SIFF International Film Festival

Michael Moore has become a fan.

Not sure if I'm happy about that.

BUT i (i.e. me, Jane, Joey) LOVES SYRACUSE ! i LOVE all of the socially relevant work being shown and spoken about! "DEFINING BEAUTY: Ms WHEELCHAIR AMERICA" blew me away. "Wretches and Jabberers" forever changed the way i understand how people understand far more than they appear to.

The Q and A was incredible. I love making movies. Michael Moore is spreading rumors that i am the next BIG thing. All i keep saying is, SHOW ME THE MONEY !

CLICK ON THIS LINK FOR MORE...

http://definingbeautydoc.blogspot.com/

DIY (do it yourself) giveaways

/>
I designed tons of C.D. "AUDIOBOOKS" to accompany my novella/film.

I created them (DIY style) all on my own, mass photocopied them on available/found copy machines, cut/scissored up stuff/related media, and packaged the C.D.'s with activist documentation to support various organizations and to draw awareness to social matters within the contexts of my new work.

I will give these things away, as part of my mission statement.

I will make a habit of working this way.

I will have this as a "purpose".

Artwork meant as catharsis and larger scaled awareness.

It had been awhile (years)

Quite sometime since NYC saw this begin to happen again. Teens. Their dogs. Street mattresses. Whatz goin' on in "the bigger picture" of things. Wow. Kinda like lookin' at some old street shot when 42nd street was the place (NOT THE PLACE) to be. Did anyone say, "TRAVIS BICKLE"?

me

xo

p.s. that was a crap cellfone shot that i took (Jane took) while takin a stroll down 4th street. And i am hoping they ain't sleeping outside waiting for my upcoming FALL film screenings. Actually,i take that back. Hopefully they are.

White Walls & Fabric Sheets drove him? (ME) ...

went to see some shows i had made mental notes about from my look at last issue of ARTFORUM. got much inspiration. and many ideas for my own work. God Bless galleries and pure white walls.

me

xo

p.s. i want to be rich .

LOVING MYSELF IN A COMPUTER STORE!

Audition====for the role of the JOKER in the new Batman 3 movie due to the passing of my good pal Heath.

Hoo Hoo Hoo WOW

i honestly do not know HOW to blog anything about this film, "LEGENDS OF THE GUARDIANS".

i am still kinda- shell-shocked.

i never expected this movie to be a "film" (i.e. to be THAT good) .

Wow. the details to the birds, to flight, to sounds, to epic social conflict, this movie was unreal. i need to see it again. after the first 4 minutes i was lost inside its trance. within a few minutes you ARE an owl amongst owls....and it takes awhile to understand that. to get back into "our" reality as the homosapien.

this film is truly a masterpiece.

Never Let Me Go (very heavy)

devastating.
Keira was terrifying.
perfected sad contempt.
makes you not want to donate any organs (even if your life depended on it)
makes you question the validity of our own insignificant importance.
choices...do we ever truly have any???

aesthetically beautiful/editing =tasteful/performances =excellent/conventional filmmaking with the plot as "experiment".

Essentially i see this film as a 2010 redoing of what "The Crying Game" did for audiences back in the days (enlightened/awakened people).

a must see. for Keira Knightly alone. TRUST ME (although you should never really trust too many people)....GO SEE THIS FILM

p.s. this Blog was written quickly at an East Village Internet Cafe. Speeding away. Only could afford 15 minutes for 3 bucks for internet usage....30 secs left... GOODBYE !!!!!!

NPR Public Radio interview with filmmaker Joey Huertas (me)

Well i (me) did my interview with NPR public radio this week via telephone.
interesting experience.
sound check over a telephone is weird. reminds you (i.e. and ME) of speaking to somepne behind a glass booth window---ONLY DIFFERENCE IS THAT YOU CANNT SEE THE PERSON AND THEY DO NOT RESPOND TO YOU WHILE YOU SPEAK.
But, that's 4 soundcheck. a series of questions and answers i was requested to do upon myself prior to the reporter beginning the ordeal.
it was fun. i had prepared notes and scribble-scrabbles but used nothing i had prepared.
This Writer shot from the hip.
so yeah. i did a Public Radio Interview. FM radio. Will be broadcast mid-October. I will post the precise date when i learn it. and heck yes they will be playing some soundclips of my works.

