Live From The Asian Film Festival Dallas 2019

It is 701 on the East Coast for posterity sake. It is 401 on the West Coast.
It is the 20th of July in the year of our Lord 2019.
Because we are live to tape. So we have to have to have to have a little bit of posterity sake.
It is season 10 episode zero.
496 times this voice and or this face has welcomed you to the clubhouse podcast.
We are so glad you're here listening to us through the vocal now network.
Buckmark vocal now V. O. K. A. L. now dot com in your favorite browser.
Download the vocal now app. Check out all the great shows on the vocal now network of which we are two.
Technically, but tonight we are one welcome.
My name is Rob. I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast and tomorrow.
We are a third of the way through summer. You're welcome America.
We are live tonight to tape at the Angelica Film Center.
We are smack dab in the middle of the Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2019.
This thing goes into almost until next weekend.
So you've got plenty of time to come check things out.
We're going to have some guests. We're going to talk to you.
We've got a lot of stuff to talk about because we've been off for three weeks.
We are we are heading into our 10th season if you can believe it.
Sitting next to me is my co-host and a man who is seeing the wonderment of Wi-Fi right now.
He is Alex. Not quite yet.
I'm still working off of my own did you know I thought you were on the Wi-Fi?
I know I'm on my own dad, but at the same time this is worth it.
Classy.
I don't know about classy, but you said we are two on the vocal.
Well, at least sitting at the table, we're now three.
No, we have two show.
I understand that. I'm trying.
There are three of us, of course.
Normally, there's four of us, but one of us isn't here.
So much for trying to hand off.
If the board worked, if the board were here,
then we're getting a lot of why you know is off the dropboard.
So we're going to leave it alone tonight.
Sitting across from Alex for those of you because this is the theater of the mind.
Is the lady of the house and she's got more color in her blouse than either one of us
having our entire outfits. She's general.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Asian Film Festival once again of Dallas.
Of Dallas.
Because you got to come down here and check out a lot of films in this festival.
I like the t-shirts this year.
They're great.
They're great.
I may have to do some shopping before I head home.
We've checked for we always start the show checking for updates and corrections.
I didn't hear anything in the last episode we did.
I did not catch anything as well.
It's still hard to believe we are starting season 10.
That we've done almost 500 of these episodes and we're approaching a thousand
to overall.
If you can believe it, vastly.
Yeah, that's not a word.
Fastly's not a quickly.
Quickly, he's good in a fast fashion.
It's like saying he's quick and fast.
They say that in college football.
He's quick and fast.
It's the same thing.
It's the same.
It's a straight line.
It's the same.
Quick is more shifting.
I should get Alex at the Sores for Christmas.
No, that's that's that's Don's job.
That's definitely Don.
Don is the the lecture.
Except for the fact that he'll buy a dinosaur and then just write the Sores on the side of it.
Don is not here tonight.
He is actually handling some business as his church because he needs to take care of that.
So we're good with that.
He's become a big part of that church too, taking care of him.
He really has.
Take care of business right now.
I'm going to take a quick picture of us here.
Hold on.
Do this real quick.
Do the next.
Well, that wouldn't be us.
That's just the two of us really.
That's my vantage point.
That's your vantage point.
You could turn it and like have yourself in it and that's behind it.
No, because I'm not that good at this.
The craziest panoramic.
It's just literally 360.
See, I think maybe I'm the only one that can do that that's still anymore with the eight
bars.
Yeah.
Well, my arms don't even straighten.
So I'm not even there.
Yeah, no, I've learned from some of the best some of our friends of the show have shown
me how to do the selfie and the group selfies between Devon and the dog.
Have you seen them?
They've got these phones now, like, you come to the little stylus and the stylus has
a button.
So you put the phone down so they take the picture and you walk up and it's just like
the old, the old equal thing.
Yes.
And you can take the picture yourself.
Some of the selfie sticks have that too.
No, but this is in the selfie stick.
This is just a stylus because that way with the selfie stick.
No, no, it's the same concept as what you're talking about, but it's actually
the one that comes with the phone.
No, I understand that it's a separate, but I'm saying some of it's sort of the selfie
sticks are built for.
It starts with the selfie.
It starts with the smart selfie sticks that do that as well, where you can set it up
afar and then use it as a remote.
Yeah.
I'm not a selfie stick guy.
Nor am I.
But I know what you're talking about.
I know what I look like.
And I'm not sure I want to see a lot of evidence today.
I know what I want to look like.
That's about it.
I know what I look like.
I know what I could look like.
Is that what filters are for?
Exactly.
I was going to say and I share it with the world anyway.
I just I I fear the filter.
Well, that's that's the old trick is on your first date.
You got to take them to a water park so you know what's washing off.
That's fair.
Wow.
Alex Barnhill, ladies and gentlemen.
All right, so it is the biggest pop culture weekend of the year because this is San Diego
Comic Con.
Can we just call it just San Diego pop culture because it's not a Comic Con anymore.
Well, I heard somebody referring to it as the SD double C and I had to catch up
four of a minute.
That person should be punched.
It was way too hipster.
That is way too hipster.
I mean, we know that San Diego has become that which it has despised, but come on man.
So before we get into some of the stuff we we've read about Comic Con this weekend, let's
start with why Robert Kirkman is a genius.
Robert Kirkman, the man that is the brain behind the walking dead, which was a comic book
for many, many years before it was a TV series on AMC.
Like before last, Wednesday is always new comic book day.
So people go to their comic book stores to get what they have subscriptions to.
And two weeks ago, about a week and a half ago now, walking dead one ninety three hit stores.
Now minding you, what I'm about to tell you wasn't announced until that day.
So walking dead one ninety three hits the comic book stores with a note that says, hey guys,
this is the last issue ever.
There was no lead up to it.
Nope.
Said nothing about it.
Kevin Smith said on one of his podcasts three months ago, he was working on something where
Kirkman was.
And one of the things he said to Robert Kirkman was, hey man, when's this thing going to
end?
And this is three months ago, which we know at that point, it's done.
And Kirkman's answer says, we're not finishing any time soon.
That's smart way to do it.
And if we're going to talk to somebody about pop culture stuff, we've got something that
just sat down with us that can do so.
Your mic's hot.
Tell everybody who you are, my friend.
Hello everyone.
This is David Gibson.
I'm the programmer and director of operations for the Asian Film Festival of Dallas.
How you guys doing?
His voice on the microphone sounds 20 times better than mine.
And I run this thing.
Well, because he's smooth and you're not.
That's fair.
I don't have to.
This is the quiet storm.
I'm just happy.
Did you ever?
Probably.
It's probably ten years ago.
I know we're going to scatter shoot this entire show.
But Keith Sweat had a show on Sirius XM that was called The Love Hotel.
And Keith Sweat.
Big fan.
But when he talks, please call us with your love confessions.
That is not love.
It's like, I'm driving on the highway just laughing.
I'm like, this is terrible.
They should have bought Bayer White back.
I was going to say there's a reason women enjoy listening to Bayer White songs.
Exactly.
But we're talking about this walking dead thing that happened a couple of weeks ago.
I don't know if you heard about it, but just a quick recap.
They drop issue 193 and Kirkman goes, by the way, this is it.
We're done.
No lead up.
No nothing.
Just the day it drops.
This is the last issue.
We're done.
Good night, everyone.
What is it?
This is a game of thrones.
I was just like, I was like, that is one of the most baller moves I've ever seen.
Because, you know, if he promotes it, then of course there's this big hoopla comic book
stores are ordering triple and quadrupling their orders to get to the last run.
He said, he said, nope.
He goes, we're done.
I'm never going back to it.
We're not rebooting it.
We're not doing anything.
Meanwhile, AMC has not only announced that there will be a film.
They've announced two more spin-offs and they've renewed fear of the walking dead for
season six.
Oh, you're also leaving out.
They announced that it's going to be three films.
It's going to be a trilogy.
Three films led by Andrew Lincoln.
That sounds like the reason.
Somebody's a little bitter.
And I'm like, you know what?
I give, I've always said Kirkman's a genius.
But this move right here, can you imagine being the comic book store that gets that notification
that day?
It's like, uh-oh.
But that's the way it should be.
Oh, I'm on board with that.
Because that gives the true fans a chance to get theirs versus these people that are going
to buy them and hog them for 10 years and then come back and resell them for, I don't
know, $1,000.
And you know what?
That is a great point.
We need to point that out.
That's a fair point.
That's a fair point.
With all of my issues with ticket master and everything.
That's right up that alley.
And thank you, General.
As long as your dog doesn't chew it up and everything.
But then you need 4,000 of those issues.
You missed that a couple of weeks ago on the show.
Her roommate's dog chewed up her first edition Harry Potter in the Sorcerer's Stone worth
4G's.
Why was it not in a glass case with security and laser beams with a mission impossible things
on behind it?
I had just to figure out how much it was worth and the roommate moved it in the dog.
The dogs on a harness hung from the ceiling trying to get to it.
Exactly.
Like nine to five.
Right.
And you know we're getting a reboot of that too.
I know.
I don't know why it's about that.
So now that we have a guest, let's talk about what's going on.
It is the Asian Film Festival of Dallas.
What year is this?
18th year.
Wow.
My 15th year with the festival.
Can you believe that?
It's graduating high school.
We know.
We have a voting kid in the festival.
Yeah.
Your film festival can now be drafted.
Of course.
But no, it's been a long time coming.
I'm looking forward to the 20th year, but this year is great.
We have a lot of films as normal.
You guys speaking of zombies, we played a odd family zombie on sale or zombie
for sale.
And it was amazing.
Everybody just died laughing.
It's one of those films that you think is going to be one way and it just
totally turns out to be something else South Korean film.
If you haven't seen it, it will play again on Thursday last day of the
festival, but everybody will enjoy it.
It's guaranteed.
And that's one thing people have to understand about this festival.
And I'm going to turn your mic off just a little bit.
And that would be Thursday at two.
Thursday at two o'clock.
And that is that this film festival doesn't limit itself to a single genre.
No.
I mean, this this film festival runs the gambit of all genres,
from comedy to horror drama to documentary, the whole nine.
Can you talk a little bit about like how do you what's the selection process
to get this so that you can fit everything into the festival?
Because it's got to be seen.
How long do we have?
It's Saturday night.
I'm not getting up early.
So I'll try to, you know, basically put it in two buckets.
The first bucket is we reach out to the independent filmmakers through
like without a box or film freeway.
Those are websites to where they can submit the films to us.
And then whatever they submit and I we agree to show they are committed.
They can't back out in any way.
We show those films and it's all great content.
We do that for the shorts as well as the features.
And then on the other side of that coin, we basically go out to the distributors
that are overseas in the various countries, South Korea, Thailand,
Vietnam, China, Japan.
And we ask them, what do you have in the past year that you would be willing to
let us show and how much is it?
And we don't go back like two years old for films because somebody's probably seen those.
But in the last year we, you know, choir, you know,
films that no one has played over in the US.
Sometimes they have most of the time they have not.
And so it's kind of a duality of all of those big budget films overseas
as well as the independent filmmakers that are overseas in the US that want
a break with a film festival.
Usually when we play their films, they'll get added to another film festival
lineup because they're like, oh, AFFD played it.
Let me see if I can get that.
That has to be a cool moment to be like, yeah, we found that.
That was it.
Yes.
When we play it and it shows up on Netflix, that's a pat on the back.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
What was the film that got you interested in Asian film?
Do you, or can you pinpoint one?
So if I had to go all the way back, you're talking like the anime of the world
and Macross, the Gundam Macross Plus.
Gundam.
Oh, man.
When I saw Macross Plus the four part for the first time,
I was just like, this is it.
And then you backed that up with Ninja Scroll.
Ninja Scroll is one that I don't think gets enough love.
No, it is amazing.
And I was hooked.
And so everything thereafter led up to live action Asian films because
anime I was hooked.
And then once I got OK with subtitles, live action, which is what's on the t-shirt.
Exactly.
And once you love subtitles, you can just basically branch into any country after that.
Did you see the announcement from the Russo Brothers yesterday?
No, I did not.
As San Diego Comic Con, they are, they've announced two big projects for their production company.
One is Grimjack Film.
And the other one, they're doing Battle of the Planets.
The Russo Brothers are doing Battle of the Planets.
This is a great day.
What?
Yes.
Yes.
For those of you that don't know, Battle of the Planets goes by a number of different names.
In Japan, it was called Gachaman.
And here it was Battle of the Planets.
And then there was another name for it too.
This was one of my favorite shows when I was kid.
You know, before there was Voltron, before there was Transformers, there was Battle
of the Battle of the Planets.
There was a little bit of a resurgence of it, but it wasn't very big.
I know there was a comic resurgence because Alex Ross did all the covers, so I have all of them.
Because I'm just a sucker for anything Alex Ross does.
But the Russo Brothers, these are the guys that brought us the last two Avengers films.
They brought us Captain America, the first Avenger.
These guys are doing Battle of the Planets and I could not be more excited.
And I want to pink motorcycle because of Battle of the Planets.
Yes.
You had that pink motorcycle and I've always wanted a pink motorcycle.
For me, it was Battle of the Planets and it was what's known here as Star Blazers.
Yes.
But in Japan known as Space Battleship Yamato, which the first year we covered the Dallas International Film Festival,
the live action film closed the festival.
And I watch it over at the Texas Theater.
And that was an amazing film.
I was so upset we did not get that film.
Outside of the terrible Stephen Tyler song that plays over the end credits.
But I mean, and I think that's for a lot of people with that same story as an anime was the gateway to Asian film.
I mean, when you're young, anime is what draws you in and then as you get older, you evolve into the live action.
