Anyway, I felt compelled, for the sake of truthfulness, to include additional the material which transpired behind the scenes, via emails between myself and the WAB moderator and
other contributors.

Basically, the moderator of the WAB board (Noah Kadner) shut down the thread before I
had a chance to clarify what actually went down*–

[*Noah, an aquaintance of Santa Fe fest’s Stephen Rubin as well as mine, and an otherwise
decent guy who I knew from my NM days when I was a behind-the-scenes shooter on his
feature, had closed the WAB thread before allowing us a chance to objectively tell our
whole side of the story; when I asked him to allow us to post again to clarify, he refused.

As a result, we posted that entire WAB discussion here on the Camerado blog as a
workaround, including some other material (emails) as well for the sake of transparency.

When Noah found out that we’d posted this material on our blog, he complained about us
“posting his private emails”. I pointed out that an email or a letter or other correspondence
is shared between sender and recipient, and as such is actually the property of both
(as you’d see in any bookstore when you find a “collected letters” book.)

I mentioned to him that (on the contructive side of things) he might in any case better understand our own distress in light of his
perceived misuse of his email, since in our case, an ENTIRE FEATURE FILM had been
misused/premiered without our knowledge…there was no reponse to this point.]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>>>

ANYWAY: I would have been happy and excited to screen SUSAN HERO at the Santa Fe Film Festival under any other normal circumstances, but it was incredibly dissapointing to hear that, just after I’d returned back from the US at great expense (specifically in part to try to get a screening in New Mexico) there had in fact been a screening of the movie…

But I’d never been asked or informed, and I only just found out about it through another actor friend in New Mexico who emailed me to mention “a screening”, and then I followed up by Googling around til I learned about it.

** If anyone can honestly explain that it’s OK to have a festival premiere your feature (that you’ve worked on for years, while insisting you make the movie with only local talent from your state because you view that as important for development of the local industry) without actually

1) seeking your permission or
2) even letting you know about it

(just after you’ve headed back 10,000 miles after trying as best you could to get a screening in your homestate, so that the talent and everyone else involved in the movie could finally see their finished work…)

while the festival actually nontheless goes ahead and collects box office/ticket money, and even makes posters for advertising the screening, after you’re gone, without even having the courtesy to send an email to let you know about the screening…

and on top of this, shortly afterwards, you learn that the festival actually had some antipathy towards you for some (benign as it turns out) outreach you’d sent via a letter to the Governor’s Film office–not to the festival, mind you, but a totally separate third party–then I would stand corrected for everything I’ve felt, said, or done regarding this issue **

That just doesn’t make sense to me or a lot of other folks in New York or LA or the rest of the industry who also wondered what happened. Whether the movie’s great or not, whether the filmmaker is big or not, whether you agree with what the filmmaker has to say, personally or otherwise: that’s no way to handle things. It’s not ethical, it’s not constructive, and it’s just plain wrong.

As mentioned, I’d just been in the US that same summer specifically to try to screen the movie, in person, in New Mexico and I could have easily extended my return flight in order to attend the NM premiere.

But no one at the festival actually ever requested my permission to show the movie; an actor had submitted on his own, apparently it to “Cinema cafe staff” [in his words]–who also apparently operate the Santa Fe Film festival, though I never could determine this for sure–despite my express instructions to him not to do any submissions of the title to any venues.

(I’d asked the actor to look around for venues while he was in New Mexico and let me know about them–money was so tight for me that summer, after travelling all the way back from Asia, that I just couldn’t afford to head to New Mexico to put together a screening unless I had a strong lead first)

But most importantly–and disappointingly–no one from the festival even bothered to let me know it would be screening, something that could have nearly effortlessly been accomplished via a simple email*

(*or Facebook message; in a weird twist, it turns out that fest staffer Stephen Rubin had requested to be a friend of mine on Facebook well before the whole debacle took place…didn’t know who he was at the time but I said, sure, and let him be a Facebook friend, why not? Anyway, you can image what it may have been like–after all this, sorting through the wreckage of the blown NM premiere and all the fruitless attempts to get Stephen to clarify what happened, after the event–to find a picture and profile for a Stephen Rubin on my list of Facebook friends! WTF?).

