February 29, 2016

Sedona Film Festival - Day 5, 6 & 7

February 29, 2016/ H. Nelson Tracey

Thursday

Another Belgian film kicked off our day today with Marina, which doesn’t reinvent anything but is an endearing music biography of an Italian immigrant who overcomes obstacles toward becoming a musician. It played extremely well amongst the Sedona crowd.

We stepped out from the festival again, this time for a hike. A loop around where the airport is allowed us for some beautiful views, and a little bit of confusion on the trail. Nonetheless, it was the perfect length hike and allowed us another great change of pace.

In the evening we attended the program “Just Great Shorts,” four eclectic short films, including Figs for Italo by Bob and Laura. Another one, Winter Light, played in the same set as Don’t Tell My Mom at Laguna Film Festival! It was also shortlisted for the Academy Award nomination this year. The other two were Zero, a made-for-internet sci-fi piece produced by Ridley Scott, and a short environmental documentary about the Utah National Parks.

For our reception tonight we would be at L’Auberge, which immediately from the title we knew would be something a class above. We realized at this point that every night’s party the venue got progressively nicer and more upscale, this one in a grand hotel with a pasta bar, oysters, and drinks of course. After a minor parking headache we made our way in and quickly ran into 4 Chapman alumni! Nico Agular, Tom Teller, Marie Cheng, and Zara Abraham had all driven up together to screen their two films, Hum and Volcano. Always fun to see some friends from the alma mater. Aside from that, we continued our nightly tradition of great refreshments and even better conversations!

Friday

First up was an Afghani doc Frame By Frame digging deep into the lives of numerous photojournalists who have risked their lives to properly tell the stories of their people. This is an example of substance over style with each sequence displaying how photography, something we take for granted that has saturated our day-to-day lives, is a rebellious and courageous act in this world. I am inspired by these individuals and hope to one day produce the same type of significant work.

At lunch we met two filmmakers in the “War Shorts” program which was perfect because that was what we were going to see next! James Paul & Jon Haynes were the filmmakers behind A Distant Shot which they fundraised themselves and shot in the Czech Republic! They’re also based in LA. The other filmmaker was Elias Matar, whose short documentary Flight of the Refugees documents his humanitarian trip all throughout Europe last year to aid the Syrian refugees. As many of you know this has been a world history event I’ve been following extremely closely, including my trip to Hungary to see the aftermath firsthand, so to meet someone who was directly involved and making a doc about it was truly inspiring. Like many of the filmmakers, I look forward to continuing the conversation with him long after the festival ends.

"War Shorts" filmmakers Elias Matar and James Paul

This set of films was a bit draining given the subject matter and that each one was a bit long for a short, but the order was especially well thought out, chronological with the exception of Refugees which started the lineup. Waiting for Dawn and Chronicles of Courage were about WWI. Prisoner, starring Frederick Lau from my 2015 favorite Victoria, was about WWII, and A Distant Shot took place in 1958 post-war. The most unconventional was Chronicles of Courage, which was entirely told using archival letters between two siblings in the war, and poetic, highly symbolic imagery that went with it. Of all these emotional shorts, this elicited the most personal reaction from me. That being said I was quite impressed with the lineup as a whole. As an added bonus we sat with Denise Strubbe, the shorts programmer who we had met last night. She selects all the short films, so she is the reason we were able to attend this festival!

Shortly after this program, and after congratulating the sets of filmmakers, we made our way over to the Media room where we had a press interview scheduled. DTMM Lead Actor Brendan Calton was driving up to attend an interview and tomorrow’s screening Q/A! He had just arrived when it was time for our interview, and we all got to answer some terrific questions for the Sedona media team – I’ll be posting the interview as soon as its live!

Our final party was at the Enchantment Resort, and by far and away the most upscale! We did less meeting of new faces and more spending time with all the great people we’ve gotten to know so far. We did however find out that two filmmakers, Annie Bradford and Emily Juliani, who were also staying at Briar Patch Inn without us even realizing! These parties were never quite long enough, given their target audience didn’t quite have as much energy as we did, but nonetheless we always managed to have a lot of fun, and at this one made a point to say our goodbyes to all of the wonderful people we’d met, especially Patrick and Liz who did so much to make this festival as fantastic as it was. The experience will not easily be forgotten.

Bryan, Nelson, Katie Blair, Laura Delano & Bob Celli

Saturday

Our final screening was bright and early at 9am Saturday morning, and we hoped that our week of meeting filmmakers and hyping up the project would help make for a great audience. It seemed without our help, the screening was sold out: the crowd was primarily those we didn’t know, but every single seat was filled! This auditorium fit 140 people, significantly larger than our Monday screening. Truth be told, this was our best audience yet! Every single joke landed to large applause. At the end, we had one last great Q/A with terrific, thoughtful questions for Bryan, Brendan and me to answer. Once questions ended, I took one last opportunity to thank the festival for such an unforgettable experience. This is truly the best festival experience I’ve had to date.

On our drive back, Bryan and I basked in an incredible week and had plenty of time to mull over each of the films we saw as well as the great people that we met. If you’ve managed to read all this, please let me know – it’s definitely long winded but as you can see there was quite a lot to take away from Sedona.

February 27, 2016

Sedona Film Fest: Days 3 & 4

February 27, 2016/ H. Nelson Tracey

Tuesday

Today we took a little more relaxed approach to enjoy the tranquility of Sedona. In the morning, we enjoyed another daily breakfast at the Briar Patch Inn, full of delicious homemade flavors! Quiches, eggs, oatmeal, fruit, and more – a highlight of every morning. Perhaps the most incredible treat were the figs served in orange juice. I have never liked figs but I figured they wouldn’t serve them here unless they were good and to my surprise, they were delicious – ate them every day!

Bryan had some freelance work to do after breakfast and I took the time to “zen out” at our pad, with the lodging’s CD collection of peaceful music and a book.

After lunch at the VIP lounge, we made our way South of Sedona for our horseback ride. We met up with Carissa, our guide, and had 2 hours of peaceful enjoyment of some fantastic Arizona landscape. Could not have asked for a better way to experience this region.

