THE KILLING GAMES PRESS RELEASE
I got an email today about Barry J. Gillis' The Killing Games and thought I'd pass it along to all of you that read my blog. The film looks interesting and has a kinda Edward Lee vibe to it. It's looks very interesting.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Monday August 27th, 2012
Exosphere Motion Pictures
Edmonton, Alberta
http://www.THEKILLINGGAMES.com/
exospheremotionpictures@yahoo.com
BANNED IN EDMONTON, “THE KILLING GAMES” GETS WORLD
PREMIERE AT THE CALGARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FEST.
The Calgary International Film Festival has said that THE KILLING GAMES will make
it's World Premiere on Saturday September 22nd as a part of the Late Show Series. “We
are just ecstatic that Calgary has accepted the movie to Premiere at their festival,” States
director Barry J. Gillis.
Bruce Fletcher who is a programmer with The Calgary International Film Festival told
Gillis that he watched the movie twice, and found the movie to be very entertaining.
Gillis continues, “We're so happy that Bruce, Brenda Lieberman and The Calgary
International Film Festival were brave enough to take a chance on THE KILLING
GAMES, especially after the movie was turned down in Edmonton.”
In May, Gillis was told that his feature film THE KILLING GAMES was “too violent
for The Edmonton International Film Festival.” Gillis was shocked by the decision,
mainly because he resides in Edmonton.
“Yes, I was shocked,” laments Gillis, “but that's all in the past now. We're heading South
down to the great city of Calgary where Oscar-nominated Canadian director Deepa
Mehta's film MIDNIGHT'S CHILDREN,” is going to open the Calgary International
Film Festival. Brandon Cronenberg's movie ANTIVIRAL will also be playing in the
Late Show Series, and we couldn't dream of being apart of anything bigger and better
than that.”
The Calgary International Film Festival is world renowned for their hospitality and the
way that they treat filmmakers and film fans alike. “Calgary gets upwards of 50,000 fans
attending their festival. Tourists, fans, great films, and the best parties... I mean, this is
huge for us Gillis says with a grin.
Calgary and Edmonton have been rival cities for many years. “Yes, the two cities have
been at it for what seems like forever” says Gillis with a laugh, “however, Calgary is not
just going to accept a movie because Edmonton turned it down. I mean, THE KILLING
GAMES is entertaining as hell, just ask Jason Eisener who directed HOBO WITH A
SHOTGUN starring Rutger Hauer.
THE KILLING GAMES is a disturbing feature film about a man who's wife is dying of
a mysterious illness. The man contemplates taking the law into his own hands, after his
daughter witnesses a double homicide and narrowly escapes the grasp of two serial
THE KILLING GAMES was shot in Wabuman, Lac St. Anne, Alberta Beach and
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It stars Donald A. Morin, leading actor of the acclaimed
French Canadian feature film Windigo. It also stars Denmark's Kim Sonderholm, who
has been involved in over 100 movies, including his latest outing entitled “LITTLE BIG
BOY.” Calgary actor Ace Hanna also stars in the movie as the troubled Dr. Winters.
The Calgary International Film Festival is in it's 13th great year. This years festival runs
from August 20th to August 30th and is guaranteed to be the best film festival that the city
of Calgary, and province of Alberta has ever witnessed.
Edmonton Filmmakers Blacklisted Film now programmed by festival director who blacklisted him
ReplyDeleteWe at UFFO, the Universal Film and Festival Organization today received this message from Jeff Ross of the SF Indie Fest/Hole in the Head about a
Canadian film "The Killing Games Film" made by an Edmonton filmmaker who was blacklisted on the Film Festival Organizers group on Facebook. We at UFFO stepped in and objected to such blacklisting of filmmakers and was ambushed by a group of festivals and banned from the forum for standing up for filmmakers who had no voice on the forum. Our magazine the Universal Film magazine have covered this recently www.ufmag.,org
The is the message from Jeff Ross the Director of the SF Indie Fest and Another Hole in the Head festival who is informing us he has programmed the film by the filmmakers who was blacklisted by Jeff Ross and others
. - Jeff Ross - "Hey! Great piece in the magazine about the blacklisting of filmmakers! Though, the one filmmaker you said was being blacklisted seems to have not had too much a hard time getting booked for fesivals. Why, lookee here, they are playing at one of my festivals even. But, why let facts and stuff interfere with such a riveting, timely story..."
