Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Coming Home...

LCLs:

On Thursday, November 13, 2008, at 7 :00 PM, Humboldt County will play ONE NIGHT ONLY at the Tivoli Theater in St. Louis, MO, as we are the opening night film of the St. Louis International Film Festival. Tickets can be purchased here. This is significant for Danny and myself because we are both from the great city of St. Louis. Born and raised in West St. Louis County, we have seen many pictures at the Tivoli (it's in an incredible location on Delmar Blvd. in the Loop).

To return to our hometown (where we'll also be for my wedding) and show Humboldt County to a crowd of St. Louisans is a dream come true, and it is really the perfect way to cap our theatrical run (we will have a DVD release on January 13, more info. to come).

There will be a reception before the film at 5:30, as well as a party after at Mandarin in the Central West End. All info. about the festival can be found at its website: http://www.cinemastlouis.org/fest.html

We hope to see many of you there.

-Darren

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Where in the World are Darren and Danny?

LCLs:

First, we must apologize. We've been away from you for far too long. After we returned from our fantastical trip to NYC to open Humboldt County at the Sunshine theater, we again left town, this time for personal reasons. As you may or may not know, I am getting married to the lovely Renee Schuman this November. A few months back, Danny, who is also my best man, organized an incredible camping adventure for 15 of my closest friends on Catalina Island. Well, he was only getting warmed up. He had also planned (along with fellow groomsman Zack Kinney, and with the financial help of several more of my incredibly generous friends) a trip to Peru. Yes, we were headed to Peru for 9 days in order to hike to, and up, Machu Picchu. It was one of the greatest trips of our lives, and without a doubt the greatest physical challenge we've ever endured.

If/When you get married, I hope you have half the best man/maid of honor that I do. Not in terms of physical size, because Danny is already small, and someone half his size would be really, really tiny. But I mean half the best man in terms of quality of the friend. I only wish that I liked him.
Some photographic evidence of our journey:

We actually slept in these tents on our first night. Well, tried to sleep in the bitter bitter cold is a better way of putting it (although Danny slept fine, and for those of you who know Danny, this is no surprise: his superpower is that he ALWAYS sleeps fine). And yes, the next day we hiked directly for that snowy mountain...

Danny says, "what? This is it? Really?"

A bit more impressed at our highest point, Danny (who suffered from some intense altitude headaches) was convinced for hours after taking this photo that his name is Abra Salkantay.

This is me trying to convince everyone that the Incas used to play mountain baseball.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Digesting....

Hello all! Sorry we've been MIA for the past few days. There's been a lot to digest. What a journey the past few weeks (let alone the past few years!) have been. We returned from New York after a successful opening weekend. The crowds were great and people really seemed to enjoy the film.

Darren and I have been spending this week hard at work on our next two projects, trying to get them into fighting shape as soon as humanly possible.

But rest assured, the journey of "Humboldt County" is not yet over. The film continues to open in new markets each week. Keep checking Magnolia's website: www.magpictures.com for playdates in your area. And we've still got some big openings in our future: Los Angeles, Chicago....

But we wanted to take yet another opportunity to thank all of you who read this blog and support the film. We could not have done it without you. Your passion and energy has sparked our own.

Keep on spreading the good word.

Yours humbly,
D&D

Friday, October 3, 2008

The Big Apple

So last year, Darren and I lived in New York for three months while we worked on our next script (set in the city). We got a sublet in the Lower East Side (Norfolk and Rivington to be exact) and would often frequent the Sunshine Theater on Houston street when we needed a break from the awfullness and amazingness that is writing. Tonight, "Humboldt County" opens in that very theater. It really is one of our favorite theaters in the city so we're incredibly psyched.

Overall, it's been great to be back here in the greatest city in the world. It feels like home, though I've barely lived here. Someday. Hopefully someday soon.

In the meantime, Darren and I are doing our best to ignore the reviews (both positive and negative). The New York Times review came out today and was mostly positive, while the New York Post was mostly (okay, totally) negative. Reading these reviews is hard. When they are positive, it feels like someone is complimenting us. When they are negative, it feels like we are being shivved in the side with a knife. I have realized how frighteningly small is the psychic space between my concept of self and that of my film. But I guess when you devote the majority of your 20s to something, such an emotional divide (or lack of one) is inevitable.

In other news:

"Humboldt County" wins its first award! The film played at the Idaho International Film Festival last weekend and won the award for best narrative feature!! We eeked out the prize from another Magnolia film that I saw at the Provincetown Film Fest (and which won the award for best narrative feature at this year's Tribeca Film Festival): "Let The Right One In." It's a really great film and we're honored to have trounced it handily. :)

Finally, our soundtrack is finally available on Itunes!!! We're really proud of it and for everyone that has seen the film, you know what a great job our composer, Izler, and our music supervisor, Peymon, did. Just search for "Humboldt County" on Itunes and it should come up.

My only regret about coming to New York City is that in a few days I'll have to leave.

L,
d

Thursday, October 2, 2008

It Ain't Over....Week TWO!

LCLs:

First, good news:

Our opening week run was successful enough that Humboldt County will play a SECOND week in the following theaters:
Austin, TX: Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Portland, OR: Hollywood Theatre
Eureka, CA: Broadway
Arcata, CA: Minor 3
Santa Rosa, CA: Rialto Cinemas Lakeside
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre
Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas

That's right, we only lost the Garberville Theater in southern Humboldt (which was apparently always to be a 1 week run only) and the Varsity theater in Seattle, where despite an excellent promotional screening we just did not do very well. Don't worry, Seattle people, you can still see it at the Varsity on Thursday, 10/2, and if you miss it then it's always on VOD and the eventual DVD release in January.

So, for everyone who missed it in the above markets last weekend, you have a chance to see it again this weekend! Or for those of you who loved it, go see it again! Bring your friends! Let's keep it rolling!

AND NOW, ONTO NEW YORK AND EUGENE, OREGON.

Danny and I are leaving in about 8 hours for New York. We'll be at the Sunshine Cinema on 143 E. Houston for Q&As after the Friday and Saturday evening shows this weekend. We'll also be participating in a meet & greet on Friday starting at 5 pm at the B-Bar (4th & Bowery), 40 East 4th Street, hanging out before, during and after the screenings. Stop on by and say hello! Or tell your friends to come say hi! We'll have promotional materials to give away. Should be a good time.

We cannot thank you all enough for your hard work throughout this entire process, but as the title of this blog post indicated, it's not yet over! We still need people to spread the word. The theatrical marketplace is getting really really crowded, and thus our chances of sticking around are very small. The only chance we have is if word of mouth leads people to tell people to go see the movie.

This past week has consisted mainly of: recovering from the 2 week bonanza, working on our upcoming projects, and I even had the chance to catch a flick (check out Tell No One if you haven't already. A great little French thriller).

We'll have plenty of blog updates from NYC, so stay tuned.

-Darren