REICH COMMUNICATIONS

National Road Safety Foundation video debuts at SXSW

 

I have two connections to a new short film that had its debut a few days ago at the prestigious South by Southwest Film Festival.

"A Puff Before Dying" dramatizes the dangers of driving while high on weed.  It was written and directed by Michael Reich (my son) and Mike Pinkney for my client The National Road Safety Foundation.  

 

Here's a link to a review of the short by The Movie Buff.  A key quote:  "Directed and written by Michael Reich and Mike Pinkney, the satire shines through as a warning not to drive while high. It’s a responsible fable, for sure, that is so good I hope it gets shown in schools. I know if I were in high school and saw this I would just love it."

The video will be up in the next day or so on the National Road Safety Foundation's site at https://www.nrsf.org/resources/impaired-driving

 

 

 

Fandango at the Wall – An Eye-Opening Journey

 

I came across a film a few months ago called Fandango at the Wall.  It caught my eye because I saw that it featured Latin jazz artist Arturo O’Farrill, who I’ve seen in concert.

The film, which can be seen on-demand on HBO, is an exploration and a tribute to a music genre known as jarocho  -- a 300-year old style of folk music from the Veracruz region of Mexico.  It’s a beautiful form of storytelling that includes improvisation – a key aspect of my favorite music, jazz.

Director Varda Bar-Kar follows O’Farrill as he tours Veracruz with Jorge Francisco Castillo, the organizer of the annual Fandango Fronterizo Festival, which unites people on both sides of the Tijuana-San Diego border through music.  We get to know some of the jarocho masters, humble and warm musicians who blend storytelling and poetry with music that derives from indigenous, Spanish, and African traditions.

I was captivated by the music – which is simultaneously simple and complex.      

The film finishes with footage from the annual Fandango at the Wall, with musicians and audience literally on both sides of the border, separated by fencing that could not block out the music and its soul.  It was especially appropriate, I think, when it was filmed during the hate-filled anti-immigrant rhetoric of the previous U.S. administration.  But although the former president is gone from office,  much of the hate and prejudice unfortunately still exists.  This film helps form a hopeful bridge.

                  Photo at right:  Arturo O'Farrill at The Wall

I connected with the director via email several weeks ago.  I asked her why she made this film.

“When the former president started vilifying Mexicans and treating refugees like criminals, separating families and locking children in cages, I recognized his rhetoric as a false narrative fostering hatred and division--a narrative that could only lead to pain and suffering. I had to do something about it,” she wrote.  “I decided I would make a film with    musical elements.  It was right at this time that a friend of mine, a fellow filmmaker, sent out the word that she had a friend who was looking for someone to film a music festival at the United States-Mexican border.  I responded immediately and was soon on the phone with Producer Kabir Sehgal who has partnered with Producer Doug Davis.  As he described his and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Founder Arturo O'Farrill's vision of recording an album at Fandango Fronterizo, we started to riff about what a film about this project could be.  Our visions were fully aligned and within three weeks, I was in Tijuana meeting Jorge Francisco Castillo, founder of Fandango Fronterizo and starting to film.” 

I also asked her what thoughts she hopes to leave with viewers?   

“Appreciation for Mexico's deep and beautiful son jarocho culture and people. A desire to learn more about Mexico and go there one day.  An understanding that by getting to know people who are different from us, who come from different cultures, we can enrich our lives and transcend divisions. The insight that building walls does not serve the greater good and that by breaking down walls and building bridges we come to recognize our common humanity.  The belief that it is possible to achieve harmony between nations and a more prosperous, harmonious and peaceful world.”

I encourage you to watch this film.  I think it helps accomplish the goals Varda Bar-Kar set out to achieve.  Thanks, Varda, for taking us on this wonderful musical and cultural journey.

 

Here's a link to the trailer...30 seconds

Quarantine Creativity

Even during the pandemic quarantine, my son Michael manages to be creative and use film to tell a heartwarming story with a possibly sinister ending.

His short film "Quarantine Dog - Good Boy" just won the Without Precedent 48-Hour Quarantine Film Festival.  Click here to read about it and see the 3-minute film starring my grandpup Martin.

