On Screens Tall and Venti

Last week we were honored to be invited to show The Advocate on the big screen once again, this time as part of the 13th Hungarian Film Festival of Los Angeles. HFFLA has always been one of the annual events I look forward to as it’s historically been the best venue to catch the best flicks coming out of Budapest. Over the past few years, I’ve also been happy to see the fest expand to showcase and celebrate Hungarian Cinema from a global perspective, featuring the works of Hungarian filmmakers from around the world. Needles to say, I’m thrilled to be part of the 2013 line-up.

The Advocate will be shown Sunday, November 17th at 9:30pm at the Laemmle North Hollywood, with the cast and myself being on hand for a Q&A afterward. Click on the banner above for tickets and info, or visit: http://hffla.com

Then it will be time for our DVD release! After what has been a whirl wind two years or production, post work, and a great festival run, the special edition of The Advocate will hit shelves November 19th. It will feature a commentary track—really a conversation between myself and editor David Abramson on the various aspects of the roller coaster that was making of this film.

I will be posting updates on links, venues, and outlets of where the movie will become available for purchase and rental. As always, you can keep up with the latest news on our Facebook Page: www.facebook.com/TheAdvocateMovie

So, come check us out in sizes tall and venti if you can!

The Advocate Premieres in Hollywood

Somewhere in a shoe box, there’s a picture of me taken a couple of months after I got off the plane from Hungary; I’m crouching on the pavement, placing my 19-year-old palm into the handprint of Steven Spielberg in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

That was a long time ago, but it was profound to remember that first trip to Los Angeles as I prepared for the LA premiere of The Advocate at what is now the TCL Chinese Theaters. So much has changed. The theater has extended into a multiplex, and none of the screening rooms project film anymore, having been converted to the latest digital wonders. And yet, a premiere at the Chinese ended up being just as much fun as I had imagined when I was a kid.

It was certainly an awesome way to see this movie with all our LA friends and all the wonderful people who worked so hard on it.

Many thanks to the Dances with Films Festival, Leslee Scallon, Michael Trent and Robert Mellette, for selecting us and hosting this special night for The Advocate, and to all of you who came to celebrate it. It was the end of one part of the journey and the beginning of another. As I announced after the screening, the movie was picked up for North American distribution and is scheduled to be released later this year. We look forward to sharing it with the world next.

Check out pix from the event on my Flickr stream:

DWF Premiere of The Advocate, a set on Flickr.

Dances With Films Opening Night

A lot of excitement in the the air as the Dances With Films festival kicks off today at the Chinese theaters in Hollywood. As part of the festival, The Advocate will have its West Coast Premiere on June 8th at 7:15, and with all the craziness, our screening ended up selling out before I could even have time to update this site.

For updates on this other fun events coming up, follow The Advocate on Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheAdvocateMovie

The Advocate Los Angeles Premiere

I was thrilled to find out this weekend that The Advocate was selected to have its LOS ANGELES PREMIERE at the Chinese Theaters Complex in Hollywood as part of the 2013 DANCES WITH FILMS FESTIVAL!

The festival will be running from May 30th to June 9th. Our screening date and time will be announced in the coming days and advance tickets and passes will go on sale in mid-May.

I will be posting more info as it becomes available.

For details about the fest see: http://danceswithfilms.com/

Hope to see you there!

The Advocate Takes Durango

We just got back from what turned out to be the most unexpectedly exhilarating trip to the Durango Independent Film Fest. Long story short, our movie The Advocate premiered to two sold out screenings. And when all the ballots were counted, we ended up walking away with both the JUROR AWARD and the AUDIENCE AWARD for BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE!

To say that showing the film to an audience of strangers for the first time was nerve wrecking would be an understatement. Durango was our first test of a story that was shaped over two years of rewrites, many discussions on set, and agonizing trims in the editing room. Adding to the pressure was the fact that this was my first time in Durango and we had little indication as to what kind of turnout we could count on for our premiere screening.

We got our first encouraging signs at the Comcast sponsored kick-off party where several people started to recognize our lead actor Sachin Mehta from the printed festival programs, and I got to watch him give his first autographs as a movie star. The next day, we also landed an interview at local radio station KDUR, for their weekly film program, Reels to Radio. The stage was set for our debut screening on Thursday night.

It’s hard to describe the feeling of watching a line form outside the theater for your first screening, but it was as close to an out of body experience as I’ve gotten. People had told me before that the audiences here were enthusiastic for indie films, and fortunately, that turned out to be very true in our case.

Thanks to the great folks here at Durango, we ended up not only selling out the Gaslight theater, the local art house venue, but two days later—thanks to word of mouth—we also filled up the Durango Arts Center screening room which boasts an extra fifty seats. The audience’s response was amazing, and if you saw the premiere scene in the recent Hitchcock biopic, you’ll know exactly what I was going through during the screenings.

Many thanks to the sponsors and organizers of Durango Film 2013: Joanie Fraughton, Festival Director; Brandon Donahue, Head of Features Programming; Gregg Weiss, Hospitality Co-ordinator; Derrick Casto, Print Traffic Co-ordinator; Bo Sandine, Kristin Hopper, and the rest of the crazy and enthusiastic team over there who championed us!

I hope I have the chance to share other stories with the good people of Durango soon.

For a full list of award winners, check out: http://durangofilm.org/festival/awards2013.html

Durango Screenings Schedule

The Durango Film Festival now has their screening schedule up on their site.

The Advocate will screen:
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28th at 6pm at the Durango Gaslight Theater
SATURDAY, MARCH 2nd at 12noon at the Durango Arts Center

Click on the image for festival info and passes. Hope to see you there!

Rocky Mountain High

Today I'm happy to announce that The Advocate was invited to have its big screen debut screening at the 2013 Durango Independent Film Festival!  The fest is being held from February 27th to March 3rd in Durango, Colorado.

With the invitation arriving in late December, our post team went into overdrive to finish the movie just in time to deliver to the fest. And deliver they did! The fim is now complete and we're heading to the Rocky Mountains to start sharing with the world.

I will post screening dates and venues as they become available.

For more information about the festival, check out: www.durangofilm.org