And then you have Asian film festival.
We would love to show more anime, but it's just hard to acquire nowadays, especially for a smaller festival like us.
But our number one goal is to have more anime and get that crowd in because once they're in,
the next thing you know, they're going to go watch the zombie movies that we have and all the other action movies that we have.
And then you've also got anime fest too, which happens just a few weeks before this every year.
But what I think is cool about that is you guys co-exist.
Yes.
That there's a lot of crossover there for you guys and them so their fans can come to see what you got.
And if I'm not mistaken, is the festival a little longer this year than it normally is?
No, it's eight days.
So it's okay.
I've thought like, man, it looks like it's longer, but maybe not.
It's just more films.
And so when you, over the weekend, we have two houses and it's just playing back to back all day.
And so it just seems like a lot longer and then we go into a Thursday.
So from Thursday to Thursday for about six to seven hours every day, it's nothing but film.
And all of it here at the Angelica, which is a great place to see a movie, especially for films that aren't,
I mean, they do carry mainstream films here at the Angelica, but the Angelica will also carry some of that off the beaten path step too,
which is what I really dig about this place.
Is there not afraid to show these smaller independent films that might not get love otherwise?
And the audience that they bring here are the audience and the people that we're trying to touch to get to come to our festival every year.
And we've actually, because of them, acquired a lot more people that are learning about the festival when it's starting to come.
And our little fans every year, we see the same people all day every day, take off all week just for our festival.
And that's got to be a cool feeling, too.
Do you got to feel like you wanted that point?
Like, you've gotten so close to them that they're almost like they've become the friends you can expect to show up when you have your party.
It's like a family.
It's seen you're in a year, but hey, it's like our time families that we see at the conventions every year.
You have your festival families, too.
Family reunion.
When, like, at what point was everything locked in?
That you're like, okay, now we just have to start.
The timeline is basically we start programming on November 1st, and then we don't stop until April 15th.
That's when we announce that, hey, you're in.
You have a month to comply, respond to your acceptance letter by May 15th.
And then we have to acquire the actual print and the signing of the agreements by June 15th.
Because in June 15th, we have to establish all of the marketing material that you see in the program guides and on the website.
And so from June 15th to July 1st, that's going to be the timeframe to where we have to have everything locked.
Because far be it that we say we're going to show something, and we don't have the print or the customer or the filmmaker back out.
And then the next thing you know, we have all of this publicity over film.
We're not going to even show that actually happened this year.
Oh, really?
I always find that interesting with film festivals because I've never been on the back side of it.
I always wondered, do they just show up with their print or is there a way more involved work that's fascinating.
There's a rental agreement that we have to sign, and there's terms and conditions we have to negotiate before we get it.
And then there's the print traffic, which Dave Shapiro has taken on with his company.
The great Dave Shapiro, a friend of the show.
He does all of our print traffic and to get a film and to make sure it ingest in the server end will play from a different country.
A lot of people don't understand.
Last year at this film festival, Dave actually took me upstairs because when I was in high school, I was a projectionist.
And so I haven't been in a projection booth in 25 years.
And Dave took me upstairs and I was like, wait a minute, this is all you have to do now?
Yes.
Because the prints now come on a hard drive.
And they stick this hard drive in a big server rack.
But it's not just that.
But that's where the films are encrypted in case they get intercepted on the way here.
So there's a separate mailing with a USB dongle key that has to go into that rack as well to decode the film into a server that is then put into the projector.
And that's where they can actually cut and paste in trailers.
Just like you're doing like when you do audio files, it's the same thing.
And this almost feels like cheating compared to what I used to do.
I'm the one that had to put reals together and shoe polish.
Exactly.
I knew where the head wasn't going to settle down before we have to hear how you had to walk uphill both ways to work.
Oh, I did.
I did.
In the snow.
There was no elevator in South Florida.
All that snow in South Florida.
We had to carry those film canisters up the stairs.
And another thing some people don't realize is like when they go to buy like Blu-ray and DVD, there are country coats on those.
In most cases, it's getting less than it used to be really bad.
Like you used to have to know what region was what and could my player handle that region.
It's getting a little bit more universal than it used to be, but it's still got a way to go.
And that is carrying over to the DCP.
So the little hard drive that we use is called the DCP.
There are certain countries that will code that DCP differently and they won't break over.
Right.
Oh, wow.
So that's one of the obstacles they've got to overcome because all of the films are Asian films.
Yes.
There are those obstacles too.
And they are hard to overcome.
Luckily, this year we had one of the distributors had to send us two hard drives.
The first one didn't play it aired before it ingested.
The second one ingested, but would not play it aired out.
And they had to actually send us a link to download the DCP.
And they had to recode it and make it themselves.
So it would ingest.
And now it plays.
Oh, wow.
And he did it last night.
Guess when the film plays.
Last night.
Tonight.
It was like 758.
It was an 8 o'clock.
It's like he beat it by 17 hours.
Running and jumping over stuff.
We bow down at the greatness of death.
That scene from broadcast news.
Yes.
Where they're jumping over the things and throwing the tapes.
Right.
And you guys got a nice little sneak peek into the festival this week.
Because here at the Angelica, I was here.
Was that Wednesday or Tuesday night?
Tuesday.
Where they were showing the farewell both here and at the Alamo.
And was it Richardson they were showing it too?
I think so.
There was a here and there was 70 or 45 minutes apart.
Yes.
Oh, wow.
And so the farewell played, which I'm assuming that the embargo is up.
I don't remember what they were.
I got to see it.
But you saw it a couple of weeks ago.
I saw it last week.
What a great film.
Yes.
So much fun.
We were so lucky to partner with the distributor on that in the filmmakers.
They wanted to be in our festival.
But they had already committed to play before our festival.
And we were like, this would be a perfect segue to kind of announce us as a festival two days
after this.
And then the crowd was huge for both screen.
Funny story is one of the filmmakers was in attendance.
They opened the director.
The director opened the actual film here.
And then 45 minutes later, they drove over to draft house and did the Q&A for the second.
Yeah.
And it was, well, actually they didn't make the intro here.
There were some logistics getting her here.
She did a short Q&A here.
And then she went up to the one at the Alamo.
Oh, okay.
I think she was like Highlands.
I don't think it was Richardson.
Yeah.
But it's one of the Alamos.
But this film Aquafina is in this.
Yes.
And she, she's kind of showing some range now.
She really does show some more range in this film, which really, really impressed me.
For those of you that don't know, the farewell is the, is a true story.
Yep.
And I don't want to ruin what happens after.
But this is a family who finds out their grandmother in China has cancer.
But their family tradition in the Chinese tradition is that you don't tell them.
Right.
So, in order to get the entire family together, they have her only cousin who's a male,
who's like 17 or something, they get him married so the whole family can come together to be with her.
Right.
And all of them know but the grandmother.
And there's a bit of looking at it of the Western culture versus the Eastern culture.
Yes.
And I really appreciated the, the consideration they gave.
They should a lot of respect for both cultures.
And this film, this film works on a lot of levels.
And it starts out that just with it, with the dark screen and the, the capture on the screen says based on a true lie.
Or based on an actual lie or something like that.
And this, I was just talking to a friend of the show Schubert before because we're going to get him to come,
either him or his mother to come down and sit with us because we love the Schubert.
Yes.
About, about how good this film is.
And the, the, the opportunity of the Angelica gave you guys to promote the festival.
It's like, hey, come back in two days because that's when Asian Film Festival at Dallas.
It's just like the, the timing was perfect.
Yes.
I say, I agree.
And once we did that, I knew that I, in certain situations, you know that you want to play a film and you can't get it and you're just a straw.
This was one of those situations where we couldn't get it.
We couldn't play it.
But this was the next best choice.
Yes.
We jumped on that.
Yeah. I mean, you couldn't have gotten it any closer.
Exactly.
Exactly.
And I think what that shows is, and that, if I'm not mistaken, didn't that get picked up?
Did that get picked up at Sundance this year?
Yes.
And so that's now getting international distribution and everything else, which then even helps promote Asian Film even more.
Yes.
And I love that it's just, it seems like we're taking those little baby steps every year and we're getting closer and we're getting closer.
And TV as well as real.
Oh, absolutely.
And the influence on the, on American media is getting bigger and bigger.
Right.
It's, it's kind of, it had a really big explosion like in the 70s.
And then things kind of dipped a little bit in the mid 80s.
And I feel like within the last five or six years, that influence is now coming back.
And with all of the film festivals that are here in Dallas, you know, they can all play in our sandbox.
But we really don't cross over into their world.
But, you know, we're not even, you know, mad about that because what they can do is show our Asian fields to their audience.
And then they will say, well, I want more.
And if they want more, where do they have to go?
Exactly.
And, you know, talk about one of the biggest filmmakers that was influenced by Asian film.
Has a brand new film coming out next Friday in Quentin Tarantino.
Oh, yes.
And so we'll be screening his new film on Tuesday night, called Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
And he makes no bones.
I mean, you go back, watch Kill Bill.
Yeah.
I mean, there's, there's so, you can see so much influence from Asian film in that alone.
And then you go watch his other films and you can see there are certain techniques he uses that are heavily in the film.
He heavily influenced by Asian film.
That's, that's a great point.
I always talk about, we showed a film a couple of years ago, our closing night film was The Villaness.
And remember that?
Excellent film.
It's so good.
Well, I was watching a making of John Wick 3.
And they were talking?
Yes.
They were talking to Canano and Canano was like, yeah, the motorcycle scene is this, this and this.
And, you know, we really enjoyed it.
We had to do all these different things.
You know, by the way, we took all of that from The Villaness.
That's how much you go.
We did that.
Exactly.
I was like, now for him to say that they just basically took all the creativity of an action scene that was just awesome from another Korean film.
That's big.
And he's also very, he loves Asian film.
Absolutely.
And he's having a heck of a career resurgence right now with the John Wick trilogy.
The rumors recently are actually a story that has led to rumors that apparently Marvel has approached him for every,
or Disney has approached him for every Marvel film they've ever done.
And he keeps turning them down.
Wow.
But now the rumors are that they're really going after him to play Dr. Doom.
I am 100% in on this.
I will be watching.
I don't know about Dr. Doom though.
I cannot.
I cannot.
What I like about what he would bring to that role, and I've always said this, that people don't understand about Doom, is Doom does not see himself as a bad guy.
That's also true.
He's just like, look, if you let me run the world, the world will be a better place.
It's the Bond villain as well.
And I really believe that Kiana could pull that off.
Oh yeah, that's true.
Just that halt.
Just look at Latvia.
Everything is beautiful, Latvia.
People love me.
It's a beautiful country.
Everything runs.
We don't have crime.
We don't have it.
Just let me do this for the rest of the world.
The rest of the world is like, no, we're not letting you do that.
And I just, I think he would be a great choice for that.
I agree.
And I would watch that.
And I've really been surprised that it's now, you know, at the time of recording this, it's right about 430 in California.
And we have not gotten the announcement for Marvel Cinematic Universe, Universe Phase 4.
This was the big rumor that we were going to get Phase 4 laid out for us this weekend.
It was either here or D23.
And DC backed out this year, much like Marvel did last year.
But we haven't heard anything.
Wow.
I wonder what they're waiting on.
I don't.
If it's not going to be here, it's going to have to be at D23.
And I don't.
Alex, will you look up when D23 is this year?
Absolutely.
I was actually just looking at Marvel at San Diego Comic Con in just about an hour ago.
It looks like they announced six new titles, including X-Men, but it is-
But that's the comics.
Yeah, that's the comics.
Because Kevin Feige has said, especially in the wake of Dark Phoenix,
we're not touching the X-Men for five years.
We are leaving it completely alone.
What happened with that?
I know.
I haven't seen Dark Phoenix yet.
It's not good.
I heard it.
It's not good.
We'll put it this way.
I know people that really enjoyed it.
However, those people tend to like trash.
But it's so raining.
Garcia walking by us right now.
We love raining so much.
No, no, no.
I will say the significant other, the sensational trolley, had to teach me to appreciate
things that I may not have been into.
Right.
So for her, it's any kind of like disaster movies or different things like that.
And it taught me to just step back from-
Dark Phoenix is a disaster movie.
Okay, Dark Phoenix is a disaster.
You could end the sentence there.
I mean, it's-
Part of me is like, there's no way that this was them just playing to finish,
because they finished the principle before we knew about the sale.
Right.
But it still feels like they were playing to finish.
Like, because the thing about Dark Phoenix, we've talked about this on this show.
It took ten months to tell that story.
Right.
And you're going to do this in an hour and forty-five minutes.
This doesn't even clear two hours.
Are you-
I've not-
I've tried to-
I've tried to-
And you're trying to tell this story without Wolverine.
That's also true.
Which is impossible, because he's a huge figure in that story.
The one that has to be the one to stop and eat it all.
Exactly.
Well, but it-
There-
There was so much potential that it almost feels like they had such grandiose plans
and then the sale happened and they're like,
All right, let's try and put a bow on it.
But the thing is,
they'd already finished shooting,
so it's like that doesn't even make a good excuse.
Let's slice together what we have and get out of here.
Exactly.
It was just not good.
It felt like one of those where-
When they first started doing pre-production and everything,
they were like,
All right, we might get a couple of pictures,
maybe three out of this,
so that we could really-
Oh, we're sold.
So, okay.
All right. Let's just wrap it up.
Wrap it up.
It's just-
Because-
Again, first class was amazing.
I loved it.
I loved the first class.
These a future pass was mad,
but I like the way they ended it.
Apocalypse.
Apocalypse was horrific.
Like, and I felt bad for Oscarizing.
Because he-
I'm a big fan of him.