What We Do: The Christopher Awards

 

Thursday evening is the 70th annual Christopher Awards, honoring the creators of books, films and TV that tell stories of people doing good.

It's not about the best-seller list or box office or TV ratings. Instead, the Awards are about encouraging people to do whatever they can, in ways big or small, to make our world a better place.

Honorees this year range from Mark Wahlberg's film about foster parenting, "Instant Family," to the Mr. Rogers documentary, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" to the 886-page book by David Blight about slave-turned-abolitionist/author and journalist Frederick Douglass.

We've been knocking on doors to get advance publicity on the winners in papers, on radio, TV and online.  Tomorrow the awards will be presented.  It's always an inspiring evening. 

More to come in this space after the awards.

 

And the winner is... ABC

 

Big events like the Super Bowl, the Grammy’s and the Oscars traditionally were must-watch TV, pulling in giant audiences for the nationwide live broadcasts.  But for the last several years, these events have not been a guarantee for a huge audience, which has been troubling for both the network carrying the event and for the advertisers spending in the millions per 30-second spot. 

The Academy Awards last Sunday proved to be a winner – not only for Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody and Roma, but for ABC as well.

The ratings were up by 11.5 percent over last year’s Oscars telecast, drawing in 29.6 viewers.  And the event was profitable for ABC, which sold out all its available time in the telecast.  The network earned about $120 million during the program, with 30-second spots going for more than $2.8 million.

For comparison, the Grammy’s brought in about $95 million for CBS.  Approximately 30 million tuned in for the broadcast.  Super Bowl, which was the least-watched Super Bowl in ten years, still drew a super audience of 98.2 million – dwarfing the Grammy’s and Oscars combined.  Ad revenues for CBS were down five percent from a year ago, but still came to a hefty total of more than $385 million. The typical spot cost between $4.6 and $5.2 million.  

Pfft… a bundle, gone in 30 seconds.

A Must-See Film

 

_{We were at the New York premiere Friday night of "We The Animals," a new film that's already being compared to Oscar-winner "Moonlight."  It's the sad story of three brothers in a family struggling to stay afloat through abusiveness and always being on the edge of poverty.  It's told uniquely from the perspective of Jonah, at 10, the youngest of the three brothers.}

_{I have a prejudice to disclose... I've known director Jeremiah Zagar for close to 15 years.  He was a classmate and remains a close friend of my son Michael.  In film school at Emerson and since, they've consulted and collaborated on various projects.  Above all, Jeremiah is a really nice person who is a master storyteller.}

_{So I'm especially thrilled to see his new film getting great reviews -- The Wall Street Journal, The L.A. Times and as a "Critic's Pick" in yesterday's New York Times.}

_{It's playing now in New York at The Angelika and the new Landmark 57 and it'll be in other cities soon.  It's worth watching for.  Here's a link to the L.A. Times review and to the film's FB page so you can watch for updates.}

_{Go see it.}

 

 

What We Do: The Christopher Awards

 

It's not the Emmy's.  It's not the Oscars.  But in many ways, the annual Christopher Awards are more meaningful than the big industry awards, with all their glitz and glamour.

The Christopher Awards each year recognize the creators of work in TV, film and books that inspires and shows how each of us can make a difference.  It's always an honor and a humbling experience to work this event, filled with so many people who use their creativity for good.

At the 69th annual Christopher Awards ceremony Thursday night, the authors, illustrators, writers, directors and producers of 21 books, TV programs and feature films were honored.  Among them were author and historian David McCullough for his latest, "The American Spirit," and the writers, directors and producers of three films I enjoyed -- "Lady Bird," "Wonder" and "The Darkest Hour."  

Ken Burns, the prolific filmmaker whose documentaries on PBS have taught so much about history and ourselves, was honored with a Christophers Life Achievement Award.  His films have helped us understand and appreciate things and events as diverse as jazz, the Civil War, baseball, the Statue of Liberty and last year's 18-hour look back at the Viet Nam War.  Coming soon, he says, are films on the history of country music and profiles of Ernest Hemingway and Muhammad Ali.

