I always hesitate to post this stuff here do to mixed reactions… but aw what the hell…
This is very fresh and I’m still a little shocked (haven’t announced it on my own socials yet), but we just landed a much higher profile festival with international reach.
Additionally, I’ve been asked by the festivals founder to do a Q&A on my short film and spaghetti westerns in general. Looking forward to getting a few drinks in me and preaching spaghetti western as “genre” and not “era”.
Due to our performance/reception at the Las Vegas Lift-Off Film Festival we are now an official selection of the “Los Angeles” Lift-Off Film Festival.
Friday September 9th 7:30 PM
Please bear in mind there are no westerns screening at any of these film fests we get accepted to, let alone Spaghetti’s. This is a very unique event horizon in which I wish the spaghetti voice was amplified much louder against its film festival peer genres given the rarity. Alas we will keep chipping away best we can.
“Shoot in Any Direction and You’ll Hit a Bastard” is an Official Selection at the Wasteland Film Festival.
When the festival organizers called to congratulate me they said they “Loved the spaghetti western feel of it!”
We are stoked to be a part of this insane themed festival in the middle of the desert, if you are unfamiliar it’s worth a gander: http://www.wastelandweekend.com
Super stoked for this one, 5th year running and relatively speaking they have a very professionally organized 4 day event scheduled with all the trimmings.
Saturday, October 15th 2016
Kicking off the “Strange and Curious” film block on the 40’ screen at Laughlin Stadium 9 Theaters.
Last night we accepted the award for BEST WESTERN FILM at the 5th Annual Laughlin International Film Festival.
This was not only an amazing honor but also an amazing fest and an awards ceremony that rivaled many I’ve watched on TV. Ironically we have been screened at much less organized and accommodating festivals that are much closer to the west coast.
Our humble little cult niche homage is still penetrating through the piles and piles of submissions at these film fests. We continue to be grateful… but seriously dumbfounded.
• Official Selection – Rio Grind Film Festival (CA)
• Official Selection – Buffalo Dreams Fantastic Film Festival (Buffalo, NY)
• Official Selection – Grindhouse Planet Film Festival (UK)
• Official Selection – PDXtreme Fest (Portland, OR)
3 years since committing to dust squibs and I still feel really good about it, to the point we’re fully planning on transferring this edict into the feature, if we’re ever fortunate enough of course.
I bring this up because I just studied A DOLLAR BETWEEN THE TEETH for some characters I’m working on and was amazed at the sheer amount of violence this film generates with nary a single drop of blood. Like I actually cannot believe how intense and severe all the kills are and somehow the lack of blood doesn’t matter to me at all. I wonder if there is some weird little note that filmmakers and video game developers could glean from this movie specifically in this regard. I dunno, but I am starting to dig it now like its an intentional form of artful violence… like instead of arterial spray its smoke and sparks.
(p.s. FWIW I still think our squibs discussion should have remained a separate thread )
And I’m still glad my advice could have been of help, I remember that discussion too! When do you think the film will become available to an audience off the film festival circuit?
Of the fests we submitted to, the latest screening dates are FEB of 2017 I think, plus I need to call it by then anyway, as I imagined we would maybe get into one festival (not nine) and be well on our way towards switching gears to formulating plans for funding the feature. So in my book this festival run has derailed our efforts, but again the peer recognition is nice, and hopefully even worth something when its time to talk $$$ when pitching.
Also I am not sure if I ever disclosed this here but “Shoot in Any Direction and You’ll Hit A Bastard” was literally (quite) an afterthought. I began writing the feature (“Fist of Guanto”) first and then we decided inve$tor$ would never get behind this based on the screenplay if they didn’t “get” that Spaghetti Western vibe (surprisingly hard to convey in words alone), so we set out to make a short proof of concept. Talk about derailing. We set out to approach this short like a feature and kill ourselves to create the perception of high (spaghetti relatively speaking of course) production value, maybe I should say emulation value, and it ended up taking years (in real time and off my life). But now we have it, and some really nice laurels, and therefore hopefully a rounder package to pursue the feature with.
While I fully admit this is nothing but a pipe dream, the fact that i actually followed through and completed the short is at least something I can take to my (Sartana the) grave(digger), regardless of what happens when we enter the hellish “give me money to make something only a few people will think is cool” phase of this seemingly never ending project.
Oh and my overarching point is, remember that this short, if you do ever choose to donate 13 minutes of your life to it, was just that, a proof of concept. So it was a way for me to immortalize my characters and my planet in a spaghetti western universe with the look, feel and sound of what I am going for, so that someone watching it would either get it or not immediately. This is to say what it has (hopefully) in style it surely lacks in story as that wasn’t the intention of this vehicle. Granted that doesn’t seem to be swaying the festivals
The feature is where I intend to bring the story, now that the aesthetics are in place.
We ended our impromptu 2016 film festival run this year with 13 Laurels including 4 nominations and 2 wins.
We have no choice but to consider our “proof of concept” successful and will continue fleshing out the screenplay and pursuing funding to shoot the feature “Fist of Guanto”
Thanks to all who endured my annoying updates and if anything, anything at all, about an independent retro cult spaghetti western emulation captures your eye, ear or spirit please please follow us on the rest of our foolhardy journey.
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When do you think the film will become available to an audience off the film festival circuit?