Well, did you-
Did you see the response he had with that?
There were like-
It's not good.
And like, you were on such a roll.
He goes, well, it's not like you could recognize me.
Oh, yeah, that is true.
That's a great response.
Just keep on doing you.
Well, with all of the rumors now coming out
since the sale has gone through,
the rumors that they are pursuing John Krasinski
and Emily Blunt for suing Reed Richards
for the new Fantastic Four.
I am completely in.
Well, if I'm not mistaken,
Krasinski had actually pitched to that himself
before the sale was a thing.
That apparently they are pursuing-
And they-
I can't remember who they said they're pursuing for the thing.
I can look it up.
I want to say it's Dwayne.
But don't quote me on that?
That would be a little bit too meta on that one.
You want a guy made of stone,
and he's played by the rock.
I'm on board.
Right.
But they have said that no,
no X-Men.
We're going to kind of let sleeping dogs lie for a bit,
which they-
Because the problem is,
well, first of all,
dark theme is completely destroys any continuity
that they gain in the previous three.
Uh-huh.
Because if you look,
especially the way Days of Future passed ends-
Right.
You get to the end of dark theme,
because it's like none of that counted.
What?
Because everything you saw here,
doesn't-
it doesn't wrap itself back around.
All right.
I'm glad I was working on other things.
It was still better than Fantastic Four.
Don't get me wrong.
But that's not exactly a high bar.
But again, the first 80%.
That's a bar I could get over.
The first-
I can't even get on all the rides at Disney.
The first 80% of Fantastic Four was good.
It was like watching the third Matrix film.
Uh-huh.
My former co-host, Chad and I,
we're watching-
watching that.
We- we don't watch until it came out on DVD.
Mm-hmm.
And we're watching it and we're like,
why were people bagging-
Oh, there it is.
We spent most of the movie like,
this is a good movie.
And then you get to the end,
you're like, oh.
So he's-
Jesus.
Okay.
Fair enough.
Exactly.
All right.
We have another guest, too,
when she was here by where we are.
All right.
Go ahead and tell everybody who we are.
Hi.
Uh-uh.
I'm Nicholas Ganglaw.
I actually-
Get right in that microphone.
Okay.
I'm- I'm Nicholas Ganglaw.
I help, uh, David out with all these short films.
And I also kind of took over doing the education part of the festival,
uh, where we give a scholarship of, uh,
$300 to high school students and $500 to, um,
college students.
And see, that's another thing.
We- we haven't even reached this part of it.
Sorry.
The outreach that Asian Film Festival at Dallas does every-
we're talking a little bit more about that.
Yeah.
So, um, I actually came from, uh,
Garland High School, which is, uh,
how I ended up, uh, being a part of the festival.
Yeah.
Uh, uh, Mr. Schubert.
Uh, Tommy Schubert over there.
Um, and the one thing I really like about, uh,
the Asian Film Festival is,
we really just want to, uh,
give students an opportunity to have their film out, um,
at a festival, get a lower on things.
And, I mean, the- the money isn't too much for us,
but it's a lot to them.
Absolutely.
Uh, I just- I really love how, uh,
how, uh, much we're involved with, uh,
the entire community.
It's not, um, that's the one thing with our education part.
We don't just limit it to Asian Filmmakers.
We really just want to highlight any aspiring filmmakers out there.
Yeah.
The best thing is for our students to see their film on the big screen.
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
How many- how many student films have you guys had this year?
We had, uh, 20 films this year.
Uh, we had 17, uh, high school films and three college films.
Um, surprisingly, the, uh, college, uh,
colleges don't submit as many, but, uh,
the high school's, uh,
a holiday, a glen quiz from holidays.
Uh, she's been great.
We also get some from a green hill,
Garland High School and, um,
one more.
I can't think of the last one.
There's one more.
Yeah, but there's one more that I am deeply blanking on.
But is it- it isn't our program?
But I love that we live in this time,
or we can say, I've got four high schools
within a stone's throw of where I am.
That have film departments.
Right.
Exactly.
Yeah.
This, this is old man Rob talking,
but I wish we'd have had that when I was a kid.
But the technology wasn't conducive to it.
No.
And back then, you had like, okay, VHS tapes.
Oh, yeah.
Or you had a suite of big cameras that took over,
like the entire room,
but now you can take your iPhone and record
wherever you want in high definition
and then forward it to school.
Which is even being done in Hollywood now,
because Sodaberg didn't last year.
Exactly.
And so it's smaller, more conducive
to actually having a film school,
not as expensive as it used to.
And with Tommy on the board,
being one of the people that teach,
we have more filmmakers coming out of Dallas.
Talk about some of the friends
that you have that are making films overseas,
and anywhere they can.
Yeah.
And there's actually quite a few students
that I've seen from especially Hocketing
that are making some films.
And so I think we had one that was made in Singapore.
Yeah.
That was submitted.
And I just, that just blows my mind,
something that went from local to making a film in Singapore.
Hocketing is, for those of you that aren't in the Dallas
or with the area,
that's a private school here in Dallas.
But yeah, these kids that are going anywhere
to make film.
Anywhere they can.
And the great part about it,
and think about this,
if they are from that country
or their parents are from that country,
and they go back to visit family,
they'll go and make a film while they're there,
come back with this great content,
and then submit it to us.
And we're like,
what was your budget for this?
How did you get it?
Oh, I did it while I was on vacation.
Must be nice.
You are Mr. The Clubhouse Podcast.
We're live at the Angelica Film Center in Dallas
for the opening weekend
of the Asian Film Festival of Dallas.
I think, is this our third or fourth year?
I think it's for four.
So I'm like that.
Yeah.
Gen Rome is verifying this is our fourth year doing this.
We were talking about the top of the show
that this is the unofficial kickoff
of season 10 for us,
which is just mind blowing.
Exactly.
You know, between,
and we said, you know,
probably within the next couple of weeks
between this show and our home shows,
we're going to hit a thousand total.
Wow.
Because we do our home shows,
we review films and stuff like that.
Right.
And just to say we've done it this many times,
it's mind blowing.
And so, and for you guys,
this is your 18.
So, and from what,
even the four years we've done it,
it just seems to get just a little bit bigger every year.
Right.
And it's like most of the film festivals,
we do you think,
okay, this is the pinnacle.
And then next year, it's like,
no, we found another layer.
Exactly.
And Nicholas, for you,
being a former high school student
in the film department,
and now,
being on the other side of that fence,
has it changed your view
or was it what you thought it would be
from this side of it?
It's, honestly,
I just learned more and more every year.
Now, my actual day job is,
I'm still a software developer,
but coming into Asian Film Festival,
this is my ninth year volunteering,
my second year as a board member,
and just being able to work with more people internationally,
seeing everything that they go through
to get these films here,
that's just something you don't even learn
in school half the time,
is you kind of look at a microversion of it,
to seeing something just grow.
And understanding the differences
that it takes to actually be a part of either a film,
the film industry,
the distribution side of that film,
and the festival side of it,
it's just so much.
Do you ever get used to saying the words board member?
No.
That's still funny.
Because I'm the president of the Board of Directors
for a charity organization,
and I can never get used to saying that.
It still sounds weird to me when I say it.
One of my favorite moments was from last year,
when David actually, he was asking me,
he's like, are you sure you want to choose this film?
I'm like, people are going to love it,
and we were actually able to get the filmmaker
to come in for that,
and it was a world premiere film,
and just seeing a film that I was able to choose
to get brought over here,
and just seeing the excitement of that person
having their film across the world.
That's just amazing.
So two part question for you.
And this is one of the things
that we're going to ask all of our guests.
Number one, do you remember what movie
got you interested in film?
And number two, more specifically,
because you're working with the Asian Film Festival at Dallas,
was there an Asian film that turned you on to this genre?
So what actually, surprisingly,
when I was really young, my mom,
I would watch a bunch of cartoons,
and so I watched Jackie Chan adventures,
and then I wanted to...
I wanted to watch an actual Jackie Chan movie.
And so my mom rented a Chinese Jackie Chan movie.
I still couldn't read fast enough.
So she basically was telling me what was going on,
and I kind of got into Kung Fu films from there.
And it wasn't until the second year
of Tom Ashubert's film program at Garland High School.
He has an entire unit on John Wu, a Kirokura Sawwa.
And it was a better tomorrow by John Wu,
with a Chow Yun Fat and Leslie Chung.
I fell in love with it.
It's corny, but I don't know.
Something about the classic 1980s.
And I'll be honest with you,
this is the first time, and again,
this is Old Man Rob showing up.
The first time I've ever heard somebody
that got into Jackie Chan adventures
before they got into Jackie Chan.
I just think I think I broke a hip just hearing that,
I think, because I'm so old.
That's amazing.
I'm just glad it wasn't just me that couldn't keep up
with the subtitles.
I thought it was only me,
because I know in that same realm,
I almost followed the same path with the Jackie Chan adventures.
And I actually fell out of it,
and then it was when Rumble and the Bronx came back,
and you had the...
The Bronx located in Vancouver,
because there's mountains in the Bronx.
That was my favorite part.
Like, that's a mountain.
They don't have those in New York City.
But that was still a great detail.
But that was detail.
But that's the brilliance of Jackie Chan films,
is you could look at stuff,
and you know that they know it's there,
and I'm just like,
we don't care, just shoot it.
But one of my favorite things that I ever got to do
was in the IB program at Garland High.
I got to write an extended essay on anything I wanted.
And so I studied in depth the films of Park Chan Wook.
Oh, very nice.
And what I watched,
the Vengeance Trilogy with Old Boy,
with Symphony for Mr. Vengeance, Lady Vengeance.
And I stumbled upon a fate to Black version of Lady Vengeance.
And it's one of the...
It's way better than the original.
And I don't know why that one's not the actual version.
How many times during that project did you go,
I get to do this for school.
I know.
That was the best thing was,
I got to...
And I was writing too much, actually.
I got to a point where I was so into writing the essay,
that I was told, hey, you got to cut back a little bit.
Was it one of those where they just looked at what you were writing going,
I don't got the time.
I need you to shorten it.
Yeah.
I need to get to my point.
Is there anything coming into the festival,
any specific film coming into the festival that you were like,
I want to go to there right now.
This is the film I'm really looking forward to the most in the festival.
So one thing I actually do,
so when I watch all the short films, I kind of handle all that.
And I trust David.
I don't actually look at half the things still.
Really?
Yeah.
I just go when completely blind.
I don't even know what genre I'm watching half the time.
You just go, so you're going to go see this movie.
Go.
Yeah.
But how many times does he prank you with that?
It's kind of like what I do with them on the show.
Just show up and we'll talk.
The two films that I was quite interested in was
an odd family, the zombie film,
which I think shows again on Thursday at two.
So David was just talking about you at the top of the show.
And then I also, I was actually very interested in a third wife.
Because there's not many Vietnamese films that were able to get,
or if we do see them, they're not that professionally made.
And a third wife was done beautifully,
a very unique story, something that I have not seen before.
So, and I believe that plays again.
I want to say tomorrow night.
So let's talk about mainstream film for just a minute.
Because we're literally right smack dab in the middle of the summer movie season.
Is there anything coming up that you're really, really looking forward to?
Um, Tarantino, of course.
Next weekend.
Yes.
We were just about, we're going to be screening that on Tuesday.
So I'm very much the fact that he's going to have it available in 35 millimeter and 70 millimeter.
Like we, we saw the hateful eight.
It was a digital print of the 70 millimeter print.
And I have forgotten how amazing 70 millimeter can be.
And this film, I am, it's, it's long.
Yes.
Two hours and 35 minutes.
This thing.
But just seeing the trailer, I'm like, I can't wait for this.
I know.
That's one of the few directors I always just get hyped up on.
And him, you know, as he's saying, this is going to be the twilight of his career.
He said the other day in an interview that the Star Trek film he's working on will be his final film.
Uh, so, but that thing's got to make the light of day.
It's kind of like Kevin Smith saying clerks three is going to be it, but he's, he still hasn't made it.
Yeah.
So by technical definition, he's still right.
Uh, but now he's saying that clerks three is not going to happen.
Hmm.
Because, uh, Anderson doesn't want to do it.
And the thing is very Randall centric.
So he's kind of like, I can't do it without him, but that's okay.
Anything else that you know, that's on your radar right now.
Um, honestly, with the festival, I just kind of felt most blocked out stuff that's even coming up.
I can't even think off the top of my head while I'm looking forward to at the moment.
But you just kind of get, let me get to next Thursday.
Yeah.
Because I mean, every, it's, it's, we were getting the storyline on the storyline, but the timeline of how you guys get things to this point.
Is there still anxiety with the festival?
Are you at the point where we're just on cruise control and this thing's going to do what it's going to do?
Um, so this being my second year, I actually picked up a lot of things that I wish I did the first year.
I actually started watching all the short films in November.
Um, and versus waiting until February.
And that made a huge difference on actually meeting timeline and things.
But still, we've had a few issues with people wanting to pull out or change their films.
And that last minute and making our program guides and getting everything to the printer, it was a little more stressful than it was last year, even though I started earlier.
I totally lost my train of thought on this.
I'll jump in the third wife is tomorrow at 930.
So you were right on that.
But I went ahead and threw that up on our website or on our Facebook page so they can follow all of that on us.
I'm just looking, I, I want to circle back and I know it's backtracking or whatever, but just looking at the list of the student films.
Is there just a level of amazement for you as coming from that world to seeing this still in action?
Yeah. And the thing that I really love and I envy from these new current students is my first student films we had tape, physical tape on SD cameras, standard definition.
And it wasn't wise screen.
We don't have there's any microphone equipment.
