Great write-up on FOURPLAY in Austin American-Statesman

I'll admit this much: Of all our local publications, I did not expect such coverage from what seems to be a center-right paper like the Statesman. Maybe that's just the front page and not their movies section.

Teeing up tonight's centerpiece hometown premiere of Kyle Henry's Fourplay - a feature made up of four short films about sexual intimacy, of which I edited three; the fourth was edited by the talented and delightful Rita K. Sanders - the Austin American-Statesman published this glowing article by Charles Ealy. In it he writes:

... [T]he fact of the matter is this: “Fourplay” is so good, so uncomfortably revelatory and so resonant that the word needs to get out quickly. This is the festival’s best film, as well as one of the most provocative features of the year.

It’s like four perfect short stories from Flannery O’Connor or Eudora Welty, with one exception: All of them are sexually adventurous — and no, not in the way that Hulga gets her wooden leg stolen by a traveling Bible salesman in O’Connor’s “Good Country People.” While O’Connor usually implies sex, Henry dives right in.

That's a great take on the movie! I'm very proud of this project's adventurousness. I grew as an editor with Kyle's guidance and I collected a few morsels on wisdom for when I direct my next project.

Fourplay screens at the historic Paramount Theater tonight, October 5th, at Austin's PolariFest!

DO OVER screens at Dallas Video Festival

"Do Over" screened at the Dallas Video Festival tonight as part of the prestigious Texas Show program. It's the screening that closes out the festival. You can tell the programmers put a lot of work curating and presenting this particular program. We were in the company of many strong films that have represented Texas film on the festival this year, including Kat Candler's "Hellion" and Hannah Fidell's "The Gathering Squall" to name just a few.

Our screening went very well. We received lots of laughs and even more "awwws" when this joke-driven film takes a turn toward something heartfelt and sweet. The Dallas audience was kind to us and open to all the films.

Director Bart Weiss led the Q and A afterward. He talked to each filmmaker by moving down the line and holding the mic for us, making the questions more conversational. By the sound of the laughs, co-writer/editor Taylor Allen and I hopefully entertained the audience with our banter as much as we did with our film. Or we made asshats out of ourselves. A win is a win, I guess.

I wish I could have stayed longer to chat with audience members or other filmmakers, but alas, I have to head back to Austin early to get some work done on Bryan Poyser's The Bounceback. However, it was nice to see this message on our Facebook page by Adam C. Garrett:

Saw your short at the Dallas Video Fest, thought you should have won hands down. Great work.

Picking up a new fan at each screening is the best award we could ask for!

Off to bed. Long drive ahead of me, but I have this to look forward to on my way back south:

If you would like to know where "Do Over" plays next this fall, visit this page.

DO OVER Fall Festival Run

I'll be the first to admit: My short film had a quiet summer. After winning Best Comedy at the Iowa Film Festival, we did not hear much until late in the summer. Let me clarify - we did not hear much in the way of positive news. I'm not going to pretend we haven't had our share of rejections, and I'll even go so far as to say I was a little worried we may not screen anywhere after Iowa. The rest of the year would have this cloud of disappointment despite our award and previous screenings.

Just as soon as I was getting down on myself, good news rolled in. Before I knew it September, October, and November started filling up with "Do Over" screenings. Is it too revealing to admit that I'm as relieved as I am grateful and excited to be screening at these festivals (three of which have past as of this posting):

September

Cinesol - 9/8 - 9/9: Even though I have ties to the Rio Grande Valley, I was unable to attend this screening due to scheduling conflicts. I wish I could have. I'd like to make inroads in the film community in south Texas. But word got back to me that the film played well and was well received.

Atlanta Shortsfest - 9/15: Again, I was unable to attend this festival. Short films just don't have the kind of travel budget I wish they could. Heck, most indie features don't have much of a travel budget. While The Goat Farm Arts Center doesn't sound sexy on paper, the photos on their web site make that a fest look like a wild party. I'd love to attend with another project in the future.

