Hello to the 15,000,

Congratulations to everyone. Our show at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Carved from Pavement last Saturday night was sold out thanks to your concerted effort. Special thanks to Orion Star and Aaron Brown for getting the word out and also to Malcolm Pullinger for his sterling design work on our poster.

I was proud of the clips we put up on the screen. The 9 @ Night pieces from USED and GO TOGETHER showed feelings which were raw and unvarnished, embarrassing to some who are used to the more antiseptic and “appropriate’ emotions in films which live on polish, but they provide food to my soul. I think people are inappropriate, insistent, over the top, ungainly and unsure of how to deal with conflict. I like to show that. It makes me squirm a little as I often do in life. I can’t say that every attempt to cut out dramatic falseness, the one unforgivable crime, works but there is not one frame of film up there which I haven’t vetted for that venal sin.

PRESQUE ISLE is more of a dramatic set piece than any of the other pieces and I sometimes ask myself about its moment to moment authenticity. Its greater theatricality is an off shoot of our ad hoc street mode and because the whole film, by my way of thinking, occurs in the mind of Danny, the protagonist, its more formal touch works for me. In subsequent works I plan an amalgam of these two styles. Always trying to hone and hack but hopefully avoid that pesky polish.

I was also surprised and pleased by the response to FRANK DEAD SOULS, which sports a lighter, freer touch perhaps, and a dry intrinsic humor. Another of our films somewhat in that vein is OPENING which will be one of four of the Direct Action World Cinema films available for download for 24 hours only through an arrangement with Jaman and the SF International Film Festival. The schedule is as follows:

• May 7- WINTER ORANGES
• May 8- SAMT
• May 9- SECURITY
• May 10- OPENING

The films can be downloaded for one day only and viewed for a limited period before their play expires. I thought it was a good experiment to get our work out there and to pursue the “thousand points of video” idea which is about getting our films on many sites sometimes free, sometimes paying, with the thought that obscurity is the worst penalty, far worse than piracy, or giving work away. You can find out more about by going up on http://www.jaman.com/festivals/sfiff.

On Wednesday, May 9, at the Edwin Johnson Theatre, 7:00 PM our Films About Love Series will show one of my favorite Bergman films: CRIES AND WHISPERS. This is another film you need to see every few years. It shows the inner strength and loyalty necessary to sustain love. It depicts the hypocrisy of public love put on for show and contrasts it with deep bonds which seem to combat death itself. Please come and see this one film Ii you see no other. You will experience Bergman at his best and see a unique perspective on the subject we are exploring through this series. Please RSVP either rnilsson@robnilsson.com or (510)527-7217.

Invent the faith!

Rob