In an interview we arranged for him last week with Catholic News Service, he compared making documentaries to making fiction-based films.  "Steven Speilberg can make stuff up; I can’t.  We’ve talked about this.  A good story is a good story, no difference between a documentary and a film."

Ken Burns certainly knows how to tell a good story, as do all the winners of the Christopher Awards.  Info on all the award-winners is here.

 

Photo:  Ken Burns, right, with Christopher Awards emcee Ernie Anastos, FOX5 New York anchor.  Credit:  Paul Schneck

 

Still Floating

 

If you follow me on Facebook, you probably know our son Michael's "She's Allergic to Cats," the feature film he wrote and directed, had its international debut Thursday night at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.  We drove up to see it.

We've been hearing about the film for nearly five years and we've seen Michael go through ups and downs of getting it made and screened.  It's been a rollercoaster ride for him, but it was worth the wait.  The film played to a sold-out audience; in fact, they had to turn some people away.  The festival director loved the film and gave it great advance reviews that created lots of buzz.

The buzz was justified when the audience responded as the closing credits began to roll.  And during the 30-minute audience Q&A, it was clear that they really liked it.

Now other film festivals are asking Michael if they can screen it, and more positive review are coming in.  I'm excerpting some below.

Next steps include more screenings -- I'll let you know when and where once I know -- and hopefully theatrical and/or streaming distribution. (Netflix?)

It may sound corny, but our hearts were bursting with pride and happiness on the drive home Friday.  And we're still floating, just imagining how good Michael has to feel.

We can't wait to see what's next.  He told us about some things he has up his creative sleeve.

...

 

"THE FILM CORNER" - July 14, 2016

 She's Allergic To Cats made me happier than happy. From the opening frames to the magnificent cut from a hilariously poignant final image to the first of the end title cards, I found the picture endlessly dazzling, deliriously perverse and rapturously romantic. This is exactly the kind of first feature which an original filmmaker should generate. Writer-director Michael Reich boldly announces his presence with a friendly fuck-you attitude, a great sense of humour and a visual style that should make some veteran directors be ashamed of their by the numbers camera jockey moves.

Here, director Reich deserves to win some manner of official accolade for creating the most depraved "meet-cute" in cinema history. All I will say is that it involves the incompetent clipping of a dog's nails on the quick, causing them to bleed.

The entire love story is mediated through Mike's filmmaking/video-art perspective. The result is a chiaroscuro-like melange of garish "video" colours, cheesy (though gorgeous) dissolves and plenty of sexy video tracking errors... There's a sad and deeply moving inevitability to where things go. Reich achieves the near-impossible. We laugh with his main character, we laugh at him and finally, we're given a chance to weep for him.

Yes, on many levels, She's Allergic to Cats is a head-film extraordinaire, but it has heart and soul. This is something of a miracle. Then again, this should come as no surprise. Getting the film made must have been a miracle and what Reich's efforts have yielded is nothing less than revelatory.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: **** 4-Stars

....

 

"BIRTH. MOVIES. DEATH" - July 22, 2016

Every film festival has its bizarre pieces of outsider art that get a lot of buzz for how batshit weird they are. But too many of those films end up disappointing. Maybe their weirdness is all there is to them. Maybe they’re only funny because they’re ineptly made. Or maybe the directors are too savvy and self-aware for the weirdness to feel “real.” I’ve been burned by 'em all.

But video artist and former dog groomer Michael Reich’s debut feature She’s Allergic To Cats deftly avoids such pitfalls by somehow being completely genuine in its weirdness and yet telling a clear, simple story. Simultaneously bizarre and conventional, She’s Allergic is a paradox and a miracle: a film informed by (and part of) a dirty VHS aesthetic, without being subsumed by it, filled with surreal humour that’s not there by accident.

In a cinematic culture dominated by superhero stories with world-ending consequences, the rock-bottom stakes of She’s Allergic are a delightful refreshment. By projecting insignificant struggles up to cinema-screen scale, the film captures the weight of despair that can descend upon those for whom small tasks seem insurmountable. By being rooted in (somewhat) relatable problems, too, the story is made accessible to everyone - and for such a strange movie, it’s told in a surprisingly conventional way.

