Two Tribeca Premieres
This year’s Tribeca Film Festival is the world premiere of two projects I mixed. The short film Rita Mahtoubian Is Not a Terrorist, starring Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous, Gone Girl), and the feature documentary Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle, an in-depth exposé on the taser industry.
Tom Swift has been getting a lot of press since its premiere, being featured on Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Filmmaker Magazine, MSNBC, and The Daily Beast, as well as the director Nick Berardini being interviewed on Fox News and NBC News about the film.
IndieWire also listed Tom Swift as one of the Top 10 Docs at Tribeca, The Playlist called the film ‘Impressive, Fascinating’ and the Business Insider released a glowing in-depth review, saying:
“You won’t find a timelier or more relevant film at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival… ‘Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle’ is a painstakingly researched and compelling film that demands to be seen.”
The film will play next at the Hot Docs International Documentary Festival in Toronto later this month.
Tribeca Film Festival
Western Wins Awards at SXSW, Indie Grits, and Ashland
Western has been on a roll since debuting at Sundance and winning the Special Jury Award for Verité Filmmaking. Next it won the Lone Star Award at SXSW (the previous year’s winner was Richard Linklater for Boyhood), the Big Grit Award at the Indie Grits festival, and the Grand Jury Award for Feature Documentary at the Ashland International Film Festival (the last film I mixed for the Ross Brothers, Tchoupitoulas, also won the Grand Jury there in 2012).
Western also played True/False, Full Frame, Cleveland, Wisconsin, Dallas, Sarasota, IFF Boston, it had special screenings at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Film Society Lincoln Center, and will play in upcoming weeks at Hot Docs and the San Francisco International Film Festivals.
The film continues to receive fantastic reviews, such as this one from TwitchFilm that calls Western “A new American marvel”. It also makes me proud to see so many reviews praise the sound design, such as this one from The Matinee which states:
“The Ross brothers’ directing has a way of making the everyday seem grand… They do it with lush imagery and especially do it with intricate sound design. WESTERN kicks out the cinema walls from around us and makes us feel like we are surrounded by the wilds and winds of the Southwest. Whether its the roll of thunder of an incoming storm, or the twitter of birds as the sun starts to rise, this documentary surrounds the senses and truly transports you to this intriguing spot on the map.”
Best Feature Documentary Ashland
An ESPN 30-for-30: The Bad Boy of Bowling
I was thrilled to work on my first ESPN 30-for-30 film, The Bad Boy of Bowling, directed by Bryan Storkel (whom I had previously worked for mixing the feature documentary Fight Church). It was a really fun film to mix, and it will be playing festivals at Ashland, IFF Boston, and the San Francisco International Film Festival, followed by its screening on ESPN shortly after.
The Bad Boy of Bowling
Being Evel festival tour continues
Being Evel is still making strong waves at festivals, playing at SXSW, Full Frame, IFF Boston, Miami, and more. It also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Boulder International Film Festival.
The film has also gotten great press in Rolling Stone Magazine, Esquire, Aint it Cool News, and many others.
Being Evel
Other Projects, Shorts, and Commercials
I had a blast attending the Independent Spirit Awards as part of The Last Season crew. The film is still playing in festivals as well, having recently shown in San Francisco as part of this years CAAMFest, and the Huffington Post ran a great article on it.
That’s the Clouds played at the Nashville Film Festival.
I also mixed the short film Bear Story that played the Wisconsin Film Festival.
And lastly in commercial work I mixed an Anti-Cancer commercial promo for UC Irvine, as well as a custom spot for Christie’s Auction House in New York.
Finally as for future projects, I’ll be gearing up to head to New York this summer to once again work with the Ross Brothers and David Byrne of the Talking Heads on their new collaborative Contemporary Color concert film. It’s going to be something really cool, and I can’t wait to experience all the live music and mayhem! More on it soon!
Ashland Best Documentary Trophy!!
