tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79804219725942182722024-03-05T12:15:42.741-06:00Six Man, TexasA documentary about the real Friday night lights.Gable Barberhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11650048897171461264noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-21157258073002599062009-01-28T15:32:00.002-06:002009-01-28T15:42:41.424-06:00Benefit Screening in Waco<div><br /></div><div>Our FIRST OFFICIAL Scholarship benefit screening will be in Waco this Saturday (01/31/09) benefitting the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Six Man, Texas Scholarship Fund. The screening is at the WISD Playhouse Theater at 201 N. Jack Kultgen Expressway, Waco, TX, 76704. It is at 12:30 pm this Saturday (Super-Bowl Saturday). A little reality check before the hype of the Super bowl.</div><div><br /></div><div>Please attend and show your support for the Six Man community. There will be tee shirts for sale as well and we will probably give away a DVD or two of the film. There will also be a few surprise guests. There are no lawns to mow this time of year so drop by for a good time and a worthy cause! </div>GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-13290494830960509972008-12-14T15:24:00.008-06:002008-12-14T21:38:49.271-06:00AUDIENCES LOVE USWELL - THEY DO:<div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.indie-fest.com/SFFF/"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 125px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHxhinHddPU-Q_7SIIfk1Y4DYQeQ8WA5LjjV2kCm_2JNByTaAFhk8uzL0M7hSTLxTS7MIu_gErGAinBxibpyPXP2A1RDe-GdfSowFJMXF5EeK2S2ADxPYIQfJFW_bQ-9iOZfDkEYzrlr8/s320/SFFF+winners_1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5279392484963231602" /></a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>We recently outscored all other entrants in the <a href="http://www.indie-fest.com/SFFF/">IndieFest Competition</a> at the <a href="http://www.santafefilmfestival.com/">Santa Fe Film Festival</a>. In fact, we had almost double the number of votes as all the other entrants combined. A huge THANK YOU to everyone who visited, voted and helped. As a result of the competition we are hoping to have a distribution deal with <a href="http://www.indieflix.com/">IndieFlix</a> early next year and FINALLY have DVDs to sell to the public. </div><div><br /></div><div>In addition, we are scheduling our first official Scholarship Screening to raise funds for the <a href="http://sixmantexas.com/scholarship.html">Dru Barber Memorial Scholarship Fund</a>. The date is January 31st, the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday at a theater in Waco, Texas. So invite everyone you know to raise funds for a worthy cause. Details will follow soon.</div><div><br /></div><div>Again, thanks to everyone who helped - ALAN</div><div> </div><div> </div>GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-17392264294503435042008-11-24T23:22:00.006-06:002008-11-24T23:38:49.369-06:00People's Choice Award at the Rockport Film Festival!!I think this graphic just about says it all!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-DgGL1lTR01Hip3NO4-NL9E4tTCDCgekZa2vBz6oOLLZi5TaHA_zKMzirbuwkfoXuSj20meqyI2pE0bXzk7YjFtu2xdREjN2aLHmzK6a95OZzD6BH19zBMMy4bq4OeWrg4RXgWJ93Sbw/s1600-h/WINNERS_PEOPLESCHOICE_LAUREL.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 177px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-DgGL1lTR01Hip3NO4-NL9E4tTCDCgekZa2vBz6oOLLZi5TaHA_zKMzirbuwkfoXuSj20meqyI2pE0bXzk7YjFtu2xdREjN2aLHmzK6a95OZzD6BH19zBMMy4bq4OeWrg4RXgWJ93Sbw/s320/WINNERS_PEOPLESCHOICE_LAUREL.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5272464697887917410" border="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><ul><li>Rockport Film Festival <a href="http://rockportff.blogspot.com/2008/11/best-documentary-short-elegy-for.html">winners list</a></li><li>Rockport Film Festival <a href="http://rockport.bside.com/2008/">website</a></li></ul><br /><a href="http://rockportff.blogspot.com/2008/11/best-documentary-short-elegy-for.html"></a>Dipuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12986327144004256080noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-89820268180632580762008-10-05T11:38:00.003-05:002008-11-24T23:40:26.849-06:00AUSTIN FILM FESTIVALAfter a bit of a dry spell, we learned that we will finally be screening "Six Man, Texas" in our hometown of Austin, Texas. From the latest Press Release:<div><br /></div><div>"AUSTIN, TEXAS - September 24th, 2008 - The 'poignant and haunting' documentary Six Man, Texas will celebrate it's Austin Premiere at the upcoming Austin Film Festival. Screenings are scheduled for 5:30 pm Sunday, October 19th at the Alamo Drafthouse LakeCreek and at 7 pm Thursday, October 23rd at the Arbor Theater. The film captures the struggle of rural communities to keep their small schools open and to keep playing their unique six-man version of football. A team of Austin Filmmakers, created by the collaboration of NEVERTOOLATE Films and Visual Vagos, spent over 7 years chronicling small Texas towns and a heart-wrenching Cinderella championship season.