She’s Allergic To Cats is a deceptively intelligent movie driven by pitch-perfect outsider comedy, and a surprisingly emotional ride through a series of everyday tragedies writ large. It’s funny and confounding and adorable and gross all at once, and I love it to goddamn pieces.

...

Fantasia Film Festival program guide

In an era where we’re regularly seeing films calculated to be “weird” by design, here’s an intoxicatingly insane breath-of-fresh-air coming from a place so genuine and strange it cannot be faked. Is it a comedy? A horror film? A romance? A fever dream? Yes! An experimental observational comedy, popping with brilliant, stream-of-consciousness, surrealist detours and a brand of melancholic absurdity that’s distinctly its own, SHE’S ALLERGIC TO CATS is an inspired feature debut from former dog groomer and documenter of L.A.’s underground punk scene Michael Reich, funded entirely by working as a body double for one of the Daft Punk robots.

Easily one of the coolest indie discoveries of 2016, this is the kind of singular outsider brilliance we pray to encounter. A film that doesn’t look or feel like anything else, hyper-imaginatively put together, personal, bizarre beyond words, often imbued with the aesthetics of lo-fi analog video art and packing a sense of humour so sincere and individualistic you will instantly be won over — this is the real deal in every sense.

Before the Nightmare on Elm

 

Horror flick master Wes Craven died Saturday.

 

I'm not a horror movie buff, although I may have seen Craven's iconic "Nightmare on Elm Street."  But I had a connection to Wes Craven that goes back before he was Wes Craven.

 

Early in his career, Craven taught humanities at Clarkson College, where I went to school.  I never had him for class, but one day between classes he approached me.  I was doing a jazz show on radio two nights a week, and he asked if he could co-host with me one night a week.

 

Craven was maybe 28 at the time...cool, good-looking with a hot wife.

 

I said of course, and for almost 2 semesters, we co-hosted The Jazz Scene on the college FM station.  I liked him, although I was a bit intimidated by his smarts and his caustic wit. 

 

He had good taste and he opened my ears to some musicians I hadn't been familiar with.  We had patter on air between cuts, and he often slipped in some funny cracks, probably half of which went over my head.  But we had fun listening and sharing music we loved with unseen listeners on campus and beyond in New York's North Country.  Sometimes his wife Bonnie would stop in  at the studio.

 

Summer came and went.  We returned to school to hear the hot gossip that Prof. Craven had left to go to Hollywood to make films.  I lost track of him.

 

I heard about "Nightmare on Elm Street" and his other Freddy Kruger films, but since I had no interest in those films, I had no clue of who directed them.

 

It wasn't until his film "Scream" came out in 1996 that I realized it was Wes Craven, my co-host from Clarkson College radio.  One of the news shows was doing a piece on the new film and they were interviewing Wes Craven.  I was in the other room, but I heard his name mentioned.  I ran over to the TV and,sure enough, it was Prof. Craven... nearly 30 years older, but Prof. Craven for sure.

 

I tried contacting him through his agent, to no avail.  But I was saddened to learn of his death at 76 ... too young.

 

Others have his films to remember him, but I have something really unique.  Up in my attic are several reel-to-reel tapes of the shows we did together on radio. 

 

Now if only I could get that old tape recorder working again.

 

 

"And the winner is..."

 

"We pay more money and attention to our stars and athletes than anyone else in this country, while people in nobler roles and professions struggle for funding, income, and recognition.  No public relations campaign in the world could motivate millions of Americans to watch an awards show for them.  Perhaps we should pause to think about where our societal priorities lie, or at least ponder the question of why we give so much greater value to our celebrities and their achievements than to anyone else."

That's the closing paragraph from a blog a friend just told me about.  The writer is Jeff Morosoff, an assistant professor and director of the graduate program in public relations at Hofstra University, and his blog is "Public Relations Nation."

As millions of us tune in to watch The Oscars tonight, Jeff's words are worth considering, to put the awards  -- with all their glitz and glamour -- into proper perspective.

Check it out by clicking here...