1000 Journals Documentary

1000 Journals and Someguy makes an appearance in Blanket Magazine, a collaborative PDF publication which is uncovering artists, designers and photographers from around the world.

A few days ago, Blanket launched a redesigned website, and put out Number 15, The Communication Issue. Editor and Art Director Bec Brown writes, "It's all about that thing we have to do everyday as artists/designers/photographers/crafters… TALK to our audience in our own personal medium to communicate our feelings, our thoughts, our ideas. It's all about being open and unafraid: in art AND in life."

The Art of Communication: how do you communicate with an audience you might never meet? features Jonathan Hulme's interview with Someguy, a story about Post Secret, Blanket's own Pass It On project, a section about Crafter-Bloggers, and many interviews punctuated by great art and photography. There's also a call for contributions to the next issue, whose theme is "Portrait." Deadline: May 15th.

 

If you haven't yet, try to catch the 1000 Journals exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)  soon, because the show is going to be taken down in 24 days.

Nothing beats the chance to handle the journals in person, but if you're too far away, there's great blog coverage. Just a few examples: our dear friend Adda Dada, who came to all screenings at the San Francisco International Film Festival, put up a set of pictures on his Flickr site. Nick, of the Worldli Blog, wrote about discovering Janice's pages in Journal 751, which "included an email and phone number at the end of the 3-page entry; the phone number had a 732 area code which is the same area code that my parents live in back in Jersey. So I took out my BlackBerry and I emailed her right there, standing above this book that had changed hands multiple times all over the world."  Nick and Janice became pen pals, Facebook friends, and may meet when Janice is in California on the AIDS/Lifecycle tour. Janice's story in our film: her journal was quarantined in the Anthrax scare of 2001. Here's an upclose look at the card Someguy created for the exhibition, along with tips on successful promotion. Artquiltmaker Jaye and her friend Julie each posted about the show they visited together, and made some interesting (if not critical) notes about what people put in the journals on exhibition. I love this blog post, from In The Pine: "walls of journals that people. strangers. sisters. brothers. write in. telling anything. drawing something. cutting and pasting everything. they were filled with secrets. confessions. stories. art. george bush. it was powerful to read and look at. i could have stayed hours reading." Laura Mappin (who is in the film) wrote about her entry, "I riffed off of someone else's offering -- what if the hokey pokey is what it's all about?" Engineer's Daughter wrote, "I found an empty spot in one of the journals and added a little bit of my own writing, making it extra-personal just for good measure.  It's both wonderful and terrifying that I'll never know who will read it." In an earlier post, I mentioned blog stories in "Adoption & Fire," Sean Woolsey's blog, and Steve Rhodes' flickr set, all with great pictures.

The film will screen again on Free Thursday, April 2nd. Leave a comment if you're planning to come to the screening, please... I may come, too.

Picture by Steve Rhodes

 

Picture from the In The Pine blog

 

How this came about is so 1000 Journals -- a random and lucky connection on the internet... I posted a story about Belén here...

On January 14th, Belen filled in the comment form on the 1000 J website and sent me a short note: "Congratulations for such an amazing project. I've being checking out the screenings, but Spain doesn't appear... yet. Do you think you will come?" We started to write back and forth, and then Belen made a wonderful proposal: she'd try to set up screenings at universities in the Alicante area, and at the FNAC store, which is  a French/Spanish chain, like a cultural center, plus Border, Apple, Amazon and Virgin Mega stores rolled into one. We spoke a few times on Skype and Belen got the ball rolling. And here it is:

The screening at University Miguel Hernandez in Elche/Alicante is on Monday, March 16th, at 6:00 PM. The host is the Journalism Faculty - Economics and Financial Study Department, Prof. Miguel Carvajal. Check the faculty's blog for event details. Belen pitched the film's context as being "Creativity from the bottom. Co-creation. Storytelling. Web 2.0 as a big challenge, but also a risk. New ways to communicate in a global context: Trust vs Fear." Brilliant!