Once finished with this ‘Only in Sedona’ experience, we went to see the mumblecore feature Echo Lake preceded by short film Temporary. Following this film, we attended the night’s party at Reds Lounge – we even got interviewed for a local radio station. Fortunately, Christa was at the party again so I was able to properly thank her for such a terrific excursion and a change of pace from the festival.

Wednesday

While Bryan found himself needing to complete yet another round of revisions for his freelance job (one of many recurring jokes during the week) I attended the Producing/Directing panel at Mary Fisher theater. Films represented on the panel: Benjamin Troubles, How to Survive a Breakup, Dating Daisy, Life and Death of an Unhappily Married Man, and 6 Angry Women. I had met Sridhar Reddy, director of 6 Angry Women, at the party last night. After hearing him speak both in person and on the panel about the process, I knew I couldn’t miss his film. As a modern antithesis of classic 12 Angry Men (which is a film that holds up extremely well), his feature is based on the trial of Trayvon Martin’s shooter, which had only 6 women on the jury. Reddy utilized extremely unconventional directing techniques: he worked with the 6 cast members individually for 5 weeks, not telling them what movie they were making, focusing entirely on character development. Finally, 2 days before shooting, he told them they would be playing a jury. The film had no script and was improvised based on themes and a larger trajectory, and was shot in 6 days. He also homages plenty of classic films alongside 12 Angry Men in its style. After hearing all this, I knew I had to see it for myself, and so we did later today.

Sridhar Reddy, 6 Angry Women director is 3rd from left

To start the day, Bryan and I split up to see different movies. I saw Mustang already a few weeks ago in LA and loved it, so wanted to make sure he got a chance to see it. I opted to see an Argentinean film How to Win Enemies, which is a fairly silly comedy about a man who’s been robbed and trying to find which one of his friends betrayed him. It has stylistic similarities to Wild Tales, another film from Argentina I have seen that is far superior. When Bryan and I reconvened, I was excited to hear he loved Mustang as much as I did: that film is truly a class above in so many ways.

At lunch, we ran into filmmakers Bob Celli and Laura Delano who I met at Hollywood North Film Festival last summer! Serentipitous seeing them again. We also met another filmmaker who had crossed paths with Bob and Laura before, Katie Blair, director of Screambox, who we’d see through the remainder of the fest.

In front of every screening, a board member or festival staff introduces the picture, and for our next screening our friend Lew introduced the film and despite the fact that it wasn’t even our film, he threw us a shout-out to the entire audience. He’s a perfect example of just how welcoming the people here at Sedona have been.

The feature film was Sundance alumni (T)error about an FBI informant chasing down a potential terrorist. The story displays the unfortunate reality of racial profiling and the ineffectiveness of a lot of the programs the FBI has set up. While this is a very good documentary, I personally preferred a short film called Entrapped which I saw at Sundance and you can watch online for free!

While I enjoyed this feature, the short film that played in front of it was my favorite short of the festival! Elle, is a Belgian 20-minute short that blends a mix of horror, comedy, and romance seamlessly together toward one great piece. Essentially, the film is about a one-night stand that takes a turn when it becomes clear the woman has something mysterious living in her apartment with her. It’s a near-perfect short and exactly the type of film that I love.

After the screening we met Steve Grant and Bob Loudin, who had been at our film screening earlier this week and gave us great praise! We enjoyed dinner with them at the VIP Lounge and talked about movies and working in film. We would see them throughout the festival and look forward to seeing them some time in LA.

Our last film of the day was the aforementioned 6 Angry Women. Again, I was definitely wary of if the film could live up to its unconventional approach, and sure enough the film did live up to the expectation. It’s a movie that speaks to today’s injustice in a profound way and manages to make sense of the bafflingly unjust result of the trial, and of many others. This was a fantastic film festival movie because by having the filmmaker there allowed for a conversation to begin and further understanding of the larger situation. This is not a film that can be seen in a vacuum. It was also especially cool because Bryan and I watched 12 Angry Men together in college, adding to the power of seeing this one together. The film also played with a short called Condemned, and the writer/producer was present for a Q/A.

Tonight’s party was at the Agave Sedona and we were able to talk with Sridhar a bit further, as well as enjoy some great food from Heartline Café. Another great cap to a fantastic day, as each one continues to feel increasingly fulfilling.

February 24, 2016

Sedona Film Festival: Days 1 & 2

February 24, 2016/ H. Nelson Tracey

Early in January while at home one afternoon, I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize. It was Patrick Schweiss, director of the Sedona Film Festival personally calling to congratulate me for the acceptance of Don’t Tell My Mom as part of their official selection for the 2016 festival! From this immediate first impression (the ordinary festival would've just sent an email), I could tell that this was going to be a special festival experience.

On top of being accepted, I was offered 6 free nights of lodging (!) and 2 all-access passes. I recruited my composer and former roommate Bryan Hume to join me on this adventure, and on Sunday February 21, we hit the road for a weeklong excursion in Sedona. We were in for a delight in every way possible!

Sunday

Starting with a fantastic drive, 8 hours of catching up after months of Bryan and I not seeing each other, we made our way from LA/OC to Sedona, and made it to our lodging in time to catch a beautiful sunset. We stayed at the Briar Patch Inn, which was essentially a Zen mountain center: tucked away to the North of Sedona with beautiful grounds and a creek running by it. The woman who gave us our keys added to this mystique by the way she described the place. We’d learn that most of the other filmmakers were staying at more conventional hotels, some how we lucked out and stayed here!

After checking into this fantastic getaway (and plenty of honeymoon jokes) we treated ourselves to a delicious dinner at Pisa Lisa, a locally owned restaurant that we went to merely because it was close to the festival headquarters but it had some of the most delicious pizza flavors I’ve ever had! We loved it so much we ate here again later in the week.

Now we checked into the VIP Lounge, got our passes, and enjoyed our first of the nightly parties hosted by the festival. Every night there would be a 9pm party at a new venue with free drinks and food! And we found out that lunch and dinner was served in the Lounge every day: including our breakfast served at the Inn, we wouldn’t have to pay for a single meal for the week! This is where the festival began to feel like an idyllic alternate reality.

