A great contest that the San Diego Asian FIlm Foundation is sponsoring. For all you aspiring film makers or politicians or …regular people check it out!

If you have access to a video camera and a great idea, here’s your chance to take action in 30 seconds! The San Diego Asian Film Foundation is challenging YOU to submit a 30-second public service announcement that promotes civic responsibility and democratic participation in the electoral and public policy processes. In other words, your PSA should help encourage voter registration and participation in the APIA community. Be creative!

We will choose a winner to receive $1000 and a Sony HDF-FX1 HDV Camcorder (worth $3700), plus bragging rights - the winning PSA will be screened before all film programs at the film festival.

Entries must be postmarked by July 31, and no more than 30 seconds in length.

Go to SDAFF.org for more info

Just received an email from artist David Choe about Harry Kim’s documentary on him. It’s about to hit the festivals after almost a decade in the making. If you know anything about David Choe (from his art or from VBS.TV)… then you know this is going to be one very interesting hour and a half of your life. The World Premiere will be taking place at the LA Film Fest on June 21st.

Here’s a sneak peek at what David calls his “bullshit life” (which I’ll have to disagree with):

 
Dirty Hands: The Art & Crimes of David Choe
Documentary Competition
(USA, 2008, 92 mins)
World Premiere
Directed By: Harry Kim

Los Angeles artist David Choe’s kaleidoscopic work can be playful, confrontational and sexually frank. His personal life is no less complicated, as revealed by close friend Harry Kim, who documented Choe’s life and crimes from 2000 to 2007. From the manic highs of commercial success and dinosaur hunting in the Congo to the self-destructive lows of Japanese jail sentences and bouts of self-doubt and depression, what begins as a gleeful portrait of a bad-boy artist slowly becomes a poignant celebration of one man’s journey, both artistically and spiritually, toward his own uncertain salvation.

Saturday, June 21st 9:45pm (World Premiere)
Majestic Crest Theatre $12.00

Sunday, June 22nd 4:00pm
Mann Festival Theatre $12.00

Thursday, June 26th 4:30pm
Mann Festival Theatre $12.00

Buy tickets: http://www.lafilmfest.com/tixSYS/2008/filmguide/eventnote.php?notepg=1&EventNumber=6845

Dirty Hands Website: http://www.dirtyhandsmovie.com
David Choe’s Art: http://www.davidchoe.com
David Choe’s Blog: http://davechoe.blogspot.com

Having nothing better to do, I watched “Rocket Science” earlier tonight. It’s pretty much your typical coming-of-age indie flick, (nothing too original), but it has its own cute, quirky moments. The colorful film centers on Hal Hefner (played by newcomer Reece Daniel Thompson), a stuttering boy who reluctantly joins the Plainsboro High School Debate Team due to the suggestion of a pretty girl. The film cast progresses as Hal decides to enter the state finals to amend himself after much public humiliation and a broken heart. The actors are basically spot-on with their characters. They fit well into their often awkward scenes, as the film has a rather unpretentious depiction of high school set in a New Jersey suburb. The film itself is nothing fancy; it resembles other independent youth flicks, but its simple scenes come off the screen as a very genuine effort from the actors and director, Jeffrey Blitz. Heston (played by Aaron Yoo), in particular, stands out as Hal’s somewhat creepy, but loving and supportive best friend. He adopts his character well with the quiet demeanor and unusual personality, right down to his ineptly shaped bowl haircut. The soundtrack, which features songs from Clem Snide frontman Eef Barzelay, also tends to grow on you. I can’t say I loved it, (some of it was slow-paced) but overall, it was a pretty fun film to watch.

 
But to me, its nothing compared to Wes Andersons “Rushmore.” I prefer Andersons soundtrack too.

Almost Famous (dir. Cameron Crowe), is almost my favorite movie of all time. It’s definitely my favorite music related movie. It’s a semi-fictional story based upon the director’s life himself. While parts are definitely made up or embellished, other amazing facts remain true (for example Crowe really was a teenage kid writing for Rollingstone magazine, covering bands such as Led Zeppelin and The Allman Brothers Band).

Anyways, I bring it up because 1. It’s a great movie. 2. A specific scene has always haunted me.

Somewhere within the first half of the film, the main character Will meets with seasoned rock critic Lester Bangs (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman). The script is as follows:

BANGS
Well, your writing is damn good. It’s just a shame you missed out on rock and roll.