To continue: I only later found out by Google searching that SUSAN HERO had actually played, a few weeks after I’d headed back to Asia…not the way I’d wanted to “bring the movie home” as a local NM filmmaker, with filmmaking actitivities in NM dating back as far as 1993.

Finally, it was later revealed that festival staff had been, according to the actor who submitted the film, distressed at outreach I’d done to the Governor’s Film office a short while earlier (although I’m not sure how my communications with the Governor’s film office would have also rightfully been the business of the festival…in any case, the fest staff specifically mentioned what a troublemaker I’d been, sending a “letter to the Governor’s office.”)

I’m not sure they actually ever read the letter, it seems like they were just making some big (and erroneous) assumptions. That letter, in which I’d written which stated my eager desire to achieve a screening in New Mexico while I was still in the US that summer, happened to be benign; I was pretty careful to make it as reasonable and as polite as possible.

** As a result, the letter is posted on this blog under another entry for anyone to look at, to dispell notions that I’d somehow undertaken some disturbing or offensive communication. **

Anyway, the festival staff appeared to be angry about the letter I’d written and although they never addressed that issue when I asked them about it after the fact; but it’s been confimed by Alan Rice, the actor who went ahead and met with them (despite my instructions).

To this date I still haven’t received any response from the festival staff when I asked them about this issue with the letter…

In any case, there appears to be some linkage between the fest’s reaction to that benign letter I’d sent (again, not to them, so therefore not really their business–still can’t figure out why they’d even consider this to be an issue related to their operations) and the pretty significant mishandling of a local NM filmmaker’s work. Which would be significantly unethical, beyond an actual “mistake” or communications error…that would be a willing “diss” of a filmmaker’s work, not to mention the copyright/public performance issues involved.

(When I asked them to please clarify this, I was met with non-response.)

Never mind that I’d been working in New Mexico as far back as 1993, then again in the mid 90’s on the Gotham Award nominated feature, BOOKWARS–long before “Tamalewood” had become a hot location.

Didn’t matter that SUSAN HERO, when it was in production in 2003, was the ONLY movie shooting in New Mexico after a Shirley McClain movie had fallen through. Didn’t matter that I insisted on using only NM talent and actors in the production, and that I set up a pretty decent resrouce to assist talent in NM, the NM Talent Group at Yahoo.

Didn’t mattter: I had the audacity to do outreach to the Governor’s office and so I guess I had to be put in my place for whatever (ultimately imaginary) offenses!

Anyway, when I asked the original board moderator Noah, whose own movie had screened at Santa Fe Fest a couple years earlier, to allow further clarification on the WAB board, he declined; so I felt obliged to make those clarifications here on the Camerado blog.

My ultimate goal is not to unduly skewer the festival or the actor or to assign any undue blame; but, now that my intentions and reputation have been attacked, I feel there’s nothing unethical about being as open and as honest as possible out this whole issue, so that whoever’s interested can learn from the process firsthand.

Another goal is, ironically, to defend myself from any wrong action in all this, as some folks who were involved in the scenario have so far attempted to make me as filmmaker/producer somehow culpable for the mishandling of my own screening (!)

It’s too bad really…I had a real interest in the development of the NM production scene, dating as far back as the early 90’s.

The Lesson: Seems though, that if you’re going to be vocal about something–no matter how delicate or diplomatic your approach–there’ll be some folks who disagree with you; if those folks, as in the case of the Santa Fe fest, happen to be misinformed about or second guess your motives, then the result is that you might find yourself “dissed” for no good reason–“dissed” to the point that your work is screened without your knowledge, without the basic minimal respect allowable to an filmmaker who’s worked hard on his creation.

If you react to that in any way short of greasing yourself up and bending over, then you’re deemed to be “difficult” (?!)

Anyway, for the sake of truth and fairness, I have sought to make the facts available so that, if anyone’s interested, they may at least see the mechanics behind how the situation unfolded…

** Additional/behind the scenes material is included IN RED as emails sent between myself and Noah; otherwise the thread is as it appears on the WAB bulletin board, “Festival Cafe” **

(It may be interesting to see the differences… 😉 )

===============================================================>>>

12-15-2007, 07:10 AM

(This is actually a question I have as a filmmaker, since we also run a fest called CamboFest…but this is regarding my second, recently completed feature, SUSAN HERO, and I would appreciate any feedback you might offer)

I’ve recently had a pretty questionable/not-good experience with an established fest in my homestate of New Mexico–will leave name out for now unless WABers deem it useful to know.

