Well, that happened.

What a crazy night up in Humboldt. Captain Deadpan, Darren and I got picked up at the Eureka airport by Darren's famous Aunt Laura and Mary, the icon, legend and organizer of the wildrivers101 film festival. After checking into to our lovely hotel room, we had dinner and then headed over to the Eureka theater for the "Humboldt County" Humboldt County premiere. There was a palpable buzz and the line was pretty long. We sold out the 700 seat theater and after a quick intro, the film began.

Then horror struck. The projector at the Eureka theater is from 1950 and the sound system was apparently put together with technology from the 15th century. As a result, there was this weird blue line on the left of the screen and the dialogue was super difficult to hear. It was a shame because the crowd was fascinating. They cheered every Humboldt location that came to the screen and seemed to really enjoy the film in a way wholly different from any of the "outside Humboldt" audiences to see it so far. In fact, we were going to stay for the whole thing, but the technical glitches of the theater proved to heartbreaking so we had to leave. We found a bar and immediately pounded some whiskey.

That took the edge off.

When we came back, Darren and I went down for a Q&A and, to my surprise and delight, no stones or tomatoes were thrown in our direction. Obviously, there were some who didn't appreciate the film, but I'm pretty sure there was no film that could have been made about this region that those people would have been happy with. Thankfully, there seemed to be many people who honestly appreciated and enjoyed the picture. The most rewarding moments would be when people would come up to us and say things like, "Listen, I've lived in this county for 25 years and let me tell you something: You got it." Those comments were really lovely to hear.

Overall, Darren and I were just super appreciative of the kindness and generosity of all the Humboldt residents who came out with an open mind to see the film and, despite the terrible sound quality in the theater, seemed to enjoy what they saw.

Here are some pics:



Captain Deadpan out front before the show.




The line heading in.

And finally...here's a video of our intro for the film:

Darren and Danny get Nervous

In December of 2002, Darren and I started writing "Humboldt County." Today, it premieres in Humboldt County. We're incredibly excited and nervous. Up until a few weeks ago, it was just excitement. But Mary Cruse, the head of the WildRivers101 Film Festival (and, by the way, the Craft Service Extraordinaire from our shoot), keeps making jokes about how we'll need protection.

Regardless, we head out tomorrow to Humboldt so excited to show the people of the region what came of our inspiration almost six years ago.

Still, the Internet has begun its chatter. So today, on the eve of our Humboldt premiere, we've got a guest blogger. A lady named Kelly M. Phillips, who apparently lives in Humboldt. We were alerted to her blog by our Internet spies (read: Danny and Darren) and thought it only fair to give space on our blog to those that aren't so sure it was a good idea for us to make the movie at all. So below, we've cut and pasted a recent blog entry from her blog. See, we're like Fox News! Fair and balanced!

Oh, one more thing. We've made an exclusive deal with Apple. For the next week, our absolutely NEW trailer, in all its high definition glory will be available on the Apple Trailers website: HERE.

Okay, without further delay, please welcome, our guest blogger, Kelly Phillips:

***********************

Humboldt County: The Movie

Yes, that's right, we've been trapped in celluloid.

Director's Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs have made a film about a young man from L.A. who has a wild fling with some mysterious slut and wakes up to find himself in the middle of the Redwoods at the home of some folksy, kind-hearted pot growers.

Ah yes, the often maligned, friendly drug trafficker who in no way contributes to the habits of the filthy, transient lowlifes who hang out downtown and are constantly asking me if I can spare some change.

I'm so glad somebody with a fair and balanced mind has brought them into the light!

They just want to look after mother earth and help people with legitimate medical needs for their product (about 2% of their actual clientele). The good souls are in no way capitalists who benefit from an unregulated market and a tax-free cash cow. Nooooooo.

In an interview that ran in The North Coast Journal, Robyn Hillman Harrigan wrote, "The filmmakers themselves noted that they were not out to stereotype the region, but that they were drawn to the storytelling benefits of one of its subcultures."

Let's see; the protagonists are a family of pot growers and a jaded city boy who comes to admire them and look on them as a family. The poster has a picture of said city boy perched on a giant joint with redwoods in the background.

Nope, no stereotyping there.

Subculture? Bitch please. I've never seen anything so mainstream. Let's call a spade a spade shall we?

I can't wait until the film comes out locally.

I'll be one of the first to see it, if only to prove my initial, nauseated gut reaction right.

"Humboldt County" Promotional Film!

Hey LCLs!

So Darren and I have put together a little short film to help promote "Humboldt County" and its upcoming theatrical release. Here it is (below). Send it to your friends, embed it in your blogs and spread the word!!!!

d

P.S. We've got a brief brief mention in this week's Entertainment Weekly magazine. It's the fall movie preview and we're mentioned in the "Also Playing" section of the September preview.

No sleep till Humboldt!

LCLs,

Okay, I admit it. I've been listening to the Beastie Boys recently and replacing "Brooklyn" with "Humboldt." Yes, I'm a loser. The "HC" train is picking up speed like...well, like a train picking up speed.