We found from the very first night that the parties were a fantastic way to meet a mixture of filmmakers, festival board members, VIP guests, and local residents. We befriended board member Lew Hoyt the first night and he’d continue to be one of our biggest supporters through the fest – he pitched our film better than we did! The festival currency was Lobby Cards (see photo below) and I am thankful to Eric Otten for the suggestion that I bring them to Sedona as a way to get the word out about the film. Things only could get better from here!

Monday

Kicking off our first day with a 12pm showing of our film, Don’t Tell My Mom. This one was in the small theater and every seat was filled! The audience laughed at every joke and applauded tremendously: I’ve come to realize the film plays the best among crowds of people who have kids of their own. Screening followed with a Q+A with some great questions about writing, budget, production, music, credits, and more: we made sure to ham it up and make as fun of answers as possible since those are my favorite types of Q/A. When asked if we had told our moms about the film (a recurring question through the fest), Bryan got the biggest laugh when he said “My mom is pretty much the mom from this movie.”

Our screening was followed by the documentary Very Semi-Serious, which is an in-depth look at the New Yorker cartoons and cartoonists. As someone who grew up with New Yorkers always around the house, this was an excellent look at their significance and creation, and how each one is an expression of the eccentric artists behind them. I also have a connection to the film’s DP Kirsten Johnson, who directed Cameraperson which was one of the best movies I saw at Sundance.

MV5BMTc1NTUyMTYzMl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjE0NDkxMjE@._V1._SY209_CR1,0,140,209_.jpg

Next up we attended the world premiere of Lost & Found, due to the fact that we had met the director Joseph Itaya in line the night before: one of the best parts about the festival was meeting filmmakers and then scheduling their movies afterwards. Lost & Found is essentially a Hardy Boys novel come to life, with some great family-friendly mystery and spectacular locations in the Pacific Northwest. Cary Elwes (The Princess Bride, Saw) plays the ultimate Scooby-Doo style villain and has a blast doing so. The film was accompanied by the short We Detected Your Footage May Be Shaky, and I loved how the festival usually programmed shorts with features as an opportunity to see more projects!

We enjoyed catered lunch and dinner in the VIP Lounge with a new restaurant every day – only one day didn’t provide vegetarian options, but otherwise the food was always delicious! Equally as important, these were the best chances to meet people throughout the week.

Next up was a program not in the world of film but that of theater: Dr. Keeling’s Curve is a one-man-show starring Mike Farrell (who I admittedly hadn’t heard of but was a star on MASH) as the scientist who first started researching carbon dioxide. The play was a terrific exploration of one man’s life in parallel with the increasingly dangerous climate change and global warming. I appreciated how up-to-date the play felt, including mention of the effect of the meat industry, the frozen methane, and the current refugee crisis which are all related to the bigger issue at hand. I hope that this message can reach audiences all over the country, and had a chance to meet Mike Farrell and thank him at the after party.

By the 9pm party it had already felt like we’d been here for a long time but it had barely been 24 hours! We’d often run into the festival director, Patrick Schweiss, who is the heart and soul of the Sedona festival, and his exuberant energy exemplifies how wonderful an experience this place is. A huge highlight of this night’s party was that I met Christa, the manager of Horsin’ Around Adventures. After a nice conversation, she set us up with a horseback ride for the next day!

October 01, 2015

Street Art of Bogota

October 01, 2015/ H. Nelson Tracey

After three days of following Lonnie in Colombia, two of which were during his exchanges with emerald sellers in Bogota, he recommended I take the following day to go on my own, both to see the city for myself and to get some different footage for our project. I couldn’t have been more grateful for the opportunity to do some exploring and get to know the city a bit better.

I chose to go on a free tour of Bogota’s graffiti and street art. I couldn’t help but notice it everywhere and it would be a more unique way to learn about the city. Through it I learned so many more details that I would’ve otherwise glossed over. Here’s are some highlights from this experience. I met the small tour group at 10am and we began walking through La Candelaria, a famous neighborhood in the heart of Bogota.

The first piece of information shared on the tour was that Bogota is one of the few cities in the world where it is not illegal to do graffiti. Not surprisingly, it is everywhere as a result. Unlike other cities where most graffiti is done quickly and discretely, here in Bogota plenty of artists take their time to create powerful, memorable pieces.

Despite not being illegal, police officers can still give out fines, and they often will still harass anyone doing graffiti. Due to the corrupt and unmonitored nature of the police, they are not well-received among anyone doing street art. One particularly comical story is worth repeating: a few years back, international pop star Justin Bieber came to Bogota to perform a concert. During his visit, he decided he wanted to give street art a try himself! The same police officers who would harass and fine artists proceeded to escort Bieber around from place to place in the city and set up barricades while he did graffiti. Not to be had by the hypocrisy (not to mention his work was rubbish allegedly), numerous artists followed him around and would immediately cover up anything he did, amongst tweens trying to stop them from destroying their idol’s creations.

Most of the art carries a social or political message. However, in order to avoid being censored, it almost always is symbolic imagery instead of a direct message. The tour guide (a street artist himself) told a story of how in response to the US’s Fair Trade Agreement with Colombia, he put an image of Obama surrounded by Colombian pesos with the message: “Obama loves Colombia.” It was removed within 24 hours. He recreated the same image but without the slogan, and it was left up for 2 weeks. The more symbolic, the longer the message can have lasting power. That being said, many pieces are still simply art for the sake of art.

Thanks to the tour, it became much easier to know which pieces were by what artists thanks to their distinctive styles. A few prominent artists are extremely prolific. My favorite one is a stencil artist by the name of DJ LU. All throughout the city, he has plastered a distinct series of stencil-based pieces with a clear, provocative message. The work can speak for itself – here are a few of my favorites.

this is a reference to the american company "dole," which has destroyed forests and entire livelihoods after a fair trade agreement with the us was established that benefitted corporations growing fruit in colombia

dj lu - his signature can be found on all his work - i love this design

These incredible pieces can be found all over, and I’m sure there were plenty that I didn’t see. It inspired me with a few similar ideas for my own work.