We don't have lighting equipment.
It was called take the lamp from the living room and move it to where you need to put it.
And so it just, it actually really makes me happy to see that all these students, they're, they have access to this technology to the lighting equipment and cameras.
And when you get the students what they need, they, they amaze you.
They're, they were a handful of student films that were much better than actual professionally shot short films that were submitted because we get about 300 short films submitted.
And I look at the budget on some of them and I see $30,000.
Like guys, let me show you these student films.
Right.
Who came from Garland High School and probably bought Pizza Hut.
And that was, that was their budget and it just amazes me what you can do on such a small budget if you just provide students with camera.
And it's amazing to see because you have the multiple students in there.
I'm just looking at the list right now and just seeing how there's so many different, you know, obviously you can't always tell from a title.
But you see where people are kind of interested if it's pertaining and seeing how you have so many from the holiday school, the Episcopal School of Dallas, Garland High School, UTA and for those not local University of Texas at Arlington.
And it's just, I'm just fascinated because I'm going to be a little bit jealous being the not quite the old guy on the show, but a little bit older.
We didn't have stuff like this what I was in high school and I'm a little jealous.
For us making films was like we had to steal somebody's camera.
But this is just amazing to see everything coming through.
And you have any particulars and that one you're looking forward to seeing how it pops on the big screen or did you get a chance to look at it that way.
We actually played that this morning and our, we have an industry juror who gave the prize to one high school and one college.
I believe Colin Femme won the college short for take me home for take me home and then the very first film on that list by Sophie.
Sophie Gilmore.
Yes, Sophie Gilmore.
And she won the high school prize.
Very cool.
The funny part is I still try to wrap my mind around the SD cameras and using the lamp because it's just the growth and the amazing technology making things easier.
And what's weird is our camera phones now are probably way better than what I was using back in I think 2008 was when I was a freshman in high school.
And suddenly I feel older.
How about you?
Well, that's like that thing that went around on Facebook for a minute of somebody had found the opening page of a radio check ad from like 1983.
And I said every item on this page is in your phone.
That was just like wow.
This is about, this is the world I live in.
So you're saying the ad was from before at least when I was born too?
That would be the year you were born if I said 1983.
I do pay attention, sir.
Absolutely.
I mean, great that I've got you by a decade, but still.
All right.
Will there will there be any more showings perhaps on that with the student films on the student films.
Sadly, we only play all the shorts out one for festival.
And I always encourage people to go out and see the shorts because those are things you're never going to see again.
Well, and not only that, but short films.
It's always amazing to see how people can tell an entire story in eight minutes.
You know, they don't have an hour and a half or three hours if you're endgame to tell a story.
You've got to hit all three acts.
Stick and move, stick and move, stick and move.
Yeah.
And even looking at the list, the longest film was 10 minutes and 10 seconds.
And I'm sure all of them covered the gamut and were great.
Are you ready to announce the winners or are we waiting on that?
We just did that.
I'm sorry.
I had a bit of it.
Yeah.
No, no, no.
I had an online issue.
We had Sophie Gilmore as high school winner for bait.
Okay.
And the college winner was Colin Femme for Take Me Home.
Oh, very good.
I had an email that someone had tried to hack my eBay account.
So I had to fix that.
I apologize.
Oh, I was trying to help them do it while you were busy.
What?
Russians.
That's why I don't face that people.
Yeah.
The Russians are going to earn my information.
Let's keep going on some headlines.
Well, I kind of give Nicholas a bit of a breather from having to talk festival stuff.
This Eddie Murphy thing this week.
Have you seen this?
How much money do you, or how much do you think the real number is versus what's getting reported?
I think that's real.
The 70?
70 million dollars Netflix is in talks with Eddie Murphy to do.
One.
One.
A single stand-up special.
You got to remember, this man hasn't done stand-up in the better part of 30 years.
Eddie Murphy Raw was what?
89?
I think it might have been earlier than that.
I'll take a look.
Yeah.
Nicholas says he's got to go do stuff.
He's got hands to shake and babies to kiss.
But Nicholas, thank you for sitting down with us.
Go enjoy the festival.
Thank you both very much.
Oh, thank you for being here.
And the honor was ours.
So see you next year.
Yes, sir.
Hopefully, if you guys have us back, we'll be here.
Oh, wait.
We'll always have you.
This podcast, we are live at the Angelica Film Center in Dallas at Mockingbird Station.
It is the Asian Film Festival of Dallas 2019.
It's the 18th one of these.
87.
So 1987, with the last time Eddie Murphy was on the record doing stand-up comment.
And if you want a quick circle back, D23 is August 23rd and 25th.
So Marvel could be waiting that long to unveil phase four.
Possibly.
I mean, if we haven't heard by now, because it's what?
It's almost five o'clock west coast time.
Well, let's let's also realize that this is Marvel now.
They're on their own print money printing machine, which is what is true.
That is true.
That is true.
They don't have to rush anything.
They know that we're going to be coming.
70 million.
Look, we just walked up to our table.
You got time to sit down for a minute, sir?
One of our favorite humans in existence just sat at the table.
What's going on?
Grab your headset.
Put it on there, man.
You know what we're doing?
One of our favorite humans in the, hey, that's right.
Those are the standard, my friend.
Only the best.
And only the best for our guest.
Bart Weiss is here with us now.
What up?
A guy that we only get to talk to a couple of times a year,
because he is the hardest working man in show business.
How was the birthday party?
It was awesome.
Tell everybody about it, because my birthday was a few weeks ago.
Yours was shortly after that.
So we had just a little fundraiser event.
So instead of whatever you do, we don't.
I got together.
It's fun.
I got to see a lot of people.
The big thing for me was some guy who never met me,
but had been reading the newsletter.
It came over and talked to me about.
And you know, for me, the newsletter I write every week
is the hardest thing I do.
So like, anybody who reads that, that's a cool thing.
I get it every week.
That's how I knew about your birthday party.
And writing that every week has got to be.
It's difficult.
It's hard.
And you're writing it in an HTTP, which is, you know,
it's not like I'm getting an email from bark.
There's pictures.
In some cases, there's full motion video.
I'm like, he's working on next week's,
as he's giving me this one.
Well, I wouldn't say that, but it's something I think about all week.
So what's going on?
How have you been?
Get right up on that microphone.
There you go.
Much better.
You know, we've been well.
We're actually, this is the unofficial sort of season 10.
Or we've done, we just finished season six of the fog of truth.
Oh, wow.
My podcast about documentary films, which you should check out.
Absolutely.
And anything you're ready for announced for a video fest this year yet?
Well, we just had our experimental fest called the Medinale,
which just wrapped a couple days ago.
As I say, that was just, yeah, that just happened.
Yes, yes.
So I kind of need to chill out for a little bit.
I just said you're the hardest working man in show business, my friend.
We got, let's see, we got dog and cat fest coming up.
I think it's August 22nd.
Then we got the 24 hour video race coming up right about the same time.
The 24 hour video races.
And let's talk about both of those things.
First of all, this is the man that does an entire film festival
of just dog and cat movies.
Absolutely.
Which you're talking our language at that point,
because we got you covered on both of those fronts.
Uh-huh.
I got a dog and I got a cat.
You know, the thing is, it's like with all of these,
we are here at an ethnic specific festival, the Asian festival.
Right.
And people who come and see these things, like, oh my gosh,
there we are on screen.
And that's what a lot of these festivals are really great for.
Aside from the, we get to see this work as well.
Well, people who love cats and dogs.
And who does it?
If you're not, you're not an American.
Well, and, you know, most of the internet traffic
that's not pornography or cat videos, right?
Okay.
So we got 15%.
It says, uh, wasn't it, wasn't that said by, uh,
by Affleck and James, I'm a Bobstrike back.
This is the internet was invented for.
Yeah.
It was portable and cat videos.
So, so the thing is, you got all these, you know,
cat videos and people watch them by themselves.
And you come to this thing and all of a sudden,
you're with other people who love this stuff.
Right.
And it's like, if you can't do something, it's like,
and you hear the whole audience gas.
And it, it's like, there's nothing like it.
We do lots of events, but there's something very magical
about that and it's beyond just that they're cute.
It's about this sense of community, which is what we do.
The one I can't watch enough right now is the cat
that jumps up onto the rail and then down
and just keeps walking.
I could watch that on a loop for hours, you know?
10 seconds.
What broke me as Liz's cat did that.
Really?
I just stopped and I was like, I'm going to pen.
And then the next day, you've got the 24 hour video race.
And this is a really cool thing that you do every year.
Talk about that.
Well, you know, it's like doing a film
in a short amount of time is a difficult thing.
But the thing is a lot of people want to make films
and they're just saying like, I want to do it.
I want to do it.
Well, this gives you a deadline.
So you've got to do it.
And it's literally 24 hours.
Right.
It's not eight hours over three days.
You've got from this time today until this time tomorrow.
We show you the theme of proper location and line of dialogue
and you have 24 hours to make a film.
And then we show them here at the end,
like we are right now.
So it's like you get to see your movie in a movie theater
that you made in 24 hours.
And it's amazing what people do in 24 hours.
You know, if you really want it.
And what's great is how often in your life do you get to say like,
oh, I'm not going to watch the dishes.
I'm not going to walk the dog.
I'm not going to do any of this other stuff.
I'm just going to do this.
And friendships are formed.
We've had people that got married and divorced
over the 24 hour video race.
Now, and let's talk about that aspect of it too.
It's not like these people are bringing teams, right?
You're actually putting people together.
No, no, no.
People bring their own teams.
So they are their own teams.
Okay.
Absolutely.
And we get high school students.
We get professionals.
We get all kinds of people.
And people have made the most crazy, amazing things
over the years.
Is there a limit to the number of people on a team?
No.
Not at all.
We've had, you know, the one man band,
one person does everything.
And then we've had teams with like 20 or 30 people.
What for your, in your opinion,
is the good size for a team for the video race?
I think about four.
So one of the problems you have,
the biggest issue in doing this race,
is, okay, it's midnight.
You get all these problems.
And you've got to figure out what to do.
And it's like that first hour,
either makes or breaks you.
And when you got like eight or 12 or 15 people,
like getting an idea,
it's a lot of cooks in a broth.
Right.
It's like, you know,
and the ones that have a lot of people,
you can tell them looking at it,
there are too many ideas that didn't congeal.
You know, unless you have,
in every group,
there's like one person who's the alpha,
who says,
we're doing this.
And that's what we're doing.
And that's what you need if you have 12 people.
Do they have toll gates that they need to hit?
Or it's, this is your concept, go.
Or do you say like,
by 4 a.m. you should be here.
By 8 a.m. you should be here.
It's just, there's,
there's no hard set,
just, here we go.
It's basically 24 hours we'll see in a day.
Right.
And the only thing I would strongly recommend is
don't start rendering 10 minutes before it's due.
You might get a third of the way that would go poorly.
This is from experience.
How many teams typically enter?
You know, it's been anywhere from like 40 to 100.
Wow.
100 teams?
Oh, yeah.
The first time we did this was back in the 90s.
And we didn't think we would have this many teams.
And we didn't book that much time.
And it was crazy.
And back in those days,
we had people brought on all these incompatible formats.
Like D.B. Cam and D.B.
And this didn't fit in this deck.
I mean, it was just like,
we learned so much.
Now, now you have to,
it's has to be an H264 file.
It has to be exactly this or that,
or we don't play it.
I mean, we used to have to build a master reel
after we learned for the first year,
of on beta cam from tape to tape.
Oh, good lord.
I can't even imagine the effort that that took.
Well, our friends at AMS did that for us.
Oh, well, big back then.
Oh, they're on the north side.
They're on the north side.
So we got more coming.
We have.
Okay, please do.
I'm sorry.
Starting in September,
we have our season note frame of mind in TV show
that we produce on KERA television.
Channel 13.
And we have some amazing programs.
And there's a lot of really good documentaries,
dramatic films, films about very important issues.
But are you a sports fan?
Absolutely, sir.
It's part of our show.
Do you know a guy named Nora Hitzkiss?
Of course, I know Nora.
I don't know him,
but I've been in an elevator with him.
Oh, I know.
So anyway, I did a show about Norm.
Oh, wow.
I did this sit down interview
where he essentially tells the history,
his history and broadcasting,
and Dallas sports through the eyes of Norm.
I was going to say he's been,
didn't he just celebrate a huge milestone in the business?
I should know this, but I don't.
But he's been doing this a lot.
He was the first sports talk show host in America.
I mean, this guy, Norm is,
the reason I was in an elevator with him was a few years ago at Diff
when they did the Lone Star Holy War documentary.
Yeah.
That was about Texas and Texas A&M.
Yes.
That he was a part of.
And he was in the elevator with me afterwards.
And I would, I just, because I'm a huge fan.
And he's one of the people that starstruck me.
And I was like, so what was like seeing yourself as that large?
He goes, man, it was kind of cool.
Yeah.
And he's the nicest person in the world.
And this guy, I mean, this is a guy I only had had to do the show
by myself twice in almost 10 years.
He did it for over two decades by himself every day,
four hours midday.
It was him and his producer would pipe in every once in a while.
But the show was his.
And now he has somebody that does it with him.
Yeah.
And I love the name of that show, The Norman D Invasion.
I think that's a brilliant name.
So you get to do an episode of Frame of Mine about it,
or did you do a documentary?
Well, it's essentially like I produced a documentary.
And I took the, all this archival footage channel eight
that they have at SMU from 1960, 1976.
Oh, wow.
I have all of this old sports footage with Norm talking
about the old days of the Cowboys, the Dallas Shaperals,
like the history of what it was in to do.
