The Spotlight Nebraska Film Festival is coming!

They had a little press conference this week. Here's the blurb from KNEB:

Gering Native & Spouse To Premiere First Production At Midwest Film Festival
A Gering native and her husband will premiere their first production during the Midwest Theatre's 2006 Film Festival October 12th through the 14th. Steve and Andrea Mudd, formerly Andrea Myers, will be showing the political suspense film "Seclusion," filmed near Breckenridge, Colorado last summer.

The film is the story of a Congressman who has an affair with his beautiful advisor while renting a secluded cabin to work on a political speech, and what ensues when she disappears the next morning as the Congressman's wife and the assistant's husband arrive. Film Festival spokesperson Willa Kosman says she's excited about having the Mudd's first production premiere Saturday evening.

The Mudd's workshop Saturday, titled "Filmmaking on a Dime," will track the successes and tribulations of their film-making experience. The festival will also include workshops and presentations by special effects producer Helen Ostenberg Elswit, whose grandfather built the theatre, respected screenwriter Lew Hunter, and award winning photographer Joel Sartore. Premiere passes are being sold for $125 apiece. Individual event tickets will be sold at $5 apiece starting September 15th.

That's Festival Director Willa Cosman in the photo! Rock on, Willa.

Visit the festival website: Spotlight Nebraska Film Festival

Hmmmm.....

So, if you've been paying attention, you'll know I've become yet
another, late adopting myspace geek. And not I can't even remember
my stupid blogger password so I have to email this one in...

www.myspace.com/seclusionthemovie

This handsome man is Mr. Haylar Garcia. He is the editor of Seclusion. You can visit one of his websites at www.taoengine.com. You could try and visit his myspace page, but you won't really find him there too often. With the exception of my lovely wife Andrea, Haylar has taken more abuse working on the film Seclusion than anyone else. And for that, I am eternally grateful.

My latest slap in Haylar's face was excluding a mention of him on the DVD commentary of Seclusion. I was unscripted and flying by the seat of my pants when I did the commentary. For those of you so lucky as to listen to the DVD commentary on Seclusion, you'll hear me mention many things. Mostly raccoons. And Bartek. You should have heard me mention Haylar. Of everyone on the cast and crew, I would vote Haylar "Most Likely to Succeed." His talent and energy know no bounds. He has a little documentary coming out: Do it for Johnny. It's a love story about Johnny Depp. And guitars. And guns. When you have the opportunity to see it, do.

Thank you, Haylar, for making Seclusion what it is.

Watch the season finale of 24 and watch HUFF!

In Monday's season finale of 24, Christopher Stapleton, star of the feature film Seclusion, will be appearing as Secret Service Agent Clark. From my understanding he will appear in the climax of the show.

And while you're at it, set your Tivo and watch HUFF on Showtime on Sunday, June 4th 10pm Pacific, 9pm Central. Missy Crider, also the star of the feature film Seclusion, will be appearing in an episode called "Tapping the Squid." Previously, she appeared in an episode called "A Cornfield Grows in LA." Catch it in reruns if you can...

Rock on...

Special thanks and apologies to Pat Angello. Mr. Angello is not only the only regular reader of Threat Watch who comments on it, he may be the only reader. He also was kind enough to let my son and I use his Avalanche tickets today as the Avs crushed the Calgary Flames. I must apologize, however, as he is a Cherry Creek High School alumnus and, well, if you read my last post, you know how I feel about that dark time in Patrick's life.

I can talk smack because the Mullen Mustangs handily defeated Cherry Creek to win the 5A state title. That same evening, my Wyoming Cowboys fought hard, but ultimately failed against the heavily-favored and NCAA-bound SDSU Aztecs.

In other good news, I have apparently been named to the unofficial Top Ten Hottest Dads list at Wilder Elementary. Sweeeeeeeet! All my campaigning finally paid off!

Hoops baby

The madness has begun.  For those of you keeping score at home, the Mullen High School Girl’s Basketball Team will be playing for the Colorado State 4A Championship Game tonight.  I’ll be there.

 

Last night, I had the pleasure of watching the Mullen High School Boy’s Basketball team frustrate the Smoky Hill High School team and earn a berth in the 5A Championship Game on Saturday.  This game has a special meaning to me as the Mullen team has three kids on it that I coached a few years back when they were in Junior High at St. Mary’s of Littleton.  The best part of it is that we weren’t even considered the best team at St. Mary’s.  All of the “good” players were on another team.  These guys stuck with it and are now playing with the best in the state.  That rocks.  Mullen also has 6’ 11’’ Providence-bound giant Ray Hall on their team who just dominates the floor.  Even with a rough night offensively and with rebounds, Ray owned the floor dictating where Smoky Hill could and could not shoot.

 

The best part about the championship for the Mullen boys is their opponent:  Cherry Creek.  I have this deep, irrational, hatred for Cherry Creek.  We have friends who probably going to end up sending their kids to Creek.  I hate that.  There is no other entity in the world that arouses such uncharacteristic emotions in me.  Dam the Creek.  Go Mustangs!

 

And to top off the basketball revelry, the Wyoming Cowboys who have been absolutely abysmal this season (13-17 overall, 5-11 in the MWC) upset the Air Force Falcons (24-6, 12-4) to move on to the next round of the MWC tournament on Saturday against Utah.  Go Pokes!  Go March!

Like any good filmphile, I watched and thoroughly enjoyed the Oscars. I love all of the pundits who take so much time to criticize the telecast. What's the freakin' point? I mean, if the Oscars were solely for entertainment value, they'd do a much different show. For one thing, they would get rid of all of those pesky awards. They tend to get in the way of watching the mimes wander around the stage. Who cares if Jon Stewart is or isn't as good as Billy Crystal? I'm not tuning in because of the host. I'm tuning in because of the films. I want to enjoy a celebration of the craft of flim making. Some other random thoughts:

I enjoyed Crash, but didn't feel it was the best pic of the year. I read Ebert's comments and he persuaded me a bit, but I'm still not convinced it was the best pic. By the same token, I'm definitely convinced Brokeback was not the best pic (see previous blogs).

Go Wyoming! If you didn't notice (and you probably didn't because you were taking a leak during this particular commercial break), Wyoming ran a tourism ad during the telecast. Go Wyoming! That is so cool. That is emblematic of Wyoming thinking. Everybody is going to be talking about Brokeback and how beautiful it us. Let's buy advertising to increase tourism. Perhaps this whole Crash/Brokeback controversy is really being stirred by some think tank in Cheyenne...

Twelve. I saw twelve of the feature films nominated for Oscars. I'm proud of that. I think it's the most I've ever seen. I even saw two of the documentary features. Cinderella Man came via Netflix a couple of weeks ago, but I'm still not interested in popping it in. Damn Russell Crowe and his mumbling.