The tour ended with a large commissioned wall in downtown by three prominent artists including DJ LU. The far left image is especially powerful. In Northern parts of Colombia, where the cities are too remote and hilly for taxi cabs, there are poor people who essentially work as human taxis by carrying the more wealthy up mountains or wherever they’re going. The class divide is universal but here is applied specifically to Colombia. The poor person is being pulled forward by birds, innocent creatures attempting to pull him free. He is being weighed down by the pressures of society: TV, religion, an automobile, and money (specifically an American dollar sign).

I can imagine there is even more to the image that I didn’t gather as well. Again, this incredible, powerfully metaphorical imagery is distinctive to Bogota.

So ended this phenomenal tour. Once everyone had left I thanked the tour guide and he revealed to me that he was one of the artists mentioned on the tour, but kept anonymous for his own safety. For lunch, per his recommendation, I went to a local place called Crepes and Waffles, whose distinguishing feature is that every one of their staff is a single mother! Talk about an empowering business model, not to mention the food was delicious.

I enjoyed the remainder of my day off, and checked out the night scene of Bogota later on, but the highlight remained the street art and gaining a new appreciation for an element that permeates everywhere you walk in Bogota.

September 28, 2015

Nighttime Adventure to the Colombian Mines

September 28, 2015/ H. Nelson Tracey

**This is the first of two blog posts focused on specific parts of my recent trip to Colombia**

Getting hired to simultaneously travel and make movies is a job I couldn’t have dreamed I’d land within 6 months of graduation. Alas, thanks to Peter Henry and Market Square Jewelers, I found myself in Bogota this last week following around Lonnie McCullough as he collected emeralds to be turned into beautiful jewelry.

For majority of the trip, I filmed Lonnie as he sought out the best emeralds with sellers in Bogota. “Limpio” was the key word: clean emeralds without any noticeable blemishes. You’d be surprised how few he even considered, let alone purchased, amongst the thousands offered for sale. But within 24 hours of arriving, we had another adventure to attend to.

At 9pm on Monday night Lonnie and I were picked up at our hotel in Bogota for an overnight tour of the mines, a trip we had only made arrangements for that afternoon. Jairo and Orlando would be our guides. Essentially I found myself among 3 people I had recently met (Lonnie and I met the day before in the Houston airport), 2 of whom only spoke Spanish, driving in a Jeep to an unknown destination. For the first hour, still within the city limits, I had my first opportunity ever to actually utilize the Spanish I spent years in classrooms practicing. By 10pm, the roads we took changed drastically. The road into the mountains wasn’t made of pavement or even dirt: it was made of rock, and essentially felt like climbing uphill in a Jeep going full speed. I felt every single bump as we were jostled about only being held in place by a seat belt. Sleeping wasn’t even close to an option and the noise made conversation impossible. At first, there was plenty to look at in the light of the headlights, primarily farms and animals of all kinds (dogs, chickens, horses) hanging out alongside the road. As we got further into the mountains, this diminished.

By 11:30pm, the roads were almost entirely trees on either side. I can’t remember the last time I was this car sick. . After an hour of this the feeling crept from my stomach to my head. “Two and a half hours, certainly it couldn’t be too much longer,” was the only thought I had as my body reached delirium.

We reached a town. This is it! It wasn’t it. The mountain roads continued. At some point we took a wrong turn – there was no distinguishing these mountain roads at night, and after reaching a dead end, retraced our tracks and kept the same pace and the same level of bumpiness. Surely it couldn’t be much longer? I turned to Lonnie who similarly had no idea how far we had to go. At one point around a bend, Orlando showed the first signs of slowing the relentless pace. Almost there? He spoke quickly in Spanish so I couldn’t hear what he said. I asked Lonnie what he said: “He said that a month ago someone was shot right there.”

At 12:30am the car stopped and Orlando got out to pee. The break was more than welcome as I thought I was going to burst. As he got back in the car Lonnie leaned forward and asked how much longer we had to go. “Dos mas horas.”

I laughed in disbelief. We were scarcely halfway through the madness. Yet somehow, in knowing the amount of time that remained on this wild journey through the night, all of my symptoms slipped away. I was no longer anticipating being “done” with the trip, I was now fully aware of how much lay ahead. And the journey was a mix of agony and humor. It was now an opportunity for my brain to run free with no expectation other than to endure. I could think about anything I wanted. I thought about people I cared about, future travel ideas, as well as more trivial manners. In such a turbulent ride it was impossible to be bored. But there is not much better of a place to let the mind wander than in the back of a Jeep in a foreign country.

The two hour mark from when we had stopped came and went. I didn’t mind. Knowing this journey would be so long made it more palatable. Shortly after 3am, we turned off the road and somehow found ourselves at our stopping point. From sitting in the backseat, I have no idea how the driver was able to distinguish any landmarks on this road at night, but we made it!

We’d be spending the night on a farm where I local politician lived. She had extra bedrooms in her house presumably for migrant miners to rent out. This was the type of place travel junkies seek out: far off the beaten path and among the company of locals. It was quick to bed with an early morning ahead of us.

The following day we started in Muzo and made our way through the mountains to visit 3 mines. We had anticipated seeing more industrial scale mining operations, but all of the places we went were much more small scale projects. The only point of access was on these same types of insanely bumpy roads, yet during the day it wasn’t particularly bothersome because of the spectacular view and being divided up by occasional stops.

Overall, this adventure not only would make for a great story and a great feature of the documentary, but allowed me to see Colombia beyond the city and witness the spectacular countryside. More will be shared on this experience. For my next blog post, I’ll be focusing specifically on my experience in Bogota, and my experience there.

August 13, 2015

Bernie Sanders Rally: A Firsthand Experience

August 13, 2015/ H. Nelson Tracey

Last Monday I was one of 27,500 people who attended the Los Angeles Bernie Sanders rally in the Memorial Coliseum on USC’s campus. I have no intention of hiding my support for the Vermont senator’s campaign for the next President of the United States. I first heard about Bernie through fellow supporter Madison Schutt and admittedly thought it to be one of those candidates who was too good to ever get past the first rounds. I was not the only one who felt this way, and over the last 2 months I have followed as Bernie has gone from being a total outsider’s choice to now being tied with Hillary Clinton in the current New Hampshire primary poll. Considering that the campaign’s biggest weakness is its lack of knowledge and name recognition of the candidate, I have committed to posting my support online as another way to spread the word. This is a grassroots campaign and will need help from every supporter if it is going to work.
On Monday I attended the rally with 2 fellow Berners (not sure if that’s an official word yet) Madison Schutt and Niki Russo. We arrived at 3:45pm and were within the first 500 people in line. While we waited I brought markers and a poster so that we could make a sign. Niki and I put together a badass, double sided sign declaring our support. The front side was the fun, simple and eye-catching side, and the back had in big bold letters all the reasons we supported him and the question, “Why wouldn’t you vote for him?”

