Celebrating Friends at AFI Dallas and Beyond!

Two of my dear friends, David Lowery and Yen Tan won Special Jury Prizes for, A Catalog of Anticipations (Part II) and Ciao, respectfully. As usual, David missed his moment of glory. Either way, I'm so proud of both of these fine fellows. David, in particular, really spearheaded my renewed passion in film. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like had I not met him way back in 1998. Or was it 1997? I can't remember exactly.

In other news, another friend and fellow filmmaker, James M. Johnston, will be available for his second screening of Merrily, Merrily at the Sarasota Film Festival on...well, today, actually (A Catalog of Anticipations is also playing at Sarasota). I literally watched this film only a few moments ago, finally, and immediately felt the inclination to blog about it. James has a relentless filmmaking quality that's wholly unique and entirely blunt. In Merrily, Merrily he makes brave, broad swoops that usually would be unheard of and critically unacceptable. But for some odd reason, they all seem to work out as if it were completely normal.

James produced St. Nick along with me and I truly don't know how we would have pulled it off without him. David, of course, wrote and directed the film. Yen Tan also helped by unloading P2 cards (a full-time job indeed!).

Speaking of St. Nick, David, James and I spent last Saturday filming some final pick-up shots with Tucker and Savanna. David summed it up best.

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And now to celebrate some final photo moments from AFI Dallas 2008:


Awesome Bill Sebastian with lively fiancée, Dana Pupkin.
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Blair Rowen, Jacques Thelemaque, Robin Gierhart, and Chris Gardner.
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Me and Negin Farsad, the director of Nerdcore Rising.