Post #160

So, "Post #160", hey?

Yup.

That's - inspired. Why not, "It's Monday" or "Title Here" or "I Got Nothing"?

Just trying to work the Muscle.

Do tell...

Okay, well in a few weeks, it will be exactly one year since the film premiered. It's been in cinemas across Canada, in festivals here and overseas. It's come out on DVD, VOD, PayTV and FreeTV. It's grown up, got a job and moved to the States for crying out loud. It's time for me to face the fact that it doesn't need me as much as it used to. It's time for me to get over the empty nest and get back into the game. Time for me to stoke up the story-making machine and get down to writing something (or things) else. But I'm so seriously out of shape - flat, flabby...

...slow, stupid...

Let's just leave it at flabby.

Okay, so - you're basically "going back to the gym" by - ... writing a blog about nothing?

Once a week - whether it needs me or not.

Intense. Shouldn't you consult your doctor before attempting such strenuous exercise?

Look, it's about sticking with it religiously until you start seeing definition again.

Uh-huh. Well in the meantime, what about getting like a coach or personal trainer to really get you motivated - kick your writing ass ...

... til I get puns of steel?...

Oh god.

You're right - I need professional help.

Okay, here's what I'm going to do... you seem like a nice enough kid so I'm going to hook you up with pen monkey punisher, Chuck Wendig. Check out his site, terribleminds.com and especially this post in his blog (which is almost always about something).

He'll get me back in shape?

Guess we'll see next week won't we?

Big Week

This week may be the One We've Been Waiting For, but last week brought us good news very much worth celebrating as well: Jean-François Bergeron was nominated for a Genie in the Best Achievement in Editing category for his fine work on our film!

Once again, congratulations to JF, much deserved! I wish all the talented people who gave this movie life could have been nominated alongside him, but it's also kind of fitting that the guy who tied so much of so many people's great work together was named for the whole.

And lest you think that that the Genie Awards must be the illustrious end of the journey for a little film, let me tell you, there's more road ahead... The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom has been selected to official competition at the BUFF Film Festival in Malmo, Sweden! And we'll also be featured in the regular programming of this year's edition of Les Rendezvous du cinéma québécois (where our film was premiered last year).

And of course that's not all! As of today, we are poised on the 24-hour edge of the film's US release by the good guys at Osiris Entertainment. Since acquiring US distribution rights last year, Osiris' VP of Marketing, Doug Dohmen has been working hard on getting the film into as many outlets as possible south of the border. As of last week, here's the abundant fruit of his labours:

Tomorrow, Tuesday January 24th, the film will go live on VOD (Verizon FiOs, Charter, AT&T U-Verse, Mediacom, Insight, Suddenlink, etc.) and be available for purchase on DVD (over 146 Hastings stores and Ingles Markets) and online (Amazon, CDUniverse as well as right on the Osiris Entertainment website).

As you can see, there'll be many ways for our good neighbours to get some northern exposure. Spread the word!

Oh, and also happening tomorrow, a little thing called the Academy Awards will announce its final Oscar nominations for 2012!! We're all getting up early and pulling for Québec's favourite son, Philippe Falardeau and his film, Monsieur Lazhar to make the cut in the Best Foreign Language Film category! MERDE, Philippe!

Caw, Caw

Have any of you out there (if there ARE any of you still out there) ever fallen off the wagon - whatever your particular wagon is - so hard and for so long that you can't even see the wagon in the distance anymore? I'm talking, not even in the far-off, speck-on-the-horizon distance anymore? In fact, you can't even see the dust of the memory of that wagon anymore?

Well if you have, then you have some inkling of how hard it gets with each passing day to even find a way back to that wagon, let alone get the amount of momentum you'll need to catch up to it, and then somehow hoist yourself back on.

In my case, the wagon I've been running (okay, trotting) after for the last while is this very blog (there are other runaway wagons in my life, but there's probably not enough space in this particular forum to discuss them).

Some of you may have noticed that since I went to Whitehorse way back in October(!), I haven't made a single peep in this space. I honestly meant to write about my wonderful Yukon adventure and my gracious hosts as soon as I got back. But then I didn't.