So yeah, so it's like I produced a one-hour documentary.
I mean, you want to talk about a guy that is Dallas Sports.
It's Norm.
Yeah.
And the fact that number one, he's still doing it.
And then every year in December, he actually does a 24,
is it 24 hour of the North?
The Normathon.
Yeah.
Where he's at, he's at a water burger.
Is he doing a water burger?
Oh, different places, different times.
But you know, he raises money.
And of course, you know, it's like, you know,
nobody else wants to broadcast to drink Christmas.
So he does, I mean, Norm says he knows a lot.
He is, he is a great storyteller.
Absolutely.
And you know that his first radio programs were on 90.1 KERA.
KERA.
So this is going to start airing in September, right?
So it starts and it goes Thursday nights, 10 o'clock,
until Thanksgiving.
So that looks like about like 10 or 12 episodes,
if I did the math right?
We have 13 episodes.
We have a bonus episode for 9-11,
which is a really incredible film.
Wow.
It's a film that the air traffic dispatchers,
not the controllers, but the dispatchers were working that day
what they were talking to each other
about how to get these planes to land safely.
Wow.
And then that season's going to end just in time for video fest, right?
Right.
And we got DocuPest in October.
We got Alternative Fictions in February and in December.
I think it's December 3rd.
We have the Covax Award.
And I can tell you who it is.
But it's awesome.
The biggest one we've ever done.
That's right, because that's the thing about the Covax Award.
He won't even tell us off air, right?
No.
And we have no barred for, I mean, for people that don't know,
just to give kind of a background of why Bart,
one of the many reasons Bart is one of our favorite humans.
Bart is the very first person that said,
you guys should do your podcast at my Film Festival.
If we don't, if Kelly Kitchens does not introduce us
to Bart Weiss, none of this happens.
Also true.
And that is an absolute fact.
Well, thank you.
It was the year that you had the media lounge
where you had the goat on the screen,
which became Taco Diner, which is now a taco joint,
which is now longer taco joint.
That was the first Film Festival we ever covered.
And you let us come and bring our foolishness to your festival.
And so if it wasn't for you, we don't get to do,
if we don't get to do the Asian Film Festival,
we don't get to do all these cool things we get to do,
if you don't go, why not?
And so we will always be forever indebted to you, sir.
No matter what we do, and we talk about you all the time.
So by the way, on top of all that, I'm working on four different films.
Because that's what you do.
And one of them completely reinvents digital storytelling
for mobile devices.
Oh, wow.
But that's a secret for another day.
All right.
I got to rock.
It's so great to have you.
And we can't wait to see you soon.
You are.
Thank you so much.
Oh, it's a pleasure.
Bart Weiss, the man, the myth, the legend.
And then he's going to tag out to another one of our favorite humans.
Get over here.
You know you're not getting away.
Come sit.
That's also why I listen to him as the one and only Bart Weiss.
That's right.
Joining us now another one of our favorite people
and a guy that sees us more at press events
than probably just about anybody.
I do see you all a lot.
Tell everybody who you are, sir.
I'm Gadi Elkhan.
I'm with Seelik Film News.
And there's Captain Seelik Film News.
And there's our big sea.
There's Dev.
He's running around Dev.
Yeah.
Everyone knows Dev.
He's the Wizard of Oz.
He really is.
Because he's always the man behind the curtain.
Exactly.
But he likes it back there.
So, he doesn't really like to be in front of the camera as much as he likes to be behind it.
Whereas you're the guy that's in front of the camera more often than not.
He does push me out there in front of everybody speaking.
That's how he got there.
You get right up on there, Gadi.
So, everybody can hear you.
Can you hear me now, sweetheart?
David sounded amazing.
And they were just talking about that.
He's just got that voice.
I'm like, I want that voice.
It's almost like the soothing baritone.
He really is.
I want that voice and it's now time to go to sleep.
Gadi is one of these people.
Really not, if you think of it.
It's sexy soon.
God he's one of these people that his social media is one of the coolest things to follow because God
has been here done this and all of a sudden. Hey, I'm interviewing Ben Stiller. I'm sorry. What?
Like your social media is so random and the people that you get to meet and the people that get you
get to get to interview and the places you get to go. I gotta be honest. I'm a little jealous of
God here. That's why. And God is really, if I had to list the number of people that cross over
with some of the things that we get to do, God is only one of like three people. And what I
mean by that is we go like to the wind spear to see musicals and we go to to screenings. God is
one of maybe three people at the most that crosses both of those. It's like you mungle and there's
like maybe a couple of other people that I've seen. And I to this day, I don't understand why some
of our colleagues in the Dallas press don't do more of those things. I've got more dirt on people.
So they just let me know whatever. Are you going to next Friday nights for Latin history for
morons? No, because I'm covering. Oh, yes. Yeah. Yeah. We're going to be. We're going to. Yeah.
It was almost going to be here. Friday night. Yeah. That's going to be a lot of fun. You know,
which is crazy because the original airing of that. He bashes Texas like crazy. I've never seen
the original. Oh, it's it's pretty brilliant. He completely bashes Texas. So the fact he's
coming here and San Antonio. I want to hear what he has to say. See what he does. I mean, and the
windspheres got some really amazing stuff coming up to in September. They're having the gala that's
Martin Shorten Steve Martin. I'm putting that out of the universe. I want to go. And in November,
I want to go. And November, they're doing mystery science theater 3000, which is going to be incredible.
Yeah. Which I please don't sell out. Please don't sell out. Please don't sell out. So so you're hanging
out here at the Asian. What they call it the Asian. It's it's don't worry. It felt unstable on this
side of the table. I for people call it that. A F F D. Yeah, F F D whichever way you want to go with it.
Is there a film that you've been really looking forward to seeing at the festival or one that you've
seen that's really like this one's going to be tough to beat for me? You know, I didn't get to catch
ping on highway when it came out in theaters. So the fact that they brought that I was just in there.
But you think it was great. It was a little weirder and crazier than I imagine, but I love all the
animation that a F F D brings. The one I was really entitled to entitled. But I'm talking with
you guys. It's going on right now. This little land of mines, which is about all the the mines they
find in the different areas of war torn. Oh, I was reading in on that one. It's fascinating. Yeah,
like little, little bitty mines from 50 years ago. They're still finding just essentially the
stuff that didn't get cleaned up because there has been no effort until now. Yeah, the landmines
that yeah. Yeah, go thank you. The booms. I don't need that in my backyard. Yeah, the booms.
Yeah, scary booms. And there's little kids in their homes because they've built up around there
around the you know, the different areas. So it's that one intrigued me. I'm always fascinated by
the kind of the weird Kung Fu ones too. I know the last ones like a samurai tale. So closing night
film looks good. One of the things I'm always fascinated to ask all of our guests, especially
people of your ill. Ilk. Ilk. I like that word. Entitled. What? We're getting a new business card.
Oh, that's got to hold on. I'm getting I'm getting the website for you right now.
Our entitled Ilk.com. What was the film that really got you interested in film?
Oh, that's a. I'll give you, you know, I'll give you for Asian film. Okay. My first
gosh, this was I don't even remember which one we're in 18 now. This was one of the first four
maybe. Okay. Asian film festivals. And it was, I'm going to butcher it because I don't speak
French, but Auverwa type A. Okay. There's this cute little love story. And I remember I don't
know how I got a ticket to it. I think I got it. Someone gave me a ticket. And that was the film I
picked. It was the only one playing at that time. Watched it and was like, what is this? I have no idea
people were making movies all around the world like this. It was beautiful. And I looked up the
directors, the first time director. And then I had to get passes for AFFD from then on. So like
Asian film festival now, since that firm, I guess first screening third or fourth year,
I've been hooked. And you've seen it as it's developed. Like, we were talking like it's,
you get you think you're a critical mass. And then next year it just gets a little bit bigger.
With all of these film festivals that we do in Dallas, it's amazing how much how big of a player
this town is becoming in film. Not only that, but just like the fact that it's getting recognition
all around the world. There were just so many different Asian film festivals that only concentrate
on certain countries. But this one concentrates on that whole spectrum of film all around the Asian
world like Mongolian films. And we've seen a lot from Indonesia. Just places you wouldn't expect.
I mean, it's been really eye opening to the filmmakers. And I think the fact that they always bring
in a foreign filmmaker that always needs to translate her for instance, which is tough on us.
But it's fascinating. I mean, I've been on Korean TV. I've been on Japanese TV. I don't
know how that's possible without this place. But you can't pinpoint the film that you saw that
really got you into movies in general. I mean, I'm a Shawshank kid. That was my first like,
really. Yeah, I remember watching it in high school. And that movie did, did me wonders. And then
when I was in high school, also, I watched the Matrix. We snuck out. Hold on, hold on, hold on.
I'm that old. Yeah, go back. You were in high school. I know. I was in high school in the Matrix.
With the Matrix. It's like 99, right? Yeah. It was right after episode one. No, no, you and I both.
We're in the same boat. He's just, you know, oh my god. They didn't have orders. Where are you? Like
at 40 by then?
Same age. So get it close. Yeah, I was 26 when the Matrix game. Oh, yeah. Yeah. How old are you now?
I'm 47. That was 20 years ago. Let's do some math. It's 20 years ago. But no, that movie blew me away.
I had no idea you could do something like that. And then ever since then, just been in love with films.
Who would keep asking me my favorite films? No, no, no, no. I want to talk more about what you've been
able to do because a lot of people don't understand, like, see, like, film does great work.
Like, you know, we're huge fans of you guys. We don't really like you guys. I know you guys hate us.
And we get that. Believe me, that's not a boat. You're alone in.
Um, who's the interview that you got that you didn't think you would get?
Because how long have you been interviewing people now?
Pretty a decade. It's been a long time. And you've run the gambit of stuff that you people
you've gotten to talk to. Who I didn't think I was going to get. And you were, you ended up
getting it. You were just like, Oh, my God, this is about to happen. You know, they used to do,
if you used to do that, um, art of film or start, you know, the big thing at the out of
fair park. Yeah. You said, like, Robert DeVol. That interview is one I didn't think I would get.
And it was probably my worst interview ever really butchered it. He didn't understand my question.
I was like, what are you asking me? I was like, I don't know. I'm sorry. You're Robert DeVol.
But then I met him later and he was at Lone Star when Billy Bob Thornton was there.
And that's usually in Fort Worth, right? Yeah. And, uh, was he your Billy Bob was there? Jeff
Ridge is Willie Nelson. It was a wild crew. Wow. And, uh, I got to actually meet him and talk to him
because Billy Bob, I did, I had such an amazing interview with Billy Bob Thornton that he talked to me
afterwards. We're from the same neighborhood in Richardson. Oh wow. And we connected really well
and he introduced me to Robert DeVol. And you're thinking, please don't remember. Please don't
remember. Please don't remember that kid that actually that question you couldn't answer.
Because it was about like working with young directors. He just didn't understand my question at
all. He's like, I've worked with a lot of directors. I was like, I know you're you're you're
sorry. It wasn't what you was like, you're the kids are all the young directors at this point.
Yeah, he's like, I mean, he's yeah for him. Absolutely. But no, I think at the end, he sort of
clued in and then he was like, they're pulled him away. Have you gotten to the point where
is it any more comfortable for you now? Or do you still get to that anxiety every time
when you're about to when the camera's about to roll? I still sweat like crazy. Yeah,
there's definitely anxiety. And it's not because of the interview. It's the whole pomp and stance
of it all. You know, the red carpet, the lights are, we've done red carpet a few times. It's a pain.
It gives me a lot of anxiety because it's so fast paced that you you're you're almost constantly
working off on your heels because you don't know who you're going to get necessarily. And you know,
when we were when we did the red carpet for a couple of times, I was fortunate in the fact that
Don was behind me doing all the on the spot research before the person came over because I didn't
know who they were going to put this guy was in Titanic Titanic. Exactly. I just I felt like I
should have had an earpiece where he's like, okay, this guy's a but it's just such a fast paced
thing and you're packed in there like sardines and people don't understand what you see on TV
of the way the press is on a red carpet. It's really is. Yeah, it's it's it's a madhouse. But it's
also for me, it was a way that we got to meet a lot of people that we wouldn't have met otherwise
on this side of the carpet. Yeah, that's how we met Marcus. Marcus and I were right next to each
other on a on a red carpet and he was like, hey man, do you want to team up our interviews so
we can get double time? You just wanted to grab the lightsaber that he had. This is before this
law before lightsaber. But I was like, no, dude, I'm totally okay with that because it also gave me
somebody that I could go through this thing with. You know, that's so true. That's how me and dev met.
I had a different website. Dev had this website. But he was looking for more interviewers and more
people. And he saw me at the end of the red carpet at the very end, asking crazy questions and
getting responses. I remember I'm going to butcher your name Gabby Cidabay. Oh, Gabriela Cidabay.
She was in town for something and she kept talking to me. Isn't that a great moment when they
just talking? She's like, I don't want to leave this guy's asking me good stuff. He actually
knows stuff. And because we got through the basic questions everyone else was asking. And then
dev was like, who are you? And I'm like, I'm this and this. That's a good question. We ended up
finding out we're from the same high school or went to the same high school, same area in Richardson.
And we were like, let's let's berkner it up together. Shout out to the way I saw that.
Yeah, we are the Rams, Mighty, Mighty Rams. Yeah, it's a Ram Wildcat, first of all, it's never
known for my high school. It would be nothing short of a miracle. Yeah, no. And forks are easy to
pull out of a baseball field. Thanks, like Highlands. There you go. That's that's a little bit of
like Highlands, Richardson, hatred there. Yeah. I don't know about that. We went to the same high school
different times. Kind of figured. Kind of, yeah. We went to different high schools together.
