a little push from the press

In the past month or so, we've been fortunate to receive some pretty good media coverage! Considering that we're self-distributing and we don't have our own press agent, exposure like this is really precious to us...

Slate.com posted our first official DVD review by Joe Keohane (click the pic to read the article):



Also, this past weekend (before April Fool's Day), Brooke Gladstone of NPR interviewed my dad and I on On the Media:



Here is the audio clip from that segment, called "Prank Calling":

Finally, David Nanasi wrote this nice review ("Biting Back at the Media") on the PBS | POV blog (click the graphic to read to the post):

So, please stay tuned as this crazy journey continues...

taking the world by storm?

My dad and I finally returned from an adventure-filled journey to Spain and I'm not sure where our travels will take us next. I guess it depends on the next invitation that we receive in our inbox from a far-away place. In the beginning (or I should say, at the end, when the film was in the can and we started doing festivals), I was hesitant to screen our documentary anywhere that we couldn't physically be. So, whatever travel expenses the festival couldn't pay for, we picked up the difference. I don't regret those expenditures. Although, in retrospect, it seems silly or maybe downright crazy. But, at the time, I was so attached to the project. I couldn't bear the thought of NOT being there during those early screenings. I have finally recovered from this addiction, although my dad has the bug still, even after three years!

He is always up for attending screenings and he, of course, loves adventures. His suitcase is already packed, ready to go. Unfortunately, we did not make it to Belgrade, Republic of Serbia or Guangzhou, People's Republic of China or Athens, Greece. But at least our movie made it there, which means, by default, that we were there in spirit!

The Influencers

My dad and I are taking off for Barcelona in a few hours. He's gargling in the bathroom right now...somebody sneezed on him last week and he's recovering from a bad cold.

We've been invited to attend a festival in Spain called The Influencers. It's a three-day event "devoted to surreal, controversial and visionary examples of mutation in media and entertainment, modified digital technologies, and radical experiments with the public of global communication." Where does my dad fit into this crazy description? Somewhere between infiltration and manipulation of the media with a healthy dose of satire (and sometimes toilet humor) mixed with performance art.

Past years have included guests such as the Yes Men, Joey Skaggs, DJ Spooky, and the Reverend Billy. It should be cool, interesting, weird and fun. ABEL RAISES CAIN is screening with Spanish subtitles!

I never imagined that we would one day travel to Spain together, let alone as a result of a movie that I would spend close to a decade toiling away on about his life. This documentary is somewhere between a wounded horse that keeps running the race and a wandering prostitute. We can't stop it, it just keeps going and going, and it gets around. I just told my friends in New York recently that we should enjoy the ride while it lasts. I know that my dad is having the time of his life. I can't help but to think this is all leading somewhere positive. And along the way, my dad's story is spreading to corners of the world I never thought possible.

where do we go from here?

Throughout this whole crazy trip we've been on with the film, somewhere deep down inside I knew that we would be okay...that it wouldn't matter whether or not we landed a distribution deal the first year of our festival circuit run. We had heard about shady deals and unhappy filmmakers. And in the back of my mind lurked all the negative stories that my parents had told me about how they got screwed over by their past distributors (for their film, Is There Sex After Death?). Also, I felt pretty strongly that my dad's story was timeless and that somebody would eventually come along and see the potential in our documentary.

It's pretty ironic that the digital age enabled Jeff and I to make our film, but also threw a monkey wrench into the works of all the major motion picture companies. Studios began floundering and scrambling to catch up with the new technology while their stronghold in the industry began to crumble. In turn, their slow demise is what's allowing independent filmmakers to self-distribute their work.

I just read in MovieMaker magazine that 20,000 new independent films are produced every year. We're lumped in there somewhere along with all of the other filmmakers like us who edit movies in their living rooms on Macs equipped with Final Cut Pro. Also in this mix are the major's subsidiaries like Sony Pictures Classics and Warner Independent. Although I have never understood how a multi-million dollar budget film can be considered independent. Okay, I'm starting to sound like Andy Rooney from 60 minutes...

We've remained truly independent, licensing to a few foreign TV channels on our own and holding onto the remainder of the rights to our film - and we ultimately control the path that ABEL RAISES CAIN takes.

So now what? We have to be clever and take advantage of the networking opportunities that the internet age has to offer. There are several independents making waves right now and we have been keeping our eyes on them. Lance Weiler (Head Trauma), Arin Crumley and Susan Buice (Four Eyed Monsters), and M Dot Strange (We Are the Strange) are four filmmakers who have pioneered unbelievably innovative paths in terms of distributing their work.

These guys, collectively, have started up a new online discovery and distribution fest called From Here to Awesome. Their mission is "to create a direct connection between filmmaker and audience...FHTA attempts to create multiple revenue opportunities for the festival filmmakers by providing a platform that enables distribution across multiple outlets - mobile, online, living rooms and theaters. Filmmakers retain all their rights and choose how to price their work."

