Live At Dallas VideoFest 34

For posterity's sake, it is 631 on the East Coast.
It is 331 on the West Coast.
It is the 2nd of October in the year of our Lord 2021.
What episode are we even doing today?
I don't even know.
Let's take a look.
This is going to be season 12, Episode 9, 578 times.
You have been welcome to the Clubhouse Podcast.
Normally, live from vocal now studios in North Dallas,
slash Addison, Texas, www.vocalnow.com.
That's vocal with a K is the website.
Download the app as well.
We'll do the regular show tomorrow.
But today is a very special day.
And it's so special I forgot to put my badge on.
But we're only doing audio, so nobody can see that.
Welcome.
My name is Rob, I am the executive producer
of the Clubhouse Podcast.
And if you can hear what's surrounding us,
this is, we're not in studio today.
Alex out on assignment, he'll be back with us tomorrow night.
But joining me as he does every time we do a remote
is the official fact checker of sooner or greater productions
and a man who is in his film festival uniform today.
You may know him as Ibbunu, but his mama named him Don Ford.
I'm going to call him Don Ford.
Hey, brother.
What's up?
How are you, sir?
You feel good?
End of an era.
It is.
It's kind of weird.
And we're going to talk about that from the go to today,
which we'll get into right from the go to the lamb as well.
That's an inside joke.
If you will, if you will wait until next week,
until Thursday or Friday, Friday, wait till Friday.
But we are at video fest 34.
And this is the start of the whole madness on the road.
And we'll talk about all of that as the show goes on.
We're going to have a lot of different guests,
because this, like Don said, this is the end of an era.
And it's a little bit or sweet for us,
but I want to bury the lead just a little bit.
We're going to be here for a while, because this is what we do.
We are at the Angelica at Mockingbird Station.
This is the almost final night.
Yeah, a video fest.
That's tomorrow.
But yeah, almost tomorrow.
All right, well, okay.
You're going to go do it.
Yeah, because I already got guests.
You need to go away.
I'm gone later back.
Do the thing, dude.
So I said we're going to do things a little bit differently
this year.
And we are because this is the final video fest.
And I still can't wrap my brain around it.
And I thought it would be really good to have some of the people
you don't get to hear from enough from a video fest
standpoint, joining us and telling their stories.
Because the people sitting across from the table right now,
like, we've been doing this for a minute.
They've been doing it a lot longer than a minute.
I'm going to let you guys introduce yourselves, please.
I'm Stacey Archip.
My car chip.
Wendy Goldman.
We were talking in pre-show.
Like, I'm like, yeah, we've been doing this for a while.
And I'm like, yeah, yeah.
What was the first video fest you guys worked?
1989.
Don't make me do math.
Let's see here.
So it's 32.
But that would have, so if this is 30, that would, like,
that's video fest, too.
Pretty much, yeah.
I was a little later.
We were in the early 90s.
So normally, when you put two after something,
you're a little worried because it's a sequel,
unless it's the godfather or back to the future.
Or you could say Star Wars to an extent.
Talk about, for both of you, you came in a little bit later,
so probably when there were in early double digits.
Talk about that first video fest you worked.
Well, I volunteered because I wanted
to meet some artistic people.
I saw things, and you still do.
I saw things at that video festival
that you would never see in a theater,
ever see anywhere.
Online really wasn't a thing in 1989.
So it was quite the experience.
It was actually very exciting.
Was it, where was it?
The Dallas Museum of Art.
Oh, y'all were fancy.
Yeah, we were very fancy.
From a time where the words online meant you stood out
in the queue outside.
So you're at the Dallas Museum of Art.
It's the second one of things from the genius mind
of Bart Weiss, who is one of my favorite humans
in the history of ever.
We're now at the Angelica, which is a multiplex.
How was that evolution been for you?
Has it been, did it progress the way you thought it would?
Did it exceed your expectations?
When they were at the museum, that was wonderful.
It was hard standing on the concrete floor all day.
Then it moved to the Dallas Theater Center.
Yeah, the Dallas Theater Center.
The DTC is that where you guys picked it.
No, we picked up, it's still at the Dallas Museum of Art.
Oh, OK, so you get still the early day.
The early day, is it?
So at the Dallas Theater Center, I mean, that's
isn't that Frank Lloyd Wright.
Yes.
Angles everywhere.
There's just angles everywhere.
But it was big enough to hold everyone,
but still rather intimate, not so large.
Like the museum, you were really spread out.
But at the Theater Center, it was a little closer quarters.
And I did the merchandise.
And there was actually a space to house all the merchandise.
And that's where I met the art tips.
They had little display windows and everything was displayed.
And we started, because our children were interested
in the animation, and they did a stop motion animation
program for children at the museum.
And so we started, and every year we would go and do that.
And eventually, my kids actually
taught that for a video.
That is awesome.
And so when we went to the Theater Center,
the best part was they would shop at the little windows.
And I mean, they were small.
They were in elementary school.
And they would shop at her little display.
And I would tell them they could buy one thing,
but they had to wait till Sunday when it was half price.
So every day they would stand there and they would go,
but what if it sold out?
It's been it's not meant for you this year.
You just have to wait.
Life lessons and getting to watch movies.
And you guys have really watched it go from a film medium
almost completely into what is now video fast,
but then move into the digital age.
How did that effect, not only does it
affect the way you did things, but it also
did affect maybe some of the people that
would come through for these things.
Right, did the microphone, my friend?
The one thing about video fast over, you know,
video is a very heavy, bulky kind of thing.
And it took a crew to set up all, you know,
like six or eight large TVs had to bring in a lot of furniture
things like that.
And those TVs weighed as much of a car back then.
The weight of time.
And then this interesting thing came out called a CD.
And then a DVD.
Well, now computers came along first.
Well, now, like, I want to say it was the year before last,
Dev Patel, who was another one of my favorite humans.
I was the projectionist in high school.
Like I ran the projection booth at our local theater
because I've always been a film geek kid.
So Dev was like, hey, do you want to go look at the projection
booth?
And I'm like, yes, I would like to go look at the projection
booth.
And I saw how they do it now.
And I'm like, you don't know the struggle, bro.
I saw it, but they up there in that projection
with here at the Angelica, they had the exact same table
that I used to use when I used to have to put films together
to put them on the platter.
And I was just like, oh my god, you have the same exact makeup
tables we had 30 years ago.
But now, to me, I think it takes the experience
to a different level because you can film an entire movie
on your phone.
And it looks just as good.
And in some cases, you can even emulate the look of film.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, that's the transition again.
There's a lot more opportunity for people
to create shorts and tell their stories
and things like that versus video.
When video came out, it was just a completely different medium.
You either use the film camera or that's about it.
So when video came out, it allowed a lot more people
to do a lot more stuff.
And then it just kept going and going.
And the move to digital, you can edit on the fly now.
You're not worried about wasting film canisters.
And again, it's like, you don't know the struggle.
You don't have to send it out and wait.
And pray that it wasn't over exposed.
It have to reshoot everything.
But it also means we're getting so much more awesome stuff
so quickly, I think.
And video fest is a prime example of that.
Knowing in about 27, 28 hours, the curtain drops drops drops.
Talk about how this weekend has been for you guys.
Because you guys have been like, this is our eighth, ninth year
somewhere in there.
You guys are a little bittersweet.
Yeah.
And but the cool thing is there's other things
that we get to gather for.
And for people that don't understand, this community,
this family of people, I love coming to festivals
because I get to see my festival family.
You guys have seen us every year.
We've seen you every year.
Unfortunately, we don't get to interact as much as we would like to
because you've got 90 people, thankfully, trying to get tickets.
And we're trying to keep the thing moving.
What go ahead?
I was just going to say in the early years at the Dallas Center
Arts Center, we used to have like curtains
between in large spaces and made small rooms.
And there was so much experimental stuff being shown.
People would move from room to room
and experience a completely different film
because they would come in in a different spot
during the experimental presentation.
And there was a lot of installations.
It was very strange.
What is your favorite memory from your entire time with video fest?
Well, this is going to date me just by age
when Steve Allen came.
Oh, wow.
And did his little stick and to a packed house.
That was because he was kind of an icon, you know, a legend.
Yeah, yeah, a legend.
I mean, there's been meeting Terry Gilliam, meeting Pee Weermann, Paul Rubens, who
Martin Moll, Harry Shearer.
I mean, every year, he actually did a flander's bit for Don on his phone.
Oh, he did?
Yes.
I mean, just I was very jealous of that.
So one of the things, well, it is sad that this is the last video fest.
There will still be the COVAX awards.
I think there will still be little things here and there.
So it's not video fest isn't completely going away.
It's just this iteration of it.
Yes.
And I think for me, it's just really getting together with my festival family, you know.
And just because I see him a couple times a year, different things, but, you know, it's
kind of nice.
It's kind of a social time.
It's fun.
Well, they're giving me the high signs so you guys can go do what you do to wrap this
thing up.
Thank you guys so much for hanging out.
Thank you for everything you've done.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
We can't thank you guys enough.
Thank you.
This is the Clubhouse Podcast.
We are live at video fest, 34.
I have to keep remembering the numbers on these things.
We're going to keep it moving right now.
We have our first filmmaker guest of the evening.
Go ahead and introduce yourself if you would.
Hey, my name is John Gann and I'm the producer of the short documentary, Miss Almatamas,
a life in color.
Tell us about it.
Almatamas was an artist, passed away in 1978, but she spent her entire life trying to
be an artist or was an artist, I should say, but didn't really get recognition until
she was about 80 years old, she was the first African American woman to have a solo
show at the Whitney Museum.
And then after she passed away, she sort of went to obscurity until the Obama's came into
office and they purchased one of her paintings for the White House and she was the first African
American woman painter to be shown at the White House.
So she's lived a life of, or had a life of a lot of incredible firsts and really felt
that she needed her do.
What brought you to the material?
I was contacted by the curators of an exhibit that's touring four different museums in
the country for the next two years and they wanted a movie to go along with it.
And I hadn't produced a movie in 20 years, but it was pandemic pivot and I said, sure,
why not?
I put together an incredible team and we made it all happen.
How long did it take you to get everything put together before you could even start
to really make the film itself?
Well, we were very fortunate because these curators had already put the exhibit together
in a 400-page catalog that went along with it.
We had access to lots and lots of material.
So actually, we had the opposite of a lot of filmmakers who were, you know, we had too
much to work with.
We knew we had a 20-minute stop no matter what we were going to do.
And so we could easily have made a feature, but it was really trying to pair down her
story into something that was succinct, that was entertaining, uplifting, and it gives
her the credit she deserves.
Is there anything to you that was earth-shattering as you were going through this that promote
the things you've learned about her and putting us together?
Yeah, I mean, I'm a Washingtonian from Washington, DC, and she lived in Washington from the age
of 16 until she passed away in her 80s.
She led an incredible life of being able to be fluid between black and white Washington.
And we were talking to a famous artist who we wanted to interview for the film and he
tells a story of how Alma was the only person, not even artist, person he knew who could
cross 16th Street, which for many years was the dividing line between white and black
Washington.
So just her ability to be able to travel between worlds was incredible and how she used that
to hone her craft as an artist, but also to make the connection she needed to become a
well-recognized artist.
We talk about crossing lines and things of that nature and how she came into prominence
in the Obama administration.
Did that come return to prominence?