But I mean, the camaraderie and the friendships built with the people that you get to be next to
on a carpet. See, exactly. It fits everyone.
Wow. Out of the suburbs. There you go. All right. That's fair. Yeah.
Kind of like we're doing right now. The suburbs are better. I think that's what we got.
That was kind of I just don't like living in Mesquite and working at Los Colinas.
That's a rough deal for me. It's like 30 to 114 to hell. Depends. No, no, no, you get the hell first.
In the morning, it's not bad because I go to work at five, five, 15 in the morning.
So going in, it's not that bad. It's really very special. I leave the house right before six.
You have dinner at like four if I could. I would believe you. You're not feeling special.
That's what they made for you. It takes me an hour and a half to get home. That's the problem.
That's why he always leaves Dallas and musicals early. Yeah. No, I'm always early for those.
I don't know. Don's the one that leaves as soon as the curtain falls. I'm there. Don's leaving before
the curtain exists because here's my thing. I see that's why I always give him grief because he
and Chad left curious incident of the dog on the night time before the part after happened.
And I was like, you guys, this could have been the coolest part of that whole musical.
That was one of the coolest things that year. What a great show that was. That's still resonates with me.
I had no idea about it. I hadn't read any. Nor had I. Well, do you know the kid that
originated that on Broadway is the the male lead in the hustle. I didn't know that.
And if you watch it when if you have to watch it again and if you do, God bless you.
But when rebel Wilson and Ann Hathaway meet the first time, that's the book and Hathaway is
reading is the curious case of the dog Christmas dog of the night time. That's that's the easter egg there.
Creepy soccer information from there. You go. That's how I roll. I was already just wondering when
that movie was going to end well before. God, that movie was bad. Is that already out of theaters?
No, no, no, it's at the dollar theater. Is it still? It's still in second run.
Rebels still got that power. That movie was so bad. Well, that would be the niche audience.
Is there anything better than serenity or whatever that movie was with me?
They just did that on this get made. Yeah, there's a podcast on what you call it. How did this get made?
And it's about bad movies. They've done that. Actually, they did. They did that in Austin on their tour.
Yeah, and I went to the I went to the Wikipedia page for it. I'm like, this is really a thing.
Like somebody wrote this and went, this is a good. I know what it was. I figured out it was serenity
with Matthew McConaughey and Ann Hathaway. Okay, because there's not the John Cusack one.
No, no, no, not the Firefly movie. Thank you. Right. Oh, yeah, Firefly movies quality.
Yeah, that's what that's what had me going. Wait, what are you all talking about serenity?
You know how they got it made. It was set in where were they like Bermuda or something like that.
That's it was just a vacation. That's all. They actually shot it. They were talking about it being in Miami with in.
So bad. I don't know how people got to see that movies on your radar right now that you're waiting for.
Definitely the Joker. Todd Phil's Joker. I know it's nothing. Comic book people love.
And I know that's where people are going to get angry. But uh, I don't want to see in walking Phoenix.
Play the joke. You know, a big walking Phoenix fan like last year, you are never here was amazing.
But I don't need the story, but they don't need the story. I'm a bad man. It's gonna be it's a story that we've never needed.
But all of a sudden now we need it. I just I'll give Todd Phil a little bit of leeway.
I like him. Don't get me wrong. I just this thing. I don't need it in my life.
And the other aspect at that point is walking Phoenix acting in this movie or did they just our paint and say,
you know what, be you. Go. Don't be walking Phoenix. Also sitting with us because this is an audio medium on this particular episode
is a man we have already referenced four times tonight. It was at least three. Introduce yourself, sir.
Don't just sit back. His name should be here. Another one of our favorite humans.
And the second hardest working man and show business right behind Bart Weiss. At any point if he does run off and
goes upstairs, it's because something needs to be replayed. Well, we were talking earlier because last year,
Dev actually showed me the projection booth upstairs because we were talking, I was a projectionist in high school.
And him showing me how they do that. No, I'm like, this is cheating. No, it's not sexy. This is so easy now compared to
hauling film canisters upstairs and splicing them together and everything else. How are you, sir?
Pretty good. I'm glad you could get it. It's got to sit down with us.
Yes, too. Ask him how many hours he's been up here today. How long have you been here?
I've been here since about nine. I mean, how late will you be here tonight? Midnight?
11. Yeah, the last movie plays 11. He'll push your butt and then I'll drag him out again.
Yeah, because I got to go to bed because I got to be up here. Probably a little bit. So you just
didn't bring a cop to set upstairs? No, that's for Keenan. Yeah, that's for Keenan for next week for
Tarotino's film. I'm so ready. I'm ready for that movie because they're showing. They're showing
it at 35 here. Oh, they're showing the 35 here? Yeah. Here in Plano and he's got to be here the whole time
just to catch the thing, catches on fire or just jammed in the gate or whatever. I mean, I'm not
sure that I'm ready for two hours and 35 minutes, but I'm still ready for this movie. I'm excited.
It looks great. I think it'll be a lot of fun. I mean, and everybody on their brothers in it.
And it looks, it just looks even Luke Perry from the grade. Got us all. That felt awkward.
He's a lot of dead neck. But his kids having a modicum of success. He's having more than a modicum.
He's jungle boys getting it done. There's a lot of kids. Ethan Hawks girl was in Stranger Things.
Mm-hmm. I had not watched the new season yet. I'm waiting on a friend of mine's daughter. We watch it
together because the only human I know I've held out. I've held out. I haven't held out. Anything new. He's an old school guy.
I watch cops. You're not watching live PD. Whatever that is now. Live PD. Come on. I mean, that's just a ripoff. I mean, you know,
I just have got nothing. Oh, I'm just dreading the fact that we're both from Florida. And I'm just
waiting to see something I recognize. Oh, or someone I should say. I'm live PD. Yeah, I'm just waiting
for them to just be like, you know, we got to go to Florida. 60% of that show. I know cops was
originated in Broward County. Yeah. Yeah. I'm aware my uncle was on the first episode. Hey,
wasn't in blue. Are you serious? Yes. That's awesome. He was probably that guy that ran from
John Travolta's brother. So like that. So, Dev, let's talk a little bit more about film. How long have
you been in this game now? I would say probably about 12 years. Just for this festival or just in general.
In general, for this festival, I think it's like nine. Got it. Nine or ten. Yeah. And Gotti was actually
telling us the story of how the two of you guys met on a red carpet. And we were talking about how
red carpets just they give me anxiety because it's just you're packing their like sardines and
it's so fast-paced. They don't give me anxiety anymore. I mean, there's really because of
because you make him do it. Well, no. I mean, very recent. I mean, like for instance,
most people who are going to listen to this probably won't even care. But, you know, when
Gotti and I first met, there was probably 20, 30 people different outlets on that red carpet. Now,
there's like us, which is Selig and two others. And some random guy with the camera.
So, no one's in the business anymore. I mean, you look at Dallas, which is the third or fourth
largest, you know, media market in the country. We have no no film critics and any of the newspapers
and any of the major. That was a big thing earlier this year with Dallas Morning News. Television
stations. And it's just sites like ours. We don't like to call ourselves a blog because
we have trademarks and copyrights and we have a.com and run by an actual business. So, you know,
there's just no one left. And, you know, there's no one left on that red carpet. It's not to bring
anyone down or anything. But I think for those of us that are still doing this, I think that
just makes it that much cooler for us because it's like our circles become tighter.
You know, it's also to the pressures big because I mean, well, I'll have publicists that
will call and say, well, are you and God are you going to be there? And several times I've had to say,
no, we're going to be at out of town film festivals. And I'm like, well, we have no one else showing up.
So, what can you do? I mean, and see for guys like us that, you know, we have day jobs.
So, when you have these junkets that are like 11 o'clock out of Thursday, this isn't even in the
evening. I mean, we have day jobs. I mean, we run the DCP lab at Celeg and, you know, so it's not
like we can easily get up and go. So, it is fascinating how many people we've seen leave
the Metroplex or at least not be there anymore. It's kind of sad. And the reason is they're not
innovating. I won't name any names, but there was a predominant blog here that, you know,
was number one and people looked up to this person and because that person did not innovate
and because that person did not update and stay with the times, no one wants that person,
no one calls on that person. And it also moves really fast, too, especially in the last decade.
You know, we're talking about this is, it's by technically tomorrow is the sort of season 10 for us.
Mazelto. Thank you, sir. Yeah, it was just kind of crazy to realize.
But you kind of have to roll with it. You almost have to be a little bit ahead of the curve.
You do. And that's why at Celeg, you know, that's why we got to make that big investment into
creating DCPs is because number one, there was a need. We had the capital to jump into it. It was
not cheap. But, you know, that's just what's keeping us, you know, head of the curve. And, you know,
with with Gadi and I, you know, Gadi and I talk weekly. And I think that communication is very
important. We talk about more than weekly. Well, sometime, I mean, yeah, a lot of minimum,
a minimum weekly. But we talk about even the simple stuff like the camera, you know,
do we need to upgrade this year? What do we need to do? Do we need to spruce up the website?
Do we need to clean up? And, you know, it's just, it's really helped us. And, you know,
this guy right here, Gadi, he's one of the many reasons we're successful because
what Gadi and then Kerry and Joe do is they do research like you guys do here on the podcast.
People don't do research. They ask the same different questions, same questions all the time.
Well, and that's actually one of the things we were actually getting to when you joined us was
one of the things that I think this show prides itself on. You have certain things that you
want to ask. Like, every time we have somebody sit down, I want to ask them, what movie got you
into film? What's the thing that changed your life? But I also want to dig a little bit deeper
because I want to be the guy that asks the questions that nobody else asks because that's what gets
that return traffic. Well, let's be honest. Those questions, what got you into the movie
are not the old standard question. Standard questions. Who are you? What is your movie about?
What do you play? You know, I had Joe one time a diff who did, you know, a background check on one
of the people who were interviewing. No, no, no. Criminal background check. But he found out that he
owned some patents for water purification technology. Oh, wow. And Joe went right into that on
the red carpet. The guy was like, whoa, how did you find out? Joe says, I have the internet and they
talked about that, you know, the whole time. And I think that's what sets us apart and you guys apart.
It's easy when you look for those things that that just aren't the standard thing. Like we were at
a Film Festival recently where one of the projects they gave us a list of questions to ask the
people. And I was like, we throw that away. I was like, I might ask one or two of these, but they
by the time they get to us because we were after they came off the carpet, I said to myself,
I'm not going to ask all these questions because they've now answered it 14 times. I want to talk
again and you could tell they were exhausted by the time they got to us. So I'm like, you know,
let's have some fun with this because that's what we do. And there were a few times where it was like
they get to sit down with us. Yeah. And they got to a couple of questions and they're like, oh,
wait, you're not going to ask us the same thing that's on that paper over and over again?
We're good. I had people bring in a drink. So I've got to ask you, speaking of Film Festivals,
what has been besides Asian Film Festival now? Of course. What has been what Film Festival this
year has been highlights so far? We've only done one other this year or technically two. We did
dip this year. Yeah. But we also worked with Garwin High School at their Film Festival this year.
And that show is always one of my favorites to do every year because number one, they ask us to
be judges. Yeah, that happens. But we also get to sit down with these kids and we get to talk to
them and because they're the future of this business. And the fact that we live in a town where four
different high schools have film programs, to me, that is a highlight for me every year because to
sit down and talk to these kids like, why do you want to do this? Like what? To pick their brains
a little bit. And to hear some of them like, we had won this year that was like, yeah, I do film
and I love film. But next year, I'm probably not going to deal with it when I go to college because I'm
going to major in biochemistry. And I was like, whoa, there was a left turn, you know. But that is
one of my favorite shows to do every year is sitting down with these kids at Garwin High School and
seeing the films that they produce. And Schubert just does such an amazing job. And not just because
he's with an ear shot and you could probably hear what we're talking about. But you know, and we
had Bart's in here earlier working with Bart to bring up Bart Bart. And I said this when he was
here. If there's no Bart Weiss, we're not here. Because we meet Kelly Kitchens who we all love.
Yeah. Kelly between Kelly and Gary. Those are the two people that have made the show what it is.
Bart none. Kelly's the one that introduces us to Bart. Bart's the one that says, we've never had a
podcast at the Film Festival. Come to Video Fest. If Bart doesn't do that, we don't get to hear.
You want to know what? Got an ice favorite film festival is? Always. And I think you guys should
cover it because I think your listeners would find it gold. Tell me because the Oxford Film Festival
in Oxford, Mississippi, if they'll pay us to come out, we'll be there. Well, they pay your room
and board. I mean, we haven't. Yeah, you just got to get there. It's Ole Miss is the college. I'll
rotate it. It's a 10 hour drive. I'll rotate it. 10 hours. So here's here's what. And I'll tell you why.
You know, it's this this coming in 2020. It is the. No, it's the third. It's the second. It's
March. Third week of March. Oh, so it's going to be beautiful time of year in the springtime in
Mississippi. Okay. Let me let me tell you why I think all your listeners should go. You know,
Melanie who runs the Film Festival does such a great job about Southern hospitality, but she
also to pushes the envelope as far as being in the deep South. She has a very robust LGBT program.
She has anti-confederacy flag films. She really pushes the envelope on there and she brings in a
lot of film from Sundance to Oxford and she brings a lot of film from a lot of film leaves her
and goes to South by Southwest. And I feel as an outlet media outlet that
got in. I go cover Oxford, which I got a full disclosure. We run their digital projection
and we're a major sponsor, but the first year we went, we just went as press, but we felt like we
got everything we need that we didn't have to go to Sundance or South by. And it's a lot closer,
especially it's like it's cheaper. You get more access. You get more opportunity with the filmmakers.
