Get a DAM life! Just try for three seconds to give a DAM! DAM, fundraising can be fun!
OK. I’ll stop. All the unnecessary puns are subliminal messaging attempts to get you to chip in $12 dollars this holiday season for the 12 DAM days of Christmas as the Detroit Artist market tries to hit its mark with fundraising this year. If you’re not familiar with DAM, they opened up shop in 1932 to support young artists during the Great Depression. Since then, they’ve been a leader in Detroit’s contemporary art scene curating some really great shows. Plus, they throw some fun parties from time to time.
So, consider a donation to help them keep the doors open (and the heat on) for another 80 years. The 12 DAM days started yesterday and will go on for another 10 after today. Here are some reasons why you should donate now as opposed to later this afternoon, tomorrow or even next week:
Each donor will be added to a daily raffle for a chance to win DAM gift memberships, DAM swag, and more!
For the 12 DAM days of Christmas, your gift will be doubled with a match from St. John Providence Health System Foundations. Kind of cool.
So, anyway, seems like the right DAM thing to do. I just donated. You should, too.
Geez, after something of a hiatus though. For no good reason other than what you may have predicted… “We’ve been busy!” But you expected that, right? Why else would have there have been such an awkward silence? But hey, things have been happening—
To boot, we’ve got some great client projects coming down the pipe in the first quarter of 2013 that we are pumped about. Been working with some new clients that are exerting a bit of faith in our process which is fun– ie, we are getting to do more and more in terms of crafting content both in scope and reach. So that’s cool. We’re also looking at a new proper office downtown which has been kind of fun– albeit slow– process. It’s kind of fun seeing all the spaces and envisioning what our little LAUNCH PAD could look like. It’d be fun to throw a party when we open? We’ll see.
As a send off, check out a piece we just completed on Supino Pizzeria for the UIX folks. Dave Mancini is cool as a cucumber– both cause his pizza is stellar, but because he possesses an unassuming knack for recognizing authentic talent and supporting it. Check it out, and WORD UP for now people!
The renowned Dan Austin at Historic Detroit and the folks at Detroit Urbex are talking about a music video that Eminem and 50 Cent have been shooting at the MCS. Rumors are circulating on the web that the two are shooting a video with Skylar Gray. 50′s Twitter feed supports this to some extent with a recent quip, “I’m shooting a video for SKI with EM it’s a big one @andredirrell 2004 Olympic gold medalist in it”
In early 2012 we toured through Europe premiering the film in Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. From those days on the road we created a tour film showing the value of getting “After the Factory” out in to the world. The film is a short piece that aims to share a bit of the fun that comes along with traveling to places and creating discussion from the film. We hope you enjoy it.
Today, the Rust Belt Tour continues as we go through cities throughout the United States that have falled victim to much of the same circumstances as Detroit and Lodz. For more information on screenings and the film in general, see the ATF website.
After well-attended screenings in Chicago, Chagrin Falls, Ohio and Bay City, the Rust Belt tour rolls on. This week we screen in Minneapolis at the University of Minnesota and in downtown Milwaukee in conjunction with the organization ARTMilwaukee. We have been a part of some great events and have met some great people in the process. Stay tuned to the After the Factory website for any tour additions and updates, but the next few weeks of dates are as follows:
October 11 – Minneapolis, MN – University of Minnesota, Blegen 10 – 6pm – Q+A to follow – Free screening
October 12 – Milwaukee, WI – ART Milwaukee – Q+A to follow – Tickets
October 18 – Baltimore, MD – Windup Space – Q+A to follow
October 21 – Greenbelt, MD – Utopia Film Festival – 4pm – Tickets
October 25 – Youngstown, OH – The Lemon Grove – Q+A to follow – Free screening
October 26 – Cleveland, OH – The LaSalle Theatre – Q+A to follow + Party!
October 28 – Dayton, OH – Dayton Institute of Art – Q+A to follow
Thirty five local and international artists are coming together for what is being called a nighttime festival in Detroit. Kind of hard to materialize what that means, but think lights, projections, installations all throughout the night. And bikes! Lit up bikes are being encouraged which sounds kind of fun. The festival is taking place throughout Midtown October 5 to 6. Their are many scheduled events and workshops which you can get details on on the DLECTRICITY website. The Detroit version of this festival is inspired by similar festivals happening around the world, a view of which can be had below from a similar event in NYC. It gives a nice little teaser for what will come in the Detroit version:
We’ve talked about HATCH Detroit before– the crowdsourced exercise in business startup whereby the general public votes on a business they would like to see in the city. The business with the most votes gets awarded 50k cash and a host of other business services. The contest is in its second year in fact, last year, Joe Posch won for his mens retail concept HUGH, of which will be opening in the Auburn this Fall.