Tyrone D Murphy - This is the very same film festival run by Jeff Ross who took part in blacklisted Barry J Gillis on the Film Festival Organizers forum on Facebook. This is clearly a move by Jeff Ross of the SF Indie Fest/Holeinthehead festival to fend off the allegations that he took part in blacklisted Gillis Recent article in the Universal Film Magazine www.ufmag.biz about the blacklisting of Barry Gillis.
Should Barry Gillis now see through what Jeff Ross is doing and pull the film "The Killing Games" as he will surly be manipulated if he attends the festival or should Barry go along with being manipulated by Jeff Ross despite being blacklisted by Jeff Ross and others.
Universal Film and Festival Organization promotes "Best Business Practices" for film festivals. It is led by actress Maureen O'Hara and has 170 international film festivals and a magazine going out to over 1.65 million. UFFO and UFM are non-profit
This smear is being published on many blogs today. Michael at theeveningclass.com had a great response, and i hope he doesnt mind me sharing it here.
ReplyDeletehttp://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2012/11/holehead-2012-preview.html
With all due respect, Martha, I find this comment a rather shameless promotion of UFFO and its magazine within the alleged context of this recent blacklisting "controversy" and within the comments section of an individual's blog. I normally don't publish such comments but feel it's important to do so here, so that UFFO can speak their piece and not feel they have been censored. Boasting a readership of nearly 2 million, I would think UFFO's opinions have already been fully voiced to their satisfaction; but, apparently not.
It needs to be stressed that Jeff Ross, though the founder and managing director of the San Francisco Independent Film Festival--under whose aegis the Holehead Film Festival is grouped--is not the programmer for Holehead. That honor goes to Eric Ringer. And in the instance of The Killing Games, that film was programmed by guest programmer Bruce Fletcher, so your facts aren't quite accurate in your heated insinuation that Barry Gillis is being manipulated by Jeff Ross in order for Ross to distance himself from your allegations of blacklisting. That's just downright silly. My understanding is that Barry is quite excited to have his film screen at Holehead, where its violence seems aptly suited.
The San Francisco Indie Film Festival, and Another Hole in the Head in particular, have always been strikingly maverick DIY operations granted credence by their supportive audiences. Anyone who attends these festivals and has met Jeff Ross knows he is a gruff individual who suffers no fools, so I can't speak to however he might have behaved on the Facebook forum, and frankly I'm not much impressed with such meta-thrashes. To demand that IndieFest and Holehead conform to the "best business practices" UFFO is striving to promote misses the point about Holehead's unique contrarian presence on the film festival landscape, and unattractively presents UFFO as something of a policing agency. It's a rather inflated position for UFFO to presume they can tell other festivals how they should be run. The beauty of the film festival landscape is its diversity and its negotiation with specific local constituencies.
Granted, I firmly believe that any film festival has the right to include or exclude any film they deem inappropriate for their program, and I trust such choices are made responsibly and with full awareness of possible consequences, which can include boycotting (as with the controversy over TIFF's inaugural City to City spotlight on Tel Aviv some years back), resulting in poor attendance, or plain bad press.
In this instance, by slapping Jeff Ross on the wrists, I'm pretty convinced you've guaranteed a sold-out audience for this film. I'm going to consider this a win-win for everyone. You've had your fun shaming Jeff, the film gets seen, the director can decide for himself whether or not he feels manipulated, and San Francisco gets to see a film that most others won't. That's what makes Holehead unique and I'm all for it.