Filmmakers are encouraged to submit a 3-minute video explaining why their film is "awesome" and deserves to be seen by a wider audience. So, Jeff and I have spent the last week preparing our submission video. Here is the fruit of our labor:

http://fromheretoawesome.com/abelraisescain/

If you are reading this now, please follow the above link and click on the big button that says, THIS FILM SEEMS AWESOME! You'll be led to a screen that allows you a chance to vote. Please help us even further and spread the link of our video as widely as humanly possibly (MySpace, Facebook, Blogs, etc).
Filmmakers who make it to the top ten are showcased during the month of April at participating venues throughout the world. This could be really instrumental in terms of us finally reaching our audience! Thank you, everybody!

as a matter of principle and pride

From my own experience, and from watching my parents struggle with money, it seems that most filmmakers and artists pay a hefty price in order to maintain their creative freedom. Trading financial security for total control of one's work sounds crazy to many people. But, the truth is...that selling out and/or handing over the rights to another person or entity in power doesn't necessarily mean the artist will become wealthy, by any means. Creative accounting will ensure that the artist never sees a fair share.

When I started this blog, I asked my dad to send me some funny thoughts, anecdotes or anything he wanted to write about. One of the first stories he emailed just happens to relate to this very subject:

When Christmas time rolls around, I think about 'Santa and the Doodle-li-Boop,' a children's novelty song I wrote during the fifties. Art Carney recorded it for Columbia Records. His popularity on 'The Honeymooners' helped sales. Then one day I received a phone call from Jackie Gleason's agent, Bullets Durgom. Gleason offered to highlight my song on one of 'The Honeymooners' shows, but with one condition: he wanted to be listed as a co-writer.

I asked my friend Len Levinson, a writer with Variety, and he said it was a common practice for this kind of deception involving a celebrity. Len urged me to go for it because I would earn thousands more in royalties. "Johnny Green is listed as co-author of 'Body and Soul' but he never wrote a note," he said. "His status as a well-known radio conductor helped earn millions for that song over the years and Green got half the money. You should swallow your pride and give in to Gleason," Len added.

I thought it over for a few days and declined Gleason's offer, as a matter of principle. My $30,000 in royalties for the year might have been $300,000 if Carney had performed it on television's top rated show. Several years later when I had to sell a pint of blood to pay for dinner, I thought wistfully of Jackie Gleason's ultimatum.

I must be a chip off the old block. I have been overly protective of our work, just as my parents have been overly protective of their projects over the years. They had the opportunity to sell out many times, but they couldn't bear the thought of someone else running with one of their ideas and taking the credit.

Although we were never officially offered a distribution deal, I will admit that there were some pretty big companies fishing around, wondering what our plans were for the movie. It was flattering and somewhat surreal, but mostly it was Hollywood B.S. I steered clear of the sharks because I didn't want anyone tampering with our work. Jeff and I wanted full control over what went on the cutting room floor and what stayed in the film. My gut feeling kept telling me that we needed to do our own thing. If we wanted the film to have a happy healthy life, WE must nurture it, not just hand it over to some studio and hope for the best.

It's such a gamble, though! You never know what's going to happen or what's on the other side of that decision. Are you going to regret it later? I guess that's part of the game. Maybe selling out would have been the best thing I could have done for the film! ABEL RAISES CAIN could have been in Blockbuster Video stores everywhere! But we probably would have been very unhappy, we wouldn't have seen a dime... and it would have meant giving up control over a personal film that I care deeply about.

My dad's story continued...

Another Christmas anecdote I'll never forget occurred during the eighties outside Grand Central Station in New York City. It was mid-December, snowing, icy, windy and 20 below zero. An elderly man with two loaded shopping bags was gingerly crossing the street heading into the station. His pace was too slow, the light turned green while he was half-way across and an impatient taxi driver blasted his horn, shouted obscenities out the window, then nudged the old man with his bumper.

The oldster could only tip toe a few inches at a time on the icy surface. The cabby kept pushing him until he slipped and fell. Both shopping bags split open, spilling Christmas-wrapped packages everywhere. Traffic backed up on 42nd Street for several blocks, horns blowing. Several good samaritons picked him up, along with his packages, while the irate cab driver jumped out of his taxi.

Talk about road rage! He stuck his finger in the shaken man's chest and shouted, "You dumb son-of-a-bitch! Why didn't you stay at the home and then die?'

The oldster suddenly came to life, pulled out a pistol and ordered the shocked cabby to spread eagle on the taxi hood and put his hands behind him. He then flashed his ID as a retired NYPD detective. A patrol car came down Vanderbilt Avenue, perpendicular to 42nd Street, the two officers ran over, and were appraised of the situation. One handcuffed the cabby and the other parked his cab on Vanderbilt to unravel the gridlock.

A large crowd of onlookers, including myself, broke into applause and cheers when the cops put a very dejected cabby in their patrol car for a trip to the station. His passengers had long since leaped out of the taxi and disappeared.

I always carry two extra plastic shopping bags folded up. I gave them to the detective for his Christmas gifts and he was grateful. I congratulated him on his action and offered to carry them to his train. He wished me a Merry Christmas and declined my help. Probably as a matter of pride.