Toronto Premiere

[photo by Alex Dounets]

After a year and a half on the festival circuit, To Rest in Peace will finally have its Toronto premiere!

Screening at the Toronto Beaches Film Festival, on Saturday June 30th at 11:30AM. We are screening before the feature documentary, If I Should Fall.

It's been a good run. We've screened all over the world, including Cannes, Kuwait, Dubai, London, New York and Los Angeles, and won awards for writing, directing, cinematography, editing, music, audience choice, and best short film.

But this screening holds a special significance. The seed for To Rest in Peace was planted in Toronto, in 2005. Producer Josh Clavir and I had just finished our second collaboration, Her Music Led, an adaptation of John Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci. We sat talking about the adventure of making that small film in the woods of Caledon in the dead of winter, hauling HMIs with a wheelbarrow down a slippery slope, and standing for twelve hours in a foot of snow with the water seeping in to our cold, cold toes. It was during this meeting that we started sharing stories that had inspired us, that we thought would make great films 'one day.'

I told Josh about my uncle Malek, and his heroics during the Occupation of Kuwait, including how he buried two dead strangers by the side of the road. Years later, while doing my masters in film production at USC, I wrote a script, and that script became a thesis film. Josh flew down from Toronto, and spent a semester with me in Los Angeles, getting the movie made.

That 'one day' had arrived, To Rest in Peace was finished, and now, as we travelled the festival circuit and worked on other projects, we talked about premiering the film in Toronto 'one day.' Now that new 'one day' has arrived. It's June 30th. We hope to see you there.

Interview at Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival

Here's an interview I did for Martha Low and Ismail Ouassaddine while at Mizna's Twin Cities Arab Film Festival.

Mizna's was one of the best experiences I had on the festival circuit. Lana Barkawi, Rami Azzazi, Marya Morstad, and their team played excellent hosts, and I met a lot of very talented filmmakers, including Tania Khalaf and David Hamilton, who have been supportive allies ever since.

I often get asked about festivals in terms of what possible deals you might get out of them. Sell your film, sell your feature, get an agent, etc. But though To Rest in Peace has been very fortunate, the best rewards you get are the people you meet along the way.

One such ally is Lisa Robertson, who I met at the Breckenridge Film Festival with her short film Commerce. Lisa made a big impact on Exitus Roma. She gave notes on an early draft, helped us find our leading lady, Teri Reeves, and gave notes on an early cut that led to a lot of positive changes. The best aspect of the festival circuit is the opportunity to do better work, by seeing other films, and meeting very talented filmmakers.

To Rest in Peace continues its festival run, on its own momentum. I've shifted focus onto Exitus Roma, and other projects on the horizon, but will continue to update the blog until my new, not project-specific blog is up and running.

Big Bear Lake Int'l Film Festival

To Rest in Peace will be screening at the Big Bear Lake International Film Festival! The festival runs September 15-17. We are nominated for Best Student Short.

Congrats also to my USC classmate Nate Ruegger for his film, Another Life. We screened our films together at Paramount Studios, and we'll be screening together again in Big Bear Lake. Anecdotally, Nate was also the first person I had lunch with when I arrived at USC.

The festival is organized by Monika Skerbelis, who ran the American Pavilion screening in Cannes. She has a good eye for short films, so I look forward to seeing the selection here.

The location of this festival brings back fond memories. One of my favourite production experiences was filming up in Big Bear Lake for Into the Unknown. I co-edited the project with To Rest in Peace editor Ryan Frost, but the first weekend of production I doubled as the script supervisor. The entire crew stayed in one big cabin, which housed a singing moose head. We filmed during day light hours, and barbecued at night. Definitely one of the highlights of my time at USC. Even the first night up, when we couldn't find the cabin in the dark, and had to sleep in the car...

Report from Cannes

Pictured above are the international pavilions at the Festival de Cannes. Our screening at the American Pavilion on Tuesday went very well. To Rest in Peace was one of five narrative student shorts selected for the Emerging Filmmaker Showcase. We were also in the Short Film Corner, where we had another screening on Friday morning.

