Latest Edition of Transcendental Media Newsletter Published
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It was great seeing some familiar faces at our recent NYC premiere at the American Musuem of Natural History as part of the Margaret Mead Film Festival, the longest running documentary showcase in the United States. Thanks to Ariella Ben-Dov with the Margaret Mead Film Festival and our fans for another awesome event! Up next for us will be a screening at CSU Long Beach on Dec 3rd and then another series of screenings at Princeton University tentatively scheduled for Dec 8 & 9. As always, check the screening calendar for all the latest info!
Also, be sure to check out the latest edition of the Transcendental Media newsletter to find out about all the latest happenings with us and our films. What I'm especially excited about is our partnership with Generosity Water and our efforts to bring fresh water to Lasource, Haiti, an impoverished community of 3,000 that have no reliable access to clean, fresh water. For a limited time, we're donating a portion of proceeds from ALL merchandise sold from The Philosopher King Store to Josue's water project in Haiti via our partner Generosity Water.
Talk soon,
Patrick
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
San Diego & San Francisco Premieres this Weekend
The next stop for me on our festival tour will be the San Diego Asian Film Festival who is hosting our San Diego premiere this Friday night (10/23) at 5:00pm. An encore showing will take place Saturday at 4:00pm but I'll be well on my way to San Francisco by then to catch our premiere there Saturday night. The San Francisco premiere on Saturday (10/24) at the historic Roxie Theater is shaping up to be a pretty cool event. Castmembers, Corby Baker (Cornish College of the Arts) who is set to make his first appearance at a screening, and Michael Seals (UC Berkeley) will be in attendance. Also, Ooba, my favorite beverage on the planet, has graciously agreed to be on-hand at both of our screenings during the San Francisco Int'l Documentary Film Festival and hand out free samples so be sure to grab one on your way in or out. Local SF press has called our film "terrific" (SF Chronicle) and "a powerful and poignant stew of the rich lives of our ordinary fellow, but often forgotten, humans." (Jay Youngdahl, East Bay Express). Also, there's talk of a pre-party and after-party someplace near by. The best way to receive the updates on that is to follow us on Twitter or Become a Fan on Facebook. Get your tickets now to the premiere this Saturday or to our encore screening on Wednesday.
See you in SD or SF!
Patrick
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
TPK Wins Emerging Cinematic Vision Award at Camden Int'l FF!
Hello from Chicago!
Just off a whirlwind series of quick stops that took me from Newburyport, MA to Calgary, Alberta and finally Camden, ME, I finally have a quick moment to blog about what's been going on. We just received word that The Philosopher Kings, after screening to a nearly sold-out crowd at the Camden International Film Festival, picked up their award for Emerging Cinematic Vision! Big thanks to the jurors, Ben Fowlie, and the staff of Camden Int'l Film Festival! If you haven't heard of this fest, you soon will. It's one of the most well-organized, hippest, and well-programmed fests I've certainly been to. Read AJ Schnack's (Convention) blog about his experience in Camden. Also, thanks to the Newburyport Documentary Film Festival for honoring us with a Judges' Special Mention Award!
I'm currently in Chicago meeting with folks about setting up a big Chicago premiere of the film in partnership with SEIU Local 1 and the University of Illinois. Off to Washington DC next week - hope to see some of you out there!
More soon,
Patrick
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
We've Been Nominated for Best Documentary!
Hi everyone! Much to share with all of you. First, our Cornell University screenings last month were incredible. To stand on stage beside Greg and the six cast members that joined us for this event while 700 people stood on their feet in applause is something I'll never get used to. It's incredibly rewarding to see your hard work validated in that way. Filmmaking is such an intuitive process and often such a gamble in terms of how it will be received. There's so much guesswork involved that after two years of flying by the seat of your pants, you begin to constantly wonder whether or not you've completely wasted your time. So, for our work to be received in the way that it has, is hugely gratifying. Anyhow, big thanks to Rob Osborn and his team at Cornell for putting together such a classy event and for making us feel so welcomed and appreciated. To see some photos from the event, go to our Facebook page.
Secondly, The Philosopher Kings has been nominated for Best Documentary at both The Calgary International Film Festival as well as UK's Raindance Film Festival! This is amazing considering we're only one of five or six films at each festival that have been selected to be in competition. It's a real honor that festivals of this magnitude have taken notice of our little movie and are supporting it in this way.
Also, we made a few updates to the website - most notably the addition of the Audience Review Section where you can submit your own review of the film - so check it out and let us know what you think. Feel free to suggest things that you'd like to see on this site and budget-permitting we'll make it happen. More blogs to come as I'll be spending many hours at airports and on planes in the coming months. For now, I'll leave you with this review submitted by Barbara Lyon who attended our screening at Duke University last night: "One of the best evenings ever...thanks to ALL involved with the production of this deserving film. Having spent my career teaching workshops in so many different venues, I learned early on to FIRST make friends with the helpful and insightful custodians!"
