Brownstones Honored at Seattle Film Fest

We have exciting news! Of the 54 documentaries at the Seattle International Film Festival, Brownstones was third runner up for the Golden Space Needle Audience Award for documentaries. And we were in excellent company.

Restrepo, a film by Sebastian Junger (of A Perfect Storm fame), was fourth runner up and Waiting for Superman by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) was in the Top 10. We feel honored to be named among these remarkable documentaries.

The documentary awards are below and the complete list is here:

Best Documentary Golden Space Needle Award
(tie) “Ginny Ruffner: A Not So Still Life,” Karen Stanton and "Waste Land,” Lucy Walker

First runner up: “The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls,” Leanne Pooley

Second runner up: “Wheedle's Groove,” Jennifer Maas

Third runner up: “Brownstones to Red Dirt,” Dave LaMattina and Chad N. Walker

Fourth runner up: “Restrepo,” Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington

Top 10: “Marwencol” (Jeff Malmberg), “Waiting for ‘Superman’” (Davis
Guggenheim), “Chihuly Fire & Light” (Peter West), “American: The Bill Hicks Story” (Matt Harlock and Paul Thomas), “Mugabe and the White African” (Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson)

Thanks Brooklyn!

The 13th annual Brooklyn International Film Fest closed last night with an excellent party at Dram in Williamsburg. Many thanks to the organizers for including Brownstones in all of the fun! If you missed our two screenings, stay tuned, we've got plans to show the film again in Brooklyn at summer's end.

Also, a big thanks to Nick Shimkin of the Kings County Cinema Society for his help in getting the word out about Brownstones. His group does weekly film screenings throughout Brooklyn and keeps tabs on fun, free events throughout the borough. Get on his mailing list here!

Malik to Brooklyn: You Can Google Me

We were joined by some very special guests this past Saturday at our Brooklyn premiere:

*Diamond Saj (above center, red plaid shirt), the Salone rap artist who recorded the beautiful track at the end of the documentary, Children of the Universe.

*Malik, one of our Bed-Stuy pen pals (above, second from right). Malik joined us for the Q&A after the show and the audience asked him tons of questions, from his impressions of Sierra Leone to his plans for the future. He cheerily answered them all (in a much deeper voice – he's 13 now) and was sure to inform the crowd: "You can Google me!" Already a businessman. Ha!

*6th graders from the School for the Urban Environment, the Bed-Stuy school featured in Brownstones. The kids passed out postcards after the film to let people know we're raising money to build a new library there.

We also got to meet Ishmael Islam (above, far right) who screened his sweet short, Departure from a Love, after Brownstones. Ishmael took part in Reel Works Teen Filmmaking program and is now a student at Pratt.

Thanks to everyone for coming out in the heat! (And to Henry Street Ale House for letting us stay awhile). It was a great night!

Buy Tix to the Saturday Brooklyn Screening

Come to our screening Saturday at 5pm at Brooklyn Heights Cinema or Wednesday at the same time and place. Buy tickets and watch the trailer here!

If you can't make the movie, come to the festival's after party at Henry Street Ale House. Hope to see you there.

Pictures from the Seattle Film Fest

Outside of SIFF Cinema at our first screening (from left to right: our composer Josh Johnson, Chad Walker, Clay Frost and Dave LaMattina). Check out more SIFF pix here.

The Q&A following the first screening. We were joined by Cindy Nofziger of Schools for Salone and Dustin Kaspar, SIFF's Educational Programs Coordinator.

Cindy and Bob from the Seattle-based nonprofit Schools for Salone posing at SIFF's Centerpiece Gala on Saturday night. We've teamed with SFS to build a primary school in Freetown.

We (Really) Heart Seattle Film Fest

Wow. We had another sold out screening on Monday at the Seattle Film Fest. It was crazy to see people lined up and waiting outside of the theater...and just amazing to sit among all of them, as they laughed and sighed and cried at all of the same moments in the film that we do. We wished we could have had all of the pen pals with us! Thanks for supporting our project, Seattle. What an incredible trip.