February 15, 2009: During the Santa Barbara International Film Festival we had the pleasure of doing an interview with Perry Norton for Soma Radio. HERE is the interview (MP3 format).
February 2, 2009: The 24th Santa Barbara International Film Festival has ended, and we've returned to Los Angeles.
SBIFF has been astounding. The chance to see Mile High on the big screen for the first time was an amazing experience, and the positive audience response has convinced us that there is indeed a market for the film. We look forward to the next step, which includes finding the best way to reach that market and get Mile High in front of more audiences around the world.
A sidenote: one of the great things about attending a film festival is the chance to meet other filmmakers. Among the many we met over the course of the 11-day festival, two teams of filmmakers stand out as particularly talented.
The first, a duo we met on our first day at SBIFF, were Ryan Pettey and Patrick Moyer. Their film, After The Last Round, is a gutwrenching look at what happens to boxers after their careers wind down... and the effects of years of blunt trauma set in. We attended their world premiere on January 29th and can say without reservation that this is a great film...and an important one.
The second team of filmmakers we met were Justin Strawhand and Pete Demas. Justin directed and Pete produced "War Against The Weak", a documentary based on the book of the same name. This promising film details the chilling history of eugenics in America, a history which, it turns out, is still in the making.
January 31, 2009: The third and (really) final screening of Mile High took place yesterday. Again, we were very gratified by the audience response. People are still intensely interested in the election and the shift in worldview it represents, and audience members are excited to share their thoughts with us after watching Mile High. This has been an incredible ride.
Over the course of the festival we have come to know many of the volunteers who donate their time to help make SBIFF something very special, both for filmmakers like us and for the filmgoers without whom the festival could not exist. We are incredibly grateful to all of these volunteers.
We are also grateful to the people who do such a great job running this festival, particulaly executive director Roger Durling (whom we chatted with this morning), programmer Ryan Hedge and programmer Russ Spencer, the man ultimately responsible for choosing Mile High to screen here. All of these people do the film world a tremendous service and are not thanked nearly often enough for their contributions.
January 28, 2009: We were in the middle of viewing a great little film called The Kabuli Kid this morning when we received a call from SBIFF festival programmer Ryan Hedge telling us that Mile High had been selected for an additional screening. Given the number of films in the festival and the caliber of films we've seen so far, we feel incredibly honored that the festival programmers saw Mile High as worthy of a third screening. This screening will take place at Victoria Hall Theater on Friday morning at 10 a.m.. Tickets are available at any SBIFF box office. As usual, we'll be conducting a Q&A with the audience afterward.
January 27, 2009: Our final SBIFF screening took place today. It was an amazing experience: the crowd enjoyed the film tremendously, as evidenced by the high percentage of audience members who sat through the credits to take part in the Q&A session afterward. The interest and audience response to this film has been truly gratifying.
January 26, 2009: The world premiere of Mile High took place last night at the Victoria Hall Theater in Santa Barbara. We are very grateful for everyone who braved the chill winds (and the late hour) to be part of the first audience to view the film on the big screen.
We are looking forward to tomorrow's showing, which will be at 10 a.m. If you'd like to check it out, you can buy tickets at the box office. This will be the final screening of MIle High at SBIFF.
We also took part in a great interview today with freelance audio producer Perry Anne Norton of PanRight Productions. We'll post the interview as soon as it's available.
January 24, 2009: We had an incredibly busy day today, thanks to the good folks at SBIFF. It started with a press breakfast, where, between mouthfuls of bacon, we chatted about Mile High with reporters from various press outlets (among them Daily Variety). Later we did an incredibly fun on-camera interview with Angela Bakke and Scott Huver for Celebcast.com (and also Hollywood.com).
We also found ourselves featured in an article in Santa Barbara's local outlet "Casa Magazine", based on an interview we did last week with Casa reporter Devon Pettengill.
January 22, 2009: We woke up this morning to a nice little piece in Santa Barbara's newspaper, The Independent, giving a rundown of the films by local filmmakers. The writer, Matt Kettmann, calls Mile High "perhaps the most promising" of the bunch. It's a short blurb, but you can read it HERE, along with details of an SBIFF slate that looks to contain a lot of good films.
We're off to Santa Barbara today. Hope to see you there!
January 21, 2009: Santa Barbara radio host Harry Lawton invited us to be on KCSB FM yesterday to talk about Mile High and the upcoming Santa Barbara International Film Festival. To download the interview, click HERE (it's a small file). We had a great time doing the interview and are grateful to Harry for having us on.
In other news, we've just learned that the subject of Mile High, Luke Loper and his family (also in the film) will be attending the world premiere on Sunday. They're a great bunch of people, and we're glad to have them.
Speaking of the premiere, it's only a few days away. We'll be heading up to the festival tomorrow for the opening festivities, and we look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday evening!
January 18, 2009: This promises to be an interesting week for Mile High!
First, of course, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival kicks off this Thursday. The opening night gala happens that evening (we will be in attendance). This includes a film by Rod Lurie, a fact which is of particular significance to Tod since the first press junket he attended as an entertainment writer was for Rod Lurie's first movie, Deterrence.
Thursday night's festivities will be followed by three days of films and events before the big night: Sunday, January 25th, 2008, the WORLD PREMIERE of Mile High.
If you plan on attending and still haven't secured tickets, we strongly advise you to do so; SBIFF prioritizes seating based on the level of the pass or tickets purchased, and box office tickets are at the bottom of the totem pole. We would hate for anyone to be excluded in the event of a sold-out venue (here's hoping!). If you have any questions whatsoever about the process of purchasing tickets, let us know.
It's impossible to convey how much we appreciate the support of everyone who is planning to come out to the festival and show up for the premiere of this film. We are keenly aware that it will be difficult for some to get up to Santa Barbara for the event, and we are deeply grateful for your efforts.
Keep an eye on this page for more updates about (and perhaps from) the festival!
January 10, 2009: Today we visited some old friends: Skip Murphy and Doug Lambert of New Hampshire radio's Meet The New Press. Some of you might remember we were guests on their show last January while we were filming Mile High (which then had the working title "What It Takes"). Click here to listen to last year's spot. We'll post a link to today's show as soon as it's available.
January 8, 2009: We are pleased (okay, thrilled) to announce that Ether Films' new documentary "Mile High" will premiere at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on Sunday, January 25th.
We spent most of our waking hours over last year or so putting this film together; traveling around the country, interviewing people (from average voters to academics to famous political and media personalities) and following our young subject Luke Loper around. This is a truly independent production, privately financed and 100% shot and edited by the two of us over the course of the campaign season. More details soon!