Did it make it easier for people to want to screen it or do you think that made it more
complicated for you?
Oh, the film is doing really well in the festival circuit.
I mean, we made it specifically for this museum exhibition, obviously, but now it's being
picked up at festivals around the world and doing quite well.
We have a special education deal.
It's now available to every student in the District of Columbia for free for three years because
it's really important that they understand their local history.
We're working with the distributors to get it to schools and libraries around the country.
Our work is well known.
You see a picture that she's done.
You know the art.
You just don't know the story behind the woman.
But it's not the case, I know the art, but I don't know the artist.
In general, women artists aren't given their due anyway.
When you ask for a woman artist, it's either George O. Key for, you know, it's very few
people that you can actually name.
And when you're an African-American artist, who's a woman, there's almost no one.
I'm married to an art major, so I totally understand where you're from.
To me, it's really important about that representation and that ability to tell these incredible
stories and to make sure people know.
Here are people who are incredibly talented, who have influenced your life whether you
know it or not because they influence other people who tell your stories or tell stories
to you.
It's really important for us to get them their representation.
I know you're on a time crunch, but I want to make sure we get the plugs in.
Sure.
It's showing here at six o'clock.
10 minutes.
10 minutes.
So we want to let you go so you can get ready for it.
Where can people get ahold of you, get ahold of the movie, how they can follow you, give
all about shame with self-promotion, so do the plugs.
Yeah, no.
Our website is Miss Alma Thomas, M-I-S-S-A-L-M-A-T-H-O-H-O-M-A-S dot com.
You can get all the information there.
You can watch the trailer, you can actually watch the movie, it's a five bucks to rent.
But yeah, and it's probably playing at a festival close to you.
So if you can see it on a big screen, see it on a big screen.
And if you live in on the East Coast, the film is, the art exhibition is actually in Norfolk
now.
It's coming to Washington, DC, then it's going to Nashville, and then it's going to Columbus,
Georgia.
So.
Thank you so much for sitting down with us.
I want to see this thing myself.
Congratulations, enjoy the festival.
Thank you very much.
All right.
We are moving and shaking in this deal.
Kelly, I can give you about that much farther with the mic.
So I'm going to squish this, oh, nope, I got to bring it back just a little bit because
now my weight's off here.
Move.
All right.
You'll need to be real.
Yeah, you're real close on that thing.
Like this?
Yes.
That works very nicely.
I've got your buds in.
That's the only reason I know.
I don't want to yell at your ears to make you do.
I have the mute button.
I'm okay.
So we're going to keep this moving.
Video Fest 34.
We have a couple of very, very special guests.
I'm very excited about this when Kelly told me about this.
She probably should have waited to tell me until today because I've been giddy for like
three days.
Please introduce yourself to our audience.
I'm Leslie Oshman.
I'm the director of a short documentary that is playing in a few minutes here at Video
Fest 34.
It is called Wally Funk Astronaut Candidate because back when I made it 20 years ago, she was
always a candidate, never an astronaut, but now she actually has been an astronaut this
year.
And I'll give you three guesses as to who's sitting next to her.
You tell tell us who you are.
They can't see you.
They can't hear you.
No, you were saying something.
I was telling them that they couldn't guess who that you were sitting here with us, dude.
Okay.
I don't know what you want me to talk about.
Talk about your experience, man.
This is awesome.
You are.
Wally Funk is here.
Okay.
Well, I had another mic that was rough.
I have a letter from people from east to west Texas and who should come in, but Jeff
Bezos.
And his people came in first, interviewed you, me, see what kind of person I am.
And then he came the second time and I didn't know who the span was coming into my apartment.
And so I said, how do you do this, sir?
And then we went out to lunch and I still didn't know who he was and what he had done.
And then we get back to the, he says, I'm going up the space and I want to take you with
me.
Ah.
And you looked at me and dead in design, you said, yes, sir.
I was, ah, so two more trips and the people came, want to film me, want a lot more information
from me and had my uniform and said out downstairs and through the camera.
And I, then I'm, I'm flown in his Pilates and I get to fly it because this guy that
flew in, picked me up, he said, you all fly the airplane as a yes.
So we flew it back to, uh, Georgian and then his girlfriend owns a helicopter, a company.
So I got to fly helicopters.
And then we were up in the area where there's mountains, we were tracking up there in our
regular clothes and then the fourth day, I had my uniform on and then I'm in the ground
school for four days and we're learning all about the vehicle that's going to take
us up and the vehicle that we're going to be in and how we're going to strap ourselves
in for four different straps and they come to see if I got them tight enough and I did
and one of them I never did again.
He tightened that one up and so he just told us how high up we were going to go and
we went up, uh, we were in space for three minutes, which is not enough because I had been
in, in, in space like in Russia for a half an hour.
So I knew what the feeling was like when there was no gravity.
And I, I was so excited that I got picked and I never didn't know why.
So I had this little feather that is the Georgian feather and they were tremendous to me.
He has a crew of 20,000 people around the world, his, his people that cook for him, bring
the food, come from New York right there to West Texas.
Oh wow.
So everything was absolutely beautiful.
My room was beautiful and they would put things in it and I would take the, they set
me home with all kinds of things, hats, boots, you name it, I felt so great and then
we got in the vehicle and the capsule took off.
We only had ear plugs and then it only felt like that.
We don't like that going up really.
Yes.
It was loud, but we had ear plugs.
So I was expecting more feeling.
So then when we get into the line where it's no longer on earth,
it's just beautiful, but it turned black because we were not high enough to get
so I had my camera with me and I just, I was great.
I got out of my seat and it turned around and so forth.
Three minutes though.
Gosh.
That's three more minutes than I've been in space.
I mean, that's awesome.
I think she spent more, more time at the Yuri Gagarin Space Center and then,
well, I was in space.
When she did that, then she did with Bezos, but.
Okay.
So I was with them for a little over an hour, I know, a half hour, but only three
minutes in space where I was, where I was greatness.
But it was the whole thing was so fantastic.
And I don't know how he yet wanted to get me on.
Oh, I think he'd read about her and heard about her and admired her and she, you know,
she tested better than John Glenn for heaven's sakes and Congress still wouldn't let people go up.
That's what's in my documentary.
She was a trailblazer and she made lemonade out of lemons.
She tried four times to get into NASA.
They wouldn't let her in.
So instead, she became the first female inspector for the Federal Aviation Administration,
the FAA and for the National Transportation Safety Board.
She's taught how many thousands of kids to fly, like,
four thousand people to fly.
To fly?
Yeah.
I've got over 19,600 flight hours.
Enormous, you know.
So maybe it spent more time, I don't know, in total miles than some of the astronauts,
but this, he gave her this chance.
So it was really, really great.
That is, that is amazing.
And the fact that you said you worked on this thing for 20 years.
No, I didn't work kind of for 20 years.
I did it 20 years ago.
It was in my attic.
It has shown before at the Dallas Video Festival when we were over at the Dallas Theater Center.
And right before July 4th weekend, I was sitting in a local restaurant, La Madeline, to be exact.
That's good.
Eating my lunch.
And I pull up my Facebook.
And here is Mary, our very good friend, who is how I met Wally, with Jeff Bezos, with his arm around her.
And I went, what in the world is Jeff Bezos?
I thought, oh, this must be...
I thought, oh, this must be on the truck.
I knew you did.
I thought it must have been Photoshopped.
And I scrolled down some more.
And there's a picture of Wally, Mary, and their friends in a kitchen with a big cake that says, congratulations, Wally,
on being chosen by Jeff Bezos, to be the oldest person to ever go into space with him.
And so I immediately texted Mary.
I said, do you remember the documentary we made?
She goes, I sure do.
So I spent my July 4th weekend trying to get it out of the attic, and it was on a beta tape and get it digitized.
So it's like, oh, it's great.
It's so, well, it's from 2020.
Well, that should be on right now.
And you guys are getting ready to see it.
We're getting ready to show it again in a compilation here at the video fest.
Okay, so I know that you've got to get in there and do the deal.
Because I could do this all day.
I'm going to be honest with you.
I could see it with you guys all day.
It was not bothering me at all.
If she wants to come out afterwards, we can...
We will be here, absolutely.
But just in case we can't, where can people get a hold of you if they want to screen the film, see the film, get the film, anything?
Through Bart Weiss of the Dallas video fest.
Perfect.
We can do that way.
We want to make sure...
I know it's like two minutes till six.
Yeah, we need to get in there.
So go in there, have a great showing.
If you all want to come and sit down, we'd love to have you back, because I want to hear more.
Okay.
Wally Funkyo.
I'm just, this is awesome.
I am...
Live in the front.
Thank you.
Live in the front.
All of this should have been on film.
Oh, we're going to have it all over social media.
Don's been taking pictures.
We got...
What are your guys over here taking pictures?
Just going to be...
We tried to get video.
We couldn't put it together in time.
But go enjoy this screening.
Wally Funk guys.
I guess it ever since...
Ever since Kelly told me...
Sneak in and watch it.
Oh, we got to keep recording.
I'm...
I'm...
I'm stapled to this chair right now.
We are live at Dallas video fest.
34.
We were talking in pre-show.
This is our ninth one of these that we've done, which is crazy.
The first one we did was in 2013.
Seems like a lifetime ago that Bart White asked us to do this.
Uh...
Don, that was awesome.
What?
That was awesome.
How many astronauts do we get on a show?
That's the most important one.
Like that's insane.
I know.
That's like having an Armstrong.
I mean...
If you...
When you get a chance, look her up on Wikipedia.
Well, yeah.
It's...
It's mind-blowing.
Like, there's not like...
Pioneer is a good word.
Trailblazer is a good word.
But there is not a word in my opinion that describes this woman.
And that's always like, get pictures.
I need pictures.
Yeah.
You know, and if she's feeling up to it afterwards, I would like to have an actual picture
with her because she is an amazing human.
And the fact that we were able to get this...
This documentary she did 20 years ago.
The fact that we've got this here for video fest.
And what this video fest means.
That's huge, bro.
She's literally on the Mount Rushmore of NASA.
And probably top five guests we'd had on this show.
And we'd had some guests on this show.
But you make the point that she is the Mount Rushmore of NASA.
Yeah.
No doubt.
No doubt.
You know.
They said she tested better than John Glenn, bro.
Okay.
All right.
Let's do this.
Come sit.
Come sit.
But no, that was awesome.
Yes.
That was cool.
Look at who we are.
Talk right into that microphone.
I think we're good.
Amy Martin.
Green Room Goddess.
Green Room Goddess.
I like that.
I would want that on the name tag.
And Scooter Smith joining us as well.
How long have you been with the video fest?
He's been with it longer.
Since the beginning.
Since before the beginning.
Since there wasn't a number on it.
There was no number.
Oh, wow.
So this is 34.
Yes.
I've been in Texas now 26.
So this thing's been around longer than I lived in this state.
Talk about how this weekend feels for you guys.
Oh.
Because we're doing our format completely different.
Because we want people to get to know the people that are the ones that keep the wheel moving
in this thing.
Talk right into that microphone if you would.
Did that for quite a while.
Mm-hmm.
I think good 17, 17, 18 years of helping this place run.
Did the first four intros and the animated intros.
And then we went off and we would support the green room.
We did the interactive zone for a while.
We had a lot of interactive works in the late 90s.
We did that.
Pretty much Bart asks, you know, he's one of those people.
You just go, OK.