The sign ended up being a big hit among fellow rally attendees and the press. We were Instagrammed, tweeted, featured on a local news page, and an LA Times photographer asked me to be one of the rally attendees that he profiled. Here are some links, evidence if you will:

LA Times 1 (see the video, we are the cover image and at 3:00)

LA Times 2 (scroll to 6:06pm)

Tweeted by LA Times Photographer Marcus Yam

Unfortunately, signs were not permitted inside the auditorium, so I had to leave it outside, where it unsurprisingly was not there when I returned. The sign had a short but fulfilling lifespan.

Doors opened at 6:00pm and once inside we made our way to the very front of the floor area. Getting there early paid off: we were within 20 feet of the stage! So close that once the show started we didn’t even notice the massive projections on the sides for people who didn’t have as good of a view. Over the next hour anticipation brewed and for me it still hadn’t fully clicked that I was about to see this guy in person, surrounded by thousands of other supporters. We watched as the back rows and the top of the stadium filled up bit by bit.

Eventually, the time came, the stage lights came out, and out came the first speakers to enormous applause. The evening’s MC was a woman named Symone Sanders, and her first statement after welcoming the rapturous crowd was about the importance of Black Lives Matter (not just ‘All Lives’ specifically Black Lives) and how much Bernie Sanders supported that cause. Talk about a fantastic way to positively counter the backlash that happened in Seattle.

Before the man himself came out, 6 incredible pre-speakers gave powerful pieces that were each a rally cry for a different facet of Bernie Sanders campaign. Incredibly, there are no news outlets that covered the specifics of the rally, so I decided to do the legwork myself. All these speeches were rousing for the area of the campaign they represented. Here’s a brief summary of the speakers, in order of how they were introduced by Symone Sanders:

Joe Galliani – 350.org Los Angeles – First up was a rousing speech about the realities of climate change and how no other candidate has been so proudly supportive than Bernie Sanders. 350.org is a national organization, but Joe works locally with environmental issues. The guy was extremely charismatic and everyone in the crowd responded with overwhelming enthusiasm. It’s time for politicians to take action on climate change.

Maria Barrera – Coalition for the Human Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles – Speaking on Sanders support of immigration reform, Ms. Barerra had a touching story of her own, at age 17 was an undocumented worker, to ten years later now helping those who come to the US all get a fair chance. Tears were present as she spoke of her struggle, and again was able to rally the crowd with the message of “Si Se Puede” and a clear message that Bernie Sanders supports immigration reform.

National Nurses United – I can’t find anywhere online that says the name of the woman who spoke, but she announced this Union’s official endorsement of Bernie Sanders, and the importance of strengthening organizations that look out for people and not mega corporations.

Dante Harris- flight attendants union – Another LA local from a union of flight attendants passionately spoke about the atrocity that United Airlines filed for bankruptcy and years later the results have only encouraged more layoffs and higher profits and salaries for the CEO’s.

Sarah Silverman – comedian – Sure enough, a big surprise guest came out in the form of comedian Sarah Silverman, adding some celebrity support to the campaign. With a perfect balance of comedy and sincerity, it was Silverman, a fellow New Englander it turns out, who would introduce the man himself, Bernie Sanders.

And out he came: it was impossible not to be excited after such great speakers. Accompanied with his wife, Bernie took the podium. The guy is a dynamo. After quite a while of cheers he was finally able to get started. If you want a taste of what it was like in full, check out this video of the entire speech. With his thick Brooklyn accent and no bullshit approach, for the next hour Bernie spoke in a seamless continuation about the variety of topics he wants to work on. This is a campaign about the people more than anything else. Climate change, women’s rights, social justice, education, and the redistribution of wealth, it was all there. Of course I alongside everyone else could not help but cheer for all of the talking points we agreed on. But one in particular stood out. Toward the end, Bernie said, “I not only ask for your help with this campaign. I am asking for your help the day the campaign is over!”

When the speech ended I wasn’t even expecting it: at some point it all became a blur, not out of disinterest but out of the surreal excitement mixed with having been standing for a very long time. As the crowd began to disperse, suddenly everyone rushed to the front: Bernie was making his way to wave alongside the crowd! I rushed to the only open spot I could find, and amidst a mob of people, I actually managed to shake Bernie’s hand!

Amidst all this excitement, I can’t express enough how bizarre it is for me to go from being close to indifferent toward politics to finding a candidate who I genuinely believe in. This isn’t about democrats or republicans for me, it’s about this specific candidate who I believe can take our country where it needs to go. I don’t want to over saturate my support for him because I know how tiresome those people can be on social media, but let it be abundantly clear I greatly support this candidate and more importantly his platform. Most of what happens is out of my hands, but I hope to continue to spread the message and explain just what is so great about Bernie Sanders. A successful rally and an optimistic future going forward!

July 20, 2015

Day 4/5 - Return home from HNFF

July 20, 2015/ H. Nelson Tracey

July 19 and 20

            My film festival events were now over, but judging from my trip over, I knew I still had a journey ahead of me. For all of the wonderful things I can say about Belleville, it is in no way an easy destination from Los Angeles, but perhaps that was part of the fun.
            After a leisurely morning at home, I packed up and departed Heidy’s wonderful home to walk to the train station. On Sunday, everything is closed, something that still feels foreign compared to anywhere I’ve lived. The only place I saw was open was the pub! It was a warm day that allowed me to soak in the serenity of Belleville one last time.
            The station itself felt state of the art – I noticed it said it was built in 2012 – and next to it was an older, out of use station that matched the quaint limestone style of Belleville. Unlike my train ride over, which was sparse and mellow, the train ride into Toronto was completely sold out and every seat full! Due to a de-railing that had happened last night, we had to stop for about an hour halfway to the city. For part of the journey out the window was torrential rain, but by the time we arrived in Toronto it had settled. As was the case on my way over, getting from Union Station to Bishop Billy airport was relatively easy. I was still anticipating a very short window of time in Chicago that I would need every minute of.