</div><div><br /></div><div>'We are excited to be screening during the prestigious Austin Film Festival,' said Alan Barber, producer and director of Six Man, Texas. 'We know Austin's diverse and vital film community will connect with our story, and we feel like we are finally coming home.' "</div><div><br /></div><div>As we sent our acceptance confirmation and information to the Austin Film Festival we were notified that we had also been accepted to the Rockport Film Festival in early November. Couple that with a few 'invites to submit - fee waived' from other festivals and it feels like a fall roll for our little film. Additionally, we will be working through a rep to get our film in front of acquisition execs at the American Film Market in LA during November. </div><div><br /></div><div>Soooo - will we make the playoffs? Check our website for additional screenings and stay tuned! </div>GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-24584587696960151732008-08-09T15:33:00.002-05:002008-08-09T15:53:46.807-05:00NEVER KNOWYOU NEVER KNOW where connections might lead. Although the Gloria film Festival was not a big event for our film (truth be told, it was mostly filmmakers, critics and a few aspiring writers), the Screenwriting Seminars I attended were quite helpful. They addressed STRUCTURE which I have never understood in a simple way, until now. Rob Tobin lays out a simple formula that can be at least a starting point if not the whole story on traditional screenwriting/storytelling structure.<br /><br />In addition, I made a few filmmaker contacts who might help move some of our stories along from our Pow Wow. I discussed with Rob before I left Salt Lake that we were seeking distribution and he indicated he would talk to some folks he knew in LA. Then, out of the blue this morning, I get an email from Rob, who has also written a book called "The Screenwriting Formula". Copied below is the text of Rob's email <br /> <br />"Hey, Heather: <br /><br />How’s my favorite redhead (sort of)? I just returned from the Gloria Film Festival in Utah where I gave a couple of lectures on screenwriting. I was treated extremely well by exec director Wayne Lee, and I saw some great films. <br /> <br />The film that impressed me the most was an absolutely BRILLIANT 71 minute documentary called "Six Man Texas" which looks at the phenomenon of disappearing small towns in Texas through the filter of six-man high school football. It's an amazing film and if any of you have the ability to help the film's producers sell/distribute that film, contact me at scripts@earthlink.net and I'll put you in touch with them. I get absolutely nothing out of this except the satisfaction of seeing an extremely worthy film reaching an audience. <br /> <br />Unrelated to this great little film, I'm also looking for funds and distribution for one of my own award-winning scripts, "The Life and Times of Lesbian Alien Opera Singers." I have more than a dozen independent film producers actively interested in the script but none have been able to come up with the full funding needed to produce it. The script and an executive summary are available upon request, with a budget of $10 million (the film can actually be shot for as little as $2 million below the line). I also have a Canadian company offering to fund half the budget in matching funds (in the form of government tax incentives, rebates, etc. -- I'm Canadian), and a European bank that has sent me a LOI (Letter of Interest) stating they're willing to supply 50% of a $10-$20 million budget in matching funds.<br /> <br />Thanks and good writing/filmmaking to all of you!<br /> <br />Rob Tobin<br />scripts@earthlink.net"<br /><br />So you never know where things might lead. Heather has replied to Rob and wants to see a screener, so come Monday one more Six Man, Texas screener is headed to LA. Feed the beast and maybe either desire or indigestion will spit something good back our way.