LA Shortsfest - 9/12: This festival I did attend. Of the fests to travel to long distance, I could not turn down the chance to network in the heart of the industry. I also have a handful of close friends there and also managed to catch The Master in 70MM at the Arclight the night before I left. Totally worth it.

Dallas Video Fest - 9/30: I will be attending this screening at the end of the month. "Do Over" screens as part of the Texas Show program which is lovingly curated with the best in short filmmaking coming out of Texas in 2012.

October

Austin Film Festival - 10/18 - 10/19: Obviously, I'm very excited for this screening for myself and the rest of my cast and crew. There is nothing like finding appreciation in your hometown and to be able to share your work with your peers. We screen in front of a feature in the Comedy Vanguard section - Missed Connections - which will hopefully expose us to a different audience than if we were in a shorts program.

The Flatland Film Festival - 10/20: This will be the second time I have a short screen at the Flatland Film Festival in Lubbock. It will also be the second time I cannot attend. The first time, back in 2005, my short "Test Day" screened there and won both the Grand Prize and the Audience Award. I think the festival may have been a little miffed I wasn't there for the first year of their fest. I was living in Los Angeles at the time, just starting out in the industry and I couldn't afford to fly out to Lubbock. This time, Flatland is scheduled against the Austin Film Festival. As much as I'd love to visit this festival in northwest Texas, I can't pass up the hometown screening for "Do Over."

The Rumschpringe International Short Film Festival - 10/27 7PM - That's a tough one to fit onto our poster, lemme tell ya. But we're excited to be screening at this great little festival in Lancaster, PA. In German, Rumschpringe means "to jump around." To learn more about RISFF, go here. Our schedule can be found here.

November

The Brownfish Short Film Festival - 11/1 - 11/3: I'm very excited to be screening in New York City! That will mean we were able to screen in both major markets for the industry and cover quite a bit of ground between all these festivals. I won't be able to attend Brownfish, but maybe some of my recently re-located crew will be able to.

The Rockport Film Festival - 11/1-11/3: Whoa, we're in two festivals at once? What kind of magic is that. Ah, yes, that' right: We're living in the digital age. Very pleased to be covering so much ground in my home state. Wish I could attend this one, but I got some personal matters to attend to that weekend. "Do Over" screens Friday, November 2nd at 1 PM.

There are other fests I'm waiting to announce until they go public on their web sites. So maybe I'll come back to this post and update it as I make those announcements. I can say that we'll have, as of this writing, at least three more festivals to brag about. I'm just happy to be getting my work as a writer and director seen. I've worked hard as an editor on other people's projects. I feel like the next step for me as a filmmaker is to be considered a director just as much as I'm seen as an experienced editor. 

As John Cassevettes said: There are no geniuses. It's just a lot of... hard work and trying to get it.

FOURPLAY is AGLIFF's Centerpiece Film!

Looking at my posts from this summer it looks like I was a member of the Fourplay PR team, which maybe I am (unofficially - at this level of filmmaking, you have to do everything you can to get the word out yourself!).

In October, the Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival (which is going through a rebrand to the name Polari) will feature Fourplay as its centerpiece film. We will screen October 5th at 845 PM. It's a screening not meant for kiddies (as though the title itself wasn't warning enough).

"Fourplay: Austin"

I'm very excited to finally screen our work in Austin where it was mostly shot and produced from. I'm also nervous about what the response might be. There is some controversial material, for sure, but hopefully people accept the film as all in good fun, audacious, and a (positive) conversation starter rather than anything malicious.

I attended AGLIFF's launch party last Friday at Cheer Up Charlie's. Everyone there was supportive and pumped for the start of the festival season. AGLIFF has a close community and a rabid fan base, it seems, and I think the festival is going to provide a diverse and adventurous program. I only wish I could have won something from the raffle - I bought twenty tickets!

