A Life’s Passion at The Miami Short Film Festival

A Life’s Passion has been selected participate in the Miami Short Film Festival!

A Life’s Passion has just been selected to screen at this year’s Miami Short Film Fest, November 17 -23 The film is a beautifully-shot and animated hybrid that conveys the authenticity of author James McCreath’s dramatic life, and his fictionalized telling of real world historical events in Argentina from its first years of industrialization to the terrorism and politics underscoring the country’s host role in the 1970’s World Cup.

The Miami Short Film Festival and the University of Miami School of Communication (UM SoC) have partnered for the second year in a row to present the festival’s weeklong event. The School of Communication’s dean, Sam Grogg, will again take a leadership role in the festival to ensure the partnership’s success.

Excited to once again have the support and influence that the esteemed School of Communications and its staff provide the organization and the annual weeklong event, William Vela, founder of director of the festival, has said, “I look forward to moving forward with Dean Grogg and the University again this year, and focusing on the expansion of our relationship.”

The Miami Short Film Festival, founded by William Vela in 2001, began as a means to fill a need in the Miami film community. After a successful first event, which featured seventeen local films, the festival opened its doors to national and international filmmakers to highlight the best short films from around the world.

Now in its seventh year, the Miami Short Film Festival has screened over 600 films from 23 countries for thousands of attendees, given away thousands of dollars in cash and prizes, exposed thousands of high-school students to the art of filmmaking, and provided dozens of local partners with unique programming.

The Miami Short Film Festival is a dedicated contributor to the cultural arts, economy, and education of Miami-Dade County. Through a highly effective strategic partnership model, MsFF has introduced its unique programs and programming into theaters, classrooms, businesses, and organizations throughout Miami-Dade County. Our 2007 Outreach Program gave 1,000 Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) students hands-on filmmaking training. Our 2007 Evening of Latin American Cinema provided Miami-Dade College’s Tower Theater with a sold-out Friday night screening, and our 2007 Children and Families screening allowed Miami Children’s Museum visitors to enjoy a day of tailored programming.

We awarded over $15,000 in cash and prizes during the 6th annual installment of the festival, and helped the Best of Festival award winner secure representation with The Gersh Agency. In addition, an evaluation of 2007’s 6th annual Miami Short Film Festival indicates attendees representative of one-third of all the films screened traveled to Miami for the festival.

Our responsibilities to effect positive change in our community drive our outreach efforts. As an international short film festival we cater to the world’s most creative filmmaking genre, short films provide consumers more for their money, and are an exciting way to discover new talent. Our outreach component will allow us to reach more filmmakers locally and around the world, and give tailored programming to our partner organizations around Miami-Dade County to share with their audiences and help fill their venues.

www.miamishortfilmfestival.com

A Life’s Passion National Broadcast November 2

We’re looking forward to the national broadcast of A Life’s Passion on CBC Reflections November 2! We’ll post a reminder closer to the date with more details. Stay tuned!

The film is a beautifully shot and animated hybrid that conveys the authenticity of author James McCreath’s dramatic life, and his fictionalized telling of real-world historical events in Argentina from its first years of industrialization to the terrorism and politics underscoring the country’s host role in the 1970’s World Cup.

A Life’s Passion Screens in Miami Nov 18

A Life’s Passion has just been selected to screen at this year’s Miami Short Film Festival!

A Life’s Passion screens at the Miami Short Film Festival and we’ll be there!
November 17 at 7pm
7:30PM

Word!
Miami Beach Cinematheque
512 Espanola Way, Miami Beach FL
(305) 673-4567‎

The word is to the story what the image is to the film – the basis for the whole tale. This collection of imaginative shorts shares its source of inspiration from the world of literature. Total running time: 68 min.

A Life’s Passion
Documentary, 6:40
Gary Thomas, Canada
An imagining of the fictional narrative of the historical novel Renaldo in animation, woven through the real-life biography of its author, James McCreath.

Program also includes:

Proud Iza
Alicja Wonderland
Crowded with Voices
Butterfly
Interpretation
The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato’s Allegory in Clay – NOMINEE, Best Animatio

Now in its seventh year, the MSFF has screened over 600 films from 23 countries for thousands of attendees, given away thousands of dollars in cash and prizes.

James McCreath in Conversation with David Chariandy

Click To Play Video

www.jamesmccreath.com — Our intrepid and curious colleague, author and de facto Moving Stories reporter JAMES MCCREATH caught up with David Chariandy at Toronto’s The Word on the Street. A timely interview indeed, as Moving Stories prepares screen the premiere of the short film inspired by the book, SOUCOUYANT. Way on the other side of the country, in Chariandy’s home town, BC filmmaker KEN TSUI is hard at work with his post-production team preparing the film for its debut OCTOBER 25 at the Vancouver International Writers Festival, Granville Island. The venue — Emily Carr University of Art and Design, a generous sponsor of both the production and the screening.