This trip has been a whirlwind, and a great learning experience. Our festival accreditation meant we could enter the film market, where features were being pitched and sold. It was astounding to see the number of different projects, poster after poster of films that will either gain worldwide distribution or fade into obscurity. As a lover of historical dramas, there were a few that were particularly interesting, including a project in development about the Duke of Wellington. That's one I hope to see in theatres one day.

The American Pavilion have been generous hosts, providing opportunities to watch great films, meet filmmakers, attend industry panels, eat good food, and party on the beach. Monika Skerbelis and Walter Harris did a wonderful job making us feel at home.

One of the best highlights was the presentation of the Palm Dog award at the UK pavilion. This coveted collar is given for best performance by a canine at the festival. This year's winner was Uggy the terrier for his role in The Artist.

Host Toby Rose kept the audience roaring with the highest (or lowest) standards of british comedy. There was some talk of expanding the award categories to cats and other animals. If birds are ever recognized, I think Joey the parrot would be a strong contender.

Sadly, the trip is coming to an end. But it has generated a good amount of momentum for To Rest in Peace, and for some projects we have in development. It was an honor to take part in this year's festival, and we hope to be back with a feature film in the future.

First Day in Cannes

This is a photo of Michael Benyaer (Malek), Fawaz, and myself our first night in Cannes. We look forward to the screening tomorrow morning at the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase.

The weather has been gorgeous here, and the food is amazing. The color of the water is incredible. I have never seen anything like it. It is my first time in France, and what a great introduction!

More updates to come. Possibly including pictures of me and Fawaz in tuxes.

P.S. Can anyone loan me a bow tie? : )

The view from GFF

Walking into the hotel room and seeing this view is a good way to start the 2011 Gulf Film Festival!

Burj Khalifa reminds me of Frank Lloyd Wright's Mile High Illinois, which I keep a drawing of at home for inspiration. It's the great idea that never was. A reminder to keep fighting the challenges of creation. One can stand here and imagine what the Chicago skyline might have looked like had Wright's masterpiece been built.

Looking forward to the opening ceremony tonight, and the screening of Child of Iraq. To Rest in Peace screens April 15th at 6:15 P.M. and 17th at 3:15 P.M. Check out the schedule for details.

Goldilocks

One of the fun projects I've had recently is editing the web series Goldilocks, which is shot and distributed on the iPhone. The story is a Bourne Ultimatum or Alias sort of thriller, about a former spy, now mom, whose espionage life comes back to threaten her son.

This episode was cut on the flight over to Dubai for the festival. I had a little LaCie Rugged hard drive, and Avid Media Composer on my laptop. Put the tray table down, put the head phones on, and suddenly the Emirates A380 becomes an editing suite. One of the things I love about making films in the digital age.

The series is up for YouTube's Telly Awards. If you enjoyed watching it, you can help us win by voting here.

You can also check out the producers and directors of Goldilocks, Michael Koerbel and Anna Elizabeth James of Majek Pictures, in the New York Times, and at MacWorld Expo.

Siobhan Live – Radio Interview in English

This is a fun interview we did with Siobhan Live (Dubai Eye 103.8) during the Dubai Film Festival.

The interview was in english, so Josh got to join in. It was a first for both of us being live on radio, but Siobhan was lovely and quickly made it feel like a dinner conversation. The recording is two segments stitched together, before and after the news break.

Still to come, a newspaper article and some pictures from the festival!

Al Arabiya - Live interview in Arabic

The day after we arrived in Dubai, I got a call early in the morning asking if I could do a live interview in half an hour. Of course, the answer is always 'yes'. Which then leads to the question 'what about breakfast?' Fortunately, we managed to get ready and out the door in time and well fed.

The interview was for Al Arabiya's morning show. My arabic was a little rusty, having lived in Toronto, Los Angeles and London since I was eight years old. But the hosts were lovely, and I managed to get through it without much Arabish (Arabic-English hybrids).

