LA from NY for pre-production on her next feature. i've only spoken to her by phone and by mail, so im really looking forward to meeting her in person and hope i dont make too much of a fool of myself (like i did when she called me). i watched FRIDA yesterday, as I hadn't seen it yet. i thought it was very beautiful, though i find films about artist's lives problematic- i don't know why, maybe all artists are cliches to some degree. or maybe i just see them that way. personally, i have a hard time even using the word 'art'- it just has too many high-brow connotations... though i do find myself using it more and more frequently of late, for lack of another word- it's just hard to raise money for a project like this without compromising a few linguistic principles. im also making use of this Blog, another word i dislike, though for completely different reasons.

Got back two days ago. Worked through the jet lag trying to catch up. With Sean's help, we finally managed to get everyone's name up on the site... thanks everyone for your patience. We have passed 1500 Producers and are already nearing 1600- there were so many names that the Producer Page was crashing so we had to split it up and give the Associate Producers their own page...

Also came home to a new $500 Executive Producer by the name of Cinespire Entertainment, LLC, c/o Shannon Factor, who sent us a check. Much thanks to Shannon- we are hoping to raise enough money to get a new SONY HDV camera...one of our next goals- so that the entire 'making of' documentary doesn't look like a 1 chop mini DV.

I think everyone is just exhausted after a week of non-stop parties and hustling. Everyone here is doing the same thing as us- hustling a film project or themselves- it's all just to different degrees of scale. I sold a few more credits but didn't really feel like talking anymore- I get the sense that everyone is ready to go back to their lives. Spend most of the day writing and then walk back to my flat. On my way home I give Selma Hyak a flier as she gets in her limosine and then continue to my room where I fall asleep. I wake up to the sound of fireworks which I watch from my window; closing night ceremonies.

I slept through most of the day- which i really needed to do. Then went out for a walk. You can feel the festival winding down. Went to the American Pavilion to check e-mail. I’ve been getting some really inspiring e-mails lately from people all around the world; i don't even know what to say. This project continues to find wonderful people around the world who find inspitation in this concept and in turn inspire the idea further. It's very cyclical, and only time will tell how far this idea will be carried. (i've included excerpts from two particularly inspiring e-mails at the end of this entry).

THE COMMANDER

Slept in most of the day. Took a nice relaxing bath. Cleaned the apartment. Prepped my bag for Nelson Mandela. Went to the American Pavilion to sell a few credits and met some amazing folks who really loved the concept, including Shevaun Wilder- who will try to put us in touch with Bono, and Michael Mennies who runs an animation production company in Russia and might be able to put us in touch with David Lynch.

Hung out with my friend Celia who was with me at the Cindfondation program 2 years ago. Also printed out my letter to Nelson Mandela, and have it with me at all times.

Went to the Hotel Du Camp with the Commander who had a dinner party down by the water.

In the lobby I met Kid Rock (who signed a tin of Hint Mints) and also David Furnish, Elton John’s boyfriend, who sincerely loved the concept, but wanted to check it all out before lending his support. I asked him to pass on a kind word to Elton. While sitting with Kid Rock I also met the Prince of Rome who seemed to be a big Kid Rock fan. Strange moments.

Telley

Craig and Ja left for Rome. So i was flyin solo.

I went to the American Pavilion and hustled a bit. Was barely able to give Morgan Freeman a flier and a letter describing our project. He wouldn’t sign a tin of mints… though I tried…he has a no autograph policy.

Then met Roger Ebert who took a picture of me holding a flier. He wouldn’t let me take a picture of him though.

Then I ran into Telley outside the palais.

Telley is the guy from South Africa who did the amazing dance back on DAY 3 in the middle of The Commander's villa. Telley is amazing, he grew up in a very poor town in South Africa and then married an Italian woman...a wealthy one...and his life went through a very dramatic shift. telley has the kind of abstract mind that really tries to take it all in, but not in a materialistic way...more in the abstract. Now he can afford to consumes his life with art.

So yesterday I made my way to the American Pavilion, a tent filled with people who speak English. I can sell credits there pretty well, and pulled in a couple hundred euros.

David Cronenburg gave a lecture there, and I was able to pass him a flier on his way out. He asked me what the punch-line was, but there wasn’t enough time to explain before he was rushed away.

Later in the day, I got back together with Craig and Ja and we went with the Commander to Man Ray’s, a pretty little club/restaurant. The line out the door was cramped, even though we had invites. The lady at the door was screaming at everyone to form a line…she said that whoever was at the back of the line would get in first. We thought that sounded crazy enough that it just might work, so we went to the back of the line. Later the door lady was yelling at everyone to still form a line and we yelled out "Hey, we are in the back of the line." And then she came over to us and walked us in! we couldn’t believe it! For once we followed all the rules, and it worked in our favor!

Craig and Nirvan take THE 1 SECOND FILM onto the red carpet.

Magic returns. Today we slumbered on the beach of Juan Les Pans and contemplated our next move. Should we put ourselves in the crossfire of The Commander and render him our services? Would this distract from what we came here to do? Or would it be a symbiotic relationship? We decided to take the chance, so long as we made it clear to him what we were doing and who we are, so that he could know what to expect and what not to expect from us. And so we checked out of the hotel and off we went to the villas.

There we met the most amazing man from Africa who performed a dance for us in the midst of a million dollar business transaction. Then he told us an amazing story of his life leading up to that moment.

A Weird day. Half full and half empty. The day was full, though we didn't do anything festival related. Craig and I had very heartfelt conversations- a good thing to do to help keep perspective on what is important while in the midst of all this hustle. The evening seemed relatively empty in comparison, though I guess we did a lot.

Hooked up with The Commander at his Villa and went to some parties. I didn't get in with the main crew at the MTV Kung Foo Hustle party as security was tight. The Commander's plan was to show up with 15 to 20 models and then bum rush the gates, but somehow all the models split and he showed up with all these guys, maybe 10 or 12 and a couple of girls. The Commander got in with 2 girls, most of his camera crew (except me) and Ja. The rest of his friends got left at the door. I passed the time trying to sneak in. While I worked the door, Craig worked the boom and the lights for The Commander's other camera crew. It should come as no surprise, but there are some real characters on The Commander's other camera crew. They are all nice guys, but the whole situation is a Don Quixote episode. Apparently, Nic the producer wasnt helping at all and the camera guy got really stressed out cuz the shots weren't going his way, so he threw a huge fit right on the red carpet. All these celebrities were walking through and The Commander's camera guy was blocking their shots and screaming about how he couldn't work under these conditions... Craig was telling me about it later and I'm sorry I missed it. I finally sweet talked my way in to the party by giving a name that i supposed was on the list and was... but just then Ja came out to get me and somehow we both got kicked out, even though Ja had already been inside. It was bazaar. So craig and The Commander left shortly thereafter (without the rest of the camera crew) and we went to some other party where I rode a mechanical bull and the three of us (craig/ja/me) danced like we've never danced before. Craig and I crowd surfed and I totally lost a button on my tux jacket. We also ran into a couple of our newest producers from the previous nights, which is always fun to reconnect in different places. Makes the festival seem smaller and friendlier somehow. On the way out we passed Jennifer Macarthy and gave her a three second pitch (off camera) and a flier.