Whenever he does our show every year, I always say this is one of our favorite humans.
As far as wise, like even the legend doesn't even say it.
The guy is all things to all people.
And one of the things we're going to be talking about towards the end of our time tonight is,
if there's not Bart Weiss, we don't do anything outside of a studio.
We would never do anything outside of a studio.
Bart was the first person that was like, huh, yeah, I guess they can do something.
You know, and because of Bart, we've been able to do some amazing things with this show.
Oh, great.
And I can guarantee the list of people that have something similar to that is a mile.
Give me some of the highlights of some of the cool things that you've seen in up to 34 years.
Oh, my goodness.
I want to say 34 festivals because, of course, you know, there's been years out of skipped here and there.
Yeah, we always like the, the SIGGRAPH reel.
That was a, that was a favorite of ours.
That was always fun.
I'm a computer animator.
Oh, yeah.
Specifically.
And watching that evolve.
Yeah.
Since the late 80s or the 90s till now.
Well, you got, you, you got a preview.
What you would see at SIGGRAPH, you would see in the movies about two years later.
Get right up on that thing.
Right.
So it was, it was great.
Let me feel like you were in the know because you're like, oh, cool.
They've animated water.
And then the abyss shows up in the theaters two years later.
You know.
If I'm not mistaken.
Was it video fest where we, where we screened at the Alamo when it first opened the Rolling Stones thing?
They have, may have.
I remember that that was one of my personal favorites because knowing that that.
Footage hadn't been shown in years and years and now it's getting a Blu-ray release.
And Bart gets to premiere it at video fest.
And being in the room with some of the people that were there.
That were there.
You know.
Oh, wow.
And just.
That was one of my personal favorite things.
But.
From you guys, this standpoint.
Highlights of people that you, it was there.
Was there somebody that you met through a video fest that.
Like years later, you were like, I remember when?
I was kissed by Martin Mall.
Hey now.
There you go.
I mean, it's a legend.
Yes, I am such a fan of him.
Yeah.
He got the Covax Award one year.
So the Covax Award always brought in interesting people.
Not just the people who were getting awards, famous people.
But they would have friends.
You know, in Dallas and they would all show up.
And it would be such an old-timers.
The Covax Award winners were always in such a good mood.
They were always so happy.
And they had old friends there.
And they was kind of like, we're getting this cool award.
And that's really cool.
But back to my pow.
You know, and it was just, and I was the green room goddess.
So I had a lot of fun keeping them fed.
Police.
I don't think I was there for police.
They were in a different facility.
Yeah.
But just knowing that this is the town that it wasn't for.
Yeah.
Channel 13 doing what they did.
You don't know who money piped out.
That's right.
That's right.
And having Cleese there, I thought was cool.
You actually Martin Moe.
We were talking earlier that Don got Harry Shearer to do something on his phone for him as Flanders.
Oh, yeah.
Harry got the event.
Harry really got the event.
He really did.
He really did.
And talk about the accessibility that these filmmakers give to people at festivals.
Maybe don't understand it as well.
Just amazing, yeah.
To get the insight.
You know, because you always get the real.
And then they talk about what they're doing.
What they were doing at that time.
20 years ago, 30 years ago, whatever, and on up to the president.
So you really got a lot of in-depth and some interesting side notes.
And things were, well, I don't have great memories of that project.
You know, things like that.
So, yeah.
Those were fun.
Can you pick one moment, like when you think of video fest, what's the one moment you think about more than anything?
Oh, gosh, the one moment.
I guess it would be when I did the first open.
Bart, I was working at a post facility doing animation.
And it was very, very crude in those days.
I was, you know, begging people in the hall, you know, do your logo for 100 bucks.
And then this guy, it was hanging around and he was so cool.
And so I started talking to him.
And he was very interesting.
And he's talking about this project.
He's starting to work on.
And he was going to do some local videos and animations and things like that at the Dallas Museum of Art.
And that turned out to be Bart Weiss.
And eventually he mentions, I think he had made a couple of visits over.
He was transferring some tapes.
And he mentions that he needed an intro.
So I said, well, let me work something up.
So I worked with a friend of mine named Rick Speed.
And we did a nice soundtrack and the intro.
And then Bart came over and he was depressed.
He was so unhappy that day.
And then he was looking at some tapes.
But he was starting to go, I just don't know if I'm going to do the thing at all.
You know, this guy has turned me down or something like that.
I don't even remember what happened.
And then I said, well, here.
I walked by and then the hall and said, hey, I got something to show you.
He just could this thing up and watched him go a late.
He enjoyed it so much it was back on now.
So this is all your fault as what you said.
He still says it's my fault because I thought he said he was going to do an annual festival,
which he had not thought of to that point.
So I put the first annual video for us at the top of the,
here we are almost three and a half decades later.
I'm getting the high sign here.
I'm so sorry.
But thank you guys for everything you do for video fest.
We are so thankful for you guys.
Enjoy the rest of the festival.
I appreciate it.
All right, excuse me.
Thank you guys so much.
Don's got.
Don is moving me along tonight.
We are keeping him moving.
I'm working on it.
I'm working on it.
All right.
All right.
Not a problem.
I got nothing but time.
Okay.
No, no, no.
Take your time.
Take your time.
We're good.
This is the clubhouse podcast.
We are live at Dallas Video Fest 34.
We'll be doing our normal show tomorrow night.
It's seven eastern four Pacific on the vocal now network.
Pick one.
We're good either way.
They both work.
So we have another guest joining us.
Get right up on that and tell everybody about it.
Who you are.
Hi.
I'm Marianne McQuillan from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Marianne, you have a movie called The Free Table.
Tell us about it.
Yes.
Get right up on it.
Okay.
There you go.
Now we're getting somewhere.
The Free Table was because it doesn't exist anymore.
Okay.
A location in my neighborhood, just a few blocks from where I live.
Now, which is in a place called Cambridge Port in Cambridge.
It's between Harvard and MIT to give people a little bit of a,
to situate you.
And it was, it, it's about an elderly couple who had a free table
on their neighborhood, like basically a free yard sale.
Anyone could contribute objects to the table and anyone could take
anything off of it.
Oh, wow.
And it's kind of a microcosm of the neighborhood.
So kind of like the, some of these kids are doing now with their,
they put a box up and they put a bunch of books in like a free library
and people can come drop books off or take books.
Same concept.
It's like more like a yard sale.
That's exactly right.
That you never know what's going to be there.
So books, those are great.
We have those in our neighborhood as well.
So it was, it's something like, what, what brought you to want to make
this into a film?
Yeah.
It's at, so many of us in the neighborhood were kind of obsessed with it.
It was just represented the best of who we could be.
Okay.
And, you know, the notion that objects can have a life beyond your possession
of them and give them obvious.
So some people, it's about recycling.
Some people, it's about, you know, repurposing.
Some it's about need.
I live in, it's a neighborhood with lots of income and equality.
So there's some, you know, very wealthy folks who have means and have stuff.
And then lots of folks who need stuff need things.
And I also live on a close to a subway.
So it's a block that gets a lot of traffic.
So it would be sort of unpredictable.
You could walk by and it would, it would look different, you know, an hour after.
It would look different constantly.
Was it something that they would do every day?
Or was it just?
You know, so was, I was originally going to do a year in the life of.
So it was, they would close it down for the winter.
Yeah, I'm sure the winter of there, yeah.
Not fun.
Not fun, right?
Just really brutal with all the snow and ice.
And they're elderly there in their 80s.
So it's like a gift really to the neighborhood.
So they would close it down the winter and start up again in the spring.
And I wanted to do a year in the life of.
But while they said yes, they said yes to that.
But while I was filming, they decided to close the table permanently because of just aging and health issues and all of that.
So it had to be done really quickly.
I shot it over.
I guess really over two years on again, off again.
And then edited it, edited it really kind of right before the pandemic.
And then I made a short version for this festival.
When you think about the free table, is there, and if I'm spoiling something in the film, tell me now,
is there, is there a certain item or items or type of items that always stick out to you?
Like, when I think of it, these are the things I think about.
No, it's the people.
It's the people who stick out for me.
And I miss it dearly.
In so many ways, it's like a pre-pandemic existence of when you weren't afraid to talk to strangers.
Right?
You weren't afraid to do that.
Probably to call it before the world shut down.
It's amazing before the world shut down.
So it really, random conversations would take place.
Maybe about something that was on the table.
Maybe about something that you were picking up that someone else just dropped off.
And you had questions about it.
But really, random conversations across socio-economic lines.
There'd be folks who couldn't didn't speak English.
A lot of immigrants would use the table to get stuff.
So it was this sort of beautiful, you know, sharing.
Well, and with the backdrop of that area of the country, I grew up in South Florida.
I've lived in Texas a long time.
I've been to Boston a couple of times for work trips.
You don't feel history here like you do in the Northeast.
There's just nothing like it.
Not granted.
I'm a dolphin, so I have to hate the patriots.
Completely different issue.
But I have a friend that lives up there.
She teaches at Berkeley.
And the last time I was there, she took me down to Harvard.
So I could tell people, I went to Harvard for an hour and a half.
But feeling that history has to also play a part in this too.
That's a great observation because antiques end up on the table.
Old books.
I mean, I live in a house that was built in 1836.
Oh, wow.
Right?
And, you know, it's an old house.
And so, and this neighborhood has a lot of sort of old-style cottage houses.
It workers cottages.
But, you know, that's a really, that's a good point.
And there's so much change going on, gentrification,
that initially I thought it was going to also be about gentrification and change,
because you have folks side by side who've lived there for 50 years in tiny little houses.
But now people are buying those tiny little houses, tearing them down,
and building, you know, two million dollar houses.
So, it's also kind of about that little bit of a clash of culture.
And the old and new.
And that kind of hurts my soul a little bit because I loved that history.
I loved, you know, walking, just walking around and going.
Like, these buildings are almost as old as we are as a country, you know.
And the urban renewal, because we see some of that here too,
not on that same scale.
But when you're seeing buildings that were built in there, you know,
the house that my wife and I got married in is called the Dallas Women's Farm was built in the 1920s
and feeling that level of history.
And this whole thing fascinates me because the concept of, hey, we've got this stuff.
You got stuff you don't want, you leave it here.
You got stuff you need and we have it, you take it.
You said there's a longer version, the shorter version for video fast.
Well, let's talk about the longer version for a minute.
Yeah.
The shorter version shows here Sunday at 3.30 and this will be up and available before the screening.
So we want to encourage everybody to come out Sunday at 3.30 and right here at the Angelica to see the, to see the version.
Are there plans to show the longer version?
You know, it's a good question.
I think, I think because they closed the table, I had to, I had to let it go in some ways and decide,
okay, would I make a better short film that's an observational documentary?
I shot the whole thing.
It's spent a lot of time at the table.
It did, a couple of sit down interviews with the, the couple who hosted the table.
And then I did some interviews with other folks who were frequent contributors or took things off the table.
And I think, no, I don't think there's going to be a longer version.
And to make this cut, it was really to get rid of things that had poor sound.
You know, I did have to get rid of some wonderful stories, you know, some people that I met.
But again, I'm not the only one who misses it.
It's hard to describe.
So I, I hope it's just a little, a little slice of life in some ways, in some ways attribute to their generosity
and their anti-materialism, anti-consumerism too.
Is there a part of you maybe in the back of your head that hopes somebody sees that wants to pick the mantel up?