<br /><br />YOU NEVER KNOW - ALANGABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-26356168340387856212008-07-08T22:35:00.002-05:002008-07-08T22:38:27.636-05:00NEXT PREMIERE!WE ARE HAPPY to announce that our next Premiere of the film will be at the Gloria Film Festival (http://www.gloriafilmfest.org/) on August 2nd at 4:30 pm. We are so happy to have a second premiere within a few months of the World Premiere at AFI Dallas. Go to the Gloria Film Festival website and check it out or make a comment if you have seen the film. AND, if you are anywhere in the Salt Lake City area that weekend PLEEEEEZE attend the screening and cheer loudly. Maybe we will throw out footballs again!!GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-87289497364380673562008-07-02T18:51:00.001-05:002008-07-02T18:53:33.281-05:00OUR BEST SCREENINGA PRIMER - "How to have fun AND find your audience"<br /><br />Sometimes it is the smallest of coincidences, sometimes big breaks, sometimes who you know, sometimes a network right under your nose and sometimes it is a hot day in August. Hell, it is always a hot day in August in Texas.<br /><br />One hot Friday evening in August 2005, on the opening weekend of football season, my film team and I jumped from High School stadium to High School stadium in Austin to ask fans attending their local games if they had heard of Six Man Football. Our intention was to create an opening sequence for the film "Six Man, Texas", showing how most football fans had not heard of Six Man football even in Texas, where Six Man is bigger than anywhere else. We also knew UT was opening their season on Saturday so we met early the next morning to catch a few UT tailgaters before the crowds hit.<br /><br />We drove to the guards near the stadium and talked them into letting us park illegally for a few hours and interview the early tailgate crowds as they were setting up for the game that day. After a few hours of filming and paperwork we were ready to wrap it and find some lunch. But we decided to ask one last group as we lugged the gear back to the truck. When we asked if they had ever heard of Six Man one of them yelled, "Hey Ken, come talk to these guys, they wanna know about Six Man!" <br /><br />That is how we met Ken Capps, self-proclaimed Six Man aficionado and University of Texas booster par excellence. Ken proceeded to reveal many wonderful stories about his experiences watching Six Man while the camera rolled. That weekend I reviewed the footage, cut a rough together and took it to my editor, Mike Scannell, to review. We later included my opening sequence in the first cut of the film, but by December of that year mine was dropped in favor of Mike Scannell's much more visually compelling assembly of shots. Except for the Ken Capps sequence. Mike had fallen in love with Ken's enthusiasm and by the summer of 2007, as we approached a final cut of the film, Mike found a spot for a small piece of the Ken interview. <br /><br />Fast forward to Spring of 2008. After our fantastic World Premiere experience at AFI Dallas Ken inquired about a Private Screening at his Sports-themed Party Room built behind his house in one of the Old Dallas neighborhoods just North of the Inwood theater. He wanted to invite friends who missed the film, some sports-writers and press folks. So we decided to call it a Private Press Screening and Ken was off to the races organizing what would become, as Mike calls it, our best screening ever.<br /><br />From an invitation for a few friends and press folks the list grew until there was simply not enough room to hold everyone. So Ken installed ANOTHER SCREEN on the deck to hold the overflow. June 14th arrived and the crowd grew and grew until time to screen. It was by far the most involved crowd and the most fun, a diverse group of sports fans, friends of Ken's, press and players. Mix that with great BBQ, lots of drinks and snacks and you have a recipe for a great screening. We even had the Mai-Tai boat from Trader Vic's in Dallas to add to the drink options and ambience. Ken also found some shorts to warm up the crowd, a group of spots about Six Man in Texas done by his friend Tammie Kleinmann. The shorts were great pieces, beautifully done and informative. We were honored to have them screen before the film. <br /><br />There was a LOT of interest in our film after the screening and I am still following-up on opportunities to get the word out and move toward distribution. The lesson here? Find someone like Ken Capps for your film project, inspire them and let them run with the ball. You will have a much better time AND it will help you discover your true audience. Thank you Ken, and thank you to everyone who attended - ALANGABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-40061385252557776392008-04-19T20:09:00.003-05:002008-04-19T20:13:35.478-05:00WE'RE GUSHINGOUR WORLD PREMIERE at AFI Dallas was a great experience. Not only did we have two packed screenings (the first one completely sold out) but we were treated wonderfully by everyone in Dallas from the volunteers to the staff to other fans and filmmakers we met. We made some contacts that might be helpful for the film and are starting to follow up on those. We did as much shameless promotion as possible for Six Man, Texas and ended up getting rid of almost all of our posters (100) and postcards (500). We also had a great time throwing out footballs during both Q&As (got rid of 100 of those) and met with a lot of people who drove many miles from surrounding Six Man communities to Dallas just for our premiere. Thanks so much to everyone from Six Man communities who attended. All in all it was a wonderful time!