Sean Bell FIlm Project

The Sean Bell Film Project is a series of short films inspired by and/or about the brutal and tragic death of Sean Bell at the hands of New York's elite police officers.

It is once again organized by ED DURANTE, and he has come up with even more rules which must be incorporated into the film. I think they are: only 2 speaking characters, one location, one day shoot, delivery within 7 days of shooting, and a maximum length of 3 minutes. Due Date is sometime in Septemeber. I am sure there are more rules, but those are the general guidelines.

So what will my film be about? At the moment, I am thinking of using my 13 month old daugher, Aniya, as the star. I might have many more characters, but none of them will speak. How about a busy children's playground in Prospect Park.. water throwing, slides- the general rough housing.. the police are outside the park, all shot in slo-mo, laughing as they load their weapons, a kid points his finger at Aniya and says "BANG BANG"... in response the police let out a reign of gun fire.. blackness and earth shattering silence.. and an empty swing swaying... an empty jungle gym, an empty sand box, the water sprays, but no kids can be heard.. THE END.

I know this will be highly effective, moving and disturbing- but do I really want to go there? To that deep dark spot.. to elicit a guaranteed response? I am still trying to figure it out.

Film Update

This is to update the status of my last two films, and to announce my upcoming film project.

Pilferer has gone Ofor (has not gotten into any festivals).. I am not sure how many festivals I applied to- but it was at least in the 15-20 range. I guess I made a really bad flick.

Happy Sauce has also gone 0for, probably been rejected by about 20 festivals, with another 5 or 6 pending. On the plus side, I am waiting to blur the Maker's Mark logo's in the film and will give the rights to the film to the distribution company Ouat Media, based in Canada, to exploit the film for 4 years. I am hoping that they will have better luck. If I make even 5 dollars on the film, I think it will be a success.

Regarding the blurring of the logo- yes, the film was made for Maker's Mark, but at the end of the day, the company's legal dept. refuses to give me a release to use their logo for commercial purposes due to the children's nature of the film. That is, a mans' liking to drink Maker's Mark out of a baby's bottle. GO FIGURE.

WELCOME TO THE FILM & TELEVISION INDUSTRY- THE BIRTHPLACE OF HYPOCRASY(spell check please).

To end one of my few posts about film in the past year, I am pleased to announce the SEAN BELL FILM PROJECT, organized by none other than my good friend ED DURANTE.

Zeus with Aniya

ZEUS SEN

Our beloved cat, Zeus, tragically and unexpectedly, passed away this morning. We found him on the stairs, unable to breathe and we were unable to save him. The Dr. believes he had heart disease, and has told us there is very little we could have done.

Zeus was an aloof cat, who liked to do only what he liked to do. That made us love him even more. He loved chasing any insect and anything else that moved that he could find. He was a hunter who loved the outdoors. If I had known his condition, there were so many things I would have wanted to say to him- how I thought he was silly, and loved the softness of his fur, and most importantly, that I love him.