Toronto Premiere

After a year and a half on the festival circuit, To Rest in Peace will finally have its Toronto premiere!

Screening at the Toronto Beaches Film Festival, on Saturday June 30th at 11:30AM. We are screening before the feature documentary, If I Should Fall.

It's been a good run. We've screened all over the world, including Cannes, Kuwait, Dubai, London, New York and Los Angeles, and won awards for writing, directing, cinematography, editing, music, audience choice, and best short film.

But this screening holds a special significance. The seed for To Rest in Peace was planted in Toronto, in 2005. Producer Josh Clavir and I had just finished our second collaboration, Her Music Led, an adaptation of John Keats' La Belle Dame Sans Merci. We sat talking about the adventure of making that small film in the woods of Caledon in the dead of winter, hauling HMIs with a wheelbarrow down a slippery slope, and standing for twelve hours in a foot of snow with the water seeping in to our cold, cold toes. It was during this meeting that we started sharing stories that had inspired us, that we thought would make great films 'one day.'

I told Josh about my uncle Malek, and his heroics during the Occupation of Kuwait, including how he buried two dead strangers by the side of the road. Years later, while doing my masters in film production at USC, I wrote a script, and that script became a thesis film. Josh flew down from Toronto, and spent a semester with me in Los Angeles, getting the movie made.

That 'one day' had arrived, To Rest in Peace was finished, and now, as we travelled the festival circuit and worked on other projects, we talked about premiering the film in Toronto 'one day.' Now that new 'one day' has arrived. It's June 30th. We hope to see you there.

SHIFT Kuwait & May Festivals

To Rest in Peace has continued its festival run, screening at four events since the DGA in April.

We're honoured to have screened at SHIFT, a charity event that seeks to shift your perspective on Kuwaiti cinema. I had a chance to see most of these films on the festival circuit, and to meet some of the filmmakers. From all accounts, it was a successful evening, and I wish I could have been there to celebrate.

We also screened with a showcase of USC films at the Newport Beach Film Festival, a few miles away from where we shot most of To Rest in Peace (at El Toro Airfield).

Our Italian premiere happened in Naples, with the Social World Film Festival. 

And we went back to the mountains for the Lake Arrowhead Film Festival in California.

Atlas Shrugged Documentary

Over the last year, I've been working on a documentary about the novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand. I started off as an Assistant Editor, and eventually became an Associate Producer. Today, almost a year after I started, we are having our big premier at the ArcLight Hollywood! The film is also playing in over sixty theaters throughout the United States, and it's on the front page of Apple Trailers.


Ayn Rand & the Prophecy of Atlas Shrugged is directed by Chris Mortensen, who describes the film as "a biography of a book and an idea." We had some great interviews, including Albert S. Ruddy, producer of The Godfather & Million Dollar Baby. You can see an excerpt from his interview here:

This was a great project to be a part of. I read Atlas Shrugged when I was in high school, recommended to it by my biology teacher, Mr. Bramwell. The novel was breathtaking. I couldn't put it down. It's such a great mystery, such a great love story, and the ideas in it were challenging and engaging. I eventually read all of Ayn Rand's novels, and through her, discovered my favourite novelist, Victor Hugo, and my favourite playwright, Friedrich Schiller. I have three dream projects to adapt and direct one day. Hugo's The Man Who Laughs, Schiller's Don Carlos, and Ayn Rand's We the Living.

Unfortunately, Ayn Rand has become an icon for political campaigns, often used by people she would have disagreed with. Her ideas are constantly being misrepresented and mischaracterized. Recently, the founder of Lululemon Athletica, a yoga clothing company, put a quote from Atlas Shrugged on the company's shopping bags. "Who is John Galt?" To him, this represented the company's vision to "elevate the world from mediocrity to greatness." The public outcry, though, was astounding. People came out calling the quote "offensive," and readily admitting they had never read the novel!

I'm hoping this documentary helps present a more objective view of who Ayn Rand was, and what Atlas Shrugged is all about. We interviewed biographers, CEOs, colleagues, critics. The angle Chris Mortensen took was to look at the novel as a predictive work. There are sections of it that, as radio host Dennis Miller said, read like a modern day AP News story. But the novel was written in 1957!

How did Ayn Rand predict the financial crisis? It's a very interesting story. But the most interesting story is the basic plot of Atlas Shrugged: A mystery about the question "Who is John Galt?" And a drama about Dagny Taggart, whose greatest allies keep disappearing, one by one.

Here is a trailer for the documentary:

BFF Best Short Film!

To Rest in Peace won Best Short Film at the Brantford Film Festival! Congrats to the cast & crew.

This was a particularly significant award for us, since it was our Canadian premiere.

Jason Teakle of Brant News interviewed producer Josh Clavir and I for an article about To Rest in Peace, which he called "a story of inner strength."

