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November 14, 2006
Samira Goetschel: best conversation I've had in Denver
I'm still here at the Denver Film Fest with Spout.com watching movies and making podcasts. Last night I saw Samira Goetschel's film Our Own Private Bin Laden. The film was good, and really informative. I interviewed Samira after the screening, and it was the best conversation I've had here so far, I think she's my new hero. Check out the interview here.
Also, here's a random picture I took in downtown Denver, it has nothing to do with the film.
I'm still trying to decide if the cats t-shirt is in poor taste, and if so, how poor?
Posted by kevinb at 7:34 PM | Comments (1)
November 11, 2006
Communism, Kurt Cobain: Denver Interviews
I never thought watching movies and talking to people could be so exhausting. Maybe it's not that so much as watching movies until 2:30 in the morning, THEN going back to the hotel to edit and upload podcasts until 5:00 am. But this is really fun. Here are a few of the interviews I've done so far here at the Denver Film Festival:
An interview with Judy Irola, director of Cine Manifest. The film chronicles her time as the only woman in a socialist filmmaking collective based in San Fransisco in the mid 70s. Great stuff, reminded me of a lot of the discussions happening around G-RAD about collaborative art, politics, and community.
Director AJ Schnack and journalist Michael Azerrad talk about Kurt Cobain About A Son. This film uses selections from interviews Azerrad did with Cobain in 92 and 93. The visuals are very calm and still, focusing on the cities Cobain lived in. There's no concert footage, and you don't see an image of Kurt's face until the very end. I'd call it an anti-rockumentary.
More interviews, images, and other info can be found here:
Spout.com/denver
Posted by kevinb at 4:30 PM | Comments (1)
November 10, 2006
Denver: Day One
Things are going really well here at the Denver Film Festival so far. I'm here helping Spout.com cover the event by making video and audio podcasts. We've wasted no time, yesterday we did multiple interviews, saw the US premiere of Anthony Minghella's latest film, Breaking and Entering. You may know Minghella from The English Patient and Cold Mountain. The premiere was in a really beautiful opera house, followed by a posh reception/party, complete with free drinks. Get the full report here.
Free stickers!
Anthony Minghella talks with reporters.
Posted by kevinb at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)
November 2, 2006
The Blog Challenge, and a busy month
November!
It wasn't long ago that I had nearly nothing to do other than grind through the depressing tedium of a fruitless job seach. Alas, no more. My November became miraculously booked in the course of about two days, and one of the things I need to do will (probably, hopefully) involve starting a new job I've wanted for a long, long time. I won't discuss it further, as it seems like bad luck to blog about a job you haven't actually gotten yet.
But one thing that is confirmed is that I'll be spending ten days at the Denver Film Festival helping the team from Spout.com make video podcasts of the various goings on.
I. Am. Pumped.
It should be a great experience. If you haven't checked out Spout, you really should. Also, I believe the content I'll be helping produce will be posted here. I'll probably put some stuff up here too, if I have time.
On an unrelated note, I'm really excited about the November BLOG challenge that has been issued to talk about our respective neighborhoods. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to go get a lot of good pictures of my neighborhood, but it's pretty grey out there anyway. I will say a few things, and maybe I'll add more later:
Me and my wife (and our dog Ruby) live on the 600 block of Fountain, which is in Midtown.
I found this informative website that gives lots of stats about the area, including demographic shifts of last several years.
A few features of my neighborhood that most G-RADers are probably very familiar with are NEST, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Bakery, all a short walk north on Union. Nantucket has fantastic pizza, but it's a bit salty.
Midtown is interesting because the neighborhood itself is divided into smaller sections. We live in "The Woods" according to a sign on a telephone pole across the street. The names of the other areas can be found engraved on the brand new Midtown sign they installed at The Midtown Green, on the corner of Fountain and Eastern. The Green, as we like to call it, is a great place to run the dog, fly a kite, or play a game of bocce ball. Kelly and I are currently undefeated in bocce ball on the Green, our home court.
A note on Fountain Street: sometimes people drive too fast. Please do not do this! A few weeks ago I was taking Ruby out on her leash and she was barking like crazy, as usual. A little dog named Jack, who lived across the street, heard Ruby and escaped from his fence to come greet her. It was rush hour and poor little Jack was run over by a fast car right in front of our eyes. It was truly horrific, and the guy didn't even stop. I had to wash a large blood stain from the road with a few buckets of water.
Sorry if that's morbid. But I'm sure all neighborhoods have stories like this, some much worse.
Posted by kevinb at 5:55 PM | Comments (3)