<br /><br />And I cannot say enough about AFI Dallas, it is well-run and quite professional with very helpful and friendly volunteers. Target and Victory Park have gone out of their way to support a festival whose stature and importance can only grow in the festival community. I believe AFI Dallas will take its place alongside SXSW and Austin Film Festival as the best of Texas.<br /><br />As I said, we're gushing.......GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-51033380363983155172008-02-28T15:12:00.002-06:002008-02-28T15:15:04.094-06:00WORLD PREMIEREGREAT NEWS - Six Man, Texas will have it's World Premiere at the AFI Dallas Film Festival sometime between March 27th and April 6th. Check back for Details and screening times. We are sooooo happy to have a Texas Premiere.GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-80053227812825445962008-01-09T22:00:00.000-06:002008-01-09T23:18:27.015-06:00Credit where Credit is DueThere's an old saying that any publicity is good publicity, as long as they spell your name right. So just imagine the kick in the stomach you feel when you see a front page story on a project you poured your soul into and they don't mention your name at all.<br /><br />You may have already read Dipu's entry on this blog about the Christmas Day front page story on Six Man, Texas and how excited were all were about. After all, it was great publicity for our little documentary and an interesting read. Only problem was, a major contributor was not only left out of the mix, his considerable contributions were attributed to someone else. Unfortunately, that someone else was me.<br /><br />Some 6 or 7 column inches of type after the story jumped from Page 1 to A14, a paragraph reads:<br /><br /><blockquote>"He wasn't really sure what it was about," said Tom Chamberlain, an Austin film editor Barber hired in 2005 to help him untangle the images. He recommended that Barber revisit some of the towns and film something other than football game: Who knows what would develop?</blockquote><br /><br />That 'graph becomes 100% accurate when you replace "Tom Chamberlain" with "Mike Scannell." I winced when I read it, but felt even worse by the end of the piece, because that was the only mention of any crew other than Alan and coproducer Laura Toups.<br /><br />Now don't get me wrong, I'm not shy about taking credit. It's just I prefer it be legitimate. That 'graph was about Mike not me, and he should have gotten the mention. Two and a half years of slogging through 157+ hours of raw footage and 10 or 12 rough cuts, should earn you that. <br /><br />Heck, how about an interview at least? Mike wasn't interviewed, perhaps because the writer, Eric Dexheimer, got the impression I was the editor, and called me instead. (He knew I cut the trailer, and must have assumed I cut the movie too.) What's weirder still is, he quoted that quote he used in the piece as attributed to me by Alan. I immediately recognized this as something Alan would have said about Mike and told Eric that I didn't say that, Mike Scannell, the primary editor, did. <br /><br />Further, I explained that I was brought on later in 2005 to help Alan get that new footage. Yes, I proposed a story line we used as a starting point to direct the editing effort, but by the end of the interview, I was confident that I had made it clear that Mike was Editor in Chief and I was mainly a camera and lighting guy, who merely assisted in post production. I even remember suggesting that Eric interview Mike. <br /><br />So it was a shock to see that paragraph. I felt for Mike because I know exactly what that's like. A ferw years back, Nueva Onda, a restaurant near S. Congress and Oltorf screened my feature film, In Flagrante, as part of their movie night series. I sent a notice of the screening plus a press kit to the Statesman and the Chronicle. The Statesman ignored it, but to my delight, the Chronicle printed a boxed mention of the screening in the film section with a promo photo from the film. <br /><br />Then I read the accompanying text and my heart sank. Somehow, despite having a press kit with ample references to me having written and directed it, they attributed those jobs to some other guy, whose name I remember from the Film Threat review he wrote for the film. How ironic that some reviewer, who obviously never made a film in his life, was credited with mine.