We had a great time in Brantford. The people were warm, the city was lovely, and the films were good. There is nothing better you can ask for in a film festival. I look forward to returning in future years, whether or not I have a film playing there.

Canadian Premiere at Brantford

To Rest in Peace will have its Canadian premiere at the Brantford Film Festival!

There will be two screenings: Friday, November 4th at 7 PM, and Saturday, November 5th at 1PM. Check out the schedule for more details.

This is a particularly exciting festival for us. There were a lot of Canadians working on To Rest in Peace, including our lead, Michael Benyaer, our producer, Josh Clavir, and, of course, I lived most of my life in Toronto. I grew up there since I was eight years old, discovered my passion for filmmaking there, met my mentor David Stein, studied history at the University of Toronto. Much of who I am, as a person and a filmmaker, is intimately tied to my time in Toronto. So our Canadian premiere is one I have been looking forward to for a very long time.

Ironically, Canada has been the least receptive country for To Rest in Peace. We have played all over the world, in the United States, in Cannes, in Dubai, in Kuwait, and in the UK. But it has taken almost a year to finally play at a Canadian festival.

And this one promises to be the perfect beginning. Check out their line-up, which includes Sudden Death!, a musical comedy by fellow USC filmmaker, Adam Hall. 

UK Premiere at Crystal Palace

To Rest in Peace will have its UK premiere in London, at the Crystal Palace International Film Festival!

The festival runs September 20-30. Our screening is on Wednesday, September 28th, 7:30 PM at Westow House. Admission is free.

Some Assembly Required: A Collection of USC Thesis Films

Two short films I edited will be premiering this Sunday, May 15th, 6 P. M. at the Eileen Norris Theatre, University of Southern California.

Cupid, directed by John Dion, is a comedy about a disillusioned Cupid, who wants to quit his job and go home. He is tired of making people fall in love, only to see them fall apart. But before he gets a ticket back, he has to finish one final assignment.

Found, directed by Anthony Bushman, is a drama about an adopted young man, who discovers new information about his biological mother, and begins a search into his past and identity.

Both directors appear in the 'Production Metaphor' blog post, from August 2009. Cupid also appears in the Valentine's update from 2010.

They are showing with a group of six USC thesis films, including Matt MacDonald's GoldenBox, which was shot by the cinematographer for To Rest in Peace, Sean Conaty.

Here is the full list of films:

Children of the Air - Directed by Damian Horan

Found - Directed by Anthony Bushman

The Maiden and the Princess - Directed by Ali Scher

GoldenBox - Directed by Matt MacDonald

Mother's Milk (Sữa Mẹ) - Directed by Andy DeJohn

Cupid - Directed by John Dion

Siobhan Live – Radio Interview in English

This is a fun interview we did with Siobhan Live (Dubai Eye 103.8) during the Dubai Film Festival.

The interview was in english, so Josh got to join in. It was a first for both of us being live on radio, but Siobhan was lovely and quickly made it feel like a dinner conversation. The recording is two segments stitched together, before and after the news break.

Still to come, a newspaper article and some pictures from the festival!

Al Arabiya - Live interview in Arabic

The day after we arrived in Dubai, I got a call early in the morning asking if I could do a live interview in half an hour. Of course, the answer is always 'yes'. Which then leads to the question 'what about breakfast?' Fortunately, we managed to get ready and out the door in time and well fed.

The interview was for Al Arabiya's morning show. My arabic was a little rusty, having lived in Toronto, Los Angeles and London since I was eight years old. But the hosts were lovely, and I managed to get through it without much Arabish (Arabic-English hybrids).

We enjoyed a good deal of press during the Dubai Film Festival. They had a dedicated publicist, Sarah Ahmed, who put us in touch with various media outlets for interviews. There's a radio show, and a newspaper article coming soon to the blog.

Many thanks to Sarah, and to Mohammed Al Azzam and Layal Assaf, who made Dubai the perfect premier festival for To Rest in Peace!

World Premier at the Dubai International Film Festival

Hello all!

To Rest in Peace has officially had it's world premier at the 7th annual Dubai International Film Festival. It was a huge success and we were honoured to be a part of this year's festival. Thanks so much to the festival staff who made our experience so memorable! It was also a great pleasure to have Merik Tadros join us, and as a side note, we are really excited by the reception his graphic novel River Jordan has been getting. Lastly, we did some great press while we were there: print interviews, TV appearances and a radio interview, which we'll make available on the blog — so stay tuned for that!

J

Dubai Film Festival

It's official!

To Rest in Peace will be at the Dubai International Film Festival as part of the Gulf Voices screening, which promises "stories of honour and responsibility, war, comedy, family drama, and romance."

(And our picture made it onto their press release!)

The festival is held December 12th-19th. It will be the official world premier of our film, and the beginning of the festival circuit.

Several of the cast and crew will be there. We look forward to updating you from Dubai!