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Film Neshui Photograph by Nick Schnelle
Back in February, when Thomas Crone profiled film collective Film Neshui for our print mag, Derek Elz, Brad Hodges and Chad Bockholdt were working on an "as-yet-untitled film updating the Romeo and Juliet story line—but casting young Palestinian and Israeli actors as the star-crossed lovers," that'd been filmed overseas. Tonight, you can see the finished product: Just Shy of Being screens at 7 p.m. as part of the St. Louis Filmmakers' Showcase at the Tivoli, 6350 Delmar. Tix are $10, $8 for students and Cinema St. Louis members. Here is the film synopsis:
"Just Shy of Being is seen through the eyes of young lovers, Arielle and Rafi, Jew and Muslim. What would be a simple love story in much of the world is, in the Middle East, also a war story. We catch an intimate glimpse of the tragic effects the conflict between ideologies has on the lives of ordinary individuals. The film weaves together the experiences of fictional and non-fictional couples engaged in inter-faith relationships in Israel and across the world, where they confront deep social and political biases just to exist as lovers and family. The couples are acutely aware of the menacing extremes that threaten them at every turn, simply because they are Jews and Muslims, and in love. Just Shy of Being is a film about life lived fully and love expressed deeply, amidst a brutal world."
You can see a trailer for the film on their MySpace video channel here. Note that the FIlmmakers' Showcase wraps up this week, with the last screenings taking place tomorrow (Thursday). See the remainder of the schedule here.
Behind the Scenes with Streetballers, Week Two
Since Wednesday seems to be shaping up as movie day, we'll segueway to our guest bloggers, the team behind the St. Louis film Streetballers. Last week, the crew talked about gearing up for the local premeire. Today, they give us a behind-the-scenes look at their PR efforts, and share some cool news about the film's star, Jimy McKinney.
We are currently standing in a very exciting place: on the verge of a full-go marketing and promotions campaign for Streetballers’ St. Louis theatrical release (August 21st at Wehrenberg Ronnie’s 20 Cine and Landmark’s Tivoli Theatre in the Loop). Our goal is to have the highest per-screen average of any independent film in the United States the weekend of the opening, and we're locked, stocked and ready to roll getting the word out about the film both in the digital world and on the streets. Our hopes are to sell out all opening weekend screenings, and we hope to achieve this by pre-selling tickets through our website as well as through the Wehrenberg and Landmark Sites.
This past Friday, the new Streetballers trailer, featuring a hot new song by Nelly and the St. Lunatics, began running in all Wehrenberg Theatres across the Midwest (nearly 90 screens ranging from Minnesota to Springfield, Mo.) Just over the weekend we’ve experienced a significant rise in hits and emails to our site.
In preparation of our full-go marketing and promotions we are working hard with our wiz-kid web-designer Brett Zeiss to launch the new, updated Streetballers website (though note it’s the same domain name). The new site will have all ticket info (and direct links to prepurchase ticket), links, cool behind-the-scenes pics, scrensavers, the new trailer, music, and much more. By mid-August, the Streetballers soundtrack and DVD will be available to purchase and pre-order. The Streetballers team’s model of self-distribution allows for greater control of how our movie goes out into the world and how it is promoted. These are unchartered waters, and we’re diving in head first.
In addition to the increase in our website traffic, we have also already begun receiving interest from theater owners across the country. It seems the idea of an indie film receiving so much buzz before even premiering entices their box-office taste buds! While prepping for the St. Louis release, lining up bookings for Los Angeles and other major markets is also a very vital point of focus right now. This is a very delicate, time-consuming process that must be planned months in advance, as theater bookers are not only extremely picky in what they allow to play, but their slates fill very quickly, mostly with big studio films.
Also, this past week, we met with our great St. Louis based marketing firm, NGAGE. Dan Curren, President & CEO, and his young, savvy staff have become great friends of the Streetballers team and share the same inspiration to make Streetballers the #1 rated independent film in the U.S. As we all know, marketing to our target audience is key, and with the evolution of the internet and the opportunities to reach our market via social networking, we are very excited to have NGAGE working their magic…
Outside the digital world, we are continually working with all of our artists on the soundtrack. Music makes the world go 'round, and we believe the music we are compiling for a super-hot soundtrack is definitely going to make Streetballers stand out. With four platinum artists on the soundtrack, and so many new original songs, we’ve created a very organic, fresh-sounding soundtrack. We can’t wait to share all of this wonderful music from a wide variety of talented artists (90 percent of which are from Saint Louis.)
We hope that all of St. Louis can join us in taking pride in putting St. Louis on the film-world map! If we can bust out of the gates on August 21 with a huge opening weekend per screen average, there’s no doubt the opportunity will present itself to expand this homegrown film across the U.S and overseas. We want to offer the world a glimpse of St. Louis.
Oh, and one last thing in case you missed it: This past week, Streetballers lead actor, ex-Mizzou and Vashon basketball star and current German League basketball pro, Jimmy McKinney, received a private tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals. This tryout was conducted by the great Tony LaRussa. When interviewed after the tryout, Tony had this to say: “Jimmy is the best athlete in the clubhouse right now.” This reaction from LaRussa got the entire St. Louis sports community buzzing.
If you think Jimmy McKinney knows how to perform on the court and on the field, all we have to say is “Wait until you see J-Roc on the big screen!” —Matthew Krentz, Craig Thomas and Patrick Rooney
