Another Big Day for Osvaldo's

So the NYC premiere of Osvaldo's went real well. To my surprise, there was a very good crowd there given the fact that we were screening at 3:30 on a thursday afternoon. There were about 6 or 7 films that screened in the block and Osvaldo's screened second to last which I think is always a good thing because I have this belief that many festival programmers will put what they believe to be stronger films towards the end of a screening block. In any case, the film was well received and people were definitely into it.

Today is the encore screening of the film and I can't front I'm real excited about it. I have a feeling a lot of people are going to come out and support the film. Its always great to have your film screen in front of a diverse audience who has no idea what they're getting into when the film first starts but by the end you've engaged them with your story. I'm expecting a lot of NYC love today and I can't wait. If you're reading this and you want to come through the screening is at CHELSEA CINEMAS ON 23RD STREET BETWEEN 7TH & 8TH AVENUES. The screening begins at 3:30p. You can purchase tickets at the ticket window. Check out the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWqB7KYQH2M

I'll be back later with how everything went today.

Urbanworld and Angelus Film Festivals

Osvaldo's is an official selection of the 2009 Urbanworld Film Festival presented by BET in New York City and is a semi-finalist for the prestigious Angelus Student Film Festival in LA! The film is really starting to build some momentum. Please check out the trailer so you can get a glimpse of what everybody is talking about. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWqB7KYQH2M The film will be making its New York City PREMIERE this upcomng week at the HBO NY International Latino Film Festival THURSDAY and SATURDAY at 3:30pm at the Chelsea Cinemas Screen , 260 w 23rd st.

You can purchase tickets for the "GROWING PAINS" block at www.nylatinofilm.com I hope to see you guys out there!

Osvaldo's Trailer!

Hot off the presses we have the Osvaldo's trailer! The link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWqB7KYQH2M Please check it out and drop a comment either on the youtube post or on here. Let me know what you think. I'll also have some updates on the film soon.

THANK YOU, GRACIAS, GRAZIE....

So I recently stopped by man Keith Davis' website (which is located in the blogroll. I highly suggest that you check it out. Its a dope site.) and came across a post detailing Jim Jarmusch's five rules of filmmaking. I won't go into the details of all the rules, but there was something that struck a chord with me. Jarmusch mentions that the PA holding up traffic for you to get your shot is every bit as important as the director, the director of photography or the AD. And anyone who had an ego large enough to not understand this should be held upside down by their ankles left wondering why the sky is upside down. I couldn't agree more with this statement.

So with Osvaldo's set to make its world premiere this week I wanted to send a sincere thank you to everyone who made this film possible whether you were cast, crew, support, sounding board, vendor or hater. It means a lot to me that all of you were willing to either help create my vision or at least be engaged with it to some degree. I appreciate it more than you can imagine. Here is the cast and crew list of the film. I wanted to make sure that these hard working individuals were recognized...

Cast

Juan Dominguez            LEMON ANDERSEN Ana Daisy                GINA RODRIGUEZ Jerry Dominguez            JEFF LIMA Glenda Dominguez            MARIA ACOSTA Ambiorix                DOMINIC COLON

Crew

Director of Photography        CHRISTINA VOROS Editor                                         RYAN DENMARK Production Designer        BLAIR DOROSHWALTHER Original Score                     JONATHAN ALTMAN Costume Designers            DAWN WEST SAUNIELL CONNALLY Assistant Directors            SEAN WELSKI JONAS CARPIGNANO Producer                         KIA M. NEAL Writer/Director            RANDY WILKINS

Assistant Editor            PHIL HUGHES

Assistant Camera            ELENA GREENLEE Assistant  B Cam            NICK BROWN Steadicam Operator        BRANDON SUMMER P2 Card Assistant            BOHDANA SMYRNOVA

Gaffer                    MICHAEL ROSETTI Grips                     SHAKA KING JAY FRANKLIN COLE WILEY DOUG LENOX LEVI ABRINO

Sound Mixer                DOMINIQUE DELEON Boom Operator            NIKYATU JUSU Sound Design            DANIEL DZULA

Set Designer                YVONNE SHIRLEY CHRISTIE NEPTUNE

Makeup Artist            NATASHA RENEE

Production Assistants        ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ ALEC VAZQUEZ

HAMMERTIME!!!

This is amazing. I'm sure many of you have seen it already but damn this is funny as hell...Hammer Pants Dance Routine

Osvaldo's Director Statement

What's up everyone, I thought it would be cool to give a little insight into why I chose to write this particular story. Instead of just blabbing along I'm attaching my director's statement about the film. Its just a glimpse into how I came up with the idea and arrived at some of my decisions. We're less than a week away...

