The Premier
Dear all,
Wow… So we had it… Our premiere of “Someplace Else” at the Gene Siskel Film Center last night… for the Asian American Showcase in Chicago.
I can’t tell you how overwhelming it was to see people from all walks of life come together at this event… People were all expecting a documentary… to tell you the truth… after they came out the movie, they were all very ecstatic about the film, because it wasn’t a documentary that they saw… but something else!
Words like “it was fascinating” “I was impressed” “I didn’t expect it to be so affecting” “It moved me really” “What a great idea to juxtapose these 2 stories together” “It was such a great package from start to finish” “It is so nicely done, a bit of everything, a book, a poem, a film, a docu” “It made me want to go listen to the blues” “It was so cool to hear the whole theater bursting into laughter” “It was full of feeling and naked honesty” just came over and over… We were so humbled by it really.
To be honest, I wasn’t expecting so much enthusiasm for it… perhaps because I have probably seen the movie somewhere around 200 times already, in various versions of course, and even though I can’t stop loving it still, I just don’t know really how people will react to it… perhaps also because of the feeling of exhaustion that I had after squeezing in one last bit of strength left in me to get the final edit done for the showcase, pulling many nights without sleep pretty much to give Avisheh the final cut for the HDCAM conversion of the film for the showcase.
So we did it… and it was such a relief to let things go live on their own a little… Today I have post-premiere decompression syndrome… I feel much lighter but also can tell how exhausted I am after all this. It was a non-stop race till the premiere, some dozen versions of the film made and remade… voice overs added, sequences changed, juggling back and forth from PC to MAC, MAC to PC… Camcorder to Final Cut to Color to Motion and so on and so forth…
I feel something in me has now been let loose. I guess I have given something quite deep inside of me, gave it away for the audience to perceive, or not, but it has been given away. So in that respect it is now officially gone. I can feel that… like a baby that has grown very very quickly, that I nurtured with all my strength and dedication in a short amount of time, and has now reached its adult age, ready to live a life of its own, with its ups and downs, just like any life.
On a much lighter front, we hope those who’ve enjoyed the film & Q&A (Everyone right? or almost) PLEASE HELP US SPREAD THE WORD TO FRIENDS AND CONNECTIONS.
YOUR SUPPORT IS SO IMPORTANT TO US. IT WILL BE THANKS TO YOU IF WE MOVE ON TO MORE FESTIVALS AND GET DISTRIBUTED!
Please don’t hesitate to contact us at contact@someplaceelsethemovie.com if you know of someone interested in distributing this film in theaters or on TV or know of connections to film festivals.
Kai