<br /><br />For goodness sake, none of us are getting rich off these films people! Could you at least get our names right? <br /><br />Having just written that, let me be clear that I don't mean to defame Eric with this post. He's a very nice guy, and a very good writer, and the story is more than we could have asked for. It's just that Mike did a fantastic job finding the film in Six Man, Texas and at the expense of an unbelievable amount of time. Simply put, he deserves credit for it.<br /><br />Tom ChamberlainTomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16981437438532974750noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-30265807036054309492007-12-25T21:07:00.000-06:002007-12-25T21:24:31.431-06:00A Great Christmas Present: The Front PageWe can't let Alan have all the fun on this blog. It <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> a group blog for the crew of <span style="font-style: italic;">Six Man, Texas</span>, after all. To introduce myself, I'm the assistant editor for the film as well as the <a href="http://sixmantexas.com">website</a> designer; I have also served as a still photographer, videographer, production assistant, and whatever else was needed behind the scenes. And now I can add blog writer to my <span style="font-style: italic;">Six Man, Texas</span> creds.<br /><br />So, our little documentary that could got a nice Christmas present this morning. We knew that an article about the film would be in the <span style="font-style: italic;">Austin American-Statesman</span> today. What we didn't know was that it would make the <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">front page! </span>Check out the article <a href="http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/12/25/1225sixman.html">here</a>.<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span>This morning it was on the front page of the website as well, including a big photo of Alan in front of a Six Man, Texas promotional sign; unfortunately, it's already been supplanted by more important breaking news about Mack Brown's winning record in bowl games. I was hoping to get a screen shot, but it was time to open presents and I didn't get back to this in time. Hopefully I can at least get my hands on a copy of the paper itself.<br /><br />Anyway, go read the article and let the <span style="font-style: italic;">Statesman</span> know that people are interested in this subject. Merry Christmas!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://img.coxnewsweb.com/B/01/27/77/image_6377271.jpg" /><br /></div>Dipuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12986327144004256080noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-61434645013439569972007-12-18T20:16:00.000-06:002007-12-18T20:27:54.138-06:00From Time to Time.....WHEN our website (sixmantexas.com) first appeared earlier this year I would receive emails from the Six Man football community with a heartfelt story about how Six Man football has touched their lives. I have saved those and, after asking permission from the authors, will reproduce them here from time to time.........<br /><br />I decided to post this one first:<br /><br />Dear Alan<br /> <br />My name is Marcelino Chavez, I was introduced to six-man football in 2003 at Westbrook High School just West of Colorado City on Interstate 20. If you blink, one will miss this small town. My career started with six-man football and the honor to coach my freshman son, moving from Coahoma Texas, my alma mater and graduate of 1974. We left for Westbrook at the encouragement of Coach Andrew Hannon, head football coach. My son was exposed to six-man football and this engagement was the perfect sport for my four-sport 5'8", 140 pound athlete. Trey had the some speed but his quickness made him a very dangerous runningback. His freshman year brought no known mentioning, except that he managed to start at safety for the last five games because of injuries we incurred during the season.<br /><br />His sophomore year he started as the Wildcat runningback and part-time quarterback, scoring 14 touchdowns 11 on offense and 3 on defense. During his junior year, he thrived on making opponents miss with his quickness and mediocre speed. Everything looked good for the Wildcats, five returning lettermen eight of them seniors, including my son.