Well, I experienced an extreme case of Canadian politeness tonight. I went to the movie I planned to see, an independent documentary about the farewell tour of a nerdcore band called 2 Skinnee J's. (The movie is called Get In the Van.) It's playing here and nowhere else, and only for this weekend. Here's the trailer:
Just before the show started, the director, Karen Rebecca Black, walked up to my seat, introduced herself, shook my hand, and thanked me personally for attending. Of course that might be because I was the only paying audience member. She also introduced me to the other couple in the auditorium: the guy who wrote the animated short that would preceed her film and his companion. They left after the short, but another couple came in late who also paid for their tickets, so I wasn't alone for the whole thing. (The place had sold out the previous night for the premiere screening, incidentally.)
Black is from Vancouver, and when I talked with her for a while in the lobby afterwards, she kept emphasizing Canadian things. For instance she asked what else I was going to do while in town and when I told her the other two films I want to see she made a big deal out of one of them being Canadian. It was only when I got back to my room that I realized I was wearing a baseball cap from Victoria! Too bad I didn't know the secret Canadian handshake...
This may be the only time the film is ever seen. Being a concert film, it includes a fair number of the band's songs. They don't own the media rights to them - their former labels do. Black would have to purchase a license to the song rights to distribute the film, even if she did so on DVD herself. She estimated the cost at more than $80,000. Unless an angel shows up with the money, there's no way that's going to happen.
It's good that people are able to get the mortgage loans and that opens completely new chances.
Posted by: Mcknight31EMILIA | May 30, 2010 at 12:15 AM