Media Maker, Academic, Nerd
Maikaru took home the award for Best Documentary Short at the 2014 Seattle International Film Festival. SIFF is one of only 34 film festivals in the world where, if you win a juried prize for short films, your work is considered to be Oscar eligible.
On Monday May 26th Maikaru won the award for Best Documentary Short at the Oscar-qualifying Seattle International Film Festival.
Congratulations to my student Kateah Nims! Today she became the first Arts and Academics Academy student to win an award at the Northwest High School Film Festival! Kateah took home an Honorable Mention award in the Animation category for her hand drawn animation piece “Abstract Oricalis.” The piece was created in my Graphic Arts class, but also doubled as a trailer for Kateah’s senior project – a video game with the same name.
Having student work win an award at the Northwest High School Film Festival is a big deal for my small high school since there were 25 schools who entered the festival this year; many with dedicated video programs/teachers instead of one teacher (like me) who teaches a little bit of everything related to the technical arts. And I’m feeling pretty proud since it is also my first year on the job at AAA!
Fun was had by all 21 AAA students who ended up attending the festival. We got to see a lot of great work on the huge Cinerama screen. And we got to eat a lot of yummy chocolate popcorn… maybe a little too much popcorn.
You can see Kateah’s piece plus other AAA video and animation projects at Arts Night at the Highline Performing Arts Center on June 2nd.
Maikaru, my latest producing and editing effort, will be making its US premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 23rd.
May is a busy month for A Dose for Dominic. You can check it out at the following festivals and on PBS here in Washington.
Want to see “A Dose for Dominic,” ask me questions about it, and drink beer at the same time? Then head to Naked City Brewery in Seattle on Sunday at 7pm. This is part of our award for winning the Audience Award at Local Sightings last October. More information here.
A Dose for Dominic will be playing at the Athens International Film and Video Festival hosted by my alumna institution, Ohio University.
The Show Me Justice Film Festival asked if I would blog about making A Dose for Dominic.
My recently completed short documentary Maikaru will premiere at the 2014 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival in Toronto, Canada on May 1st. I co-produced and co-edited this one. I am super excited to have my work screened at the biggest documentary film festival in North America. This is the 5th film I’ve produced or directed to be accepted into Hot Docs in the past 7 years!
The film is about Maikaru, a young man trying to figure out a brighter future for himself after a violent childhood complicated by human trafficking.
Maikaru will play on May 1st at the May 1 at 8pm at the Tiff Bell Lightbox Cinema 4 with other short documentaries. My Canadian friends should check it out!
Check out a 40 minute version of Jump like a Girl on Alaska Public Media at 7pm on March 6th.