We enjoyed a good deal of press during the Dubai Film Festival. They had a dedicated publicist, Sarah Ahmed, who put us in touch with various media outlets for interviews. There's a radio show, and a newspaper article coming soon to the blog.

Many thanks to Sarah, and to Mohammed Al Azzam and Layal Assaf, who made Dubai the perfect premier festival for To Rest in Peace!

Dubai Film Festival

It's official!

To Rest in Peace will be at the Dubai International Film Festival as part of the Gulf Voices screening, which promises "stories of honour and responsibility, war, comedy, family drama, and romance."

(And our picture made it onto their press release!)

The festival is held December 12th-19th. It will be the official world premier of our film, and the beginning of the festival circuit.

Several of the cast and crew will be there. We look forward to updating you from Dubai!

Progress

Footage from Kuwait is being integrated into the cut of To Rest in Peace. I must say, I'm absolutely thrilled with it.

There's still work to be done on the cut. Once we picture lock, there's sound design, visual effects, music composing and, finally, the color correct and sound mix. But now that the footage is all there, we can see the finish line ahead!

Thanks to everyone who's kept up with the blog, and sent me comments. As of today, the blog will get a weekly update. This will include a progress report on the film, and maybe a little story about production or post-production.

The picture here is from the police station in Failaka. Sean Conaty (the DP) and Ali Younis (the 1st AC, and major producing help) stand under a blast radius on the wall. The building was riddled with bullets and debris from the first days of the invasion. It's haunting to stand there and think of what these marks meant for the people who fought there.

Until next week...

November

I've been bad.

I realize this blog has been left completely unattended. But it's time to wipe off the dust.

A lot has happened since my last update. There were a couple of set-backs, and a couple of successes.

To start with, the script for To Rest in Peace won the Silver Prize at the Page Screenwriting Awards. The feature version, News from Kuwait, made it to the semi-finals of Page, and is advancing in another competition through filmmakers.com

Editing got off to a good start, but then took a long hiatus. Unfortunately, Zach (the editor) was committed to another thesis that was expected to be finished by August, but kept on being extended. We took a three week hiatus from To Rest in Peace so he could picture lock the other thesis. Those three weeks turned into six weeks, before Zach recommended I find another editor. A week later, progress continued with my good friend Ryan Frost, who co-edited Into the Unknown with me two semesters ago.

Since then, we have gone through a number of cuts, screening it to faculty and industry mentors for notes. We are getting ready to screen it for a test audience soon.

The trip to Kuwait is now scheduled for December, after the semester is over. We should picture lock shortly afterwards, then move on to visual effects, and sound design.

Updates might be sparse for the next little while. This has been a busy, but wonderfully exciting semester. I am taking more than a full course load, TAing two classes on directing, interning on a passion project, and finishing up the first draft of a new feature, The First Apocalypse, based on a true story that has haunted me for years.

Until next time...

The Value of Vacation Footage

Some of the transitions in To Rest in Peace are waiting for b-roll footage from Kuwait. In the meantime, we were planning to put up title cards, saying things like "neighbourhood passes by," so we can work out the timing. The 2nd unit trip won't be until we are almost picture locked in October.

Then I realized I had tons of video from my last trip to Kuwait. The driving bits came to almost an hour of usable footage! So for now, the film will intercut beautiful RED cinematography, with my miniDV vacation video. Properly blown up to HD, of course.

Ghosts of Movies Past

This picture recently surfaced from the second film Josh and I worked on together (Her Music Led, November 2005).

Warning: Don't mess with this producer.

Our first film was also shot in the freezing cold of winter in Toronto. By contrast, To Rest in Peace will be a desert movie shot in May. From one extreme to the other. It's how we do things.

Josh is heading back to Toronto for a week, to attend Ryerson University's Film Festival, where he will screen three films he produced, and one he directed. You can find more info here.