Our film festival suggestions

Earlier this month, after we submitted "Out Here In Kansas" to the Tallgrass Film Festival, I asked readers which other festivals we should consider.
The suggestions so far ....

* Cannes Film Festival

* FilmOut (San Diego)

* Frameline (San Francisco)

* North Carolina Gay & Lesbian Film Festival

* Outfest (Los Angeles)

* Slamdance

* Sundance

Have any you'd like to add to this list? Let us know!

Laying low

Things have slowed down considerably since we completed Out Here In Kansas this summer. but we've put the downtime to good use. We're in the process of finalizing a new website, which will of course include this blog. Stay tuned.

Our first festival submission

Over the Fourth of July weekend, we finally submitted "Our Here In Kansas" to our first film festival. We hope to make our world premiere in October at the Tallgrass Film Festival in Wichita.
Do you know of a film festival that would be a good fit for us? Please let me know about it.

Boom boom pow

As I've mentioned on this blog before, when it came to the making of "Out Here In Kansas," we learned to celebrate the milestones.
Having test screenings at a film festival is most definitely a milestone. Bless her heart, my thoughtful friend Christine realized that. She gave me several party poppers for Kenny and I to celebrate with our supporters, then took this cute little video of us doing just that.

What a weekend

I did not promote this, but "Out Here In Kansas" had a handful of test screenings over the
weekend at the Doc Sunback Film Festival in Mulvane.
The audiences were small, between 10 and 20 people. But one of the screenings included my parents, and it was the first time anyone from my family has seen it. (It also happened to be their 54th wedding anniversary, and they celebrated in style by hitting up the buffet at Mulvane's own Kansas Star Casino.)
For the record, my parents said they loved it and thought I had portrayed both conservative Christians and the LGBT community in a fair light. That was cool, and they're the most supportive parents ever, but it was a little more gratifying to get positive feedback from fellow filmmakers


Did I mention I didn't promote these screenings? We really didn't want to get a lot of people excited, since we're hoping to have our true Kansas premiere at the Tallgrass Film Festival this fall. We weren't eligible for awards or anything like that. We still haven't officially submitted to any festivals yet, since we're waiting to switch out a couple of the songs.
But what a blast we had at Doc Sunback. There were a lot of good movies and good folks at the inaugural event last year, but this year was much more of a party. It was good to spend time with Savannah Rodgers, our dynamic young producer, and we even did a couple of Q&As together. She had two of her own films in the festival, as did Lester Rowe, one of our creative advisers.
Editor Kenny Linn was out of town part of the weekend, but made it back just in time for our Saturday night screening and the masquerade ball. (That's him with the television monitor over his head, being kissed by festival director Nancy Farber.)

Time for Doc Sunback

The Doc Sunback Film Festival will be held Thursday through Sunday in downtown Mulvane. If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I'm a big fan of the festival, which started just last year. Tickets are $2 for a block of short films, and $49 will get you an all-access VIP pass to all the events, including the parties.
I'm especially excited about Doc Sunback this year because of the people who will be there. On Friday, filmmaker Lester Rowe (a creative adviser for Out Here In Kansas, pictured top middle) will be screening his short film "Evolve Or Die," starring MMA fighter David "Caveman" Rickels (top right), who will also be in attendance.
Mulvane native Kenny Linn (bottom right), our editor and DP, will be around and so will OHIK producer Savannah Rodgers.

We have a movie

Out Here In Kansas is essentially finished. Kenny and I spent yesterday wrapping it up.
If this post seems understated, it's only because we're not making too big of a deal out of it. There was no celebrating when I left Kenny's house last night. We still need to replace a song or two with original music that is still being composed.
But everything is finally in place to show our half-hour documentary. Next up: A test screening this weekend, followed by our long-awaited entry into the Tallgrass Film Festival.