You know, so many people talked about that.
Like, who's going to do it next? Who's going to do it next?
And you know, people do them, it's very funny.
There's lots of locations around with, you know, people put stuff out and write the word for you.
But that's not the same thing.
That's temporary.
And there's no personality to it.
You don't have the people there that are...
And the same location.
Yeah.
Well, I may be showing you here, might inspire somebody here in the Dallas area to want to start something up.
And the next thing, you know, I know it's anti-consumerism, but you can use the word franchise of having them in Asia.
Because I love that concept.
It's just like, you know, don't get rid of stuff because somebody else might want to use it.
You know, there's also the other wonderful thing that would happen is that you walk by the table and it'd be like amazing things on it.
Like, old prints and lots of books.
When you pick up and look at something and have a conversation with someone and then leave the book behind.
Not take it, right?
Like, you don't even need to take everything.
You'd go there just to sort of check out whether there were toys or, or like I said, antiques or things that remind you of your own past,
or remind you of your childhood.
But then not take that thing.
Leave it for someone else.
There's a lot of that.
And to see that thing that you're like, I really always wanted one of those and I was a kid.
Or I had that thing as a kid and it got lost in a shuffle.
And to recapture that.
I mean, there's just, there's very few feelings in the world like that.
And stuff is a trigger for memory.
Absolutely.
Like, it can trigger smells.
Yeah.
Like, I can look at something and I can smell my living room from when I was in the seventh grade.
Or, you know, whatever, cool eight, I was drinking that day.
And things like this, like I find fascinating.
Because I am very tied to my history.
I'm a person who's very tied to my past.
I don't have friends.
I have family.
And my family's awesome.
And to, to have things that tie you to that, do you have anywhere else that it goes from here?
We're going to do, we're trying to do some, we're going to do some community screenings.
We just, you know, Cambridge has got a lot of great locations that I could do that in.
So we have a very, very beautiful main branch of public library.
It's even an award-winning modern building, very beautiful building.
So I'm hoping we could do it there.
And then I want to bring it to, there's an elderly, Cambridge housing authority,
elderly housing that's subsidized housing.
A lot of those folks went to the table and are in the film.
So I'm going to do it there as well.
But we also have, we have one of the best public access.
Nice.
I think it's one of the best in the whole country.
So I didn't want them to own the film.
Like if you give it to access.
But I'm happy to air it on public access.
All right.
Well, they're going to have access to you saying that.
So they should get up on it.
No, I'd like them to be able to show it.
But for me to be able to still put it into the festival.
You put it out there to the universe, my friend.
Thanks.
So before we go, this show is founded on blatant self promotion.
So if people want to get a hold of you, get a hold of the film that can't be here tomorrow at 330.
Give us the social media.
Give us the website.
Everything you've got so they can get a hold of you or follow you.
Okay. Well, right now it's not, it's not posted for folks to view.
But I will get that to you as soon as it is.
Absolutely.
We didn't want to stream it on Vimeo.
If they want to get a hold of you for any reason, what's the best way for them to do that?
Is there a website? Is there anything?
I have a website of my personal work. Yes.
Okay.
So it's my name. So it's Marianne McQuillin.com.
And that is.
I'm going to spell this.
MCQUILAN.
Right. So the first name is Marianne. So it's Marianne McQuillin.com.
All right. Go check that out.
Thank you.
I love this.
I'm looking, I'm, unfortunately, I've got, we've got to do our shows tomorrow.
But I want to make sure that people come out and see this.
Thank you so much for sending one of this.
Thank you.
It is called the free table Marianne McQuillin.
Thank you so much.
This is the Clubhouse podcast.
We are live at Video Fest 34.
Here at the end, Jessica, this goes on all weekend.
So even though we're not able to broadcast live tonight, once this is up,
you'll hear this.
There's still going to be a whole other day left to the festival.
So come on down to Angelica at Mockingbird Station.
One of our favorite places to come hang out.
This is my third time here this week, because I saw two movie screenings this week.
And we've got one review up.
The next one will be up next week.
This is the final video fest.
And it's kind of weird.
We're going to talk more about that a little bit later in the show.
And it is definitely going well.
We're going to have Bart Weiss on at one point.
We're going to have Kelly Kitchens with your sham on with us at one point,
because we want to make sure that the people behind the scenes that are responsible for this,
get the credits these so richly deserve.
And I think we're going to get both of them right now.
Sometimes I just have to say things to the universe and they happen.
So now you can come sit down, Cal.
Yeah, I thought I saw Bart moving, but you should come sit with him too,
because you guys are both a part of this deal.
So I'll tell you, Greg Metz is the, he is the one that created the actual COVAX award.
Oh, very nice.
Yeah, he's right over there.
I mean, I was never nominated, but that's, you know, that's my own bone to pick.
I'm just saying, there is the band, the myth, the legend.
Is that like the old Henry Ford thing?
I'll make this car any color you want, as long as what you want is black.
Yes.
I'm sure you have another day to go.
Joining us now is a piece of this show's history that I,
we talk about it every year that we do this show,
but I don't think he ever truly understands the breadth and width of his influence
and what he has done for our little show.
One of our favorite humans walking the planet and a man who Devon Pike has ripped off his style blatantly
and we have audio and video evidence of it, ladies and gentlemen, Bart Wise.
Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm on mute.
You're on mute.
You're good.
I can just leave now.
You've said it off.
And also we have another special guest. Please introduce yourself, sir.
Greg Metz.
The man who is responsible for one of the coolest things that this show has ever gotten to be a part of,
because Kelly just, Kelly just said it so we can say it.
You're responsible for the co-backs.
But he's responsible for making the actual award,
which is one of the coolest things ever.
You know, and it's gotten to, we've gotten to meet some awesome people out of it.
For people that don't understand, I want to take you back to the year 2013,
which I had to be reminded about earlier.
I get a call from Kelly and she says, hey, have you guys ever done a film festival before?
And I was like, we've been doing this show.
It was like season four.
I'm like, no, I mean, I've been to festivals, but I've never done the deal.
And she says, well, I have this friend. His name is Bart Wise and he does a thing called Video Fest.
And that year, it was at Alano Richardson.
Yes.
And we had, the media lounge was at that point and emptied out restaurant space that would become
taco, taco, taco place at some point.
Something like that.
Last, well, I think.
Oh, no, no.
It's another place, yeah.
Yeah.
Right, remember that.
And we had no idea what we were doing.
We show up, set up the deal.
And that really is a milestone for this show because if Bart doesn't ask us to do that,
I don't know that we get any other festivals or get 90% of the amazing guests that this show has had.
And now there I say it just over 11 years we've been on the air.
And so we owe so much to you, sir.
And so when I found out that you were curtaining this thing after I was like, I don't care what I have to do.
I will move mountains.
I don't care if I have to sit outside with a megaphone and interview people.
We are going to be a part of this thing.
I cannot thank you enough.
Well, thank you.
Thank you for saying all that.
It's all true, brother.
It's all true.
It's extremely humbling.
When I decided we were not going to do this anymore, I thought, well, that's fine.
Done a plenty.
It's time to move on and do some other things.
What I really didn't at all calculate in my head was what it meant to me personally.
And to hear some of the things that you say, you know, it's like, when you're in the midst of something,
it's hard to understand the implications that it has for other people.
Okay.
You need to get you some water.
Yeah.
I think I can get some water.
That'd be great.
Hey, Don.
Don Kelly.
Somebody.
That introduction.
That introduction.
I didn't even write that.
That's just all up the top of my head.
But yeah, it's been well done.
Very humbling.
And yeah.
And deserving.
Well, we were talking this bit earlier.
He was like, you know, he said he talked about how he designed the logo and he put the first annual.
I'm like, okay.
Yeah.
So it's your fault.
That's right.
He says, yeah, this part tells me that to this day that it's my fault.
Absolutely.
But talk about you getting involved with this deal.
What pushed you to gravitate you to this thing?
Well, I think Bart said it the other night over at the Texas Theater pretty well that when Bart calls you, you know, you have to answer people.
People answer the phone.
And they pick up the phone.
And it does even have to use the words I'm calling in a favor.
Right.
Well, we just, he calls we come on.
And he was, I was putting together an alternative arts organization that then became the Mac.
And he was one of my board members and supporters.
And, you know, he was bringing, you know, video into the context of the art world, which was like so essential at that time.
And happening in every other city at Dallas was awaiting that.
He was also doing the video bar at that time.
And we hooked up and I was doing, you know, sculptures around for various different things like data, club data, the heads.
Oh, I love club data.
And so he, so at a certain point, he said, I've got this idea to do this COVAX award.
And, you know, and I remember, I'm old enough to remember, you know, seeing a few of, you know, the early because my dad was, you know, kind of a big fan.
And never met your dad.
No, and, you know, unfortunately, you know, because he was a really interesting guy.
And so I said, wow, you know, like we have to do something really special.
And he said, well, you know, make it up, do something unique and do something interesting that everyone will, you know,
that will distinguish us from every other kind of award, you know, kind of designation in terms of objects.
And so that's.
Yeah, I was, you know, we didn't want to give somebody a plaque or a, you know, a generic award.
And that looks like everything else on their wall.
And I can tell you, having done this, God knows how many times, when you reveal it to the person you're giving to and they see what it is, there's this light up on their face.
Because most of these people have been given awards for all kinds of things.
And nothing is like this.
And you think of the list of people that have your work in their homes.
Like Terry Gilliam.
Yeah.
It was.
It was maybe, you know, two pythons.
Yes.
Right.
And Terry at that time, and that was early on.
Yeah.
I think.
And getting to meet him and then sit down and have drinks with him.
And he goes, man, he goes, I'm putting this right up in my bathroom right across from the toilet so I can be inspired every day.
This is awesome.
And I was going, that could possibly possibly be, you know, the greatest compliment I could possibly get.
And Terry was some of the guests we have come in to hang out for a little bit and leave.
He stayed at the party for as long as anybody wanted to talk to him.
That's amazing.
I mean, he, everybody who was around got to have a conversation.
Is there, off the top of your head, is there a Kovax recipient that more than the others made you go, oh, we got that one.
Well, John Cleese was pretty amazing.
Well, and we were talking about that earlier too.
And for people that don't know their, their Python history, if it's not for this town.
Right.
You might never know who they are.
Right.
And that's actually pretty well documented in the multi part document or series that Netflix did that I thought was really good for them.
And I got to see some of the footage from that.
Yeah.
I God bless you, sir, because I don't know that I could have kept my composer sitting that close to that man without just turning into Chris Farley and going.
You remember, you remember, yeah, that was awesome.
Like being in the presence of a Python, much less multiple pythons.
And you've had some amazing people come through for this.
You know, we were talked about Harry Sheer earlier.
Martin Moll.
It's the legacy that you have built in this thing.
It's just luck being the right place at the right time and asking the right questions.
Well, what's the old saying?
I'd rather be lucky than good.
You know, be good.
Good.
Yeah, being good helps.
But I mean, and you think about the number, like can you think just somebody up the top of your head that we were talking about this earlier with some of the volunteers.
And thank you for letting us have some of them for a few minutes because I want them to share their memories as well.
A filmmaker that you had on the festival and then a few years later, you turned your head and you saw their name on something and you went.
Well, you know, celebrity is not as much what I'm about.
It's just not who I am.
But it's kind of cool when you see a name on something and you go, you know what?