Directed by Kyle Henry, Fourplay is an anthology-of-shorts feature film that explores four tales of sexual intimacy. Executive produced by Jim McKay and Michael Stipe.

A Little Redesign

Trying a little redesign to better tie the blog to my website, david-fabelo.com. I'm pretty swamped right now but I'd like to tweak both the blog and the web site in the coming weeks, if possible, even if it's simply changing the main image on both the web site and the blog (so the first thing you see isn't my goofy smile. Not that I'm ashamed, mind you; I smile like that when I'm making movies!... Okay, maybe we should still take it down so it's possible an image from one of my films, maybe...?...).

I took a trip to LA Shortsfest last week where "Do Over" played its first Los Angeles area film fest. The film played well and it was great to get back to LA to visit friends, collaborators and just get the rhythm of that city under my feet even if only for a few days. Some nice laughs and warm round of applause for the film. I hope people enjoyed it.

LA isn't the only festival "Do Over" has played recently. In September, so far, it has screened at the Cinesol Film Festival in the Rio Grande Valley, LA Shortsfest as I mentioned, and on Saturday September 15th it screened at Atlanta Shortsfest. I'm still waiting to see when they announce their award winners. "Do Over" for Best Romantic Comedy, maybe? We'll see...

And there are still more festival announcements to be made! I'll admit I'm waiting on one in particular to announce their line up so I can do a write up that covers all of the festivals I just listed and a few more in the fall. I've had a lot on my plate lately so I've been doing a poor job of updating this blog regularly. What have I been up to?

Aside from meeting the festival requirements for "Do Over" and trying to keep up with its promotion, I've also been editing a narrative feature called All That Remains. I've also been serving as post production supervisor on Bryan Poyser's forthcoming feature, The Bounceback. That combined with teaching part-time and keeping up with some major developments in my personal life have kept me occupied.

Things may wind down a bit in a month or two as some of these projects and other things get off my plate. Until then, look out for my next random update at TBD point in the future. In the meantime, thanks for checking in.

Website Down

Apparently Go Daddy has been targeted by a member of Anonymous:

Read here

This means david-fabelo.com is down for a little while. I'll take this opportunity to say it's been a busy time for me since my last post as I continue to oversee my short film Do Over during its festival run as well as edit a feature narrative, All That Remains. Plus a ton of other great personal life events. So the news blog hasn't been updated as frequently as it should.

That said, I plan on making some time for an extensive overview of what's been going on and what's coming up. I should also be able to announce another festival for Do Over in the coming days.

So for any readers or new visitors looking for information on director/editor David Fabelo, consider this blog home base until Go Daddy solves their ominous web issues.

Hmmm... Sorta feels like the end of Escape From L.A.:

FOURPLAY Update

Fourplay gets a great write-up in H2N's Outfest 2012 preview

Poster by Yen Tan

Really feeling the love from Hammer To Nail. Not only did newly minted Austinite Michael Tully write this review for Fourplay: Tampa, but now Paul Sbrizzi has described the feature thusly:

"No one is making films like Kyle Henry’s Fourplay these days. Its sunny, hyperreal tone and very American characters thrust into unabashedly sexual situations are reminiscent of the youth-oriented comedies of the post-hippie, pre-AIDS late-‘70s and early ‘80s—think Eating Raoul and Kentucky Fried Movie, or the TV show Soap."

Check out Sbrizzi's preview here,

I'm proud to have had a role in contributing to the film's positive reception: I edited three of the four shorts in the feature, Skokie, Austin and Tampa; incredible editor Rita K. Sanders edited the emotional, poignant fourth segment San Francisco.

Fourplay premieres at Outfest 2012 this Sunday, July 15th in Los Angeles.

Directed by Kyle Henry, written by Carlos Treviño and Jessica Hedrick, shot by PJ Raval and produced by Jason Wehling, Fourplay is an anthology-of-shorts feature film that explores four tales of sexual intimacy. Executive produced by Jim McKay and Michael Stipe.