It’s been a couple weeks since VisionFest 08 and more positive things are happening with BIRTHMARK.

VisionFest 08 was a great experience.  The audience packed into the 600-seat main theater at the DGA responded really well to the film.  Matthew Evans, his mother Leona, and Lauren Eckstom attended the screening along with a number of crew members from the film.

After the screening, Matthew, Leona, and I made the rounds and received lots of great comments about the film.  I think Matthew was the star of the evening.  Matthew is also doing some great filmmaking of his own, interviewing people who are making a positive impact in the world.  Click here to check out his YouTube page to see his videos.

(left to right) Melissa Cao, David Woods, Matthew Evans, Leona Evans, and Alisha Kosaka at VisionFest 08

Coming off the encouraging screening at VisionFest 08, BIRTHMARK has been selected to screen at Chicago International Children’s Film Festival as well as the Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival in Birmingham, Alabama.

The Chicago International Children’s Film Festival (CICFF) is the largest festival of films for children in North America features over 200 films from 40 countries and screens a wide range of projects from live action and animated features, to shorts, TV series, documentaries, and child-produced works. One of the most unique festivals in the country, showcasing the best in culturally diverse, non-violent, value affirming new cinema for children, the CICFF is the only children’s film festival to be an Academy Award Qualifying Festival.

BIRTHMARK will be screening Monday, October 27 at 9:45am at Facets Cinema

Since its debut in 1999, filmmakers from across the country and around the world have come to Birmingham to screen their work at Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival and have been thrilled to discover fresh, enthusiastic crowds eager to devour new independent cinema.

Here are a few more accolades for Sidewalk:

• One of TIME magazine’s FILM FESTIVALS FOR THE REST OF US

• One of Chris Gore’s BEST VACATION FILM FESTIVALS in the Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide

• “BEST KEPT SECRET” in MovieMaker Magazine

When I have the screening date and time, I will be sure to post it.  I’m also planning to attend Sidewalk.  I’m very excited to be able to screen the film at such a great festival in the state where I was born.

BIRTHMARK will be screening in the shorts program as part of VisionFest 08 at the DGA Theater on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 7:00pm.

What is VisionFest?

VisionFest is the annual event from Filmmakers Alliance, the Los Angeles-based filmmaking collective.

What is Filmmakers Alliance?

Filmmakers Alliance is a community of film artists dedicated ro realizing the full creative potential of cinema and to the advancement of true independent film through community action. Please join them in honoring their filmmaking heroes and celebrating the work of a new generation of emerging filmmakers.

Kevin Smith will be receiving the Vision Award.

The event includes the presentation of the Vision Award to filmmaker Kevin Smith and the Nilsson Award to the award’s namesake, filmmaker Rob Nillson. Those awards will be preceded by a special Community Vision Award to LA Film Forum and the endowment of the Los Angeles Short Filmmaking Grant. Then comes the screening of the best short films producer through Filmmakers Alliance in the past year and finishes with a celebration catered by some of Los Angeles’s best restaurants.

Way back in 2005, I had the good fortune of having the first public screening of SECOND THOUGHTS at the DGA Theater as part of VisionFest 05.  It was amazing to screen the film before an overflow crowds in each of the theaters and one of the filmmakers whose work led me to want to become a filmmaker, David O. Russell (the recipient of that year’s Vision Award) was in the audience.

Me and my brother at VisionFest 05

Tickets are available for only $20 for the whole evening (and $15 for those who use “friend” as discount code) by going here: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/39693

For more information on the event, go here: http://www.filmmakersalliance.org/VisionFest.html

Birthmark has had a successful festival run thus far with successful screenings at the Wisconsin Film Festival (which I was able to attend and had a great time) as well as the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival, and the Jacksonville Film Festival.

The short film was recently selected to screen at the Rhode Island International Film Festival (which I will mention more about in a future post), Sapporo ShortFest in Sapporo, Japan, and the 1 Reel Film Festival (which is part of the Bumbershoot Art & Music Festival in Seattle).

Birthmark will also be screening in Los Angeles (where I live) at VisionFest 08, the 11th Annual Gala Celebration and Screening that Filmmakers Alliance (a great filmmaking group to which I belong) puts on at the DGA Theater.

It’s pretty cool that this little film will be screening five times in a forty day period in four different cities on two different continents.