very cool experience.

bye

p.s. i have been watching much documentaries on the Khmer Rouge. unreal how recent and terrible that movement was. "ENEMIES OF THE PEOPLE" was such a reminder of the power of documentary film to not just tell an unknown side-of-a-story, but also to motivate the public to seek further knowledge of how and why some things were permitted to happen. And why history keeps repeating itself Over and Over again. creepy.

me
xo

Making films with the responsibility of a photojournalist

by definition ya'll: Photojournalism is a particular form of journalism (the collecting, editing, and presenting of news material for publication or broadcast) that creates images in order to tell a news story. It is now usually understood to refer only to still images, but in some cases the term also refers to video used in broadcast journalism. Photojournalism is distinguished from other close branches of photography (such as documentary photography, social documentary photography, street photography or celebrity photography) by the qualities of:

•Timeliness — the images have meaning in the context of a recently published record of events.
•Objectivity — the situation implied by the images is a fair and accurate representation of the events they depict in both content and tone.
•Narrative — the images combine with other news elements to make facts relatable to the viewer or reader on a cultural level.

Like a writer, a photojournalist like Janey (i.e. ME) is a reporter but he or she or Jane or Joey must often make decisions instantly and carry photographic equipment, often while exposed to significant obstacles (physical danger, weather, crowds).

“it was the best thing I did for myself Saturday”

he forced himself (i.e. I-self) to go to a museum on National Museum Day ! = FREE DAY at 6000 museums nationwide motivated him!?
Henri Matisse was the-HIS destination.
HE (i.e. the STAR of this blog) entered into a curated wonderland of colour & black and white sketches. Charcoals. Oils (on canvass-duh). Drypoint on vellum. Monotype on chine colle. Plaster cast onto monumental bronze.

SO what’s ur point? This is my point!:
In essence, there was just SO MUCH STUFF Wahoo

Who was this Matisse character??? (you wonder in a whisper)…
ANSWER: a totally prolific artist with a need to just keep making perfect beautiful things. Works, that were utterly important for others to gain joy and inspiration, learn from technique and craft, and enhance my no-idea-what-to-do-Saturday.

As an artist (utilizing FILM as my primary form of expression at the moment), my desire is to continue to mix the Fine Arts into ( directly into) the cinematic realm.

Titles like “Flowers and a Ceramic Plate” stuck with me. And STRUCK me. I want to move into this kind of a direction. It may be hard to explain in a blog, but I am working towards this direction already.

p.s. I am happy with my books, still photography collections, and recent performance art pieces. My upcoming FM PUBLIC RADIO interview will be interesting this Thursday.

p.s.s. Matisse documented the various stages of some of his works (i.e. the Bathers). I want to begin to catalogue the various stages/renditions/primitive stages of my works prior to their final screening moment. To show the numerous stages deeply connected with my process.

Interesting documentary and "minimalist" style

{Winner! Best Documentary, European Film Awards 2003}

In 1975-79, almost two million Cambodians lost their lives to murder and famine when the Khmer Rouge forced the urban population into the countryside to fulfill their ideal of an agrarian utopia. The notorious detention center code-named 'S21' was the schoolhouse-turned prison where 17,000 men, women and children were tortured, interrogated and executed, their "crimes" meticulously documented to justify their execution. In this award-winning documentary and astonishing historical document, Rithy Panh and his team undertook a three year investigation involving not only the survivors, but also their former torturers. They persuaded both groups to return to the actual site of what was formerly S21, now converted into a Genocide Museum, to face their past. One survivor, Vann Nath confronts his captors, some of whom were as young as 12 years old when they committed their atrocities.Human Rights Watch, widely regarded as one of the most influential and important human rights organizations in the world, and First Run Features, which for 25 years has distributed films that confront human rights issues, formed a collaboration to bring awareness to films that shed light on human rights abuses throughout the world.

Very Cool Bookstore Window, NYC

Courtney, River and Claire

Weird. weird. weird wierd nite (last nite, that is).
I finished up final sound touches on new film before sending out to Europe (Claire whispering sound fx) , and as i leave (i.e. walked out of) the internet facility there is/was Courtney (love). on a bench. hiding under her mane and hat. inviting me for a chitchat. weird why exactly??? (you asked). because C.Love kinda embodies everything Claire IS. anyways, she was upset. i made her laff by confessing that i took her off TWITTER due to her 80 Tweets at 3am, daily. her commentary on that was "YEAH JOEY. I STOPPED DOING TWITTER NOW TOO".

i left her with a friend and went to see Joaquin Pheonix (Rivers' brutha) in "IM STILL HERE". It was AWESOME! It was SO great! I laughed loud many times. overall, it's just a good spirited movie with an eccentric talent that wanted to have an "Andy Kaufman moment" (moment=YEAR).

