Chiefland Screens at the Fort Luaderdale International Film Festival

Our documentary “Chiefland” will be screening at The Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale as part of the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLIFF).  On Friday November 4th at 7:30pm it will be showing before the critically acclaimed documentary “Florida Crackers: The Cattlemen and Cowboys of Florida.” Buy your tickets here

CHIEFLAND plays at the Brouhaha Film and Video Showcase on Saturday December the 4th

WE ARE GOING TO CAUSE A RUCKUS

According to Dictionary.com, a Brouhaha is: an excited public interest, discussion, or the like, as the clamor attending some sensational event. This is an understatement for what is about to happen on December the 4th as we show our documentary for the second time at our favorite venue, The Enzian Theater.  We have been selected to be a part of the great and well-known show “The Brouhaha Film & Video Showcase” on December the 4th and 5th.  This “Showcase” is in it’s 19th year and that is nothing to sneeze at! Where most film festivals are just getting started this one is in its second decade.  Besides our documentary, there will be several other short films and documentaries to disturb your state of mind. This Floridian showcase will have several local films from Orlando, as well as several movies from the highly coveted FSU film school.  Yes, there will be plenty to please the senses.

THE COWBOY COMES TO TOWN

CHIEFLAND will be playing during the second program at 1:15pm on Saturday December the 4th.  As a bonus, we are expecting the cowboy himself, Mr. Chris Wilson, at this once a year event!  So come down to Maitland Florida with your $5 entry fee and partake in this once in a lifetime event.  We will see you there and be sure to make a ruckus!

-Gabriel Kipling Tyner

Hot Springs Film Festival banner

Our documentary has made it to one of the most prestigious documentary film festivals in the United States.  According to their website the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival is “one of the first and the oldest documentary film festivals in the world (second only to Amsterdam).” “The Festival is recognized by the International Documentary Association (IDA) and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as one of only seven national Academy Award qualifying venues” or in other words… We might make it all the way to Hollywood!  Nearly 1,000 films are submitted “from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe” and only 100 are chosen.  The film festival will be from October  15-24th.  For more information go to The Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Here.

Laurels for Chiefland at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

-Gabriel Kipling Tyner

The good old boys at Bionic Cowboy Productions have teamed up with GT Productions to create a whole new trailer. In this trailer, we follow Chris Wilson and his return to bull riding after a train de-railed his career.  GT Productions specializes in promos, film, and documentaries.  Check out their website www.filmsbygt.com

While at The Indie Grits Film Festival in Columbia, South Carolina, I was impressed by the crew from Shadows and Light and their Canon 7D camera.  They were lugging this huge DSLR HD camera around and getting some interviews from the film makers at the festival.  They caught me for an interview right after my screening of “Chiefland.”

They took the audio from our interview and put it on their podcast.  The sound is pretty good for a DSLR camera and a handheld microphone.  I definitely felt like I brought a lot of my excitement about our doc to the interview.  My favorite quote “We were there at that one point in the universe.”  To listen to their in depth podcast about film and fads go to

Shadows and Light Ep. 0104 – “The Big Craze Right Now”

www.shadowspodcast.com.  If you would like to skip to our interview, we are exactly 41mins into the Podcast.   Thank you to Pierce, Woody, and Matt for posting this interview.

The Trailer for our documentary “Chiefland” was featured on the front page of the International Documentary Associations web page. It is a great honor to be featured right next to Food Inc. Hopefully this gave us some face time with some big names. Time will tell.

Behind the scenes of the Indie Grits Film Festival in the War Room. All the film makers had to sign their names on the poster. Shameless plug of our mug in the foreground

It was a magical night in Columbia, SC. People were crowded outside the Nickelodeon Theater and the scene was rife with anticipation. The house was packed with independent film enthusiasts. We opened the festival with our documentary “Chiefland” at 6pm. There were two films after ours “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “American Jihadist.”

It was an honor to play in front of “American Jihadist,” which was an intense film that was thick with religion and violence. The movie hit home for me because I am currently working on a documentary about gangs in schools called Chasing Ghosts: Fighting Gangs in Schools. Both of these documentaries have the basic theme that some people are violent and need to vent, but let’s get back to the festival.

After the screening there was a nice Q & A where I got a chance to thank Andy Smith and Larry Hembree for having us. Also, I thanked Isaac and Andrew for picking me up from the train station. After the Q & A I headed outside to get the people’s reaction. They were very excited to have seen the film and a lot of people compared the twist at the end to “getting hit by a train” because the it was such a shocker! We even had the chance to do a little interview with some local podcasters. They shot the interview with the new Canon 7D HD DSLR. I hope they post it so I can see how I look in 1080i! I tried to suck in the gut and get rid of the double chin, but we shall see.