<br /><br />Trey was not an ordinary football player, his freshmen year, he qualified to the Regional Cross Country Meet as an individual, started his freshman as point guard for Westbrook that made the first round of the playoffs, scoring 11 ppg, and qualified for the State Tennis Tournament as one of the top eight singles' player in Class 1-A. As a sophomore he continued moving the Wildcats in the right direction in basketball as the all-district youngster scoring 15.2 ppg and also qualified as a team to the Regional Cross Country Meet, and placing third at the State Tennis Tournament in Austin.<br /><br />As a junior, again he looked very impressive scoring 16.0 ppg in round ball and taking the state runner-up in tennis. Everything was looking great in cross country, football, basketball, and tennis and nothing would stop him from making his mark during the final year. His first five games he was on his way to breaking many Westbrook records including 24 touchdowns. During the first game of the young district season on October 7, 2005, Trey scored the first two touchdowns against Borden County and we had a 22-6 lead going into the third quarter. Our QB got hurt and Trey took the helm and returned the opening second half kick-off to the Coyote 30 yard line.<br /><br />On the ensuing play, the ball was centered to the up back and tossed to Trey for a left side sweep, instead of stepping out of bounds, he took on the defender head on, as he was taught and another defensive player hit him from behind. Trey got up and went into the huddle and called the next play, they went to the line of scrimmage, but we had a player lined up off sides. After they set the ball in play, he began to sway from left to right holding his helmet. After I saw him he began to tell me that his head was burning at the right side of the forehead. We took him to the EMT's and they monitored his condition, until he began to throw up and I started yelling to take him to the Mitchell County hospital.<br /><br />The first physician to see him, told us to me to my relief that it looked like a concussion, but he wanted to run a CAT Scan. Upon reviewing the X-ray, he told me that Trey would have to be transported to Lubbock because he had a vein ruptured in his skull. He was airflighted to Lubbock Covenant Hospital where Dr. Richard George performed emergency brain surgery. He removed 1/3 of his skull put the bone that was removed to be frozen and they went in to repair the busted vessel. Dr. George's prognosis was very bleak, he told my wife and I that Trey would never be the same. He told us some disturbing news, that Trey might not be able to talk or walk again and that he would have to learn to talk again, if he survived at all.<br /><br />To everybody's amazement, Trey went on to become salutatorian of his class, received many academic scholarships and is playing Division III Tennis at Hardin Simmons University and scored a 3.0 in his first semester of his college life. He also placed second at the State Tennis Tournament seven months later.<br />We are proud of him....<br /> <br />Thank You,<br />Marcelino, Norma and Linsey Chavez<br /><br />SOME of the best parts of making the film were moments like this!GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-42730790809151979952007-12-13T09:11:00.000-06:002007-12-13T09:15:47.153-06:00After SEVEN YEARS of work, this is great to hear. COMMENTS from the Cast & Crew Screening"SIX-MAN, TEXAS is a poignant and powerful homage to a way of life too often overlooked and too fast disappearing. This is a sparkling gem of a documentary, done with small-town Texas warmth and grace..."<br />-- Carlton Stowers, author of WHERE DREAMS DIE HARD<br /><br /><br />"Incredible, out of sight perfect. I never had any idea how fast moving a sport (Six Man is). I'm not a big football fan, but that was great." <br />-- Thom Vaughn, Austin<br /><br /><br />"...it's got a lot of heart, I loved it. It tells a really important story." <br />-- Stacey Schoolfield, Producer – "Jumping Off Bridges"<br /><br /><br />"...very moving, very inspiring. I think it's a great opportunity for those guys to do something for their communities, and it's obviously very important to them" <br />-- Joe Restau, Austin<br /><br /><br />"...a good job of depicting what small town life is really like. It's very accurate and sad the way (it is) being lost." <br />-- Lewis McCarroll, Austin<br /><br /><br />"...definitely the sense of community (is) what's important about the whole story - we are losing that in America. This is a good example of why it's great and why it's pure and what we need to return to as a society. It made me feel warm inside that people actually care about each other and that a town can rally around one thing, even if it's just football." <br />-- Greg Cole, Austin<br /><br /><br />"I love all those little towns and I am a real believer that football is just as important to those guys...a good job of making you care about the team and the school. I really