For more reports on front lines of the book scene, visit www.JamesMcCreath.com; and to find out more about the adaptation of Soucouyant to the silver screen, visit www.MovingStoriesFilmFest.com to read Ken Tsui’s Guest Filmmaker blog.

(c) BookShorts Literacy Program for Moving Stories Film Fest and James McCreath.

A Life’s Passion Screening in Winnipeg!

Today marks the Canadian premiere of Moving Stories Films in Winnipeg at THIN AIR: Winnipeg International Writers Festival.  Moving Stories is a program of 15 short films all based on works of literature - and A Life’s Passion is part of the lineup!  The producer Judith Keenan is out in Winnipeg at the event today. I would love to have been there, but I’m covering Word on the Street in Toronto, where I hope to catch  up with lots of interesting authors. The weather is wonderful…see you at Word on the Street!

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Word On The Street!

James McCreath will be at Word on The Street, interviewing authors and working the crowd!

Memories of BEA Past…

I am getting ready to attend BookExpo America in Los Angeles next Thursday. This is the publishing industry’s biggest trade fair in North America. It is a five day extravaganza involving every aspect of books and their world.

This is not the first time I have been to BEA. In June of 1997, I took a solo road trip with ten hardcover copies of RENALDO, the first batch of books ever produced, and motored from Toronto to Chicago.

I had reserved an exhibitor’s booth at the show in the small press section. Upon arrival at McCormack Place, which was the venue, the first order of business was to deal with the tradesmen that would physically set up my booth.

The way things got done in this show was that every tradesman was unionized, and they could perform only their designated task. So, one man brought the desk, chairs, and display table to the booth, another man put them in place, and a third man stapled the decorative drapery on the front of desk and display table.

The building was a whirlwind of activity and it was really fascinating to see the show take shape. Huge forklift trucks where buzzing everywhere depositing colored panels and carpeting to the right location so the other tradesmen could assemble the booths.

The location of my booth was quite good, as it turned out. I was adjacent to the large autographing area, which was mostly open space. Over the next three days I would see many of the world’s best selling authors mere yards away.

Because I was by myself, it was difficult for me to leave my booth and really take in the show. This is a lesson I remembered when I exhibited in Frankfurt Germany a few months later. Basically, in Chicago, the show had to come to me, I couldn’t go to the show.

Nevertheless, hundreds of people stopped by my booth to chat. I made friends with many of the exhibitors in the adjacent booths, so there was always someone to compare notes with and have a drink or dinner with after the show ended.

Two events stand out from my experiences at BEA. The first was the autograph session with Richard Simmons launching his new book, “Sweating to the Oldies.” Richard was walking around the show the entire three days in his tank top, short-shorts, and Afro hairdo held in place with a matching headband. He was extremely gregarious and funny, and actually put on an exercise show right in the autograph area. The place was packed, and many of his fans passed by my booth after the show.

The second event was much more ominous.

The booth directly across from me was rented by an Englishman by the name of David Irving. He was an independent author of some repute, or perhaps I should say, disrepute.

Mr. Irving’s claim to fame was that he insisted that the Holocaust in Europe during Hitler’s Nazi regime never took place.

He had written several lengthy books on the subject, which he proudly displayed in his booth at the show. The worst thing though, was that he constantly ran black and white videos showing the glory days of Hitler and the Nazis.

Mr. Irving was a large, friendly, well spoken man, probably in his mid-fifties. He was not dogmatic about his subject matter when I engaged him in general conversation, but I never queried him on his topic.

My father had fought in Germany during World War Two, and the whole premise that the Holocaust didn’t take place made me shudder with disgust.

It seems that I was not the only one upset with Mr. Irving’s presence at the show. On the second afternoon, I noticed three men engaged in a heated discussion with the controversial author. These men were dressed in the black traditional clothing that is worn by Orthodox Jews. They were obviously agitated with Mr. Irving, and all of a sudden, they took cans of spray-paint from their clothing and started to deface his entire display.

A scuffle ensued, in which Mr. Irving was punched and knocked to the ground. The three men were gone in an instant, and it was several minutes before BEA security, and then the police arrived.

All of the exhibitors that had witnessed the attack, including myself, were interviewed by the authorities. The end result was that Mr. Irving’s material was deemed too controversial for the show, and he was told to pack up and leave. He did this with much protest and fanfare…but really, good riddance.

As far as promoting RENALDO at the show was concerned, I met a publicist from Santa Barbara, California that was willing, for a fee, to investigate trying to get the novel sold through his contacts in the film industry.

I told him I would be in touch with him on my return to Toronto, gave him all the books I had left, and set off down the highway with some amazing experiences fresh in my mind.