1. A MILESTONE: "Humboldt County" on Facebook has reached the vaulted 1,000 fan plateau! Yea! This puts us firmly ahead of Bill Clinton (195), Team China (746), Bono (811) and Hogan Knows Best (945). It feels good. However, there is still more work to be done. We remain behind Ben Franklin (1,753), John Mellencamp (1,906) and, perhaps most importantly, The Big Brother 9 Live Feed (1,386). B.Frank is going DOWN!

Thank you all for joining the movement. Facebook is going to be one of the primary ways we're going to reach out to our network as we get closer to opening weekend, so if you haven't become a fan yet, search "Humboldt County" on facebook and you'll find us. Or just click HERE and become a fan now.

2. A MOVEMENT: Darren and I have been touched by the many, many emails we have received from dedicated LCLs offering up their services to make this a truly grassroots, artistic movement. We're compiling everybody's information now and working out next steps. We'll be contacting all of you who expressed interest VERY SOON.

3. A PREMIERE: Two weeks from today, "Humboldt County" will be premiering in Humboldt County in the WildRivers101 Film Fest. Darren and I are nervous, excited, and jazzed. Yesterday we did an interview with a business reporter/film critic in Eureka and were reminded, once again, about the beautiful passion inherent in the region.

4. A WEBSITE: Our website: www.humboldtcountymovie.com is back up and running. At the moment, it's basically a mirror of what we had before minus images the MPAA deemed unacceptable for America's children. However, within a matter of days, we'll be unveiling a spanky new site, a spanky new trailer and a spanky new spanky (I don't know what that last thing means.)

5. A FESTIVAL: We just received word that "Humboldt County" will be the closing night gala film at the Idaho International Film Festival! The fest will take place right around our theatrical premiere in late Sept. We're honored to close it out with a bang.

Alright, LCLs - continue getting the word out, reminding your friends and neighbors of our impending premiere weekend, and getting those Evites ready to get everyone you know to the theaters! On Sept. 26, WE TAKE BACK CINEMA.

Viva Humboldt,
d

Humboldt County: See it With a Bud

LCLs--

It's about that time:

Prepare yourselves for an onslaught of Humboldt County in the coming days, weeks and months.

As we move toward theatrical release on September 26, we aim to ensure that this blog is your constant source of information about all things Humboldt County. A summary of upcoming notables:

1) At last, here is our chance to show the film to the people and place most responsible for bringing it to life. We have our Humboldt County premiere (as in, in Humboldt County) at the Eureka theater on August 27 at 7 pm as part of the Wild Rivers 101 Film Festival. The festival's website is here.

2) Danny and I will travel with the film on a mega-promotional roadshow in mid September (we'll be blogging often from the road with updates, pictures and videos chronicling the whole experience), hitting each of the opening weekend cities for press, free screenings and on-the ground promotion. Full schedule of events and opportunities to meet up are forthcoming.

3) This, of course, is all leading to the big weekend: we open in select theaters in Humboldt, San Francisco, Berkeley, Portland, Seattle and Austin, TX, on Friday, September 26. Filling theaters that weekend is about as important for the fate of our film as can be. Once again, we will NEED your help.

4) We can officially announce that New York, Los Angeles and Chicago will be among the remaining cities where we release the film theatrically, at a TBD date in October. We will, of course, keep you posted, but we need to establish grassroots marketing groups in those cities. So, for those of you interested in joining the movement: send an email over to info@humboldtcountymovie.com

Which brings me to the marketing:

For those of you who have emailed us interested in being part of our Obama-style grassroots film marketing campaign, we are compiling lists of people who are interested. Thank you so much to everyone for your interest and willingness to help promote the film.

Prepare yourselves for an introductory email in the next few days explaning exactly how we plan to move forward and involve you in the marketing process. We're very excited about working together with our fans to spread the word to as many people as possible about the film.

So it's all happening now, LCLs. Humboldt County is finally on its way to theaters. Let's work together to make it a memorable run!

all the best and many thanks,
-Darren & Danny

Want to know where HC will play?

LCLs,

First of all, thanks to everyone who has written us telling us that they are willing to participate in our groundbreaking organizational effort to get people to the theaters on September 26th. The LCL Local City Teams are shaping up nicely. Again, if you have any interest in being on the inside, ground floor of the "Humboldt County" movement, email us at:

info@humboldtcountymovie.com

Now, on to some exciting news. We're starting to get information on the specific theaters that the film will be playing at. So far, this is what we have:

Opening

9/26/2008
Arcata, CA: Minor 3
Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas
Eureka, CA: Broadway
Garberville, CA: Garberville
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre
Portland, OR: Hollywood Theatre
Seattle, WA: Varsity Theatre

10/3/2008
Eugene, OR: Bijou Art Cinema

Rest assured, more theaters will be added in the weeks and months to come. For example, we haven't yet pinned down which theater or theaters we'll play in Austin, TX. Also, you may have noticed a change to our previous post. Chicago, Illinois is no longer going to be part of our opening weekend in theaters. Magnolia wants to focus on more of a regional release before getting the film to New York, LA etc. So they're focusing on the Northwest (with Austin being the exception). What that means is that instead of Chicago, we're opening up in Berkeley! Super exciting.

Anyway, if you want to be truly industrious, you can check the Magnolia Pictures website:

www.magpictures.com

They'll continue to update our theaters and release schedule pretty regularly.

Sweeeeeeet. More to come.

d