In short, they screened my movie 1) without getting my permission or 2) even notifying me. I only actually found out it had played after an actor emailed me to say how much he liked seeing the movie! (so I Googled around and found it had played)

What had happened is this: an actor associated with the project had taken a screener to the fest office and persuaded them to screen it–then paid the entry fee and submitted the entry materials (without my permisson or knowing it)

Now, the actor then told me he’d done some outreach to some folks at this fest, but I didnt know he’d gone that far. I’d asked him to look around while I was in my homestate and see if he could find some venues where I could do an IN-PERSON screening, even if that were only an art gallery, warehouse, etc.

Basically, I needed to do the screening while I was in the US, in person (as part of the strategy to network and pitch the next project) and I was willing to do that wherever we could.

Anyway, the actor tells me he’s got it to some folks who might be able to screen it later on–still, I remind him that I want to do the screening only if I could attend in-person.

** NOW HERE’S THE KICKER: In order to ward off any possibility of the fest screening the movie without telling / informing me [they didn’t actually even have the latest cut], I tracked down the fest staffers and emailed them to tell them that, while I appreciated their interest in showing the movie:

1) they didn’t have the final cut of the and 2) they should contact me, not the actor, regarding any screening and 3) I really, really (my diplomatic phrasing for MUST) want to be at my homestate premiere in-person to network and pitch future projects

In any case, I was very diplomatic, and I thought I’d done adequate outreach and never would have suspected they’d go ahead and show it anyway–in any case, the burden should not be on filmmaker, correct (?) to have to track down venues who MIGHT have the movie and then make sure they’re diligent about securing performance rights–no?

So, compounding all this was the fact that I’d just been in the US for the first time in over a year (I live in Asia, where, by the way, I direct a movie festival in Cambodia called CamboFest – see http://www.cambofest.com)/.

I’d been trying like mad to get that IN-PERSON screening in my homestate while I was still in the US, so that I could not only enjoy seeing my movie play in person, at a festival for the first time [since I live far away and can’t reasonably travel to see it play at fests, so far at least] but also do some crucial networking and pitch my next feature script–which, like the feature movie in question, would be shot in my homestate as well, as I’d always been a strong proponent of making local productions.

In short: I’d been in the US trying to get the in-person screening, could not make that happen, then headed back to Asia to hear a festival had gone ahead and shown it ANYWAY without actually getting my permission or notifying me.

My reaction when I found out: anger, betrayal, violation of my right to decide where and when my movie gets shown.

When I approached the fest, they were pretty dismissive, saying it was basically the actors fault. And that they were sorry they didn’t notify me. But they did not acknowledge the emails I’d sent in advance, trying to avoid this very situation.

On top of this, a poster for the movie was made (by someone) and was hanging in the Film Commission office, as reported to me by one of the other actors. So it appears that they even went so far as to make a poster, which I had no input in making,yet they didn’t even bother to ask/tell filmmaker? It’s mindnumbing…

Or is this just me? I’ve been making movies and submitting to fests for a long time, but nothing like this has ever happened.

Anyway, I’ve asked so far to get as a minimum, a copy of the submission materials the actor used to submit the movie, but even that is not forthcoming yet after numerous attempts, and my patience is really wearing thin.

SO HERE’S MY QUESTION–

*** What is an appropriate reaction/course of action on my part? ***

and

*** Is fest ultimately culpable, despite their claim that actor “persuaded them” to show the movie, and even, despite actor–so they claim–having submitted the paperwork and presented himself as authorized copyright representative? ***

It just seems so weird, even the fact that I contacted them way in advance, to avoid this very kind of problem–

Items I’ve thought about as potential “payback” might be: 1) guaranteed future screening 2) usuable PR quote from the fest 3) box office/rental fee for the screening.

I’ve of course been in touch with some legal folks, and they all basically state I have some legal claims. But, I also want to play this as reasonably as possible–without getting shafted, of course.

In any case, even at our emerging fest, CamboFest, we’re always very, very diligent about getting proper screening rights.

Thanks for any thoughts, advice, suggestions,

JR