For more information about all the latest developments with The Philosopher Kings, check out our most recent newsletter. To receive our newsletters, sign up on our mailing list at the bottom of your screen.
Thanks,
Patrick
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Screening Tour Across U.S. Kicks Off on August 26 @ Cornell University
The Philosopher Kings is coming to a city near you. Beginning August 26 @ Cornell University, we'll be touring the film across the United States at universities, colleges, churches, and film festivals. To see a list of preliminary screening dates check out our Screenings Calendar. If you'd like to see your city on that list, let us know and we'll try to work with you and local venues, sponsors, and organizations to make that happen.
The kick-off at Cornell University on August 26th is gearing up to be a huge event with six of the custodians featured in the film confirmed to attend and plenty of buzz spreading around the Cornell campus and the Ithaca community. Last but not least, we'll also be making a small number of DVDs available exclusively at this event prior to the official release date.
As always, get the play-by-play updates and latest news by following us on Twitter or becoming a fan on Facebook.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
The Philosopher Kings World Premiere — Sold Out
Thanks to everyone who attended our world premiere screenings at Silverdocs Film Festival! The Philosopher Kings was among the most talked about films at the festival resulting in a sold out world premiere, which took place on June 18, and another sold out encore screening in AFI Silver's 430-seat theatre, which took place on Sunday, June 21. The Philosopher Kings was so popular among festival-goers that it was one of seven films, from the 122 screened at the festival, chosen for the "Back by Popular Demand" screenings on Monday, June 22.
"Considering Silverdocs is the biggest documentary festival in the U.S. and the caliber of the films at the festival —some of them by Oscar nominated directors— we couldn't be happier," explains Director Patrick Shen. "To see the audience react so enthusiastically and to connect so strongly with the characters to the point that it left some in tears, is such a satisfying thing to experience for a filmmaker."
Visit the film's Facebook page to see photos from the event.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The Philosopher Kings World Premiere Official Details
The Philosopher Kings World Premiere will take place during the prestigious AFI / Discovery Channel Silverdocs Festival on Thursday, June 18th at 7:15pm in the Washington D.C. area. The Philosopher Kings was selected out of over two thousand submissions from all the world to participate in what has been hailed as the "pre-eminent U.S. documentary festival."
Come meet the filmmakers behind The Philosopher Kings as well as many of the custodians featured in the film and join us for what's sure to be an engaging and entertaining post-screening Q&A.
Tickets go on sale beginning May 28th at the Silverdocs website for both the World Premiere event as well as the encore showing on Sunday, June 21 @ 1:15pm.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
The Philosopher Kings World Premiere!
It's official, The Philosopher Kings world premiere will take place in June! We'll be making the official announcement in mid to late May with full details. Be the first to know and become a fan of the movie on Facebook or sign up on our mailing list.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
The Philosopher Kings In Final Stages Of Post-Production
Hi TPK fans! We're hard at work finishing up the final cut and we expect it to be complete by March. After that, it's off to our composer Nathan Matthew David and then finally off to our sound designer. We hope to be premiering the film at a major film festival by mid to late 2009 and continuing a run in the festival circuit throughout the remainder of the year. Of course, all screening information will be posted here when that information becomes available. Thanks for your patience and keep checking back for updates, sign up on our mailing list, or become a fan of the movie on Facebook. You can all help us out by continuing to spread the word about the film, sharing/posting the trailer, and directing people to the website and/or the Facebook fan page. More soon!
Tuesday, October 12, 2008
Exclusive Sneak Peeks And Other Content On Our Facebook Fan Page!
Become a fan of The Philosopher Kings on Facebook and help spread the word! In the coming months, we'll be posting exclusive sneak peeks of the film and other content so be sure to check back regularly.
Tuesday, September 26, 2008
Rough Cut V1 Complete!
After an intense editing schedule we finally put the final touches on the first draft of the film on the evening of September 25, just in time for the 2009 Sundance Film Festival submission deadline! Check back later to see if we were selected.
Tuesday, September 19, 2008
The Philosopher Kings Featured At Independent Film Week
The Philosopher Kings was selected among thousands of works-in-progress entries from all over the world to be screened at this year's prestigious Independent Film Week (formerly IFP Market). The largest industry-only market of it's kind, now focusing only on works-in-progress, IFW has been host to some of the most notable independent films of years past. Films like Michael Moore's Roger & Me, Academy Award winner Born Into Brothels, Mad Hot Ballroom, and Clerks were all screened at IFW before they were seen anywhere else. At this market, which concluded on September 19 in NYC, we had an opportunity to screen 20 minutes of the film and discuss plans for the film with major distributors and film festival programmers. We've received solid interest from several major distributors but it's still too soon to tell where that will lead.
  |