Anyway, voting to determine this years champion has officially begun, with the contestants now narrowed down to four businesses. Rules and such from the HATCH website:
For the Final Round you can vote once per 24 hours on our website, and up to 5 times total on Facebook. Once you’ve voted 5 times on Facebook you are done voting. You must select the one (1) business you want to win the 2012 Comerica Hatch Detroit Contest.
You will have to register on our website with your email address to access the poll. If you already registered during Round 1 voting, you can use the same Username and Password. On Facebook you will have to like our page in order to access the poll and register using Facebook Connect. Final Round voting opens on 9/24/12 at 12:01 AM EST and you can vote every day until 9/27/12 at 12:00 PM EST when the voting closes.
We’re really excited to announce the details of our upcoming Rust Belt Tour for “After the Factory.” We figured it makes sense to show the film in the places where the messaging has the most relevance, and so off we go! We are more or less covering from as far west as Milwaukee clear to Maryland with many stops in between. The good news is that in addition to the dates listed below, we are still confirming other stops (Buffalo, Minneapolis, still working on Pittsburgh).
All the screening dates are listed on the After the Factory website, and details for the Rust Belt tour specifically are as follows:
October 6 – Chagrin Falls, OH – Chagrin Documentary Film Festival – Tickets
October 7 – Bay City, MI – Hell’s Half Mile Film Festival – 4:30pm – State Theater – Tickets
October 7 – Chicago, IL – Chicago International Social Change Film Festival – 5pm - Tickets
October 12 – Milwaukee, WI – ART Milwaukee – Q+A to follow – Ticket link coming soon!
October 18 – Baltimore, MD – Windup Space – Q+A to follow – Ticket link coming soon!
October 21 – Greenbelt, MD – Utopia Film Festival – 4pm – Tickets
October 25 – Youngstown, OH – The Lemon Grove – Q+A to follow – Free screening
October 26 – Cleveland, OH – The LaSalle Theatre – Q+A to follow + Party! – Ticket link coming soon!
October 28 – Dayton, OH – Dayton Institute of Art – Q+A to follow – Ticket link coming soon!
Some good news for Detroit-based films and directors:
1) “BURN: One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit” will make its Detroit premiere September 28 at the Fillmore on Woodward Avenue. The film won viewers choice at Tribeca Film Festival and was met with critical acclaim recently at the Traverse City Film Festival. Check the trailer below and get your tickets for the premiere this Sunday at 10 a.m. via 800-745-3000, livenation.com, ticketmaster.com or the Fillmore Detroit and St. Andrew’s Hall box offices.
2) Detroit-based director Rola Nashef has worked tirelessly on her film “Detroit Unleaded” and just received news that the film will premiere at this years Toronto International Film Festival– a huge accolade. A brief summary pulled from the film’s FB page: “Between Detroit and Arab-America, Sami works behind the bulletproof glass of a 24-hour gas station with his cousin Mike. Inside this unique East-side neighborhood, the station is more than just a pit-stop for rolling papers and fake perfume. When Najlah walks in, Sami’s shift becomes anything but routine.” A trailer can’t be located at this point, but get more info on the film by visiting the film festival site here.
So, part two to the discussion of Traverse City Film Festival– the party continues.
It all started in a bit of a scramble with us making some last minute changes to a piece we needed to deliver to the client the morning we needed to leave for the screening. We finally got the changes done and hopped in the car. We were driving like hell up I-75 and made it eventually, arriving to see a line forming around the block in the theatre where we would be screening in an hour.
Not too shabby. We picked up our credentials and entered the venue. We were taken to the green room which I had no clue what that was– turns out it’s the equivalent of a rock band’s backstage area with rolled up sandwiches, some ice cold IPA’s and practically anything else you could ask for. I had a couple beers, easily assimilating in to what seemed like the Hollywood treatment while the theatre filled up with people. Not long after our film was introduced along with the two shorts it screened with (“Maestra” and “My Neighborhood”– two great films with similarly aligned socially driven messaging). And that was that. We were on.
Audience response was positive, and the Q+A was quick and fruitful. Most of the questioning that came my way was how growth in the downtown core can affect the neighborhoods in Detroit. Obviously, there’s no surefire swift answer for that one, it’s tricky business. But the core of my answer revolved around it being very unclear where healthy large-scale growth and change in Detroit begins and ends– therefore we must start somewhere. But to stall growth seems silly. We need to try our hand at as much as we can.
Upon completion of the screening, the rest of the week was filled with Traverse City delight and a handful of really amazing films. Two of which I would reccomend everyone consider checking out when possible: First, “5 Broken Cameras” directed by Guy Davidi and Emad Burnat addressing the Palastinian and Israeli conflict. Second, “Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey”, directed by Ramona S. Díaz about the rock band Journey’s new Filipino lead singer that they found on YouTube.
More festival screenings and tour announcements are coming down the pipe soon!
