Production Update & Misc. News

1) Volume 7 is coming together nicely. It will be a great collection and include the following: 15th century mysticism, Hurricane Katrina, a very offbeat romance, and a brain farm. And a lot more, of course.

2) Borja Cobeaga (JSF, Vol.4) didn’t win that Oscar, but we congratulate him, anyway. Huzzah! There are still copies of Volume 4 available, by the way. We sent more to Amazon.com, the other day, but we still recommend you get them from us.

3) We’ll post more about this soon, but our latest news is of our upcoming screening in NYC. It will happen on April 8th, at the Pioneer Theater. The official title is The Reeler Presents: The Journal of Short Film NYC Series, or something like that. It will feature some of the films that have appeared in the Journal that come from NYC filmmakers. (not even all of them, actually, since NYC is our single greatest source of contributions.) Stay tuned for more details from us and for coverage on The Reeler.

Screening: Neil Ira Needleman, Black Maria Film Festival (traveling)

Neil’s new video “Uncle Hyman Cleans Up” was a third-prize winner at the 2007 Black Maria Film Festival. It is now currently traveling with the festival around the country. The work features Ira’s 96-year-old uncle and a lesson in making ourselves useful. As in most of Ira's work, an unfiltered, vérité-delivered love of family shares itself with a wicked sense of humor.

Neil’s video in Vol. 2 of the JSF “Once Upon a Time in Brooklyn"--featuring two elderly aunts--was aptly deemed a kvetchumentary by someone around here, a filmic term that has yet to enter the lexicon and still results in only a single Google hit (the one from this blog). Someday it'll take off.

Go HERE for the festival’s schedule.