I remember when they brought me something that nobody else would show and we showed and we were able to help them on that path.
I mean, that's not about celebrity.
That's about legacy, my friend.
So we, I believe, were the first people to show David Lowry's work.
Wow.
A film called Lullaby.
And if I'm not mistaken, we have the only copy of that film.
Really?
In our archive.
Yeah.
And then there's, you know, John Davis and Keith Alcorn, the DNA guys.
We had Keith Alcorn on.
I want to say it was four or five years ago.
He had the documentary, the wrestling documentary that he brought in.
And I don't know, was Keith, did he do the comic book too?
Did we do a round table for a comic book that he did?
I don't know that he did a comic book.
He sent a lot of things, mostly animation.
I mean, he's an animator more than anything else.
And, you know, they did Jimmy Neutron, which was.
Yes, I remember.
Yeah, we did talk about Jimmy Neutron.
And we actually got to show the pilot before Jimmy Neutron, you know,
or anybody else knew what it was.
And the interesting thing about those guys, John,
was a student of mine when I taught at SMU.
And Keith was a graduate of UTA, where I currently teach.
So.
And, yeah, so I would say those are the two people that I think did awfully nicely
after we showed their work.
And one interesting story about, so one of the things that we showed a lot of
from DNA productions, they did these Nana and Little Puss Puss cartoons.
Do you remember those?
Yeah.
They're basically like fart jokes with an old lady, right?
And they're very, very funny.
So, one year, we're at the DMA, and Mort Myersen is in the building.
And so, somebody said, Mort's here.
And I said, oh, great.
What's Mort in?
He's in the Harchal auditorium.
And I'm thinking to myself, what's in the auditorium right now?
It's the Nana and Little Puss Puss marathon.
And I'm thinking, Mort Myersen will never come back ever again.
And right now, Mort Myersen is in theater number two.
Wow.
I was hoping you would say he came out laughing so hard he was crying.
And I knew it was a good day.
Well, you know, I mean, I didn't know him at all.
And now he's a friend.
But, yeah.
So, yeah, we had a lot of people.
And, you know, it's kind of amazing looking back.
And, you know, some people that we showed films from in the late 80s
in the early 90s, and then, you know, 20 years later,
they're still making films, but in a very different way.
You're still teaching.
I have class on Monday.
You've got peace of mind, which is about to kick off a little bit more.
And coming up.
Frame of mind.
Frame of mind.
I'm so sorry.
You're looking for peace of mind.
That's a whole different time.
Never, never going to happen.
Frame of mind will be going statewide next year.
So, like my next big project is to travel around the state
and meet some more local filmmakers in, you know,
El Paso and San Antonio and Valley.
And so that when we go statewide, it's not just people I know in Dallas,
but, you know, really recovering the state.
With this going on right now, are you allowed to talk about things
that you're more excited about than possibly others in the festival
or do you want to wait till after to talk about that?
Which one of my fingers don't I like?
I just, you had a wally funk, man.
That was awesome.
Yeah.
Getting to sit with her.
Like, you're sitting with history.
And when Kelly told me she was coming in, I was like,
OK, I know it might be a long shot, but if we can get her,
it would be awesome.
And we got it for, we hopefully will get her on the back end of it,
but she came in and sat with us for a few minutes before they went in
for the screening and going from the Museum of Art,
the journey that this thing has taken and now here at the end,
Jeleka, talk about the relationships that you've been able to formulate
over the years.
Well, as anybody who's sitting by the table where people come in,
they'll tell you that, you know, it's like, I know everybody.
You know, it's like, they're not wrong.
So there was a time when people were going to the book at the table,
they'll say, everybody comes in and says they should get a free ticket
before they're prepared for their friends.
You're like, no, they pay more.
I really believe in filmmaking and the programming and all the other things that I do,
it's like, you give and you take.
It's like, I ask people for things, but, you know, I help people out,
and I, you know, it's like one of the things that I think my role in the community
is, when I see people, I say, so, you know,
how's that film you've been working on?
And how can I help you get that together?
And oftentimes, they'll get back to work,
because there are so many people who are working in the film business
and have that project, and they're just not, they need a little push
and a little shove.
And so, yeah, and one of the other things, by the way, is incredibly gratifying.
There are a lot of former students that, so in this compilation that just ended,
there was, did you interview Sandra, Sandra Erkhardt?
Okay, I don't know.
I don't think we did on this one.
Okay, anyway.
Sandra was a student of mine, maybe 30, 35 years ago,
and she just finished this film.
But that, you know what, you hear stories about that all the time,
about filmmakers they wanted to, and then they put it down for a while,
and then come, it's kind of like the way I read books.
I'll read like 20 pages, and then I'll read for six months,
and then read for six months.
I'll read like 20 pages, and then I'll read for six months,
and then read 150.
But that's the beauty of filmmaking and the beauty of art,
is it's a constantly evolving process,
and if you're not in that right state of mind,
it's not what you want it to be.
Now, the only problem with that is if you look,
if you've ever seen the documentary Raiders,
about the kids who did the shot-by-shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark,
but they did it over like five summers,
and so they're at different stages of their growth spurt as you want it.
We showed that.
I loved that documentary so much.
I think I saw it if you know if that's if I'm not mistaken,
and I was fascinated by that documentary.
But that's kind of part of the process, too.
And that's part of what kind of made that movie so great,
was lots of, he's here, and then the next,
he's like grown a foot, and then he's back down to this size.
But you think about, you know, one of the things I say a lot is,
whenever I work on something, whether it's something an employer
that I'm at, or a project that I'm working on,
my goal is to leave the forest a little bit nicer than it was
than I've found it.
And I feel like you have done that on such a level for so many people.
And again, for this show,
you and Kelly are like the Kevin Bacon of everything we've ever done.
You know, if it wasn't for you guys,
we're still sitting in my office at my house,
hoping we've got 10 listeners.
You know, now we're on a network,
it gets two and a half million hits a month.
And a lot of that doesn't happen without the friendships that we've made,
meeting people like the Schubert's who have us help them with their,
their film festival for the kids every year.
And with the Asian film festival, the Dallas,
and all of the festivals that happen.
And finally, the world's starting to get back to a little bit of normal.
You know, not being able to be with you last year was rough for us.
Because it's doing video fest is a part of our being.
And it is for so many people.
And when the world shut down and we were all,
we couldn't commute.
You know, we call this our festival family.
I have my convention family.
I have my festival family.
I have, you know, my podcast family.
There's a piece of us that's missing from that.
But getting to do this and being here with you,
like when, and he'll tell you every year,
we tell him he's one of our favorite humans because he is.
You know,
so, you know, like six months ago,
as we were trying to figure out what to do,
I really made the commitment to be here in person.
And like who knows how COVID was,
and obviously it is still scary.
But after doing virtual festivals for a year,
and so much of what we do is about,
community.
And community is not the same on a screen.
Absolutely.
I mean, I believe in the power of video,
but doing these online was not the same.
And if you look at the, you know,
the poster image for the festival,
which I love,
not as much as I love for the one of you
doing Alfred Hitchcock presents.
But.
So the idea here is,
it's all these people waiting in line to see a film.
And it's about coming together.
And in fact, I think it says here,
together again.
And that's very important.
So there are two taglines together again
because it's community.
And the other part, of course,
is because the truth matters.
And that's because it's Dr. Fest.
And I actually got to listen to Mark and Devon show
that they did with you the other night.
I actually listened to that.
And hearing all the excitement in everybody
and the amazing lineup that you've put together,
this, I don't know,
it's tough for me because,
again, this is part of the fabric of who we are
and so many people,
but if you're going to go out,
man, go out the way you're going out,
this is amazing.
The what you put together for this weekend.
And you always have,
whether we were here,
whether we were at the Angelica,
there's one here, we were at Studio Movie Grill
on the other side of town.
That was a crazy night.
I remember that well.
But this has been a documentary year.
I mean, this time is all about
what's being documented.
It's the first time we've had a pandemic
since the Spanish flu.
And if you look at this,
and we had never been challenged like this at all.
Which is a thing, though,
that could document all of this, too.
This is a perfect,
you know,
a venue to take that on.
And we'll see that.
But the other part of this is,
as long as I've been alive,
that the truth has never been
as questioned as it is now.
I mean, we have politicians who get up and lie every day,
knowingly lie every day.
We have a network that a lot of people watch
that spews out lies every day.
You know, when I grew up,
there were people on the news told you the truth.
And maybe politicians shaded the truth a little bit.
But we never had politicians who were lying to us so brazenly.
Especially in an environment where it's so easy to prove it
on the way or the other.
The access to information we have now,
and you were talking about the documentaries,
the fact that we can document it so much better now
because of the technology.
You know, I've been a DJ since I was a kid,
and then I've now become old man Rob,
when I go places and some kid walks in with a laptop,
and he just plugs in and starts playing music.
I'm like, you don't know the struggle.
You know, of hauling all this year.
And we were talking earlier with some of them.
Chewing up the record.
Yes.
Holding it there and then hitting it.
And we were talking earlier with some of the volunteers
about even from my film standpoint.
You know, having to,
you don't know that's the struggle
about hoping that you didn't overexpose the film
when you send it off to get developed
so you have to reshoot everything.
So many years ago,
we did this, you know,
we used to do the 24 hour video, right?
So we had this sort of like side bit of that
called Guts and Glory.
And in Guts and Glory,
you got a role of film
and you had to shoot it in sequence.
And turn the film into us.
We send it to the lab.
And then we project it.
And you, the filmmaker,
have no idea what's on there.
Oh, wow.
And you could do anything you want live.
We give you a line into the house system and a microphone.
So people had bands,
we were reading poetry.
And the thing is,
like you didn't know if it was exposed well
or what it looked like.
And you're talking to the audience.
You're not even seeing what's behind you.
So every year we did this,
one team totally under exposed everything
and had three minutes of black leader.
And it was called Guts and Glory.
This is our noir version of our film.
It's coming later.
And talk about some of those memories, too.
Some of the stuff that you thought wasn't going to go well
as it did and ended up exceeding expectations.
What kind of thing stick out for you on that front?
Pretty much everything.
No, I mean,
it's just like,
okay, like the people at the Omni Hotel
are going to let you do things on the wall.
Oh, that was so awesome.
And then KXT will let you broadcast.
Well, how do you sync that up?
And then, you know,
like what does it look like when you put video on the Omni Hotel wall?
Well, we were there that night.
That was awesome.
So, you know, normally video is like 1920 by 1080, right?
So on the Omni Hotel,
every floor is a height pixel.
So it's 20 by a thousand.
So it's like,
you look at this on your computer and it looks one way
and then you get it onto the wall and it looks completely...
And for people that aren't sure what Bart's talking about,
just Google the Dallas skyline.
And sometime in the last 20 years
and you can see what he's talking about,
the Omni Hotel does stuff on the side of that building all the time.
But to show full video moving images
where we're all parked across the freeway,
tuning into our radios
logistically that had to have been a nightmare to put together,
but it worked.
It was...
We did many, many things that I didn't think would work.
That was probably the most courageous
because the possibility of failure was obvious.
But yeah, it worked.
And then, you know, the other thing that I really didn't know
was going to be pulled off was the time we did Metropolis
with live music and dance.
And I didn't quite...
I knew that it was a good idea
and we had really great people,
but I just didn't know how the experience of seeing the dance
and the film and the music was going to work.
