Revisiting the Forgotten Blog July-December

Well there are plenty of excuses for why i have not blogged in some time but instead i must apologize to what ever readers i have left hanging. I suppose i was working so hard and struggling so greatly with the film that i could not bring myself to take the time to write about it. In July we thought we had finished the film and had a secret unofficial screening at Anthology Film Archives. What i saw before me was a very powerful but rough film not quite sure of all the elements it contained. There were certain pacing problems, editing and it was aesthetically uneven overall. The audience though seemed to really enjoy it and gave the film a strong ovation. The film was called soulful, deeply felt, spiritual and beautiful. People wanted to enquire about the main character and how much was fiction or non fiction, how i did the animation, questions about England and what festivals we were going to enter. Other's had some strong opinions that the film needed some major work. I wanted to make changes and took a month off from over 1 year and 6 months of constant work. So coming back to the film after over a month this time made me see that this was not entirely the film i envisioned. The film lacked flow in some areas and of course i wanted to add new scenes and additional landscape animation. The scenes that took place in NYC where shot before i had lived there so i added additional animation to that sequence as well. What i have now is a much stronger film in terms of structure, plot, visual language, coherency and fluidity which reinforce the initial power of the overall message. It is important to let the wine age while giving glory all along to the One who turned water into wine. I am happy and relieved to announce that "Glitch in the Grid" is complete and will Lord willing be playing in Film Festivals Internationally, Museums and Art Galleries with the DVD coming out mid to late 2011. Also another compilation of my new short films should be coming out around the same time. Joy!!!

April, May, June Times

It seems as if i have fallen off the blog train but now in the fourth watch of the night that i have finally caught up with the caboose hanging on by one hand. Jeffrey Leiser my wunderkind brother has almost completed scoring "Glitch in the Grid" and the final ADR, mixing and sound design. During this time i've have moved on to other projects such as my holographic paintings, curatorial projects (Anthology Film Archives is giving my film work a retrospective July 21st and i'm curating a contemporary experimental animation program earlier that evening), prep for upcoming art shows in Shanghai and Copenhagen, began writing the next feature and well... continuing to work on "Glitch". You see once you feel a film is done there is time to distance yourself from the project allowing ample time for pondering, satisfaction, insecurity and reflection. Since i consider this a major art work that has taken the last year and a half of my life i want it to be as strong as it can be even though i honestly have a ways to go with mastering feature film making however experimental. This has slowed the completion a little since i'm adding in the new sections and re rendering the film so that Jeffrey can score the final cut. Hopefully this will be done in the next week so that Jeffrey can finish and we can send it off to the London and New York film festivals before the deadlines. I'm not holding my breath as major festivals do not usually accept last minute entries but festivals such as Sundance who have a September deadline will give the film it's optimal shot at getting in unless MoMA who has recently asked me for an advanced screener of the film premieres it. It's all in God's hands and since it is a film that is all about Him i know it's going to work out perfectly. I've been feeling God's love really abundantly lately even though as always i do not deserve it in anyway but in turn i hope it reflects toward others who do not feel loved at all or enough. It is impossible for me to label, dismiss or explain away this Love as what many people see as "religion". My mind is now set on "Living for Heaven" my next feature. As this earth dies and falls away i really want to focus on the fact that we are all infinite spiritual creative beings made in His image for eternity. Human existence on earth is a fading the flower though our short life affects all eternity. What we do with the life and gifts given to us is crucial and we must honestly ask ourselves what we are living for and why. Telling this story through an albino woman and her dog living in nyc on the verge of the apocalypse is really interesting me. This weird, spiritual surrealism is becoming a theme in my film work and i welcome it. I'm grateful for the energy i have to move on so quickly after "Glitch". Life is so brief so i want to act in kind because time itself is running out for us all on this terrestrial plane. We must live for Heaven on earth now!
(updates on upcoming projects is in the news section at www.albinofawn.com)