Unfortunately I was not going to make it this trip without having to pay for my error in flight reservation. A 30 minute delay of my flight from Toronto ® Midway would ruin any chance of making my second flight. I landed in Midway and made it through customs with 30 minutes to travel 45 minutes by cab and rush through security to catch the flight. This time, it wasn’t worth trying. Fortunately, I was able to call United and reschedule a flight for the next day (albeit at a cost), leaving me to figure out where to stay for the night.
The first person I called ended up being my answer: Eric “Percy” Sirvinskas, who I hadn’t seen since December due to his semester in Cape Town, was welcoming enough to let me crash for the night with him and his family. As fortune would have it, he also lives very close to O’Hare. I took the train across town as the sun set on Chicago, and made it to Eric’s station around 9:30pm.
It would only be a few hours since Eric had work in the morning, but it couldn’t have been a better place to stop and catch up with an old friend after 7 months apart. As usual we had more than enough to talk about, both the minute and the profound, but generally circulating around what lies in store for both of us in the future. For Eric, it’s senior year and for me it’s the great blank page of post-grad life. I also had the pleasure of meeting Eric’s entire family, and especially got to know his older brother Adam, who by coincidence had just read a book about one of my favorite organizations! (RoadMap by RoadTrip Nation, available here:http://theonlybookyouneed.com/)

In the morning I very briefly said goodbye to Eric, then was taken to the airport by Adam in what turned out to be a perfectly great extra night of my trip. During this venture I watched Wild Taleson my computer, a perfect film for the trip because it is actually 6 short films compiled into an anthology, and therefore could watch it bit by bit even when interrupted by changing planes or trains. This Argentinean film is a darkly hilarious series of shorts each with a certain level of absurdity to it, and with nothing in common with one another other than this theme. It was nominated for the Foreign Language Oscar last year, and rightfully so – it’s a master of storytelling and defies most conventions we see in movies today. As you can gather I thoroughly recommend it.

I arrived in LA by 3:00pm and returned back to the usual pace of the city, after a nice break from routine. If you’ve taken the time to read this, thanks for being a part of my trip - I’m very happy to have made it!

July 18, 2015

Day 3 (Shorts, Sand Banks, Wine & Cheese) - Hollywood North Film Festival

July 18, 2015/ H. Nelson Tracey

In the morning I ventured over to Trenton, the third city hosting the festival, since I wouldn’t make it over otherwise. On my way I also checked out Loyalist college, where numerous of the festival filmmakers attended or worked. Unbeknownst to me Trenton was hosting a fair of their own, and as I arrived along a river were large boats of dragon racers! If you’re unfamiliar (as I was), it’s essentially equivalent to modern day Viking boats in a race, with rows of 2 people paddling on one side, and someone in the back banging a drum for rhythm. Cool stuff.

After lunch I headed back to Belleville to catch my next block of films:

Films in Block #7: We All Go the Same, I’ll Take Care of You, White Lines (filmmaker in attendance), Memories, Helio

Jodi and Victor were in attendance and also headed to the 4:00pm screening in Picton, where they would be screening their short film Mercy. They kindly let me ride over with them, and this time driving to Picton it was a spectacular sunny day. The two of them explained to me what the Loyalists were (the namesake of their university) and we discussed other interesting elements of their local culture. They explained Canadians have the most mixed up hybrid of the metric system and the non-Metric system, combining the two and using various elements in different situations. For example, they measure their height in feet the way Americans do, but their driver’s license has it in centimeters!

Films in Block #2: Getting Ready for a Lunch Date, Duality, Contact, Sineater, Mercy (filmmakers in attendance)

This block was the only one with some sort of theme involved, as each movie was some sort of horror/thriller. Overall, I think that made for the best set in that the collective had a common feel. When it comes to programming festivals, I definitely think this has a positive impact on the overall viewing experience.
Since Mercy was a local film, not only were Victor and Jodi involved in the Q+A but many of their cast and crew was present as well! Sure enough Jacob the festival organizer had a small role as one of the many victims gruesomely murdered. What’s fun about the local film scenes is that it does bring a crew together in ways that are much more unique that cities like LA where film sets are so much more commonplace.
In the lobby, some of the festival patrons asked us filmmakers how we expected to make money off the shorts. The quick answer is that you don’t go into short filmmaking expecting a return on your investments. For me, the answer is that with every film you hope to gain traction and experience that can lead to bigger and better things.
With another window of time before my final event of the festival, a filmmaker wine & cheese reception, Bob and Laura wanted to check out the famous Sandbanks Provincial Park, and I happily asked to tag along. While none of us were dressed for the beach, we rolled up our pants and took off our shoes and nonetheless enjoyed this incredible park. Photographs are difficult to fully capture it. This unusual spot is a strange mix of dunes and beach, with large mounds of sand surrounded by water. Everyone said that this was the must see spot in the Bay of Quinte and you could see why: it was a picturesque day and everyone else was swimming. In attending this festival, it can’t be understated how much I enjoyed just visiting the area, just as rewarding as the festival itself.

Spending time with Bob and Laura was fantastic as well and as I mentioned before it truly felt as though we were able to get to know one another instead of some festivals where you do little more than swap business cards. Driving around the area and sharing stories about filmmaking and life itself was a real treat.

Sandbanks Provincial Park (so massive/unique photos can't fully capture)

Next up was the wine & cheese reception at the Three Dog Winery, further North on Price Edward Island. Good refreshments and great company. All of the familiar faces that I’ve mentioned and got to know at the festival were present, as well as a few new ones who I hadn’t crossed paths with yet. This was a perfect way to cap off the entire experience by socializing amongst many small groups of people and getting to know everyone just a little bit better. Lastly, Bob and Laura drove me back, following Victor and Jodi who knew the best way to Belleville. We all said goodbye and parted ways with new friendships beginning amongst fellow filmmakers from varied parts of the continent. So ended a unique and community based experience in attending the inaugural Hollywood North Film Festival!