After our films, there was a brief reception next door at the Immaculate Consumption, and then I started the second half of the films. The second half of the programing at the festival was dedicated to music videos and music documentaries. At first, I was not too excited to see music documentaries because I thought they would be the typical rockstar train wrecks. I was surprised by both “Slopdog Millionaire” and “We Fun.” “Slopdog Millionaire” had a big surprise when one of the band members decides to urinate on his friends who are on the ground and of course drunken chaos ensues. “We Fun” was really interesting because it documented an entire music scene that I did not even know about. Evidently, in Atlanta there was a whole scene of area bands like The Black Lips, Mastadon, and Deerhunter who were playing in peoples basements and at their house parties. The documentary was filled with these packed basements with air ducts and water heaters as backgrounds. It was like the bands had moved from the garage to the basement! I grew up listening to grunge bands so it was really cool for me to see that they had moved to the basement. Mark my words, there is a great possibility that bands could go into the attic and there will be a whole new movement in music. I can only describe these Atlanta bands as mellow punk with a popular feel. In the real world, I would have never listened to them. Now that I have watched the documentary, I am on the look out for this interesting sound that came out of the basements of Atlanta.

To end the night, there was a concert across the street by the local band Mercy Mercy Me who starred and urinated in “Slopdog Millionaire.” It was an amazing experience to watch their documentary and then see them live. I cannot think of a better way to end the opening night at the Indie Grits Film Festival. I feel empowered and renewed with my new knowledge of religion and music. Now I can hang with the kids and enjoy their music instead of being an outsider who does not understand what kids are up to these days. Thank you Indie Grits!

-Gabriel Kipling Tyner

Found these trains in my room

The sun was setting when the train arrived at the Winter Park Amtrak station.  At the station, I met a couple who were going all the way….  To Washingtoon, DC. Got on the train, got my seat, and sat down next to a strange lady with a red sweater.  Nice Lady.   Good Lady.   She was a fragile looking Latin woman who appeared to be afraid of crackers. I tried my best to avoid her , but she was right next to me with nothing to divide us.
Eventually, I work up the courage to walk three cars back to the “Snack Car.” While trying to maneuver my way amongst the jittering cars I notice that almost everyone is asleep and wrapped in a white blanket or watching movies on their laptops and mini-DVD players. It was a train sub-culture and this was not their first rodeo. Finally, I make it to the “Snack Car,” and it is not as glamorous as I had hoped. There are several small white tables surrounded by two person booths. Some people have decided that the “Snack Car” is a better place to sleep. I grab some chips and get out before the scary guy with the crooked teeth sipping Budweiser tries to fondle me.
After surviving the snack car, I finally make it back to my seat where the little Latin lady in the read sweater is taking a nap. I try to keep quiet, but then a gentleman on my left offers me a shot of whiskey. At first, I declined, but then I find out that he is in the army and will be leaving for Afghanistan. So I said “cheers” and down it went. He started the conversation with talk about these bombs call Moab bombs that have just been approved for use in Afghanistan. He says they are only one step down from an atomic bomb. These bombs weigh about 20,000 lbs and contain 7,000 lbs of C-4. The man in the army tells me that one lb of C-4 will take out an entire block. Also, he tells me that we have more troops In Afghanistan than Iraq. After my second shot, I notice that the army kid is getting along very well with a gentleman in front of me who is a marine. They talk for awhile and then step outside to smoke a cigarette. When the return, the Marine in front of me hands me a cheeseburger. Who can so no to our boys out there fighting for us? So now it’s a whiskey and cheeseburger party. I put my headphones on and listen to Alicia Keys’ new album, but the rumbling of the train and the 11 o’ clock hour has me in a trance. Slumber overwhelms me.
“Next stop, Columbia South Carolina,” says the train conductor as I start to wake from my uncomfortable, sporadic, and sitting up in a train sleep. It’s 3am and we still have an hour to go.
We had arrived in Columbia, but the Latin woman was confused about where we were. I told her in Spanish “Estamos en Columbia,” and she finally smiles and thanks me. I get off the train and walk over to the station. I am greeted by Andrew and Isaac, who I wave at since I recognized Andrew from some Facebook pictures that were posted, and they yell “Wooohooooo.” Right away we are old drunk friends meeting at the train station at 4 O’ Clock in the morning. We get in their car and are whisked away into the Columbia night scene. We make our way to Larry Humbree, Executive Director of The Nickelodeon Theater, house where I will stay.
In my room there are two toy trains. Finally I can rest until our big opening tonight at the Nickelodeon.

The Director, Getting ready to ride the train in Winter Park.

Here comes the train. Let's do this

The is looking back from my seat on the train.