BIG JOY: International premiere sparkles at Hong Kong International Film Festival...

Happy Easter! A typical exhibit at a sparkling megamall

One of the amazing restaurants in Hong Kong
has a fabulous aquarium - don't think this was for eating!

Hong Kong is a mega-mall city full of mirrors and contradictions: stunning skyscrapers, beautiful old hills.  Life drilled up ~ not unusual to find a pub on the 5^th or 105th floor … and down into glistening subway malls or ancient tunnels and caves.

Some of the thinnest skyscrapers I've seen!

So it’s a great place to bring James Broughton’s fusion of West and East, male and female, fast and slow, this and that – into the world outside the United States.

It’s an honor to be part of a festival with over 300 films from 68 countries, showing in various places around this polyglot Asian citystate.  And to be part of a festival that honors film as film, that brings such films as Broughton’s “The Bed” and “The Golden Positions” to audiences in the original 16mm format.  Indeed, it’s the first festival to mount a 2013 centennial retrospective of 8 of Broughton’s 23 films, along with our new documentary, “BIG JOY: The Adventures of James Broughton.” 

When I met the festival’s director, Roger Garcia, in New York at Independent Film Week in 2011, he knew Broughton’s films (as an experimental filmmaker himself) and immediately warmed to the idea of a retrospective.  He also offered introductions to other festivals which might consider doing the same. 

Now, my first time in Hong Kong, it amazes me to see the program Roger and his colleagues have assembled.  So many truly insightful and beautiful films.  So much diversity.  Lots of courageous choices.  I walk around amazed at the endless shopping opportunities, both for festival films and for everything from motor parts to duck gizzards, cameras to bling.

Amazing veggies at the wet market

At the same time, thanks to connections made through the Silha Center for the Study of Media Ethics and Law at the University of Minnesota, I’ve had a chance to give two lectures at City University of Hong Kong’s Creative Media Center, one on the future of journalism (The Sixth W: What’s Possible Now?) and one on the move from journalist to documentary filmmaker (focused on my experiences with BIG JOY). 

City University of Hong Kong's Run Run Shaw

Austin in the Blood. Texas, that is.

World premiere marquis at Stateside Theatre, Austin, Texas

March 9, 2013

What to say about the world premiere of BIG JOY: TheAdventures of James Broughton?

Eric Slade and Stephen Silha at the first Q&A,

introduced by Janet Pierson who knew James Broughton

and Joel Singer at San Francisco Art Institute

It was 8 days of non-stop attention to detail, press interviews, screenings, meeting people, and making merry. The reception to the film was all we could expect. Audiences said it inspired them. Critics wrote glowing reviews. And we loved being part of South by Southwest (SXSW), the festival of music, film, and interactive media which has become one of the world’s major creative showcases.  We joined 160,000 participants!

It’s hard to sum up how we gave birth to our new baby, but it involved poetry, music, and getting in trouble with the police for having a bed on the streets of Austin.

We were honored to be one of eight documentaries out of 900 submissions to be chosen to be in the competition at SXSW.  

Janet Pierson, senior programmer at SXSW, greeted  Stephen Silha at the filmmakers' welcome lunch  at Austin's Troublemaker Studios, owned by director Robert Rodriguez

Lucy's, our favorite chicken & oyster spot

Big Joy poster crew, including (front, l-r) Eric Slade, Michael Port, Kitten Calfee, Palmer Stevens,  Max St. Romain, (back l-r) Kyung Lee, Alex Gildzen, David Senk, Stephen Silha, Tony Krebs, Gordon Barnett

A number of our production team assembled for the premiere, and we rented a house so we could sleep up to 12 people comfortably.  Among the crew:

Eric Slade, co-director and careful guide along the shoals of interviewing, researching, animating, and piecing together the story.

Max St. Romain, our intrepid producer from Mexico City, who has been involved from the beginning, designing our first website, many of our t-shirts and graphic materials, and consulting with the music.

Kyung Lee, who has seen the film through post-production after ably assisting Dawn Logsdon in the editing process.

Kitten Calfee, our amazing producer for marketing and distribution, who coordinated much of the posting of posters and who MC’d the poetry reading at Bookwoman Bookstore, one of the few stores in the country which has a small stock of Broughton books.

Consulting Producer David Senk, who managed our tickets and logistics, some networking, and several events, including the Bookwoman reading.

Alex Gildzen, the archivist who first managed the organization of the Broughton papers at Kent State University in Ohio, and who plays a major storytelling role in the film.

Clayton Farris and Matt Johnstone keep in touch with press

Matt Johnstone managed our publicity, which included a number of media interviews, and a live appearance on a very funny Austin radio show.  Clayton Farris ably assisted him.

In "The Bed" outside the theatre after world premiere:  (l-r) David Senk, Alex Gildzen, Kitten Calfee,  Eric Slade, Kyung Lee, Stephen Silha

Eric and I were fortunate to be joined by our partners, Michael Port and Gordon Barnett.  Both pitched in to help the process, and Gordon made us smoothies and managed the challenging load-out magnificently.  He also assisted in one of the most exciting activities of the excursion: taking a bed around Austin to promote the film.

Tony Krebs with "The Bed" outside our  rented house in Austin

The bed caper was the brainchild of Tony Krebs, an activist, organizer and communications specialist from Seattle who happened to see the film at a private preview screening last month. Tony volunteered to help us create the bed, and he ended up doing much more, helping to supply the house and keeping a steady calm in the midst of occasional craziness.

Dear old friend Canis Millican loaned us his bed, which he and Tony outfitted with wheels so we could maneuver it through the city’s streets and sidewalks.  (We were happy that 6^th Street was closed to auto traffic day and night!)

Kitten Calfee is joined by several Sisters ofPerpetual Indulgence, who hosted our after-party at Rain bar (Broughton served as Sister Sermonetta)

James Broughton’s film, The Bed (1967), was his most famous film, and featured a number of San Francisco luminaries (including Alan Watts, Imogen Cunningham, Anna Halprin, Gavin Arthur, Jean Varda) cavorting on a bed which rolled over the hills of Marin County.  It was pioneering in its celebration of naked bodies, and was the quintessential hippie film.

Kyung Lee, Stephen Silha,  Max St. Romain and Eric Slade  enjoying The Bed

Three Austin police write a ticket to Kitten Calfee

So celebrating all the things that can happen on a bed seemed a great way to invite people to focus on Big Joy. Lots of people posed with Kitten as he positioned himself in his underwear on the bed. Ultimately, the Austin police posed too as they wrote him a ticket for “advertising without permit.”  They made us remove the signs, but had no problem with the bed being there.  By that time, it was about time for our third and final screening to begin.

Response from the press was phenomenal.  Beginning with the Hollywood Reporter on opening day, we had excellent reviews from The Edge Boston, Austin Chronicle, Film Threat, and the Brain Pickings blog.  

Local writer and teacher Andy Campbell wrote a beautiful report for Austin Chronicle blog on the poetry reading at Bookwoman Bookstore.  

All in all, SXSW Austin couldn't have been a better place to celebrate our "weird" new film.  Austin's in our blood, and we're cookin' with steam.