July 17, 2015

Day 2 (Film Screenings and Filmmakers) - Hollywood North Film Festival

July 17, 2015/ H. Nelson Tracey

HEIDY'S HOME IN BELLEVILLE - WHERE I STAYED FOR THE FESTIVAL DURATION, AVAILABLE ON AIRBNB

            I woke up around 9:00am to accept Heidy’s offer of breakfast, and was met with all sorts of goodies: croissants, fresh jam, yummy cheeses, banana bread, yogurt, blueberries, and coffee in a scrumptious, Swiss-style breakfast. Heidy and her boyfriend were great company for the meal. We discussed all kinds of topics, including mental disabilities, Indians (or “First Nations” as they’re called here because American Indian would be misleading) and of course she wanted to know all about my family and in turn I learned about hers as well.
            She was interested in my film’s subject matter and the topics of my openly discussing sexuality. Heidy and her daughter wrote an op-ed in the newspaper complaining after the paper published the faces/names of prostitute clients who had been busted because they were shaming these men in a way that would ruin their lives in a small town when they should have been shaming the pimps. In Switzerland prostitution is legal and so there is less trafficking and women have more rights. It isn’t looked upon with the same level of scorn. It was refreshing to hear someone of a different generation speaking about these topics in a well-read manner.
            Unfortunately Heidy and her boyfriend were actually on their way out of town that day so this would be the last I saw of them. As if Heidy had not already done enough to make me feel welcome, she offered me the use of her car while she was gone so that I could get down to Picton where some of the festival events were. This is truly someone who goes above and beyond to make an individual feel welcome, and I couldn’t have picked a better place to stay.
            Now it was time to explore Belleville. My film would be playing in the first block of short films at 2pm, so I had a solid few hours to get to know the town. Heidy lived a short walk from main street, and all I had to do to get there was go straight and cross a little foot bridge over a river.

Belleville is like many small towns in that it has a small downtown full of boutiques and locally owned shops. It reminded me a bit of Cape Cod or upstate New York. I have been to Ontario once before this trip (on my road trip around the US I ducked into Canada briefly) and one distinctive feature of the region is the limestone buildings. They are all over the area.
Once in downtown, I strolled into a variety of shops and got my bearings. One particular feature of note: in every shop I entered, the owner of the store would greet me, and sometimes begin a conversation. I spent the most time at the Bicycle/Hobby store, where the owner was an old timer and we talked about model trains (you may or may not know I wrote a film about the subject). There was also a board game store with countless games I had never heard of. I learned this weekend that board games are much more popular here than they are stateside. The games all were complex and for adults – one in particular called “Ticket to Ride” had all kinds of expansion packs and clearly people kept up with them. In the back of the store a group of guys were sitting around tables playing some type of fantasy board game.

DOWNTOWN BELLEVILLE (NOTE THE LIMESTONE BUILDINGS, COMMON IN THE REGION)

Further along, I noticed the town’s dive bar had a prominent gay rights sticker, which I assume shows their support with recent events, which is a nice juxtaposition. But the most unusual mix was yet to come. It didn’t take me long to find that Belleville had its own sex shop! Considering I had flown in with a film on the very subject, I couldn’t avoid stopping here! The name of the store: Extasy Shops.
The inside of the shop was pretty standard. I told the owner I was screening a film on the subject in just a little while. His response, “Oh, interesting. Well, everything is 20% off today.” The best part of about the store was actually it’s location - I’ll let you see for yourself:

COMMUNITY OF CHRIST DIRECTLY ADJACENT TO ECSTASY SHOPS - ONLY IN BELLEVILLE I GUESS!

I’m happy that the two can be neighbors, and wonder what the story behind it is! It began to rain just in time for me to head to the theater. I welcome the sight of rain as it is a rarity in Los Angeles.

Films in Block #8: Waiting Game, Plastic Glory, Pietro’s Room, Don’t Tell My Mom

The audience was quite small, in part due to the fact that it was a large theater in which it was playing. I was no doubt the youngest in attendance, with most of the crowd in the 40+ demographic. This was the first screening I had done in front of people I didn’t know, and most did not know that I was in the audience. I was mostly thankful for one woman who managed to laugh at every joke – if she wanted, I would take her with me to every screening I go to.
At the Q+A run by festival organizer Jacob I was asked about the inspiration, and the process of making it. When opened up to the audience, they asked me about my interest in the genre of comedy as I had mentioned that I had favored drama but loved the story enough to pursue this one. I am glad I challenged myself, and it also helped to not take the filmmaking experience too seriously even when it was tense, and I believe the most pristine films can find elements of both genres (or are above categorization if you will). The last question was about the music, which I was happy to answer as it was a special point of pride. All of the music was 100% original and composed by my former roommate and great friend Bryan Hume, who I have collaborated with on three short films and am already working on a fourth with! It was a fun experience talk about the film and everyone seemed happy (and again surprised) I was all the way out in Belleville.

THE REGENT THEATER (CIRCA 2013, PHOTO FROM ERAARCH)

Now I was headed over to Picton for another set of shorts at 4:00pm. This was a 30 minute drive, and was again thankful to Heidy without whom I wouldn’t have a way to get over there. As I ventured on the rainy drive through the bay countryside, I had no idea how far along I was because of the very few signs. Fortunately it was a straight shot once I was on the right road. It was time to see another small town in the Bay of Quinte.

Films in Block #1: Fox Point (Filmmaker in attendance), Uncertain, TX, Figs for Italo (filmmaker in attendance), Companion, Winter’s Journey

At the Regent theater the volunteers informed me that there was a filmmakers section of the theater, and sure enough, they gave us the best seats in the house: a balcony with an unobstructed view of the historic theater above the rest of the patrons. Here I met the group of filmmakers who I would be spending the rest of my festival experience with: Bob Celli and Laura Delano, the husband/wife team from NYC behind Figs for Italo, Victor and Jodi Cooper, another husband/wife team local to Belleville behind Mercy, and Lesley Butler, local student film producer of Clinch. Needless to say it was fun to have a group of people who were similarly excited about screening their films.
The film block was introduced by one of the festival organizers Robert, whom I saw earlier that day. Robert runs a local movie theater, and every time I saw him or he introduced a film he exuded the passion that made this film festival unique: I could tell he was just genuinely stoked that the festival was even happening.