And then I got busy on a directing job. And then I was off to Poland for another amazing adventure as an international jury member at the Ale Kino! Film Festival in December. And I was going to write all about THAT incredible experience as soon as I got back. But then I didn't. And then it was Christmas. And I was going to use the down time to write a kind of "year in review" post in the blog. But then I didn't (really, Christmas? Down time?). And then it was January 1st and I was going to turn over a new leaf - start the year off right. And write. But then I didn't.

And yet, here I finally am.

So then, you might ask, what DID I finally use as my magical motivator, my special occasion, my momentum, to catch up to - and actually jump back on - that remote, runaway wagon?

Well, it IS January 16th after all - but it's not that. And this morning, I did finally unpack my suitcase from last year's trips (don't ask), but as much as my boyfriend insists that that is a more special occasion than Christmas and New Year's combined, it's actually not that either. So then what WAS it?

It was a sign.

If you have seen the film for which this blog was created, I think you'll appreciate the layers of meaning in the anecdote I'm about to share....

So, there I was, watching football and notably NOT writing this blog, when a random thought came into my head. For some reason, I suddenly thought about Akalu Meekis. He plays the Métis man with the magpie tattoo in our film. His character gives Marion and Elizabeth directions to their destination, and by virtue of their common interest in the magpie, some indication as to Elizabeth's destiny - that of messenger.

Okay, so I'm sitting there watching football and Akalu crosses my mind out of the blue. I haven't seen him since the film premiered in Winnipeg in June, where we had a brief chat about his plans for the future. So I casually wondered if he had finished school as he planned. And if so, if he was still considering pursuing an acting career.

And then something happened in the game and my attention turned back to football.

An hour or so later, I got an email. From Akalu Meekis.

He and I have never exchanged a single email.

That coincidence alone was freaky enough. But then, here is what his message (and I use the term very consciously) said:

It started with the subject line: Greetings!

And then without any salutation, Akalu launched into his brief, direct email by saying he had just been standing outside his school residence minutes before, deep in thought, when out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bird approaching from the east. As it perched on top of a tree, he saw it was a magpie. And he thought of me.

Then he finished off with, "How are things?"

But what I saw was this: "Start &%*?$ writing!!! Caw, Caw! Right *&?%! now! Caw, Caw!"

To wit, please see above. And to note, please note below:

Tuesday, January 24th

On that day, Osiris Entertainment releases our film on DVD in the U.S. !! American cousins, check it out and let us know what you think on our Facebook Fan Page. We're very happy about this auspicious step in our film's life and so keen to hear from you. And I have a lot of catching up to do, so I will write you back. Lots!

If It's Wednesday, This Must Be Whitehorse!

Four... Three... Two... No, that's not me reading out the forecast highs for Whitehorse next week, that's actually me counting down to one of my most highly anticipated events to come out of this filmmaking experience yet...

Dolly Day Celebration Yukon, here I come!

I'm flying out this Wednesday to Whitehorse, where I'll be presenting the film (at both English and French screenings), meeting with the public as well as local filmmakers, journalists, and most importantly, Claire Derome . She's the woman who's responsible for bringing our film to the Yukon as the centrepiece of "Dolly Day" - a unique fund-raising event she created this year for the local chapter of the Imagination Library (read more here).

Originally founded by Dolly herself in Tennessee, the Imagination Library's mission is to fight illiteracy by providing one free book per month to every child enrolled in a local program from birth to 5 years of age. And Claire tells me that since its inception in 2006, her chapter of the Imagination Library has been in constant expansion. The overwhelming popularity of the program will see The Yukon Imagination Library distribute a total of 15,000 books to over 60 percent of the region's children by 2013!

In order for this non-profit organization to keep up with the almost viral demand, funds and awareness are always in desperate need of being raised. It was when Claire heard an interview I did on Radio-Canada about the film and Dolly's implication in it that she had the idea for bringing me and the film to the Yukon and creating the "Dolly Day Celebration" around it.

The event involves a screening of the film, a meet and greet with me and a whole evening's festivities featuring the fantastic blue-grass band, "Second Cousin" playing the film's music as part of their repertoire. Everyone involved has waived their fees (thanks again to @MongrelMedia!) and all proceeds of this event will go to the Yukon Imagination Library. I'm so thrilled to be able to contribute to this organization and its important work. And I so love the "full-circleness" of the whole thing - the film that Dolly helped to make has now become a way to help Dolly's cause!