Osvaldo’s was conceived completely by accident. I was having my interview for the NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduate film program when one of the faculty members mentioned that there was a piece of glitter on my face. Initially, I thought the glitter was distracting and he was asking for me to remove it. Instead, he wanted to know more about the glitter. I told him that prior to the interview I got a haircut from my local barbershop. The name of the shop was Osvaldo’s. Another faculty member asked me to describe my barber and describe a sequence of three events that occurred after the shop closed. This is where the story for the film was born.

Originally the film was about Juan Dominguez’s struggle to cope with his newfound responsibility of being a single dad. My parents have been divorced for over 15 years and I have been in the loving care of my mother ever since. This always made me curious how things would be if my dad took care of my sister and I. The more I thought about it the more I was captivated by the idea of the father being incapable of assuming the figurehead position of the family and one of the children assuming that role. How would the interpersonal relationships play out if the child acted upon more traditional parent responsibilities and sensibilities? What would happen if one parent was removed from the equation and the remaining parent didn’t really know his or her own kids? How does the presence of a relative stranger affect an unstable dynamic?

I decided to have the mother pass away because I wanted to place the family in a desperate situation. The stakes needed to be raised to the point where the only viable option for the Dominguez family is to move forward. The arrival of Ana Daisy to a home of transition serves as the catalyst for the family to self-evaluate themselves and one another. The film explores how they begin that journey with the realization that things have changed permanently. A very important step for me in writing the screenplay was fusing my personal experiences with that of the Dominguez family. Jerry was an opportunity for me to explore certain feelings that have stayed with me for years. The intimate relationship between Jerry and his sister Glenda is almost a mirror image of the one that I have with my sister. It was imperative to me that the family came across as sincere and organic as possible. The intent was to highlight the cultural specifics of an evolving family and place them in the context of a universal story.

A Week Away...

So next wednesday is the beginning of the big event. There is still some work to be done on my end to make sure I'm ready for it. I'm currently in the process of putting the final touches on some flyers that we're making for the film and getting my new business cards ready as well. I don't plan to go overboard with the marketing for this particular festival because there are only five films in the competition and ABFF has done a fantastic job of marketing the event. The festival is well known and plenty of people are making the effort to come down and celebrate it so it shouldn't be too hard to get people in the seats to watch the film. After all, the screening of five films in one night makes it pretty simple as to when and where the film will be screened. If this was a different festival where there are 30 or 40 other short films playing that you really have to be aggressive in making sure people come to see your project. We are doing some things though to get the word out. Its all pretty exciting.

I'm still kinda in shock that this is happening. Of course when you make a film you have high expectations that it will succeed. But when you actually have significant experiences confirming that you made a piece of work that people appreciate, enjoy and recognize there isn't a much better feeling than that. And for your world premiere to occur in such a prestigious situation makes it even better. I just hope that people walk away from the film feeling something about the characters and what they go through. I also hope that I can take advantage of this great opportunity and really turn it into something. We'll see...

OSVALDO'S!!!

So I've been away for a while but I am back and there will be a lot of blog posts in the upcoming days and weeks mainly focusing on my film "Osvaldo's."

For those of you that don't know, "Osvaldo's" is my NYU thesis film and is a 20 minute drama focusing on the Dominguez family's challenging journey to discover their new collective identity after the matriarch has passed away. It stars Lemon Andersen, Gina Rodriguez, Maria Acosta, Jeff Lima and Dominic Colon.

"Osvaldo's" will be making its WORLD PREMIERE AT THE AMERICAN BLACK FILM FESTIVAL where it will be competing with four other fantastic short films in the HBO/ABFF Short Film Competition for the grand prize of $20,000 and the adulation of the entire planet Earth. I am really excited that the film will be making its premiere at such a prestigious and exciting event. The festival will be held in Miami June 24-27th. Please check out their website for all screening and ticket information  - www.abff.com. You can also click the link at any time in my links section. If you're going to be in Miami please come through or if you're anywhere else and want to bug out on the beach and then see my fresh, dope, amazing film then let me know.

The film is also an official selection of the HBO Latino Film Festival which will be in New York City at the end of July. When I have more info on that I will post in on here.

Again, please come back regularly to the blog for all updates and info for the film. I will be doing a running diary kind of thing when I get down to ABFF so for those of you who won't be there you can live vicariously through me as I love vicariously through myself. I will also be uploading pictures from the set and all the events so check for those as well.

I'm really excited for the film and the opportunity to share it with all of you. We'll be talking again soon.

