To Live and Write in LA

‘Wolf Mother’ and ‘I Live For You’

There seems to be a new meme in indie film: scary ladies. “Danger: Crazy Lady Ahead” award goes to a pair of films shown at the Dances With Films Festival.

Interview: ‘Creedmoria’ Director Alicia Slimmer Admits Coming-of-Age Flick is All About Her

‘Creedmoria’, a film by first-time writer/director Alicia Slimmer, made its SoCal premier at the Dances With Films Festival. It chronicles the efforts of sweet-sixteen Candy Cahill, played by Stef Dawson, to come of age in one of the most dysfunctional families in movie history. As I watched the film, I hoped, for Slimmer’s sake, that this movie wasn’t too autobiographical. It turns out that it was.

Interview: ‘Virtual Revolution’ Writer/Director Guy-Roger Duvert Spills Real and VR Blood in His First Feature

‘Before the shooting, people were asking me all the time in which studio I would be filming, assuming that most of the film would be shot in front of green screens. The reality is very different. Out of the 30 days of shooting, we shot only one day in a green screen studio.

DWF: Three Shorts – Fantasy, Love and Our Fragile Grasp on Reality

Why do filmmakers create short films? Sometimes they are truly motivated to tell a story which only fits in a short format. Other times, it is to show off their skills in order to establish their credentials. Once in a while, they may make a short version of a film that they ultimately want to turn into a feature length production. At this year’s Dances With Films (DWF) festival, held in Hollywood in June, the selection of short films was impressive and contained examples which both fit into and transcended the above reasons. Three films I found impressive all dealt with our perception of what is real: ‘Funny Love,’ ‘Waste Paper,’ and ‘Waiting for You.’

Dances with Films Festival: The Powerhouse Panel – Hollywood Success Secrets

Want to be successful in Hollywood? The Dances with Films Festival featured a terrific “powerhouse” panel. Here’s what the panelists had to say.

Dances With Films: Opening Night Full of Dreams and Zombies

(First published on blogcritics.org) “Dare, Dream, Do” is the mantra of the Dances with Films independent film festival, May 31 through June 7 at the Chinese 6 Theaters in Hollywood. On opening night they lived up to their slogan for the year, “Dream Big or Go Home,” with the biggest red carpet parade I’ve ever seen. My […]

Where dreams come from