Just a zany world called JiveTown!!!

So I know it has been forever since I've written on this thing. I suppose now's as good a time as any to get back into it. We've just launched the trailer and fundraising campaign for a new web series comedy called JiveTown, based loosely on my good friend Agosto Cuellar - a San Antonio celebrity, the man Tim Gunn dubbed "the Wild Card," his vintage store which is right next to my office, and the wonderfully weird world of Southtown (the arts community here in SA) that I've called home for the past decade or so. This is something special. I feel it in my guts. We've got an absolutely amazing cast and crew. Our leads Michael Sorrells and Theo Gutierrez were in the film that just won at the Austin Film Festival last fall, and we're working with phenomenal DP Sean Maxwell, who's been in the business for like 25 years or some shit... he knows everything about everything about shooting.. he's my mentor and probably one of the best in the business. You may know some of his work, like Breaking Bad, Friday Night Lights, Machete, Spy Kids, etc. etc. I'll go on.. oh yes I will.. but not tonight.. trying to take a little break and spend some down time with the husbunny. But please if you want to support something really different, really clever, funny and original, something made by people who are passionate about creating film and who want so very badly to see all the fabulous people that are part of this be able to live their dreams, then check this out:

www.indiegogo.com/JiveTown

Support your Local Artists!

     This may be obvious to some people, but not to others... it came up because I gave this advice just moments ago and thought it might be relevant.

It doesn't matter where you live, there exists a pocket of artists. It's important to support these artists. True they may not be filmmakers, but filmmakers need all sorts of artistic resources. And you never know who you're going to meet. I've been so lucky to have worked in San Antonio's Arts District, Southtown, and so I have a lot of artist friends and most of them are pretty talented and I've brought them in several times on various film projects. On Ekstasis, I hope to be able to involve Agosto Cuellar (designer/artist) and Eric Fonseca (film animation/artist) if I can. They are both brilliant. 

Artists are also your audience... these are the kinds of people who like films, especially independent films. Besides, we all know... connections are everything.. talent second. It's just how this world works. In my world, everything is neon and I have a pegasus as a pet. Unfortunately, we don't live in my world.

Go to art openings and film screenings and get to know your peers. There's always something going on and it usually involves free booze. Find something good in the calendar of your alternative paper tonight and enjoy!

FEARLESS

Being in the film industry, I suspect, any part of the film industry, requires a large amount of fearlessness. As a writer, producer, director and actor especially you have to be willing to put out there, all those vulnerabilities we're much more inclined to hide. It is from this place, that I wrote the following last night:

Home sick and tormented by allergies, I’ve had little else to do but ponder and think and brew up crazy ideas. I started fantasizing this evening about what I could do to get people to notice me, to notice this story, this film, Ekstasis, that I'm dying to make. What grand gesture can I make... skydive off a bridge, perhaps? Jog across the country like Forrest Gump? Have a Gandhi fast where I refuse to eat until we get the money to make the movie? This last one proved the most unrealistic considering, with my blood sugar issue, I probably wouldn’t last more than 12 hours. So what can I do, I kept asking myself. Then it came to me... I can write. I can tell people how my unextraordinary existence has kept alive an extraordinary dream, a dream I think we all carry, of living our lives doing something we love.


Since I was little, I always felt different... not exactly special and not exactly cursed but somewhere in between. After my father abandoned my Mom and I when I was 3, leaving us with nothing more than a pool table and a puppy I had to give up because they didn't allow pets at the apartments we would have to move into, I can only imagine the anxiety my Mom must have felt - raising a child on a secretary's income while dealing with an increasingly debilitating disease, Multiple Sclerosis. I was ten years old when my stellar example of a father claimed I wasn't even his child, the stress of which caused my Mom to never walk again. My Grandma and I took care of her from that point on and there was more to worry about than what I wanted. I fell through the cracks of other people's lives and so I dreamed. It was my escape. I would make up stories and fantasies; I would live out other lives – glamorous, exciting lives. I was Barbie in a blue fur coat and a badass RV. I was Madonna in the Material Girl video. I was Jesse's girl. I was anyone and everyone but who I really was. And for some reason, I just always had faith that my dreams would one day come true, faith that something was going turn out right for me, even if it took a miracle.

I'm now 38-years-old and I still live in an apartment, unmarried, no kids, and although my life has taken many unexpected and uneventful twists and turns, I still believe in that miracle. Every dream I’ve had I’ve followed through to the bitter end… I've started and failed at more businesses than I’d like to admit. I’ve shopped around short stories, novels, scripts and children’s books ad nauseam but to no avail. My family thinks I'm nuts. I’ve been told I should just "grow up" and find a job with good insurance. Isn't that what everyone does? People don’t really believe in dreams these days, or so it seems – it’s not tangible, it’s not realistic, it doesn’t come with a 401K. Often times, when I ask people what it is they're passionate about, I’m met with a blank, empty stare. They’ve lost that spark, they’ve become the American Zombie and it's fear of becoming this that drives me on because I know that if you're not fully living, you're partially dying and the moment you give up on your dreams, you might as well pack your bags for the Underworld. I promised myself a long time ago, I’d go out fighting, if I live to be 100-years-old.

This time, this dream, of making a feature film – a story I wrote from the heart, from the pain of losing my Mom, has evolved into something special, not just to me, but to a group of amazing and talented folks who have been a part of this project for over a year now, and to our growing number of supporters. Ekstasis seems to really affect almost everyone who reads it, I think, because losing someone you love, knowing you would trade your life for even one more day, even minute, with that person, is something many of us have already experienced. It’s the kind of loss that eludes no one. So this dream has grown, and it feels so close now, just a breath away, like a snowflake on your tongue. It just seems so silly that something like money could keep us from it, especially when I know, just know in the depths of my soul, that if we could just get this script out there, that the right people would see the magic in this story, and the commitment our production team has in this project, and this dream would so seamlessly become reality.

Or maybe I should take another look at the Gandhi thing…

Kimberly Suta

Fundraising Website

For fundraising on a smaller scale for your film project, check out this website:

kickstarter.com

It's free to set up but they do take 5% of your total take-home if you reach your project goal, also Amazon who the credit cards get process through take an additional (approximately) 2%. Still it might be a better option that building your own website for the same purpose.

And More...

Mo' Party Pics

Demo Party Perfection!

The demo party went off without a hitch. It was a gorgeous night with a great turn-out and a wonderful vibe. We had wine from Don's and Ben's, Chocolate from Chocolade Chocolate Factory (which was a huge hit), and cheese and crackers. Some of my favorite industry peeps came out to support - Janet Vasquez from the SA Film Commission and Veronica Hernandez of NALIP, as well as an array of filmmakers, lovers, actors, supports and students. We couldn't have asked for a better evening. DJ Agosto Cuellar spun some wicked tunes, as always. Most importantly, everyone seemed to really enjoy the Demo... a few potential investors asked for prospectus packages and we closed out the night with a bottle of tequila and a mini dance party. Was truly a spectacular evening! Thanks everyone! I'm including some pics for your viewing enjoyment.