All Posts Tagged With: "homosexuality"

Link Round-Up: Lost in LA Edition

June 26th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image - Hirshorn Museum, June 19 to September 7I made a quick trip out to the Los Angeles Film Festival to root for the Austin filmmakers premiering their work, Spencer Parsons’ I’LL COME RUNNING and TRINIDAD by PJ Raval and Jay Hodges. Best of luck to them both in their respective competitions as the fest gets closer to announcing the winners. In the meantime, lots of goodies in my inbox.

- Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars is now available for download on iTunes. If you haven’t caught the film and are inclined to watch on your computer or mobile device, I highly recommend the film. It is the story of a wonderful band of musicians sprung from a refugee camp. Their music is political, emotional and a heck of a lot of fun.

- held a King Corn video mash-up contest and the winner is… Kylee Darcy for her animated mash-up called Corn Takes Over the World. You can watch it and the runners up at IL’s Filmocracy.

- The wonderful POV maven Yance Ford alerted me to a new and first-ever gay film fest starting up in Russia. Side-by-Side will take place in October in St. Petersburg. I’m sure it would be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, and if you have an appropriatly themed film, you just might help make history in that country! Deadline for submissions is coming up on July 2.

- And lastly, for my DC friends or those traveling to DC in the near future, the Hirshorn, a wonderful museum on the National Mall, has a new realist cinema , “The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image.” It runs until September 7.

Get Your Panel On, And Other Good Stuff

June 6th, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

Interactive has opened their Panel Picker process. You suggest panel ideas, attendees vote on the ones they want to see, and then if you are so lucky as to be chosen (or take on a massive publicity campaign to get the most votes), you can be on a SXSWi Panel. I’ve had tons o fun with this, and highly recommend. Get the details here>>

If you are in and looking for something fun this weekend, Newfest is ongoing and highly worth checking out, and the inimitable Nina Davenport’s Operation Filmmaker is playing at the IFC Center. It’s a highly enjoyable doc, and will give you and a date plenty to discuss. Davenport will be a several screenings this weekend. I’m including this awesome photo that Mary Kerr took of Nina at a holiday party last year just cuz I love it! Have a great time at the screenings Nina!

And if you are in Austin? Here’s my Sunday plan: “The Austin Symphonic Band is presenting a free concert in honor of Father’s Day.  It will be held at the Zilker Hillside Theater on Sunday, June 15, at 7:30 p.m.  The band will perform marches, light classics, and other musical selections you and Dad are sure to enjoy.  Bring a picnic supper, spread a blanket under the pecan trees, and watch the stars come out as the band performs.”

A Jihad for Love Opens in NYC

May 21st, 2008 • Agnes Varnum • Comments Off • Related Posts • Tags

I received a wonderfully detailed email from producer Sandi Dubowski about today’s US theatrical opening of A Jihad for Love directed by Parvez Sharma. The email has in it all the ways that I can help them, if I’m so inclined, to get the word out about the screening and the film overall. Naturally, one of the action items it to post the info on our blogs, so here it is… I haven’t gotten to see the film, but Sandi’s previous work, Trembling Before G-d, was intriguing and powerful. They have played this film in over 15 countries and have won a slew of awards, so I’m looking forward to it!

A quick note to First Run Features: You’ve disabled the embed feature of this trailer on your YouTube post. Big mistake. You aren’t losing a point of sale window by requiring readers of my blog to click through to YouTube. It would make sense to do this if the trailer was only available on your site, but as is, what do you gain except YouTube traffic? Yet, notice how your post of the trailer has 690 views, while the one embedded here has over 11,000. What am I missing?