And...
Excuse me.
It really rocked.
It was quite amazing.
I was there for the stranger when you did that.
And it was a good number of years that you would do a film
with a live orchestra.
And there were a couple of things about that that blew my mind.
Most of those musicians, what did they rehearse for like three hours before?
Because they were coming in from all over the place.
It wasn't a bunch of local people.
Also watching the conductor who had the movie on a laptop
with a blinking blue light that kept him on cue
so that it synced up with what we were seeing in the auditorium.
Watching all of that come together was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
And all I was doing was sitting in the audience watching.
I can't imagine the level of work.
And for you doing those different things that you don't see every day.
We were talking earlier about the year at the Alamo
where we were in the tiny theater watching that Rolling Stones concert.
And I would say at least half the people in the room were probably there when it happened
because I was hearing them talk about it.
And normally people talk in the movie and you're like,
hey man, but in that particular case because of the history behind it,
we know the songs.
You know, you're going to hear Shattered Chidubi.
You're going to hear all these things.
But hearing these people talk about, oh, I remember when this happened
and I saw this show on this part of the tour.
And it was getting released on Blu-ray.
I think the next week.
And you had an advanced copy which they showed at the Alamo.
And it's just those kinds of things that you don't get from a lot of festivals
because they want to break the next big thing.
But with video fest, you're like, no, let's just celebrate what is.
And I think that's one of the things that sets it apart.
And the people.
When you have people that we interviewed on this show in the last hour and 18 minutes
that were like, yeah, I was there when it didn't have a number on it.
Like that speaks volumes too because you've got people that for, you know,
two generations of time are still around.
Yeah.
And that's a testament too because people love film.
And they love you more importantly because, you know, there's,
again, as the saying goes, there's a million places we could be tonight.
But we're here.
We're here because we want to be here and because we want to support our friends and our family.
And you deserve all of it and so much more.
And the fact that you came and sit down with us every year.
That's the other thing.
You know, because you got 19 different places you can be at any one moment.
And you're like, no, no, no.
I'm going to go sit with these idiots for 10 minutes.
You know, so great.
This should happen to you.
Well, you know, let's talk about that for a minute because as you were trying to
get the award for the co-vax put together, where did you draw that inspiration from?
Because we haven't talked enough about the co-vax itself.
Well, number one, if you, if for anybody doing caricatures or doing portraits, the most ideal
person to do a portrait of his Ernie co-vax because he has that face that is like, you know,
it's like recognizable anywhere.
I mean, it is like the perfect motif of, you know, who he was.
And then turning that into something that was, you know, this kind of gem of, and capturing his humor,
his innovation, and his character, and putting all that together into a consolidated art object.
And so these aren't necessarily awards.
They are like art objects.
Because it was what they should be.
And so when they get that, and they feel the weight of it, it's not light.
Because it's that moment they grab it and go, yeah, it's a real, you know.
And it's a visceral experience when people see it.
Yeah.
I mean, it truly is.
It's like, you feel it.
It's got weight, but you look at it.
And it's, it's the experience every one of them that I've seen.
Yeah.
Because I'm standing like right next to them.
Right.
I've seen them and like, whoa.
And then you like, take this and they're not expecting it at all.
No.
Well, and on the back of the program, it says it's coming.
So, it's like, I did not okay this.
I'm going to probably get a call from Bart, and he, as of Monday, we're working on it.
We get, we get some ideas.
And you're also get to help the legacy of Ernie Covax to, to a generation that may not have known who he was.
And what I thought I love about is you give the background to it.
Yes.
Before you even announce who the recipient is, so people can understand and put themselves in the right framework of a man who doesn't get, in my opinion, the recognition he deserves.
Because I watched him when I was a kid too on public, public television, because my mom always wanted me to understand the legacy of the things I love.
But what I love coming.
One of the interesting things that, you know, I discovered, you know, like from this, you know, like giving these out, was that some of the recipients didn't know about, what really familiar with Ernie Covax until they were, until they were presented with this, you know, with this, you know, proposition to receive this.
And then they look him up and they go, oh my God, yes, I'm good.
Somebody that influences them and they don't even know it.
And, you know, I mean, or they might know it vicariously.
And then they do a little research and then they come back and then they just go like, oh my God.
Yeah.
Yes.
Many of them do, but many, but some of them don't.
And, you know, the point of all of this is that Covax understood the medium of television in a way that comics before did not.
And as somebody appreciates all of these different kinds of things, it's like the people who define the medium, who change it, who figure out what the language is.
That's what's really important, like to understand who the pioneers are.
And, well, in film, you might say that, you know, people understand that DW Griffith created the sort of cinematic language.
And people know that.
But with comedy, there is no people don't generally know that what Ernie Covax started that really influenced the way that comedy is done on television.
And even on a bigger scale, a lot of the things that he did other people saw and adapted for other genres that were like, I wouldn't have thought to shoot it that way or use a visual that way.
And so people need to do their reading.
It's just like, was it the head of a more documentary that came out of yours?
And people are like, wait a minute.
She did all of these things.
And it's the same way with Ernie Covax.
It's like, you don't understand this man doesn't do XYZ.
You don't have XYZ.
But you know, the thing that I got so, you know, in the conversations that I was privileged to with the recipients was that, you know, like the common thread seemed to be that Ernie Covax liberated the stage.
Yeah.
You know, in video, it was like a liberating force that allowed you to think beyond, you know, these kind of formalized kind of situations.
And you know, he would do things that people would tell him you can do.
You know, like the famous one is, he went to the studio and said, you know, I got this little colitis go here.
Why don't I put that in front of the lens?
And the unit camera said, no, you're not allowed to do that.
They said, well, let's do it.
You're doing it anyway.
And so, so many things, they just, he tried to play and explore.
And to, you know, that is the spirit that we really try to embody.
People exploring the medium and doing different kinds of things.
So it was very unabashed in that way.
And what was, you know, formally a very technological kind of like format at that point.
And it was new.
And it was like, wow, what can we do with this?
But nobody, you know, was really pushing it because they needed to know that it could be.
And I think he allowed that.
He also was, you know, lucky that he had the Dutch masters cigar people would let him do it every morning.
When your sponsors are writing the checks and they tell you what you can do what you want, that's not about.
I just learned something recently.
During the pandemic, I'm a big, as you can see of my shirt, I'm a huge Batman fanatic.
And one of my favorite podcasts, Ralph Garmin, who's a comedian and a radio personality,
he and Kevin Smith have been going through the entire 66 Batman series and doing commentaries for each two parter.
And one of the things that I learned from that is if you, they were one of the first real shows that used the Dutch tilt a lot.
But they only used it when you saw the villains because the villains were crooked.
And it was just like I felt my brain just melt because I've watched every episode of that show a thousand times
and never thought about that.
And it's those little things that, you know, coaxing out with people to two.
So your brain went, pow!
Yeah, see, I'll see.
Well, let's talk about cinema for a minute.
Is there anything that's on your radar that you're looking forward to right now from a cinematic standpoint?
That's coming out.
Because I know we're screening the last duel coming up this week. I'm very excited for that.
That's Thursday night, right?
Yes, sir.
Yeah, I actually will go to that.
Oh, good. I get to see how to screening for first time in forever.
Well, usually, you know, when you're around it all day, sometimes you need some time.
There are things that need to get done.
So getting out of the house to go to a screening.
I mean, I screen things at home a lot.
So being able to go out.
And yes, let's just say, starting Monday, I will have more opportunities to watch films.
I mean, truly, I watch most of what I see are things that I'm supposed to see,
either for the podcast or for school or obviously a lot that I do for the festival.
And, you know, something that most people don't understand.
There are many ways in which we as a festival are different from any other festival.
But most festivals have pre-screeners.
And so the jury or the programmers don't get to see everything because there's a lot of work and an awful lot of work.
But as somebody used to be a pre-selection the screener at another festival whose name I won't mention.
I saw, like, these days it was boxes of tape.
I saw that the other room and the box, the things that they did not select to move on.
And some of them were really good pieces, pieces I knew and makers that I knew.
And I understood that I couldn't trust other people to be the pre-selection committee.
And I've had board members who said, like, no, I'll watch things for you.
And then I was thinking, well, what happens when they like something that I don't like?
And then they're going to be-
Or vice versa.
Right. So it's like, I don't want them to, you know, be hurt in some way
because I did it. My aesthetics didn't align.
And, you know, my taste is I would say slightly different than others.
So I sit there and watch everything.
And sometimes I'll watch it twice and sometimes three times.
If I think there's something there, but why am I not responding to this?
And, you know, and as somebody who's a maker myself, you want somebody to, you know, give the film your attention.
Is it hard to take your filmmaker hat off when you're watching other people's work?
Okay. So just had a fantasy of recoding somebody's film into maybe something that was 20-minute shorter and would have been much better.
I think I know what twins you're talking about.
We do that at least once a month.
But yeah, I just, I sometimes like if I'm seeing a film just for myself, like I saw Sean Chi a couple of weeks ago.
Oh, I haven't seen it yet.
I loved it.
But we didn't get to screen it because it was in the middle of the day and I have a day job.
Yeah.
Being able to sit there and enjoy that film is not somebody that has to write about it.
It's a little harder for me than it used to be, but I'm getting better at it.
Rather than when I'm sitting in a theater and I know I have to write a review for it.
It's especially when I don't like it.
Because when you have to write about something, and I used to do that back in the day, I still do somewhat, not as much as I used to.
As you're watching a film that you know you have to write about, your brain is engaged in a different way.
Because you are constantly thinking, what's my end to this?
How do I start? Where's the structure?
And when the credits roll, your brain already has a sense of where you're going with this.
So you watch it with a very active sense, which means that you may miss them things because your brain is processing other things.
And if you think about it, it's kind of a poster thing, right?
So when you're watching a normal movie and a movie theater that you don't have to work on, you might sit back.
When you have to write, it's like you're engaged, you're up, you're listening.
And there's a focus difference too.
So both of them have value, but they're very different screening experiences.
And that's something I've really had to get myself back to as well.
If it's a film that I don't have to write a review for, I'm teaching myself how to enjoy it again.
I want to watch the many scenes of Newark this weekend, I don't have to review it.
I was like that within the heights.
We didn't screen it, so I didn't have to review it, but I had to teach myself to watch it as a spectator again.
Yeah.
Well, and the other thing is that some films reward your attention and some films don't.
That's also true.
It's like you know, say 40 seconds into a film, whether it's going to keep your attention moment by moment,
that it will be offering you a visual and oral experience and something you weren't expected and will take you someplace.
Or if I'm just sitting back and letting it wash over me.
And those are different experiences that film can bring us.
Well, one of the things that we do when we review, we do our video reviews done,
will ask me about the watch gauge.
And what he's asking me is how far into the movie did I get before I looked at my watch for the first time.
And that's part of how we evaluate.
Right.
You know, because I saw a movie this past week and don't want to say the name of it,
but it'll be reviewed this coming week.
My watch gauge was in the first 10 minutes.
Yeah.
And, but we've had it where it's 40, 45.
Like Venom was I think 40 minutes in before I looked at my watch, which was better than the first one.
I did not enjoy the first one.
But I just think that it's just learning to be a spectator again,
while still knowing when I have to pay attention and evaluate from an arch standpoint is important.
And again, you know, if the film brings that out on you,
you will, your brain will be more engaged.