En Español:
Fecha: 16 marzo, 18.00 pm
Lugar: Aula 1.2. Edificio Altabix. Avd Universidad s/n 03202 Elche /alicante.
Página web: escuelablog.es
Público al que va dirigido: Estudiantes de periodismo, antropología y bellas artes.
Quién lo organiza: Área de Periodismo-Departamento de Estudios Económicos y Financieros- Prof. Miguel Carvajal.
Sinopsis: San Francisco, USA. Año 2000. Un artista llamado Someguy decide lanzar un experimento creativo:  repartir 1000 libretas en blanco por todo el mundo, con una única intención: permitir que quien la encontrara pudiera crear algo en ella y demostrar así que todos somos creativos y co-creadores. Gracias a Internet, usuarios de todo el mundo comenzaron a interconectar, solicitando formar parte del experimento. Las libretas fueron de mano en mano, y pasado un tiempo, una de ellas volvió a manos de Someguy. Pero, ¿qué pasó con las otras 999? Andrea Kreuzhage, directora del film, dirige el documental en busca de todas ellas: un viaje lleno de relatos personales, sorpresas e interesantes paradojas. 
Contexto: La creatividad, vista desde el usuario final. Internet y co-creación. Globalización y 2.0: ¿tiene límites la red? El storytelling como nueva herramienta de comunicación. Confianza vs miedo. La co-creación, nuevos diálogos entre marca y consumidor. 
Link: www.1000journalsfilm.com

Hello friends! We're so happy to announce that the 1000 Journals DVD is finally available from Amazon.com.  It's fully loaded with subtitles in English, French and Spanish, commentary track, bonus stories, an Artfest Port Townsend special, stereo and surround sound, scene selections, animated menus, and more! On our website is the full list of features, images, and soon also a promo video -- check it out.

 

You can personalize this DVD and make it a wonderful gift: turn around the cover, and add your own creations to the template. We can't wait to see what you're coming up with!


 

Today in one week, on Friday, August 22nd, 1000 Journals will screen in two locations: I will present the movie at the mixed media workshop weekend ZNE ConvenZioNE, at the Amador Theater in Pleasanton, CA, starting at 7:00 PM.

Someguy will be in Atlanta, GA for the Docufest screening, and more...

Bring your journals, see the film, and meet the man who started it all at Youngblood Gallery, at 9:30 PM.

ZNE tickets | Docufest Atlanta tickets

September will be a very international month for 1000 Journals, with festival screenings in Italy, the UK, Canada, and a limited theatrical run in Amsterdam, Holland. The film is also invited to the Port Townsend Film Festival in Washington, where we filmed at Artfest and with Tracy and Teesha Moore in April 2006. All screening details will be posted soon

The 1000 Journals Project was started in San Francisco, in the summer of 2000, eight years ago. And now we're coming back to San Francisco, after our wonderful run at the San Francisco International Film Festival, to show the film for a week at the Roxie Theater. This is quite a milestone in the life of the documentary: our first theatrical booking, with hopefully more to come across the country.

If you live in San Francisco, please come and join us at the Roxie, and bring your friends. If you know folks in S.F., please tell them. We'll show journals during the opening weekend, and are around to answer questions.

1000 Journals opens on Friday, August 1st, 2008.

The showtimes are every day at 7:00 and 8:50 PM, and additionally,
Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday at 2:30 and 4:45 PM.

Roxie Theater
3117 16th Street
San Francisco, California 94103
map

Visit roxie.com or 1000journalsfilm.com for more info.

Over the past few months, we've been talking with a museum in Naples, Italy, the Galassia Gutenberg, whose curator, Simonetta Capecchi, has put together an exhibition of art journals about traveling. Simo blogged about the making-of, and wrote about us here, and here, she created a PDF version of the catalog, an online gallery on Flickr, and a very comprehensive journal blog and website roll. Journal 2639 of the 1001 Journals Project is visiting Galassia Gutenberg for the duration of the show, from March 28th to 31st, 2008. To Simo, un successo travolgente, and tanti auguri!

1000 Journals is invited to the Indianapolis International Film Festival, April 23rd to May 3rd, 2008. The festival has recently announced its competition line-up in a press release. Check it out... The full program will go live on the fest's website April 1st, including box office and venue infos. We'll be screening twice, co-hosted by the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (iMOCA): On Thursday, April 24, at 9:15 PM, and on Thursday, May 01, at 2:15 PM. Someguy will be at the first screening.

I just discovered a Call for Artists on the festival website: Jointly presented with the iMOCA, artists are invited to donate movie-themed art items to a silent auction. Maybe one of you wants to participate? The entry form is on the festival website.