I mean, we would be absolutely honored to do that. If you guys could, you know, get us the end
there and we can make it work. We'll do it. Well, I think what's great about it and what Dev is
talking about is it feels like a family. You're out there and when you go to the bigger festivals,
you get drowned out. There's always TV and there's always major magazines like Variety or something
like that that will swallow up a lot of the big talent. One that we used to love going to
Austin Film Festival, it's, you know, they have some major magazines that go and they'll get
all the big interviews. Right. And you just kind of wanting to get some type of interview,
grab someone here there. Oxford, you can get anyone you want. And it's that type of regionalized
film festival world that I know we're trying to tap into because that's where you get to get all
of the talent that's going to be here in the next two, three years with their big movies. I mean,
how do you look at Star Wars and Marvel movies? All these guys are going picked up and women
filmmakers are getting picked up come from small films. I'll give you several more reasons to go.
Number one, hospitality. Number two, opening opening night. All right. Opening night is always
at Ole Miss. Oh wow. Red carpet and their major archery and very beautiful campus. Let's go SEC.
And then the opening night party, she rents out the bowling alley in town. Shuts down the
bowling alley. All you can eat pizza. All you can eat. All you drink soda and beer and wine.
And all you can bowl from like 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. It's pretty especially my gator gear at the house.
Don't ask me about that. That's on you. I wear my OU gear there. Well, that's not the SEC. We're in
conference. But anyhow, so that's another reason. And she's she the short blocks. I mean,
Goddy being a short short blocks. Connoisseur and expert here. I mean, she not only does the
normal short blocks Melanie, who is the executive director, but she has like Mississippi music video
short block, Mississippi narrative, Mississippi documentary. And how long is the festival? It is a
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. So it's a quick one. Five. It is quick, but she jams
package. She rents out the Mississippi National Guard armory across the street from the theater
and puts a kid film festival there. And then where are you going? I'm not going anywhere.
No, I don't know. And then the what else what else what else does she do? That's pretty awesome.
Well, I mean, the the mixture of Ole Miss and the community, like there's a lot of community
screenings. What are you showing? He's showing the web. He found our 18th through the 22nd, 2020.
It's just quality. It feels like a family when you're out there. I mean, they access the
familiarity with everyone. It's we've never felt like we were outsiders. And she has so much support
from all the film festivals on the deep south. So like her box office guy is the guy that runs
box office at sidewalk. She has the Memphis guys that come down and run her volunteer
on transportation. For filmmakers, she will put them up in a hotel. She will not pay them to
get there. They have to fly in the Memphis or drive. But if they fly in the Memphis, she has a
shuttle that runs like 15 hours a day that goes from Oxford to Memphis back and forth all day long
for 15 hours. Wow. Well, you've got me so if you can get us the in there, we would love to come
out and get a road trip. We're going to let one of you guys tag us and see how someone wants to
sit down. Actually, Melody will be here for the Women in Texas Film Festival. You let me know
when it is. Give me and I'd love to sit down with her for real. Tag. All right. So God, he's tagging
out because we have another legend that's about to sit out. All right. I got to go to. All right.
Dev, always go to talk to your brother. See like film news.com. Go there.
Go. That's right. Book market. Go there. Go now. Go often. Joining us now is a man whose name
has come up no less than 17 times in the last hour and a half. I would have gone with the over on
that. That's just because people need fires put out. Someone's got to do it. Introduce yourself, sir.
I'm Thomas Schubert. I'm the on-site operations director and festival liaison for the Asian
Film Festival Dallas. And one of the guys that in the last couple of years, actually well,
I guess now three years has been a major player in the story of this little show that we do because he
let's us come to Garwin High School as we talked about just a little while ago and see the kids
films and he thinks enough of us to let us give our opinions of them. And we were talking the other
day about, you know, next year, we will have seen an entire class go through because it'll be
all full. Oh, yeah. You will. So that's yeah, that's a little bit of a that's fun of a nuts
back toy. I realized when we were there a couple of months ago, you're getting geared up for the new
year, right? You got what? Three more weeks? Oh, yeah. We got a couple of months. Oh, no, don't
remind me. That's a. Yeah, but you had a heck of a summer vacation, sir. I did. I did. Not a lot of
sit down and be zen time. I mean, it was kids are kids are off and you're on a plane. Yeah, kids
are off. I was on a plane three days later. Tell it's the perfect venue to talk about where you
went and what you did. Well, I went to Japan for two weeks. It was pretty cool with your mom.
Yeah, with my mom and my best friend, they split the weeks. I was there for two weeks. They
reached there for one. We went to the hot spots, basically Tokyo Kyoto, Osaka and Hiroshima.
Like it was nice. The joy on your face with every picture you took. It was it was just like
Schubert's living his best life right now. It was a lot of fun. It was very much like a I never
thought I would be their kind of thing. It was a long plane flight. Did you get the good seats on
the plane? No, I don't care about plane flight seats, man. I'm pretty comfortable pretty much
anywhere. So I've got to be on the aisle. I have a bit of claustrophobia. I don't have to flight
that long. No way. I prefer the I prefer the window, but the flight that long aisle is good because
I'm going to go to the bathroom a bunch. And you're going to stretch too. Because I'm going to
forget and I'm going to like get four cooks. Ladies going to be like, do you want to cook? I'm
going to be like, yeah, I'm just going to come back like 20 minutes later. I'm going to be like,
yeah, keep them coming. Skippy. And then I got to, you know, it's like keep giving them to me and
bring me a bucket. Yeah, I want to get up. That's the idea, man. So 18 years of this festival.
Yep, this one. I think I've only been with it for nine or 10. I lose track of time.
And you've also got kind of a weird circle of life thing going because one of your former
students is now on the board. Yeah, that's a weird one. That's kind of a new thing a couple years
ago. But you know, when we, I'm sure he relayed that a little while ago, but when we were,
when we were still in class, he, I showed him some films and I think I showed him a better tomorrow
if I remember correctly. He mentioned that. Yeah. And it blew his face off and he spent the entire
summer watching everything in Asian on Netflix. And then he ended up using it for his IB paper.
Yeah, yeah, he did some really good stuff. I think he mentioned that he needed to cut it back.
Probably most kids. Some kids need to cut it back. Some kids need a lot more content.
That didn't always work out that way. Anything new you're adding for the curriculum this year?
Let's see this year. Yeah, we're going to add some female directors specifically.
It's kind of tough. When you go back to like the, when you go all the way back, there's a whole lot
of them. But we always touch our directors in long spans, usually that have spanned a few
eras or have a good half dozen to a dozen films under their belts. And then we get to that point.
We're like, okay, you're like a film legend. Like everyone knows your name. You're a household
name. Let's teach these kids about it. And that's, that's a little easier to get at when you're,
when you just, you end up, you know, you go for people, go for people, you end up with a
class full of dudes basically. Well, and let's, let's talk about your program too, because I'm
always fascinated when we talk to these kids every year. And I'm one of the things that fascinates
the most is the overwhelming number of them that were like, I wasn't really a film person. I just
kind of wound up here. And now I'm just all in on film. How hard is that when you have those
kids that come in that are just like, I just need the, the performing arts credit? Do you find
that to be extra challenging to get them really involved? Or is it just, does it turn into a natural
progression for them? They tend to, they tend to just kind of, someone will tap out and
they just enjoy it. Some of them will go straight through and be like, man, that was four years,
did my IB six subject in that. That was a lot of fun. I'm going to go off and be a space engineer
for NASA or whatever. You had one of those this year. That's what she's completely just,
she's going to be a physicist. Yeah. He's going to am like bioengineering or something. That happens
all the time. And you know, this kids will, a lot of them, not all of them, will just never touch
a camera again. But then you get people like Nick who will go off and do something completely
different. And then eventually, you know, four to six years later, circle back around to it.
And it's just like, well, I already have all this experience. I guess I'm almost qualified for
this. So they get in and they do what they need to do. It's pretty cool. What are you finding with
these kids? Is there a specific genre, a specific director or whatever that you're finding
you're turning on to more than others? Yeah, we, I like the weird stuff personally. Get right
up on that. Oh, sorry. It's unidirectional. It's not on the directional. No, no, it's unidirectional.
I like the, I like the weird stuff. I like the stuff the kids don't see that they're not going to
see that when they hit college, it won't be something their teachers are going to hit them up that
when they mention it in college, their professors are going to double take at them. Like that's what we
like. Is there one movie specifically that's kind of your, your go to like, this is the one that
gets them all the time? Uh, gets them in a good way or bad way because we got, I would say let's go
with the good way. We got both. Let's see. It's not a good way. Harold and Maud, they're senior
year. They, it starts off real kind of dark and really weird and it, you know, it feels old and,
but by the time they're done with it, they just love it. And they're just like, God, new favorite
movie. It's like, we're like two months before we graduate and you just like, you just dropped
this last drop this on me. Geez. They really like Harold and Maud by the time they get to it.
And, and it's, it's a lot of fun. Um, uh, stuff that they kind of, they, they slog through, but
eventually they like get to keep it as a feather in their hat when they get to college. The stuff like
cabinet of Dr. Colligari, um, uh, metropolis, that kind of stuff, which they'll probably watching
college again, but it's always good for them to have already had that experience. Like, so that's
their second watching. So they're not, so they're not, they don't have the pretentious attitude in
college when they're watching at that time. We're like, Oh, what is this guy? They're like, Oh,
yeah, I've seen this. Uh, okay, the beginning is better the second time around when I'm, uh,
not 14 or 15. I don't know that we've ever asked you this question, but we always like to ask
this question, especially when we do film festivals and you're somebody who teaches film. I'm
interested in your, what was the film that got you roped into film? Oh, uh, into the industry.
Just in general, like, you were a kid and you saw me, you're like, I have to do, I need more of this
in my life. Uh, actually, uh, me doing this in general is, is basically an accident. Uh, really,
I don't think we've ever talked about this. Yeah. Um, I've been doing film stuff for a long time.
Film has always been a passion of mine, uh, but just always on the side of my family. We're big
movie goers, movie watchers. We talk about them a lot afterwards. We were always watching movies at
home, um, but not like, you know, you might rewatch the Lion King 15 times. We would, I can't bring
myself to this live action thing. Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to build that. I've got what I want.
And it's on blue right at my house right now. Yeah. My fiancee really wants to see it. So I like
watching movies. So I'm sure I will buckle. Um, Donald's kind of man about it. He saw it. Yeah.
We'll see. Uh, I, I'm not super keen on remakes in general. Um, I kind of, I'm, I really feel
stronger that you've got to have a really good reason to remake it. You got, it's got to feel
brand new if you're going to remake something. And especially with a company like Disney,
you had so much money behind them. They have so much talent behind them. There is literally nothing
stopping them for coming up at brand new properties every day of the week. Well, and the one that,
they just, the one that I was in and now I'm completely out is Milan because I love that movie.
And you know, you're telling me you're pulling not only you're pulling the music out of it.
Yeah. You're pulling mousse you out of it. And mousse is one of my favorite things about that film.
And so now I guess you're just going to make a martial arts film and just call it Milan.
Yeah. That sounds like what's going to happen. Um, but I'm sorry. We got away from you. We're talking
about you. Oh, right. Yeah. We got away. We're working out. No, it's okay. The, um,
yeah, I was actually, I actually started teaching because I was, I needed a, I needed a place that
would, uh, I could work a full-time job and pay my bills. Um, it sounds familiar. I spoke
German fluently. So they needed a German teacher jumped over there. I was a, uh, I was trying to
get my counseling master's degree. Um, and jumped on did that. The school let out at 2.30 gave me
plenty of time to, to get to my class in Mesquite and by 4 p.m. So it was pretty straight forward
decision after I was done with the degree of my mom who started the film program at Garland High
School. She, uh, she just said, you know, make a choice. You, you leave it and you can do this
counseling thing or you're going to stick around and, and build this film department. And, um,
um, and ultimately I decided that, uh, it was, it was a better job for me to laugh every day.
Uh, because I was, I was having fun. I was laughing every day. And that's just not what's going to
happen if I move on my council or they're doing line. Uh, I get paid a lot more, but it wasn't going
to be near as much fun. So that's kind of, I kind of went from there. Um, um, I'm doing my,
doing my best get into a master's program, um, somewhere and, uh, we'll see where that goes.
Um, but I've got my master's degree in counseling, which helps the kids a lot.
Um, and helps me with my job. And what they're doing is difficult because they're,
they're doing a lot of things that they're appeared, they're appears clueless. Yeah. Yeah.
Sitting next to you is another one of, we're just having some of our favorite humans,
just cycle through on your show. Hey, humans. How are you guys?
Introduce yourself, my friends. Outside of humans. Have you talked to any other favorites?
I will neither confirm nor deny. We're not allowed to admit that. We just got back from area 51.
It's a whole thing. Mr. Shearers got, he's got stuff he's got to do. Thank you for standing with us, sir.
Oh, no problem. You know, we're big fans of you guys. I have a, I have a fun alien story to share with her.
Oh, I'm Theresa. When I'm the publicist for the Asian Film Festival, Dallas, I just recently changed my
company's name because I celebrate 10 years. So I, Mazel Topp. Thank you. I changed it to Lan Rose PR,
which Lan means orchid and it's my Vietnamese name. So, and Rose is from my mom and so it reminds me
that I'm where I'm from and where I come from and what, what I, what I need to, how I need to
represent myself every day. Okay. And you're another person that I'm just like, you just constantly
live in your best life. I am. Whenever I see, I'm like, she's doing cool stuff again. Yeah.