Don't forget to the subscribe to the blog so you can get email updates as well.

Model Minority Podcast

What's up everyone?  I'm going to be a guest on the model minority podcast TOMORROW NIGHT AT 6PM. We'll be discussing Michelle Obama and the standard of beauty which is something I covered in an earlier post. If you want to call in and talk shit to me the number is (347) 843-4723. Please tune in if you can. The link is http://www.blogtalkradio.com/ModelMinority/2009/04/05/Michelle-Obama-and-the-Black-Female-Bod It should be fun.

Thanks

The Oscars: A Night of Bollywood and Political Mayhem

I know that I am a couple weeks late with this particular topic, but since I started this blog literally last night I felt like that would give me a little leeway on discussing a subject that may be out of some people's minds at this point. To be honest, I didn't watch the entire event. I had grown weary of the Oscars over the last couple years because it appears to be more of a celebration of box office numbers and popularity contests than of artistic excellence. Unfortunately, I went against my instinct and tuned in for the last 45 minutes and decided that I won't watch the bullshit anymore (unless I'm invited and they recognize me for my own artistic excellence, which in that case I will feel compelled to play the role of hypocrite, grab my statue and bring it home to the Bronx.) I arrived at this decision after being a non-willing voyeur to the orgy of bullshit that was thrown in the direction of Slumdog Millionaire. Before someone yells at me and says, "but that movie is so good. Why don't you like it?" I would just like to say that I love the movie and found it very entertaining. Do I think it deserved best movie, best director, best sound and an onslaught of American- based Bollywood remixes all night? Absolutely not. I felt that the entire night was one big marketing campaign that was practically begging Bollywood to do business with a Hollywood establishment that doesn't know its head from its ass right now. This is even more apparent after I found out that Reliance, an Indian entertainment powerhouse, funded Dreamworks to the tune of $500 million. Slumdog lacks a dramatic depth that in my mind denies it from being considered a best movie candidate. If the award was most entertaining then it wins hands down. But best film? I'll pass on that. By the way, The Wrestler was the best movie of the year in my opinion and the Most Disappointing Randy Award goes to "Doubt." Its a whole bunch of yapping about nothing.

My other issue with the Oscars was the veiled political statement that the academy made in their decision to pick Sean Penn as best actor for his wonderful portrayal of Harvey Milk. Sean Penn was fantastic as was Josh Brolin, Emil Hirsch and James Franco. In fact, the whole cast was strong and the movie was great. I'm a huge Sean Penn fan and it bothers me that I have to disagree with the choice. I don't find it coincidental that in a state that is fighting over Prop 8 that the award was given to a performance that has gay rights issues at the forefront of the story. I don't want anyone to misconstrue this as an attack against gay rights. That is anything but the truth. I am sticking to performances alone. You can't tell me that Mickey Rourke wasn't the best actor of the year. His portrayal of Randy "The Ram" Robinson was honest, vulnerable, charming, engaging, physical and tragic. Penn's portrayal of Milk, while fantastic, did not offer the variety or complexity that Rourke's did of The Ram. Part of the allure of Milk is the battle that he fought and not necessarily the person that he is (according to the film. Its obvious he was a great man by real life standards). I just found the decision a clear attempt by the academy to voice their political opinion behind their own award. I think that is distasteful and does a disservice to fans of cinema. Just pick the best performance.

What do you guys think? Am I a disgruntled film student or do i make an ok case? I would love to know how you feel  because clearly I feel pretty passionate about it. Thanks for reading.

Hello World...

So  this is my first foray into the blog world. A couple of good friends are blog veterans and it inspired a quiet interest in me for a while now, but I never thought that I would actually capitalize on it. I was listening to an internet radio show that was talking about setting up your own film company and it made me realize that I need to take advantage of the tools that exist around me. I'm an up and coming film director that is very close to finishing my studies at NYU'S Tisch School of the Arts and receiving my MFA in film production. I'm starting to get those "what are you gonna do after you graduate?" questions so I decided to be pro-active about my future. This blog will be a part of that. I plan on posting my previous work as a director and camera operator on here as well as any new work that I may be working on or finishing. I'm pretty opinionated according to my friends so I will definitely be sharing my ideas on a lot of topics, but mainly  SPORTS, FILM, MUSIC, BOOKS AND STUPID PEOPLE. I won't go through the whole introductory thing because I figure you will learn about me as I put more posts up. I'm gonna try to be pretty diligent with this so please check in regularly and I hope you enjoy  what I have to offer. I'm excited about this and I hope you will be too. Peace

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