Over the weekend, I put together our Berlinale Photo Album and posted it in the blog on

http://www.1000journalsfilm.com/

Check it out!

Once the Cubix ushers had cut-off the overtime Q+A's and herded us out of the cinema, quite a few people stayed in the lobby to see more of the journals we brought. Among them was Frank, a writer for the iheartberlin blog, who took pictures, and then posted a story in the blog, in German, and English. He sent me an email the next day with the link. Frank has a great eye: he photographed random pages in Journal 987, and along with Tracy Moore's and Seelenbücher's entry, ended up posting the page LindA Zacks created while Ralph and I were filming her in Brooklyn, March 2006. That day marked the beginning of a wonderful friendship, and collaboration on the animated title sequence... I heart LindA!

The Brandenburg Gate as back-drop for the interview with Spiegel-TV. Producer Melanie von Marschalck had contacted me upon arrival at Frankfurt Airport, and I met her and her team in Der Spiegel Magazine's offices at Under Den Linden.

You can see me taking these pictures in the clip of the interview, which will be on the Spiegel server until mid March.

From the Brandenburg Gate to the building of State of Schleswig-Holstein's representatives, where Ulf Engelmayer and his team has set-up a radio studio for a daily report from the Berlin Festival.

Before we went live, at 6:00 PM, we had time to flip through the journals I brought, and after the show, Ulf and his wife showed me their personal journals and asked for an entry. Eventually, there will be a podcast of the interview we can link to.

Whereas our Berlinale Premiere was in a historic movie palace in the former West Berlin, the repetition screening, at multiplex cinema Cubix, brought us into the former East, onto Alexanderplatz. The Tuesday screening was as packed, and followed by an interesting Q+A session going into overtime.

Gudrun Wendler, artist, dear friend, and fan of the 1000 Journals Project, hosted our very first semi-public screening of the teaser, in 2005, when she lived in Los Angeles. The Wendlers moved to Berlin two years ago and came to see the finished film, her husband Jürgen on Sunday, and Gudrun on Tuesday.

After the screening and Q+A's, we continued in the lobby...

Sunshine and blue skies, 10 degrees centigrade (50F), people sitting in street cafes or walking around with ice-cream, that's the new Berlin in February. Our house at twelve noon was packed. This was our first screening to an audience of non-English speakers, our first outside of Los Angeles, our third ever. Dieter Kosslick, the Berlinale director, introduced the films and the new screening slot we were inaugurating: the Sunday Matinee. A short film (Bruce Weber's Wine and Cupcakes), followed by the feature. Dieter's charming and loving welcome, and Bruce Weber's shots of Central Park in the Fall, helped me settle in my seat and relax and enjoy those two hours that mean so much to me, and I felt profoundly happy: Ralph and Nic on my side, Louise in the row behind, four journals in the audience, and most wonderfully, several of our German interview subjects who had traveled to Berlin: Elfy from Cologne, and Eva, Chris, Gerald and Heiner from Braunschweig. If only Someguy could have made it, too…

Elfy and her Berlin friend, Gerald and Heiner, Chris, and Louise...

... and Eva with Journal 878.

There are many more photos but so little time right now in between the screenings... Just this: it went really well!

So many people, so much glitz and seemingly miles of red carpet. Films are loved and celebrated here. And filmmakers get spoiled. I met with Louise Rosen, our sales agent, and Ulrich Schmieder, who works for the festival and helps us every step of the way. We got organized, badged, ticketed, keyed, we picked up a few of the 2,100 press kits we had printed, then worked our way from Potsdamer Platz, the H.Q., to the Martin Gropius Bau and the European Film Market, to the Hyatt Hotel, Berlinale Palast, and back. If it wasn't for winter and Berlin, it did feel a bit like cruising the Croisette in Cannes, the two miles strip along the beach, festival hotels, to the Palais: stop and go to say hello to friends and colleagues.

Then we rushed to the hotel to get ready for Opening Night, and the world premiere of the Rolling Stones concert film, Shine a Light by Martin Scorsese. They were all there: Marty, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ron Wood.

Louise Rosen, and Eva Lindemann, the producer of Bruce Weber's short Wine and Cupcakes which is screening back-to-back with us.

Ulrich Schmieder... Vielen, vielen Dank für Deine sagenhafte Unterstützung!