So let's talk about tomorrow, because this will go up tonight,
so people will be able to listen to it tonight and in the morning.
Highlights of tomorrow being the last day of the festival.
What are we doing tomorrow?
I know you've got that.
We talk to the director of free table.
That's going to be tomorrow at 3.30.
I love the concept of that film, and I want somebody to do that here.
Yes.
I mean, that film really deals with what is our consumer society work throwing out things all the time,
and the value of things and the value of people.
And it is really, really great.
Let me look at our schedule.
I know we have, okay, that's today.
You know, I should know this.
Well, it's not like you don't have anything else going on.
We have actually two really great shorts programs that we were talking about.
Two really good films about art, which are really good.
But let me, and then we have this video of us celebration and Fanny,
which are really great.
But let me talk about one film.
It's your time, my friend.
That nobody knows about.
There is no filmmaker here.
But it's just an absolute joy of a film.
It's called Faith in Bronco.
And it's about this woman named Faith,
who is an accordion player living in London.
And she wants to really learn more about Romanian music.
So she goes to Romanian.
She's learning all of this, and she meets this guy, Bronco,
who is a fiddle player.
And they literally make these beautiful music together.
And they get married.
And they make, they have beautiful music.
And then they move to London.
And he struggles with living in big city life.
It's a small town.
But it makes this film really beautiful,
aside from the music, and people are just great in it.
Is that the filmmaker is sort of the confidant
between both of them.
So as they're having problems, they'll tell the camera
what's going on in their relationship
than the other one will kind of do the same thing.
So, well, it's a song, a film about music.
It's really a song about a marriage.
And about love, and about trust, with some good music.
Okay, and what time is that tomorrow?
What time is that tomorrow?
Maybe five or six, something like that.
4.30.
Okay.
And we'll talk about the lady currently sitting to your right.
Who is that?
Who is the other piece to this puzzle that we have been talking about now for a while?
Okay.
She is the PR wizard.
She is Kelly Kitchens.
Hello.
Hello.
And we were just, we were talking as we were first talking to Bart about how without Bart,
there's a lot of things that we've never gotten to do in 11 years on the air.
And we were talking this past week.
We're probably by the end of this month between this show, the other show,
and the review shows, we're going to hit 1200.
1200?
1200 episodes.
That's a lot.
Which is insane.
Wow.
Yeah, so that will happen before the end of the month.
And sometimes it scares me when I do math.
Yeah.
But, but Kelly was the one who really originally convinced Bart that it would be a good idea to
have these shrubs come set up a couple of speakers and some microphones.
And, you know, just to think, like, you know, 10 years from now, you'll have your last
vote.
And somebody else will be saying, all these things about you, with any luck.
Right.
Your lips to God's ears, my friend.
Well, the key is to go out on your own terms.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I agree with you 100% on that.
I got to get to work here.
Yes, sir.
Thank you so much for everything.
Thank you for the kind words.
It means a lot.
And it will be all over the internet by night's end.
I promise you that.
Thank you for everything.
All right.
Kelly, you can take it over.
Okay.
I'll take it.
Okay.
Thank you.
So it is, it is the year of our Lord 2013 in the fall.
Uh-huh.
We are in the midst of season four, I believe.
Uh-huh.
Three to season three, season four.
Don is just starting to work with us at this point.
Okay.
We met Don at a place that we watched WWE paper views back in the day.
Okay.
The moment of wear was quite a dismal appearance and all of the
characters back in the day.
Don was- became very active in our chat room that we had back
then when we were on u-stream.
Uh-huh.
And Don introduced us to the other person because we have always
said that there are two people that without whom this show is not
what it is.
You are the first.
And then Gary Murray being the other.
And.
us to do this thing for the first time.
Well, can I back up?
Please.
So I get an email from Don, who says, I'm Don Ford, with the Club
House Podcasts.
Please, don't start to see me else that way.
I'm like, who is this from?
Oh, it's Don Ford with the Club House Podcasts.
And he said, and he just went on and on.
And then he told me all about you, told me all about Chad,
and I was just like, OK.
And then I didn't know that it was actually somebody else
who had said, who gave my name to y'all,
because I really, I wanted to know that.
I was like, how in the world did you find me?
I promised that person, never get out of his name.
I'll say that he's passed away.
And his initials begin with Gary Murray.
But I've never said, because I promised him,
because those some of those videos can get mad that they're
giving out, he's giving out their information to people.
Well, I, that I am so far from them, because I want to know,
because I do, I mean, the things that I do are,
I don't always hear about the new podcast,
or new, well, and you're an overwhelming part of your
businesses referrals, especially since you work for yourself.
Can I tell you that there are only two clients
in 26 and a half years of my having my own business,
only two clients that I have gone after myself.
You want to know what they are?
Go ahead.
Angelica Vom Center.
Where we are.
And Alma Draftouse.
So Angelica Vom Center in 2001, and Alma Draftouse was 2012.
And otherwise, everybody, everything else has been referrals.
And let me tell you that the most important and amazing
referrals actually come from press.
Yep.
So if, because if the press is saying,
you need to call Kelly, that to me is the highest praise
and compliment to how I work with the press.
And especially when, when they've had their own,
their own projects that they've worked on outside of their,
I'm sorry.
You're good.
I've got you in my ears.
And you've got you in your ears.
So because that is happened, and that is prize to me.
So yes, so to have Gary Murray recommend me to you guys
and say you need to get on her list,
and you need to become friends with her because I mean,
I treasure that so much.
And of course, I loved Gary.
He was really so laid back.
He was so fun.
He was funny.
He just, yeah.
He was Gary.
Yeah.
Gary was Gary.
He was Gary.
And he was professional.
And so he always treated me with great respect, and so that's
why I think I treasure knowing that because that to me is high praise
that he would then, that he would share.
And you're more than worth it, friend.
You've done so much for us over the last almost nine years now,
if you can believe that, because you don't, I don't tell you
that we're on the vocal now network.
So what do we love the vocal?
I know.
And there might be some people there that might be able to,
you know, absolutely.
You pass my name on to other people.
Then I know because the thing is, I feel like there's
enough, there's enough to go around.
Absolutely.
I think that you, you cover and the things that you all talk about are totally
different than the way other people are going to talk about things.
There's, I don't believe in the competition.
I think that there's a lot of collaboration and there's a lot,
there's, we live in an abundant world.
Yeah.
And everybody brings something different to it.
And that's why I love it when we have people guests on our shows or we
guests on other people's shows because we learn just as much as we bring.
Yes.
The way this show has evolved over now, almost 11 and a half years.
And the fact that we're still going and people still actually want to listen
to this train wreck is amazing.
Yes.
A lot of them.
You know, and we've said it a thousand times.
We'll say it a million more.
Watching Don do what he does at these festivals.
Oh, I know.
I know.
He's on a completely different level.
And the way, you know, I want to make sure that before we leave tonight,
that we get pictures with the four of us.
Yes.
We're on to the step and repeat because this stuff and repeat is pretty awesome here.
Yes.
I really would love to get a picture with Ms. Funk if possible because that's she was
amazing.
Even I know we just had her for a few minutes, but that's a treasure.
Yeah.
I mean, I was telling them is like, you can use the word pioneer.
You can use the word trailblazer, but none of those words say it.
I know.
And the fact that you think about the people that we've had on the show in the last
eight, nine years, that sometimes I go back and I listen to go, how the hell did we
do that?
Yeah.
Like, how did that happen?
How did that person sit down with us?
Yeah.
Why would that person have sat down with us, you know?
And it's this festival that we have to think for all of it.
There's just there's no other way to say it.
That's great.
For us to sit in a room with a video of a go down a wall walking on rails that were
in the room and then walking down the hall the next year.
It's at the same facility walking down the hall and watching that Rolling Stone show
that was about to be released on Blue Roach is one of my favorite favorite memories of
this festival.
Yeah, that's amazing.
And the fact that Bart keeps asking us back, which is even weirder, but, you know, if
we don't know Bart, we don't know the shoework.
So we don't get to do the Asian, right, right, right, right, you know, working with them
at Garwin High School, which I was very bad that I couldn't be there this year, but I
was actually out of town.
Yeah, same here.
I represented them.
Yeah, she did.
I took care of us.
You know, the fact that people, you know, watching people, watching a group of people
leave an auditorium here at the Angelica, that just does my heart good because people are
getting back to the movie theaters.
I know.
You know, and I know it's, you know, for me, I enjoy watching movies at home.
I have a good home theater system, but it's not the same.
It's not the same.
And, you know, and when I get a screener link, I'm kind of hesitant because, number one,
I hate seeing my name in a little screen.
I know why they do it, but it takes away from it for me.
Yeah, I know.
But getting to see a movie in a theater, there's just, to me, there's nothing in the world
like it.
Right.
Whether you're in a 50-seat auditorium or 500, there's just nothing in the world like going
to movies.
Yeah.
Well, it's that communal.
It's like we're all experiencing something together.
And, you know, and laughter across the room.
I mean, it's like, I love to laugh.
I'll laugh by myself.
And, you know, but, oh my gosh, it feeds me.
It satisfies my soul to be in a theater and hearing other people laugh with me.
And I just have to say that during the pandemic, what I have really come to understand is that
just being in your presence, being in your presence, Don, in yours, Rob, oh my God,
oh my gosh, it's so, it's so, soul-satisfying.
It's a family reunion.
And really?
I mean, and it's like, we took these things for granted our whole life.
I mean, because who said, oh, you can't be in a room with anybody else except for your
family?
For the next six months.
Yeah.
18.
If you were lucky.
Yeah.
I was so full.
I had to realize film festival in Garland.
I was like, oh, Kelly, Kelly might be there.
I might just be Kelly.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
Yeah.
No, I'm serious.
Yeah.
No, I got it.
Yeah.
I got it.
But I saw John, which was John Strange, Doc, who we love.
You always like fan of that man.
Yeah.
It's like you haven't seen him in a year and a half.
Oh, God, it's wonderful.
There's a few minutes in here.
Yeah.
It feels like 10.
I mean, you know, when you don't have that, don't have that in person presence, it just,
it feels, it feels longer than it has been.
Yeah.
And I'll say this real fast.
And I have to put it down.
Yeah, yeah.
Looking at the Gary Dean Memorial Bridge right now.
Yeah.
Which we'll only call.
We will only call it that.
Yeah.
We don't hear what the city of Dallas says.
It's been five years.
That's the sad.
I know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
Because I was, that came up in my memory thread the other day and I was just like, it's
been five years.
That's so crazy.
Yeah.
I know.
It doesn't seem possible.
But we do this with him with us, you know, because again, if it's not, he's one of those
people.
It's not for him.
This doesn't happen.
I was telling Bart, if it's not for Bart, we're still doing this in my office at my
house and hoping that somebody subscribes on iTunes.
And now we're on a, we're on a network that gets, you know, two and a half million hits
a month.
I know.
And being able to work with people like Ted Price and everybody at vocal.
Yeah.
Has been the official tech partners for Who Need Sleep, which is coming up in eight weeks
if you can believe that.
We're about two thirds locked for show for the big show, right?
Wow.
So we're very excited.
We've got some very cool things that we're doing this year.
Some, of course, you know, staples because we have people that want to be a part of the
show every year.
And we don't want to deny that.
But we've got some really cool new things that we're doing this year.
