Swan Song for COYOTE GIRL

Big news in New Orleans. A local coyote paid a visit to the second floor veranda of a hot dog emporium at the corner of Frenchman and Chartres. Quell Surprise! The morning shift opened up to find a young coyote behind the door. Both creatures shied, yipped, and ran the other way, the coyote to the veranda overlooking Frenchmen, the human to a smart phone and animal control. Meanwhile Coyote nestled into a corner and waited, looking down on fools looking up to see a coyote. 1/24/17

COYOTE GIRL screened Saturday morning, 1/28, at Cinema on the Bayou Film Festival in Lafayette, LA. A big thank you to Pat and Rebecca and all the volunteers who made Cinema on the Bayou such a pleasant place to hangout for a weekend. Time well spent in the company of film lovers and filmmakers from around the world. COYOTE GIRL was beautifully exhibited. Picture and sound were gorgeous. Props, kudos, congrats. 1/30/17

With our January 28th screening at Cinema on the Bayou, COYOTE GIRL played her swan song as a festival entry. Our shelf life is up. Thanks to the Snake Alley Festival of Film, New Arts Film Festival, Route 66 Film Festival, Boston International Film Festival (Best Experimental Film), Twin Falls Sandwiches Film Festival and Cinema on the Bayou for giving our story an audience. All a storyteller ever really needs is someone to listen and play along. 2/3/17

Accepted to BostonIFF!

Great news for Outcast Café and our North Eastern friends & family… COYOTE GIRL has been accepted to the Boston International Film Festival!

After several wonderful Mid-Western festivals near our shoot location (and our Westfield friends & family) we’re delighted to have the opportunity to screen in our home state of Massachusetts.

The festival promises a diverse crowd of inspiring fellows : ” … a festival dedicated to rewarding artists for their individual talents and for their creative expression through the medium of film. The festival strives to bring together in Boston local, national and international filmmakers by promoting the world’s most artistic and creative independent and experimental films.”

On BostonIFF’s welcome page Governor Baker says, “The Boston International Film Festival celebrates those artists who, through the power of cinema, capture our imagination to make us laugh and cry, think and change” and Festival Founder, Patrick Jerome, says, “The filmmakers will be sharing their diverse and powerful visions of humanity. Our greatest hope is that through these films the audience will be inspired and encouraged to embrace all the world’s cultural diversity and work towards a more understanding, peaceful world.” Sounds pretty great to us!

Riley Ann (Gail Shalan and Old Man (Robert Biggs) in action! A still from our upcoming short film Coyote Girl. — Riley Ann (Gail Shalan) and Old Man (Robert Biggs) in action! A still from our short film Coyote Girl.

The 13th Annual BostonIFF will take place April 14th – 18th at the Loews Cineplex / AMC, Paramount Theaters and Broadway Pictures Entertainment Studio in Boston, MA.

"You've been gnawing on mine ever since" - Old Man (Robert Biggs) — “What’s eating you?” – Old Man (Robert Biggs)

Join Gail (Riley Ann/ Coyote in COYOTE GIRL) at BostonIFF! Purchase tickets here (more details on schedule to follow).

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COYOTE GIRL Accepted Again!

We’ll see you at the Route 66 Film Festival on Saturday, November 7th. Our film will be playing in Session 5 held between 7 and 10 pm. The festival is in Springfield, IL, just West of our shoot location on the Biggs’ Farm in Westfield.

The Route 66 Film Festival is in it’s 14th year and we are very honored to be a part of it! We are looking forward to experiencing this festival that claims to have “something for everyone” from shorts to features, experimental films to docs, local to international films.

On their Facebook page they state: “The general theme of our festival is journey, whether emotional, physical, spiritual or personal. We strive to introduce audiences to talented artists from around the world, as well as the American Midwest.”

You can see more of what they are about and keep up to date on their announcements by following them here: https://www.facebook.com/TheRoute66InternationalFilmFestival/info/?tab=page_info

But, of course, we’ll keep you updated, too.

Puppetry feels like:

Happy National Poetry Day!

Starlings in Winter

by Mary Oliver

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire
and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.

Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard. I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.