FIGS FOR ITALO, SHORT FILM BY BOB CELLI AND LAURA DELANO

There was a Q+A for Bob about Figs for Italo, a film based on his own family’s story and therefore a very personal short film, and then two filmmakers of Fox Point showed up just in time from Toronto: Jacq Andrade and Mark Cira.
After the block we had just under 2 hours until the evening’s feature, which most of us were planning on attending. What else to do but get dinner and drinks? 7 of us filmmakers went to a local bar. Representing filmmaking in Toronto, Belleville, New York, and Southern California, we all had plenty to discuss and enjoyed sharing stories and experiences. Because there were just a handful of filmmakers, we were able to get to know each other extremely well and actually spend more than one encounter together – this is extremely unique to a film festival experience. We’d not only share this dinner but plenty more the following day.
Our evening was followed with a feature film, Johnny Walker, a Marché du Film (subsidiary of Cannes) Festival alum. The Belgian film is a story of a self-indulgent writer attempting to form a connection with a pregnant woman who may or may not be his daughter. Once again, it left plenty of discussion for us filmmakers. After the film, I drove home to Belleville, this time in heavy rain, so for much of the drive all I could really see were the oncoming headlights of cars going the other direction. Regardless, made it home without any trouble, another successful day completed.

July 16, 2015

Adventuring to the Bay of Quinte and the inaugural Hollywood North Film Festival

July 16, 2015/ H. Nelson Tracey

A lengthy summary of my experience last weekend heading to a festival screening Don't Tell My Mom. Please enjoy!
Festival information: http://www.hnff.ca/

Day 1 (The Journey Over)

            My trip to Belleville began at 4:00am with my first ever Über ride (I officially live in LA now) to LAX catching my flight to Chicago. I had no idea that I was in for one of the most hectic travels days I have yet encountered. Upon landing in Chicago, I casually strolled through O’Hare airport and decided to ask for help to find my gate. My flight from Chicago ® Toronto was on a small airline, Porter Airways, so I would probably need to do some walking.
            As I asked the info desk, I noticed something that I had failed to register so far: this flight was flying out of Midway airport, not O’Hare! My situation quickly changed from relaxed to frantic:
            “How far away is Midway?!”
            “An hour an a half by train”
            “My flight leaves in that amount of time!”
Without any hesitation I ran out the airport, hopped in the nearest cab, and told him to step on it across town to Midway airport, with every second counting! As someone from Denver, I never questioned there might by two different airports I would be using in the same city. If there’s any benefit to this honest mistake, it’s that now that I’ve made it and you are reading this, it will prevent the mistake from happening again.
            My cab driver was not in as much of a hurry as I was, and still had important updates to check on his cell phone as he drove. Regardless, we made it across town in a solid 50 minutes, not bad considering the traffic, and with 25 minutes until departure. I paid with cash and booked it through the airport, cutting the security line as politely as one can, thankful for the fact that nobody was skeptical of my urgency. Running for the last segment, I made it with 10 minutes until boarding, catching my breath with relief. My fellow passengers seemed amused by my crazy mishap that had brought me here.

After a relatively brisk flight to Bishop Billy Airport in Toronto, I took the shuttle to Union Station and made it right on time to catch the final leg of the trip: a train! Complete with wi-fi, food for purchase, and a porter whom I befriended, the sparsely full train was a terrific way to experience the beautiful countryside. In comparison to the endless urban jungle of Southern California, the train offered a spectacular view of green pastures alongside the vast Lake Ontario. The 6:00pm (or should I say 18:00) sunlight could not have made it any more picturesque.

Over the course of today’s journey, I watched Beyond the Lights on my computer, one of last year’s critically acclaimed movies. It’s a great film and had I seen it sooner I would have recommended it more. Essential viewing for anyone interested in media representation of women and non-white individuals, and manages to cover an entire gauntlet of extremely relevant topics all while remaining a powerful love story. I also just watched What Happened Miss Simone? on Netflix and Nina Simone’s music plays a pivotal role in this film so was happy to have context. Both those movie are streaming on Netflix - I highly recommend them.
As I exited the train at 7:30pm I was met by a woman I only recognized by her Hollywood North Film Festival (HNFF) badge. “Are you Nelson?” she asked: this was festival organizer Jacob’s mother! She was here to take me to the opening night.
A common theme from the festival itself begins here – this is a new festival and everyone involved strove to express a strong feeling of community and a welcoming attitude. I was picked up in a 1970 Monte Carlo by Jacob’s mother and a driver, and taken directly over to the Empire Theater where opening night was just beginning. I dropped off my bag behind the counter and was immediately brought in for an interview regarding my film.

The Empire Theatre in Belleville, Ontario

I began to meet as many different people as I could, nearly all of whom were from the Bay of Quinte region. Everyone was quite surprised to see that I had made it in all the way from Los Angeles – it’s the other side of a continent after all - after today’s journey I can see how it seems so far. I met another student filmmaker, Nick Roy, who had his film in the festival as well, and we headed inside for the feature.
The opening night film was a Swedish movie called The Philosopher King. I had many critiques of the film but was able to talk through with Nick whom I sat next to. After the film ended, the festival volunteers offered to take me to my accommodations. Two volunteers, both age 18, offered to drive me to my AirBnb. Ironically enough neither were from Belleville so I ended up giving them directions because I had looked it up in anticipation of walking there after the festival.

I met Heidy, my AirBnb host, who rightfully so has immaculate reviews on the website. A Swiss born woman, Heidy has lived in Belleville for 40 years and is retired. She not only has an empty bedroom she uses for AirBnb, but also hosts 2 foster children and 2 adults with mental disabilities. I was greeted with fresh fruit in my room, a cozy bed, and the promise of a hot breakfast in the morning. After a long day of travel, I could hardly ask for more: I made it to Belleville!

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