All the time. I do. Yeah. I do. And I work hard for that life. You do. You do.
Um, and, and, and also I'm very lucky and very blessed that I have just amazing clients and
amazing projects that I get to work on every day. And like tomorrow, like Asian Film Festival is
going on right now. And that's fun. And then tomorrow, I have this Asian Night Market where there's
like 12 food vendors on Facebook. Yeah. Yeah. So that's an amazing venue too. It really is.
So this is the third time that I've worked with them with the Asian Night Market at the
Bonfactory. And they just, they're just so professional and they know how to like run it.
I would, I would tell you to take plenty of pictures, which are already going to do that.
So because we're going to be on air while that's going off. Yeah. So the normal show. Yeah. Yeah.
But, uh, so you guys, do you guys want to be there? Like, we're going to be on the air from like
430 to 7. So by the time we get done, we're just done. Oh, but you can't, you can't bring it to
the Bonfactory. We've got the studio already ready. But I want to work on that for the next time.
Yeah. Because we would love to do that if we got some more time to plan for sure. We're working on a
winter one. Oh, really? So we had a summer last year. And then we had a winter one. And then
we're working on a winter one. Um, right now, we're thinking, and no one's heard this yet.
So this is the first week. I love that we get that. We're thinking about having like a dumpling festival
or like a dumpling in ramen or ramen just ramen stuff. Yes. Yes. I don't care. I quit the show.
I'm going to that. No, but if we plan it enough in advance, this is what I'm saying. If we
plan it enough in advance, we can have the video with us too. So we have that. And I could have
the chefs and restaurants just rotate through. So you can talk to each and one of them. I will not
eat for like three days before. I'm starting to cry. It sounds like my happy place. As we're talking
about food though, because Teresa deals a lot with food vendors. I do. She doesn't know this.
But a few months ago, you asked me to come late to an event that you had right over here.
That was the first time I had been to anything of its ilk. Yeah. So you sitting there with me and
kind of walking me through the thing. I ended up taking a bunch of it home because the portions
were just so huge. And we talked about it on the show the next week. And said, my wife even had
some of it. And I'd like, I'd never had ox tail before that night. I'd never been to a ramen
restaurant before that night. So you got to be the first person to kind of introduce me to that
whole thing. And I love that. I'd love to do that. Like a lot of times when I find out that my
friends are going to eat. I'm one of my clients' restaurants. I want to be there. So I can tell them
about each dish and where it came from and what's the inspiration. And they seem to be doing pretty well
over here. I drive by every time that I'm here at the Angelica. And I said, they're still doing it,
getting it done. They're not my client anymore. But of course, I'm still very supportive of
some of the ramen in general. But you know, I'm working with some other great clients that are
getting a lot of national attention and love. Outside of tomorrow night, anything big coming down
the pike that you want to talk about? Because that's what we're here for. Oh, okay. Let me think.
I'm trying to get past today. You ain't lying. And then tomorrow, I know I have an Asian night market.
And let me see. What's happening on Monday? I'm relaxing on Monday. That's pretty big.
And that's what the halfway point of the festival too. Right. But the festival goes on
until the 25th. And I just saw bento harassment. And if anyone has not seen it yet, talk about it.
So it happens. It screens again on Monday. And you know, the thing with these Asian films,
you can't go by their name. Of course not. bento harassment. I mean, that sounds like a negative
thing. It sounds like an animated feature. It's like boxes that are fighting each other. I don't know.
It wasn't like that. And most of the Asian films aren't, nothing are like the name. Like,
you'll go see it. And then you'll think it's something and it's not. It's part of it because maybe
it doesn't translate right? Yes. Exactly. Because it is harassment. But it's not harassment. It's not
the negative. Right. Right. Right. Right. And that works both ways. Because when I was a kid,
my mom took me to Spain with her. Yeah. And this was when the naked gun movies were really huge.
Yeah. And one of the kids I was talking to was like, yeah, we're going to go see this movie this
weekend. It's called Take It As You Like It. And I was like, I don't know what that is. And he showed
me the poster. Yeah. And I was like, no, that's the naked gun. He's like, no, that's not what it's
called. And I guess because it didn't translate right? Right. Right. And I think it's the same way with
it was. Yes. I have a story. So yesterday I went to go see the drama shorts.
Because one of the filmmakers were there. Joe Chen, she, he made the mother. So,
anyway, one of the films was called Alien. So the subtitles comes up. It's this alien.
And so I watched it. And afterwards I was talking to one of the other other people who were watching
it too. And we were both like, I didn't see any aliens. She was like, she was like, I was like,
maybe it was us two men at the very end. They look like an alien. Maybe like, where was the alien?
And so we were like, and so her husband standing next to her. And he looks over at us slowly and said,
illegal aliens. They're like, oh, there's that awkward moment of silence. And we left so hard
because apparently my mind did not switch over to Asian because like, I want to be in his mind at
that moment of like, do I say something? Are they doing a bit? That's one of those they're eating
popcorn. They just turn around and go, like, this is going to be good. I want to know when he tells
that story later on to his, how that goes. So my mind was still American mainstream films,
like thinking alien. So the name of alien. We thought the area 51. That's the mind for you.
Yeah. So alien, there's going to be antennas or big eyes or some spaceship. But I don't know
why it didn't catch on that the whole time I was watching it. Oh, why is it like chasing after
them? Like, yeah. So that is my alien story and that just happened yesterday. That's amazing.
And I love that you tell that story publicly, which is even better. I mean, I think a lot of it
is the reason why the Asian Film Festival exists because this is why Asian Film Festival exists,
so you can experience these films and it's a different culture. Even I'm being Asian,
I couldn't even think alien. Like, oh, alien, like illegal aliens, because we don't use that word.
And we were talking earlier about how you guys kind of got a nice little kick start on Tuesday
before the Facebook festival started because they screened a farewell here, which I was here for.
Oh, okay. You loved it. Okay, I didn't get a chance to watch it. It's so good. It is so much. It's
a bit smarter. It's okay. The headlines, a little misleading. Right. Like, yeah, like,
bento harassment. Well, they were saying like, it was outperforming Marvel. It's like, okay,
hold on. The per-screen average for this film was doing better than endgame was at the time.
Right. Which by technical definition, yes, that's correct. But did you do it just a little bit,
but it's doing really, really well. Right. However, their publicists totally spin that. They didn't
go girl or man, whoever. But you go. It's really. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Go human.
Well, we don't know about that one at this point. Oh, yeah.
But it's really smart and it's really funny and it's really sweet and it's really,
and I, I even said like aquafina really shows the range that she has to show me.
Oh, okay. And I love turning crazy rich Asians. Yes. And aren't they doing all three of those
books now? Yeah. They're doing the second and third one kind of at the same time because they want
to get them all done and get them all out. I think it's going to be amazing. I can't wait.
It's just, and that's, you know, and we were talking about this, this festival just gets a little
bit bigger every year. Yeah. And so that's the goal. Yeah. Well, and you think it's like, this is,
this is where this festival needs to be. It's in a great shape. And then you come back and say,
nope, here's the next layer. And that's why I think this festival has had the staying power that it
has. Oh, and also the program is solid. And it's definitely a lot of credit to David Gibson. I mean,
he watches like 300 films to get, it get down to 32, at 32, 31, at 31, 32. But that bent to
harassment. And every year I go see a film, I see at least like two or three films I tried to.
And every single time I'm like, wow, that was just, just everything. Like bent to harassment was
funny, cleverly written, cleverly directed. There was illustration, animation, a little bit of
that. Oh, wow. A lot of, like, you're laughing. So is that where the bento part of it comes from?
Because there's a bunch of different things in it. No, no, it's all around how I'm trying not to,
you don't want to give away too much. So it's all around the mom making these bento boxes for
her daughter. Every, every she makes it for her for four years in a row. Every day, it's different.
And the, the, the whole story is just around that. Oh, well, bento boxes. Yeah, it's very clever.
Is there anything in mainstream cinema you're really looking forward to right now?
Lion King. Yeah, I can't bring myself to it. I don't know if my heart can take it. That's my problem.
That's part of it. Because that comes with a lot of emotion. That song, you know, what's,
I'll tell you why the Lion King was the first movie I ever balled watching. I cried for at least an
hour. I had to watch it again because I didn't watch half the movie. Wow. Okay. You weren't born
yet. The first time I cried in a movie. Yeah, I am aware of this would be the movie. I can't
remember which came first. The, the two earliest movies that I remember crying in are The Fox
and the Hound and Star Trek 2. Those are the two. Hey, my alien story doesn't like, it's nothing
compared to you guys. There's a decade between us. So I think it's more than a decade. No, it's,
I, I cried and bento harassment. It was funny, but there were parts where they just took you down
and like, we're gonna make you sad. It's one of the beautiful things about cinema 2 that it can
hit you in the feels any time it wants to. Yeah, I needed to decompress up of that film. I was like,
I need 30 minutes, just to kind of get my stuff back together. Like I will not cry. And I did,
I did. It was sad. So I've been warned. I cried everything. Oh, okay. Yeah. We'll be ready. Yeah.
I'm definitely interested in that one. Yeah, you should. It's so funny. We're getting close to
the two hour mark. So it's probably time that we go home here in a few minutes. It's, but,
before we make decisions, that's fair. So, but before we go, I want you to plug the business
everything about you so people can find you. Well, on Instagram and on Facebook, I'm at
LAN, L-A-N, Rose, PR, agency. Sorry, I already had that right. Yeah. And I think that's,
that's the best way to keep in touch with what I'm doing. So, I like I said, if you just want to
live, watch somebody living their best life vicariously, it's the best way to do it because she's
always doing such cool stuff. Oh, you're sweet. Yeah. I am. But you are. But you are.
She owns it. No, I own it because I work for it and I love what I do. Congratulations on 10 years.
Thank you. 11 now. 11. I said. So here's to doubling that at least. Yeah, for sure.
And having so much fun in another 11 years. It's international. International. There you go.
Prestige International. There you go. All right. Where's, where's Genro because we've got to get
the plugs done? She has disappeared. No, no, no, she's behind the pillar from you. She's behind the
pillar from me. Oh, there she is. Yeah. She was hiding. Yeah, we got to do the plug just
time to get out of here. It's many pillars. So yes, because I couldn't do it.
Thank you very much for joining us. Thank you for hanging out with us.
Lovely having you again. No, I'm so happy. I'm always happy to see you guys. We love it when we
were just running to you. Brandon will you too, which is kind of fine. We do. There's certain times
like, oh, there's treason. That, but that happens all the time. You will find her the Asian film festival.
You will find her there. Well, plus that's the thing about film festivals in general.
Oh, that this is the time we get to run into our film festival. Oh, okay. I forgot.
Women Texas Film Festival. Next month. Hello. Yes, month. Yeah. And so I get the chance to coordinate
their opening night party every year. I've done that. So this year, I've already seen the opening
night film. Oh, really? I'm not going to say anything. Okay. But the party is always
inspired by the film. And I actually watch it and I take notes. And, you know, it's and we love
Justina. Yeah, we love her so much. Yeah, I love her too. I've actually done a couple of panels
with her. She is some of her stories. If you ever get the chance, ask her this story about when she
was doing door to door election work, you know, Cliff. It is one of the funniest stories I've ever heard
in my life. But then you hear it and you go, yep, that would happen to Justina because she's just
she is amazing. And I love her to death. All right. Let's do the plugs and get out of here.
Visit our website. www.theclubhousepodcast.com. Find out everything you need to know and some
stuff. You don't this week. You can read Don's review of the Lion King, which we've talked about
two or three times during this show. Make sure you follow us on social media. Twitter is at clubhouse
show. Everything else is the clubhouse podcast. All three words in that order. Or you will wind up
somewhere else. You can follow me on social media if you would like. Everything is yes.
That Rob Irvin that has spelled ERVIN. I am vexblade on all social media. Remember to catch our
regular shows every Sunday on the vocal media network. Great. I'm Jen Rome home on Instagram.
The official fact checker of this show is Don Ford. You can follow him in Igg Buonu. You can just
listen to another show where he spells it loudly loudly. Because as only he can. He is also the
official fact checker of this show that you can email. He is Don at theclubhousepodcast.com. You can
email me. Questions, comments, concerns, tell me to go pound sand. I am Rob at theclubhousepodcast.com.
Just like Alex said, our normal show live every Sunday night at Vocal Studios at seven eastern
four Pacific. We have we talked about one item on the run sheet today. That's it. So we got a lot.
We got a lot to talk about tomorrow night because there was a lot that happened in pop culture
this week. Because again, it's San Diego Comic Con weekend. There's still another day of that. We'll
talk about that tomorrow night. Also remember our partner show, The Cheap Popcast, All Things Pro
Wrestling goes on the air at five thirty eastern also on the vocal now network. We do them back
to back because that's how we roll. Normally live every Sunday night seven eastern four Pacific.
Tomorrow is the official start of season 10, which I'm still wrapping my brain around. So until
next time, thank you for the Asian Film Festival Dallas for having us. We're such big fans. These
guys come here. It's every night until next Thursday. Yes. I do the math right on that 25th.
The 25th. So come on out. See some amazing films. This is only day three or four. This day three.
So you got plenty of stuff to come here and watch. AFFD dot org. Asian Film Dallas dot com dot com.
So we're gonna get the AFD thing. It used to be that. Okay. So you're right. Okay. So I wasn't
and for Teresa's pick. That would be Monday at five thirty p.m. Oh for bento. All right.
So until next time for all of our guests. I am Rob. Clubhouse is closed. Have a great night
everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow. You guys are awesome.