Quick Update

Sorry I haven’t been writing lately — once the competition wound up, I found myself in the none-too-enviable position of having to catch up on all the work I’d put off. I’m still pretty well buried, but I thought I’d at least check in with a couple of quick updates.

The screenings for the two films went well, though the crowd wasn’t as enthusiastic as last year, particularly for the Thursday evening screening for The Big Lie That Solves Everything. Still, both films got a fairly strong audience response, and I think at least Quite Contrary has a good chance of winning the “audience award.”

Which, unfortunately, is the only award for which it’s eligible. See, one week ago today, Nello (the director) got a call from the competition organizers — the tape they’d submitted had recorded nothing but timecode. No video, no audio. Which, in effect, meant no movie. We ran up to their production facility (well, the house in which they were cutting the tapes together) over lunch, but weren’t able to salvage anything; the content just wasn’t there.

We gave them a new tape, so they would screen the film, but it was unfortunately designated a “late submission,” and therefore ineligible for any of the judged awards.

Major disappointment.

Still, we know we (well, really more they, but I’m still clinging to my “executive producer” contribution) made the movie in the allotted time, and made one hell of a picture besides. Which, really, is more the point than the competition itself.

Both films are up for viewing at the Tohubohu website, so you can judge for yourself.

And coming up? Well, it turns out that they’re doing a competition in Baltimore. Yeah, it’s a little soon after finishing this contest — June 17th through the 19th, to be specific — but if people are interested, who am I to deny them?

And after that, Chicago (July 8–10) is still beckoning...