WILLIAM
I did?

BANGS
Oh yeah. It’s over.

WILLIAM
Over?

BANGS
Over. You got here just in time for the death rattle, the last gasp, the last grope.

WILLIAM
Well. At least I’m here for that.

Lester tells William this in the 70’s. The 70’s man. It’s been over 30 years - are we stupid for still making “Rock n’ Roll” music? I first saw the movie right in the middle of my “band” days - I thought it was a fucking great piece of dialogue, but I suppressed the feelings of truth behind it for a long time. I guess at the time I took William’s stand point: “At least I’m here for that”. Now, after being out of a band for over a year, and working full time with music and reviewing tons of music, I’m more inclined to Bang’s point of view.

It’s over right?

I teach teenagers how to do figure drawings twice a week - this takes place in LA, La Crescenta, Fullerton, and Cerritos. Pretty much covers LA right? Well we end up talking about music every now and then and it still amazes me the reactions I get from the kids. I’m 27 but apparently that’s ancient to some - when one of my students found that I like the Arctic Monkeys, he was like, “Woah! I didn’t know people your age liked music like that!” (so what do people my age like? “I don’t know, 2Pac?”) This of course led me to probe about “old music”. When I mentioned Kriss Kross (along with Cross Colours) the whole class went blank. “You guys have never heard of Kriss Kross?” I was pretty shocked. Guess what? They also never heard of New Kids on the Block!!! (these old school acts are too awesome to mention w/out showcasing some video!)

It was interesting though because one of my students (who is in 9th grade) loves the Red Hot Chili Peppers… and they started before New Kids on the Block… makes you realize that there’s a whole other level of fame - When you first saw this: did you think they would still be as popular 17 years later? So what do the kids like? Well my La Crescenta kids LOVE Metro Station Funny enough, when I first heard the music playing in class I was like, “who is this? Kind of sounds like a contemporary Duran Duran”. I looked around and all the kids just gave me a blank stare - “Duran who?”

AN EVIL MONITO FILM SCREENING.
JON PHENOM PRESENTS - HAY FAM/A DOCUMENTARY SERIES

Jon Phenom is a self taught clothing designer. He has worked for several action sports brands ranging from Osiris, Ezekiel, to Matix. Currently he is the Creative Director of his own line, Jon Phenom - a full apparel collection noted from the denim capsule collection.

In the early months of 2007, Jon decided to begin a project which entailed documenting the lives of various personalities whom he drew inspiration from. The result is HAY FAM, a documentary series that is the first of many to come. For the debut of the HAY FAM project, Jon interviewed Raymond Roker - Founder of URB Magazine, Rickey Kim aka Mr. Kim - Founder/Creative Director of Evil Monito, Rich Confico aka RichOne - Co-founder and Head Designer of the Cr8tive Recreation footwear line, and Josh Madden - NYC based Stylist. This special screening will be held at the Evil Monito Studio in Echo Park.

FRIDAY / JANUARY 18TH, 2008
TIME: 7 PM - 12 AM | SCREENING AT 10:30 PM

EVIL MONITO STUDIO
1830 ECHO PARK AVE
LOS ANGELES, CA 90026

RSVP - rsvp@evilmonito.com

For further info:
http://www.jonphenom.com
http://www.hayfamshow.com

I’m a huge fan of Paul Thomas Anderson ever since i first saw “Magnolia.” Although I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on the man’s life (I still haven’t seen Boogie Nights), i’m still a avid viewer and an excited one at that. He tends to tackle pretty dark subject matter (porn, death, etc) and has a very distinct style to his movies. He’s like Kevin Smith with well thought out dialouge or Bahz Luhrman with kick ass imagery.

In either case, although not a real rockstar, and not quite fitting the term “Future,” PT Anderson’s new film “There will be blood” still needs to be hyped as much as possible. Set at the turn of the century when oil prospectors roamed the country, his film focuses on Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he goes from town to town in search of oil. Much of the movie centers on the Plainview character and the developments that he goes through.

For the sake of FR*A, MUSIC alert! Jonny Greenwood (The guitarist for Radiohead) is the composer for the film bringing eerie horror film like scores throughout the movie.

It’s only out in limited release right now, so those in the LA area should take a first crack at the movie while you have the chance. Don’t know when it’s opening up in more theaters, so if you happen to know, do us all a favor and leave a comment!

(LAST NOTE- the poster up above is very bad ass. Very)