Just woke up.
i blabbed enuff for now.
Goodbye.

xo

Email from old filmschool classmate

September 14 at 11:36pm

Heya Joey,

We watched the films tonight (the Girlstories trilogy), FINALLY! Good stuff... great stuff. Classic Joey. You don't let down. PJ said the order of the films was great and after much discussion he decided Homewrecka was his favorite. I was blown away by the accuracy and detailed descriptions of the subjects. Of course I had a million questions. I was shocked to see Renee Peperone's photo credit. What is she up to these days? Of course, I'd love to talk more about the films but I probably need to watch them again. Also, I am sure I will think of other thoughts. But all in all, damn intriguing stuff. PJ said they got under his skin... the second one reminded him eerily of a girl he used to date. What your doing with the films now?

Give me some background, if you will, on the films.

ok, it's late and I am still brain-fried from all of my traveling last week. I just wanted you to know we finally sat down and watched them... and thought they were amazing.

talk soon,
heather and pj

ME (i.e. I) under supermarket surveillance !

Gotta Love being on PRIMETIME.

Especially after having free samples of bread and dip.

bye,

me

xo

Fashion Week in NYC !!!

ART School reunion 2010.

Class Union with Art School "family". One of the best days in a long time.

God Bless FILM.

45 inch vinyl "AUDIOBOOK" releases

I am truly considering releasing some of my new spoken word pieces/books onto 45 inch Vinyl records. I am researching the possibilities out there currently. YES, this can get a bit pricey, but I may be able to pull this off for at lease one book release.

Will keep ya'll posted ...

Killer Fish

I grew up on this stuff. "PIRANAH" type of movies...etc...(notice i use the term MOVIE and not FILM. Duh. there's a difference). Well, i totally did it and saw this movie to kill (no pun intended) off my boring Saturday. i am still congratulating myself for going. The movie was awesome, and maybe partly because i expected it to be heinous. the sound design was SUPERB. the cinematography was GORGEOUS. the gore was NOT computer generated and not ridiuously silly either, very realistic. Casting was perfect, and it was way cool to see that Elizabeth Shue is still around and getting work (I love Shue).

Thumbs up for this"movie". It was fun. 3-D didn't bug me. In general, the director (who did it with his French debut HIGH TENSION) created a place and atmosphere of an Arizona desert and blue water paradise that felt so good to be in, despite the bloody waters.

Go see it if your into rocks, blue water, and tough blonde female sheriffs.

me

xo

p.s. jane (i,e, ME, took the image above with my cellphone. Hence the quality. No, i was not getting my left hand devoured while taking the shot).

Self-Publishing my Writing

I am excited to self-publish my books now that I have begun writing and completing some major works. Researching avenues, and possibilities, that I have to get my writing "out there" has been really interesting. Getting random strangers to have the interest enuff to buy my stuff is 2 kool.

Problem Now is PRICING.

luv,

mexo

Lincoln Center landscape is getting visually redone.

CLICK ON THESE LINKS FOR MORE DEETS:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/arts/design/02lincoln.html?src=mv

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/6577

Postcards from the Future- says Hersh.

Pretty Scary hearing Kristin Hersh describe the power of art last night.
A talk about art in general (is what it was).
It's great power.
It's grand ability.

"Work" of any creative art (particularly film and music) contains an inexplicable power to predict & describe the Future. "Postcards from the Future" is how she, and Rosanne Cash, described this thing. I have experienced this too many times. Not a nice thing to go through, as its spooky to know that all true creative makings, when sincere, avails the power of witch doctors.

At least these witch docs we speak of don't charge the high rates$$$$$ of those clowns down in the Delta, sucking away on crawfish. Helllllll No (i.e. HELL in the nicest sense of that word)

love,
me
xo

p.s. i have absolutely NO interest in reading her "Rat Girl" memoir book, but she WAS a great speaker (in my opinion).