I'm very much looking forward to actively "giving back" to Dolly in this small way. The fact that I will also, finally, get to experience a part of this country that has long-fascinated me from afar is just a really juicy cherry on top.

Birth Order

Much like the fate of a family's second-born, my recent experience in Frankfurt at Lucas Film Festival may seem to have suffered from a little attention-deficit just by virtue of coming AFTER my first international festival. Not that I was any less enamoured of the people, places and pleasures afforded by this latest experience - far from it! But let's just say I was a little less compulsive about photographing and documenting every little detail and hiccup of this trip than I was when I had my first.

Nonetheless, I do have images. And there are stories. And I flat out LOVED Lucas.

More to the point, I loved the vibe, the people and especially the community that spontaneously formed amongst my fellow filmmakers, festival organizers, volunteers and audiences. At the end of the week, we seriously felt like one big film-y family.

The fact that most of us were staying in a hotel smack in the middle of Frankfurt's red light district probably helped create that sense of stick-togetherness - especially when walking home through the Smack-riddled, never-ending nightlife - whether it was in the wee hours or at high noon. But even beyond the safety in numbers imperative, we really fused in a way that - even now, a week later and so many thousands of miles away - feels real.

And I have to say that coming home to the official word that Osiris Entertainment has picked up our film for U.S. distribution has done nothing to dim the glow I brought back from Deutschland!

But next up is a project I'm probably the MOST excited about - Dolly's Day in the Yukon. Inspired by the story of how our film came about and Dolly's role in it, community leader Claire Derome created Dolly's Day, using our film as a centrepiece to help raise awareness and funds for the local children's literacy foundation, Dolly's Imagination Library.

This is exactly the kind of thing that is so in keeping with Dolly's generous spirit and humanity. The fact that she helped me make this film has afforded me the chance to contribute to a really worthy cause. To give back. To Dolly. To kids. And their community. It's so full-circle it's gorgeous.

And, as the film's master mixer, Gavin Fernandes points out, the fact that tickets for this event are sold at M&M Meats in Whitehorse is so... Yukon Gold!

Horizons

With Irene churning up the Eastern Seaboard and all the emotions of Jack Layton's state funeral still churning in our collective psyches, it's not a stretch to say this has been a turbulent and eventful end to summer.

On the film front things are also pretty dynamic, albeit less dramatic...

The Canada-wide DVD release is not even two weeks old, our sold-out screening at the 1st annual Eastern Townships Film Festival is still a fresh and very special memory (thanks again, Pepita and company!) and in less than a week, I'm off to Frankfurt for the LUCAS Film Festival where the film is once again in international competition.

To top it all off, there's another, as-yet-unnamed, soon-to-be announced development on the near horizon.

Whew!

Oh, and that's not all... at the end of this month, there's the first ever "Dolly Day" up in the Yukon! A unique initiative that Claire Derome and the folks at the Whitehorse Rotary Club have cooked up specially around our film and its connection to Dolly. I'll be accompanying the movie up there, where it will be featured in a celebratory day of movie, music and meetings dedicated to raising awareness and funds for the regional Imagination Library, Dolly's literacy project for children.

I'm thrilled to be part of it. This event is such a wonderful by-product of making this film and Dolly's involvement in our whole story. Not to mention, it's a very direct opportunity for us to give something back to Dolly by supporting a cause that is so important to her. To that end, thanks go to our distributor Mongrel Media, who graciously agreed to waive the screening fees.

So, lots still happening now and into the fall... Check back here or on our Facebook Fan Page for all the latest updates!

Coming Out

Today's the day ... another landmark in the long journey of making a movie is here... A whole new chapter in our film's life has begun. And even though many people put many long weeks of work into it, this morning it still seems to have happened a little magically.

Because in something reminiscent of "The Night Before Christmas", we all lay down last night for a sultry summer's sleep in a world where our movie existed only on film and in theatres.

While we slept though, all snug in our beds with visions of bonus features dancing in our heads, way off in the distance all manner of planes, trains and trucks were busy criss-crossing the country, tossing sacks full of something special into every Blockbuster, Future Shop, Walmart and HMV store in sight.

And as these stores open their doors this morning, what to our wondering eyes would appear.... but the brand new DVD of our film lining their shelves, my dear!

Very cool.

The movie is something else now. Something somebody can rent or own. Something somebody can take home. Don't know why, but that tickles me.