Like City Mall and Lewisville has been absolutely incredible.
I'm so glad.
Carrie and everybody over there have just, whatever you guys think it's done.
I was there when she said, okay, we were, we were five years.
Yeah.
Well, I was in the bathroom and she started with Rob doesn't know this yet.
And I walked back in.
Everybody went, dude, and I'm like, look, what's in the bathroom?
What's going on?
Bye.
So I said this year, during her segment, I will not leave the room because she's at the
top of our two, but you know, we're probably going to do a mini version of this show this
year, which we haven't done since year two.
Okay.
You mean there?
Yeah, during the big show.
We're going to do it.
We're going to do a mini version of this show during the big show.
That's awesome.
Right, either right before or right after the tree lighting.
Okay.
So we're trying to put that together right now.
That's awesome.
We want everybody to come check it out.
It's December 4th.
And fifth, I believe, is that weekend?
Yes.
Starting at 8 a.m.
And I'm going for, I'm going for my fifth year in a row, staying up all 36 hours.
Good luck, man.
So I'll tell you what, every year it gets just a little harder, every year, it gets a little
bit harder.
I'll say this real fast.
I don't really, you know, make a big deal.
He'll make this, but my first video fest, that Sunday, that was, as actually on my birthday.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
On's birthday is week after next, Joe.
The 13th, the big 5.0.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm not going to be an old fart.
I love that.
Yeah, his birthday, Alex's birthday and my wedding anniversary are all within a week of
each other.
That's funny.
My wedding anniversary is October 22nd, so it's pretty close, too.
Yes.
Birthday darn good.
Getting very, very close.
Coming in old.
And it's fall and the weather is getting better and I'm starting to see some colors change
a little bit.
I know me too.
I love it.
I'm going to be a little bit more beautiful and by a leaf blower because I raked them last
year and I never doing that right.
Right.
Right.
I know I'm a 48 year old man.
I don't need to be doing that.
Now you know why those were invented.
Holy cow.
13 bags of leaves, four hours and with left of my spine later.
Oh my god.
But we also want to send shout outs to the people over at ZeeLig, ZeeLig, Devin, everybody.
I saw Gotti earlier.
I haven't seen Gotti forever.
Yeah.
I've been the backbone of this festival from a sponsorship standpoint.
Totally.
Totally.
And we're such fans of John and Dev and Gotti and everybody over there.
Yeah.
Me too.
And getting to see my press family again.
Yeah.
And getting to see my convention family again, which I got to do a couple weeks ago at FanExpo
and getting to see our film festival family again.
Yeah.
It's just, it's good to be back out.
It is.
Is there anything else we need to do before we wrap this up tonight?
I, um, so can I plug what's coming up next?
What do we always say?
This show was founded on blatant self-promotion.
Start plugging.
Okay.
Well, so as we wrap up video fast, next week, October 8th, 9th and 10th is Dallas International
Film Festival.
Yep.
And I'm working with my honk who did, is the filmmaker for a documentary that will
be in Dev called Cat Daddy's.
And it is, uh, it is not my autobiography.
It is.
May as well be.
No.
I got to.
But really, it's, it's about reframing what it means for men to love cats.
And I mean, because, you know, I mean, I saw a thing, you know, I saw a few months ago
that said on dating sites, women in a poll said they were like 30% less likely to match
with somebody, with a guy if he had a picture with this cat.
I'm like, I'm sorry.
My cats are awesome.
My boys wrote their, their mother's boys.
Don't get me wrong.
No, I get that.
But I don't care.
Well, I went, I went, can't wait for you to see this film.
So it is playing a div, um, which will be down at Alamo Drive Towson in the theaters, um,
on Sunday.
On Richardson, just re-open this weekend.
They did.
Very excited for Alamo.
They did.
Um, so that will be, uh, cat daddies is playing October the 10th at 3 p.m.
Down, and tickets are $10, um, at the dalsfilm.org, I think, watch site.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um, sorry.
And, um, yes.
And so I, I speaking of Alamo, um, I am being hired back by Alamo.
All right.
I know.
I'm so excited.
I was, I was like, I'm not going to say the A word unless she does.
No.
And it's, it's okay.
They, um, yeah.
So this is, this is, this is big news because, um, they, I, I helped open them up in 2012.
I will never forget that, that press event for, for Richardson that we went to.
The drive down.
And it was the first and, yeah, no, no, we, the one here.
Oh, the one here, yes.
Yes, yes.
And it was the first time I'd ever, I'd heard so much about the Alamo.
Yeah.
I'd never seen it.
And they were still working on it, but they gave us the walk through and we had lunch
together.
And I was like, this is going to be big, y'all.
This is going to be huge.
Yes.
And if you don't have an Alamo where you live, I feel bad for you.
I know.
It's just like for people that don't have water burger.
I feel bad.
Yeah, I did too.
I heard the water burger is going up to Chicago, though.
No, there's a company in Chicago bought that a few years ago.
Now they're looking to expand them more nationwide, but they're doing it.
Very slowly.
But on the Alamo, if we could help you out in any way, you know.
Yes.
Well, you know, yeah.
What they're doing, just to FYI, is they're kind of lighting Alamo because, you know, they
want to hire more people.
And so if you're looking for a job, go to Alamo if you love movies, especially love movies,
love food, or love craft beer, or any kind of stuff.
And they excel in all of those things.
Yes, they do.
And so anyway, so we're kind of kind of lighting them soft open right now.
And then we'll do a big splash.
Alamo, of course, all of my way.
But yeah, so I'm working on that.
I'm going to help do publicity on who needs sleep.
It needs a way.
I got to start resting up now.
Yeah, I was that.
That's not very far.
I know.
But we're in a great place logistically.
Yeah.
Like I don't have the stress that I had in the first three years.
It's great.
Awesome.
You know, last year was probably the best produced year we've done.
And I think this year's going to outdo it.
We have announced the big guest, Devon is arranging a pre-taped interview with the Debbie
Gibson.
Wow.
Really?
We're going to have for this year.
Friend of the show Craig Price will be doing not one but two episodes of Castoff, which
I will neither confirm nor deny.
I will be part of one of them.
Interest.
We've got a segment we did last year that was a lot of fun.
We're going to do again this year.
Our board secretary, Cat Davis, who is a wonderful human whom I adore.
Last year she and I did a one hour segment where Devon Googled the top 10 holiday gift
items of the year.
We didn't know what they were.
He put them up on the screen and we talked about them.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
That again this year.
Oh, that's not fun.
We've almost got Santa booked.
So we're going to be doing that.
We're very excited.
We had a Zoom interview with Santa last year, which was awesome.
A lot of our musical acts are coming back this year, which is amazing.
Oh, yeah.
It's going to be a great show this year.
That's great.
We're very excited.
We've got another game show.
We're like four different game shows.
We're going to be in this year.
Oh, that's great.
Two of which we've never done before.
Okay.
So I'm very excited about that.
We're going to have the tree.
We're going to carry the tree lighting live again this year.
Thank you.
We've got a lot of cool things in the works that I can't talk about yet.
But I'm just really excited for the show this year.
Being our fifth year, it's crazy.
We have a mascot now.
Oh, yes, the hoodie.
Yeah, his name is Coody.
W-H-O-O-T-I-E, because that way we can be sued for a copy rights.
He is amazing.
He is amazing.
And we've got some cool things coming up with him that I'm hoping we can pull off.
We also want to send a shout out to friend of the show Mark Walters.
Next comic show is November 6th and 7th, the first weekend in November.
Awesome.
Yeah.
And that will also be at Music City Mall.
Oh, awesome.
So we had a really good show with him a few weeks ago and it's, people are coming back
to conventions and that's good.
That's good.
Don, anything coming up that I'm missing?
No, I can think of.
Because podcasts doesn't have another pay-per-view until next month.
Okay.
We can't do this.
The sound is show.
Well, we can't do full gear.
I have an engagement that day to do unless it happens during the day.
I'll know tomorrow.
But yeah, we don't have another pay-per-view till survivor series.
So we'll be back to normal schedule and I will be off next weekend.
Yeah.
We'll be there tomorrow.
Yeah.
We'll be back in studio tomorrow.
But before we do, the plug is Kelly gets to do hers because she hasn't even plugged
any of her stuff.
She's been plugging all the stuff she's doing.
Yeah.
She's not plugged into her stuff.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
So I'm Kelly Kitchens and I have condensed everything into my link tree, do you know about
link tree?
I do not.
So link tree is l-i-n-k-t-r-dot-e-e.
Okay.
Slash Kelly Kitchens PR.
So does that just get to all of your stuff?
Yeah.
It lists everything.
Thanks.
So look at that.
Yeah.
So my website is kellykitchenspr.com.
I'm on Twitter though I'm not really on Twitter.
I am on, I exist on Twitter, I just really go there.
But it's Kelly J. Kitt because anyway, that's a whole other thing.
Well, you're like us the early days of Twitter there, so you could only use a certain amount
of characters.
That's why work clubhouse show because clubhouse podcast was too many letters back then.
Yeah.
Well, and then somebody else took clubhouse podcast when they extended it.
And I was just on with my college friends and so I wasn't thinking, oh, this mic could,
I could mic users for my business.
Well.
Okay.
Back then it wasn't something people thought about.
You know, I said, I joked around like the only way I'll do Twitter is if I could get
yes, that robbervin and it was available.
So the internet called my bluff.
But make sure that you check that out link tr dot e e look up kelly kitchenspr because
she does amazing work.
You can check out.
I don't have buttons done.
So you can't do it this week.
You can go to our website www dot the clubhouse podcast dot com find out everything you need
to know some stuff.
You don't right now.
You can get my written review for venom let there be carnage, which is playing just over
to my right.
Follow us on Twitter at clubhouse show everything else is the clubhouse podcast.
All three words in that order or you will wind up somewhere else.
You can find me on the aforementioned social media handles.
Yes, that robber, urban that is on ERVN.
My normal co host for the show is Alex Barnhill.
You can follow him on social media at vexblade Vex P L O I T.
And if you would like to help out the show, you can go to pro wrestling tees dot com search
for the cheap pop cast our other show.
We've got a number of t-shirt designs that you can help support the show.
And Don is going to give you that link right now that you are else pro lesson tees dot com
slash a cheap podcast.
So close pro wrestling tees dot com slash cheap pop cast.
There you go.
That's what I said.
It's done.
You stumbled a little bit.
No, there's a share of things.
Number two is that Twitter.
Oh, no, I G B and you, you, you, you.
The lady of the house is general, oh, I'm sorry, and you can email me Don at the clubhouse
podcast.com.
If you want this madness to your place, we love that the world is getting closer to
normal.
We want to do live shows.
Again, we will love to come to do a live show at your establishment email Don for information
on that.
You can email me questions, comments, concerns, tell me to go pound sand.
I am Rob at the clubhousepodcast.com, the lady of the house who is still out in the
assignment on on Instagram, Jen Rome home, that is R O H M. Charlotte Parker is on Pinterest
because we are morally obligated to say that.
Our normal show every Sunday night, seven Eastern for Pacific is your one stop shop for
all things sports, pop culture and entertainment.
So until next time for Kelly for Don for Alex for Jen for Bart Weiss for the empire, I'm
Rob and I hate to say this, but for video fest, the clubhouse is closed and the only thing
that would make this even more awesome is if Britney Palmer was here but she is here
in spirit.
Good night everybody.