Greenville Film Festival debriefing... and Utah?

Greetings!

Just got back from Greenville, and I am exhausted!  We had the incredible opportunity to screen Dawn at the first Greenville International Film Festival, and I couldn't have been more pleased with the event.  For their first year, Greenville put on a spectacular show, and I cannot wait to see what they have in store for future festivals.

Greenville, South Carolina

Dawn was screened twice at this festival, and both venues were unique and charming in their own ways.  First, we screened at the Coffee Underground.  This is a local (popular) coffee house in downtown Greenville, which had a screening room in the back of the building.  Very cool venue!

Our next screening was at Zen Greenville!  This is an elegant "space for hire" building that had a very cool vibe going on throughout the festival.  Stellar HD projection on 2 screens at once, and some nice chairs to lounge in while watching the film, I was grateful to have had the film screened at this venue.

Dawn screening at Zen Greenville

At both venues, we had a great screening, great audience, and great questions after the film! We also received a short, but very cool, review from Paul Hyde at The Greenville News about the film!  Check it out here!  In case you can't read it from the site, here you go:

“Dawn.” Joshua Matthews’ superb short film is about a young carpenter who hides a fugitive from justice at his isolated farmhouse in 19th century Kentucky. 

Filmed in sepia tones, this beautifully photographed movie has the lyrical texture and unexpected violence of an early Cormac McCarthy novel.

Matthews, who graduated recently from the Savannah [College] of Art and Design, is a filmmaker to follow in the future. No surprise, Matthews’ “Dawn” recently was accepted by the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

As always, I was able to spend time with some awesome people in Greenville!  Pikey Holderedge (a local filmmaker who attended SCAD with me) had his film Madly Unto Eternity screened at the festival as well, so he was able to show me around town throughout the event.  I was also able to meet fellow filmmaker Andrew Disney, whose film Searching for Sonny opened the festival.  He is also a Fort Worth native, and just so happens to know the guys from Shut up and Prance.  If you've been following these blogs, then you know I met them at the Macon Film Festival this past February!  I also ran into some people I met at the Charleston International Film Festival as well, including Tina McCard (CIFF) and Barret Burlage, whose film Wrench played at GVIFF.  His film My Sister Sam played at CIFF earlier this month.  Great meeting back up with both of them.

Tina, Alfonso, Joshua, Holley, & Pikey at GVIFF

Then there was Alfonso!  Alfonso is from Italy, and not only was GVIFF his first American film festival, but Greenville was his first visit to America!  His film Eros e Thanatos won the Best Short Film award this year, and I can't be mad.  It was terrific film!  I had the pleasure of spending a good bit of time with Alfonso, and was entertained not only by his film, but by his magic tricks and musical abilities as well.  I was also witness to his first ever Waffle House experience.  So proud...

Alfonso wins Best Short Film

So overall, the Greenville International Film Festival was a great experience.  Thank you, Miguel Berg, for putting on a great festival!

Joshua, Miguel, Alfonso, & Pikey hanging with the Owner of Ray's

And I received more good news while staying up in Greenville!

 

Dawn has been accepted into the Foursite Film Festival in Layton, Utah!  The festival screens June 13th - 16th!  Very excited about this!  I'll pass more information along once I receive it.

Thanks for the continued support!  Till next time.

-- Joshua

Charleston, Greenville, and Cannes!

Hello!

It's been awhile since I've updated, and I'm sorry for that.  It's been a busy time for for the film and myself.  But I'm back now, so let's get you all updated on what's happening with Dawn!

I just got back from the Charleston International Film Festival the other day, and man was it a blast!  Great films, great friends, and great parties!   Dawn wasn't scheduled to play until the final day of the festival, so I had all week to promote the film.  With the help of some good friends (both old and new), we handed out tons of our festival postcards all around downtown Charleston!

Look for these at a festival near you!

The hard work paid off, because we had a packed house at the Cinebarre Theater!  It was about as good as a screening as you can get.  We were able to show the audience our BluRay copy, and it was beautiful!  Michael Lloyd's cinematography was shown true justice to the crowd, and they seemed to love it.  Afterwards, the festival offered a Q&A session.  I was joined by many members from the Dawn crew who were in attendance, including Boogie Dabney, Daniel Jones, Frank Ponce, David Walton Smith, and Crystal Ann Ghanem.  This was a great experience for me, because not only were 90% of the questions geared towards the Dawn crew, but the questions asked were well thought out, asking me to interpret my insight and thoughts about the story's themes and character's motivations.  This was, with out a doubt, my favorite part of the festival.  I loved seeing a crowd enjoy the film we all put so much work into!

Crowd during Q&A!

I already miss Charleston, and the great people I met!  So thank you, John Barnhardt (Director of ABC's "Born to Explore"), Tripp Adams (Tout Talent Agency), Tina McCard & Gabrielle Schecker (CIFF), and many more.  Meeting people like you all is what makes going to festivals a necessity.

Dawn crew after amazing screening at the Cinebarre!

But the fun doesn't stop now.  Next week I'll be driving down to the Greenville International Film Festival!  This is the first festival for Greenville International, and they are already doing a great job.  Very excited to see what they have in store for everyone, and what films they selected for their first year. 

I know that two great films will be playing along side Dawn.  That is Pikey Holdredge's Madly Unto Eternity and Colin Levy's The Secret Number, which just so happen to have won Best Short Film at the CIFF this past Sunday.  I'm looking forward to catching these films again next week, and hanging out with both Pikey and Madly's co-star Adam Bailey (also Dawn's First Assistant Director), who will also be attending the festival.


Please go to GVIFF's official website and check out the films they have lined up!  You can also purchase tickets to Dawn and other films through their site, or you can just click here.  Hope to see you there!

Watch Dawn Thursday, April 26th & Friday, April 27th!

I have one more thing to tell you all before I let you go.  Dawn has been accepted into the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Film Festival!  We are all extremely happy about having this opportunity to showcase Dawn at the worlds largest film festival!  

Festival de Cannes -- May 16th-27th

So let me give you a little information on the Short Film Corner.  This part of the Cannes Film Festival is set up to help the filmmakers of shorts network with other filmmakers and showcase their work.  Dawn will be placed in Cannes' Digital Film Library, and will be available for screening at any time during the festival by distributors, industry professionals, and festival pass holders.  And although this part of the festival is not in competition, there are a few grants that will be awarded by both companies and filmmakers who are in support of the short film industry.  Now if only we can find the money to fly to France!


So there you go!  You are now all updated on Dawn.  Hopefully, we will continue to receive good news about the film, so we can share even more with you down the road.


Thank you for your continued support,


Joshua Matthews