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.

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. 

World Cup Champions!

We won the World Cup Film Awards!

Congrats to the whole team.

Congrats also to the feature film world champions, Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football.

This competition has been tremendous fun. It's a nice change of pace from the usual film events, conjuring up a sportsing atmosphere. Several members of our crew are big soccer fans. This past World Cup, we watched games together when we could, and exchanged celebratory (or consolatory) texts when we couldn't. So there's an extra pleasure in celebrating this win.

Now there are three more years until Brazil 2014...

The World Cup Quarter-finals

To Rest in Peace is a quarter-finalist in the 2011 World Cup Film Awards. It is an elimination-style tournament that pits one team against the other, like the second round of the FIFA World Cup. You can cheer for us on the World Cup Film Awards Facebook page.

We are the only team representing Canada in the competition, though we could have also represented Kuwait or the United States. The film was made by a Kuwaiti raised in Canada (Toronto represent!), with a canadian star, and two canadian producers, through an american university, shot in California and Kuwait, funded by Canadian and Kuwaiti sources. A multi-national effort in our globalized world. But with the mighty maple leaf flying high, I say: Go team Canada!

Incidentally, team Kuwait won the Gulf Cup in 2010, giving us hope they may qualify for their second World Cup appearance in 2014. (Their first was in 1982).

Several members of the To Rest in Peace team are passionate soccer fans, so it is particularly exciting to be in this tournament. It looks like we have tough competition in Angela Hinton's A Palette of Possibilities. It may come down to extra time, or penalty shots. The semi-finalists are announced May 22nd!

Guten Tag, Österreich

When looking at the stats for this blog and for Vimeo, I expected to find that the three countries most interested in To Rest in Peace would be the US, Canada and Kuwait. It's a film made for an american school, by a Kuwaiti who grew up in Canada, about an event in kuwaiti history. But it looks like the country with the second most pageviews after the US, with even more pageviews than Canada and Kuwait, is Austria!

Vielen Dank. Vielleicht sollte ich einige Blogeinträge auf Deutsch schreiben?

It still amazes me how small the world has become in the Internet Age. One day I might get used to the idea and take it for granted. But for now, I'm astounded every time I look at the pageview statistics. The Failaka Island video alone has gotten views from 73 different countries!

Thanks for checking in. And stay tuned. Big news to come.

Ghosts of Movies Past

This picture recently surfaced from the second film Josh and I worked on together (Her Music Led, November 2005).

Warning: Don't mess with this producer.

Our first film was also shot in the freezing cold of winter in Toronto. By contrast, To Rest in Peace will be a desert movie shot in May. From one extreme to the other. It's how we do things.

Josh is heading back to Toronto for a week, to attend Ryerson University's Film Festival, where he will screen three films he produced, and one he directed. You can find more info here.