cared about them." <br />-- Charlotte Hutcheson<br /><br /><br />" For those whose impression of Texas and Texas football is overly influenced by a certain network television show, Six Man Texas will bring you back to reality." <br />-- David Barron, Houston Chronicle<br /><br /><br />"First time out, and you hit a home run..." <br />-- Teresa Burkett Bourgoise, Los AngelesGABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-69036969370766554442007-12-10T22:28:00.000-06:002007-12-10T23:20:32.236-06:00OLD SCHOOL TEXAS POLITICSLAST summer (2006) my film team and I were fortunate to interview Former Speaker of the Texas House Pete Laney for our documentary about the very small rural schools that play Six Man Football in Texas. I was raised in Lubbock but have been living in Austin since 1974. At that interview I realized that Speaker Laney reminded me a lot of former representative "Jake" Pickle from the Austin area. A public servant, a believer in our State and our country and a Texas liberal before some marketing jerk made it a bad word.<br /><br />But for me Laney was more than that. My whole family is from the West Texas and South Plains area and I had just met Pete for the interview that day. But being at Pete's little office in Hale Center was like having Sunday dinner after church at my grandmother's house in Lubbock many years ago and on many many Sundays during my childhood. It was a time where you felt important, cared about and part of something better. When you were part of our family and at my grandmother's house, regardless of your politics or religion, you were cared for, loved and respected. Even if they did look at me a little funny sometimes. I believe that is what Pete brought to Texas politics, a belief that we are all part of something better and it was his job to make the better happen. <br /><br />We have some great comments from Pete in our little film (<a href="http://www.sixmantexas.com">sixmantexas.com</a>) and it was an honor to have met him and have him take some time for a unknown, novice filmmaker. Our film deals with rural issues and rural schools through the eyes of Six Man football and I believe Pete will continue to contribute positively to those issues as long as he is with us.<br /><br />One comment of his sticks in my mind because it reminds me so much of the humor I grew up with in the vast cotton farming areas of the South Plains. I asked him what year he made the most money farming, he furrowed his brow for a moment searching for the year, then he smiled and said, "Next year...."<br /><br />Our interview could not have ended better!GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-21503710636774188242007-08-08T22:25:00.000-05:002007-12-10T23:10:34.243-06:00What made me do it?It was memories, as Dekard in Blade Runner says, “….memories, you gave them memories.” Those are our guilty parties, the memories that move us or haunt us. If we forget them, are we bound to repeat them? Maybe. But, even if we ignore them, sooner or later, some day when the water is glass and the sun is bright they will surface, like a beacon on the horizon, a speck in the ocean, to be replayed once again.<br /><br />My memory was of a trip to Texas/OU weekend in the fall of 1962 while attending Monterey High School in Lubbock, Texas. My best friend Jackie Bains and I headed full bore for Dallas in his sweet little 1960 Karmann-Ghia. We had no game tickets because we were after beer and girls and the mythical after-game parties dominating downtown Dallas. The route to Dallas from Lubbock in those days did not follow Interstate Highways so we drove through every little town along the way. On highway 114 in Guthrie we stopped at a restaurant for a quick lunch. It was probably 2 or 3 in the afternoon, way too late for lunch in a small Texas town even on Saturday. The restaurant was empty except for a corner table of ranch hands in Coveralls and Cowboy hats having mid-afternoon coffee. They eyed us when we walked in, two kids from the “big city” of Lubbock. And, it also happened that we were teenagers and naturally paranoid. We immediately thought we had done something wrong, something to offend. Maybe it was our German car, it was the 60’s Texas after all!<br /><br />We finished our plate lunch specials and were having the dessert of the day when one of the ranchers approached our table. Now we would find out for sure what we had done.<br /><br />“Where you boys from?”<br /><br />“Lubbock….”<br /><br />“Yeah, go to school there?”<br /><br />“Yeah, we go to Monterey”, we said. By now we were more curious than worried.<br /><br />“Monterey, it’s a good school. You boys oughta move here.”<br /><br />Now we really did not know what to make of this one. We were just normal kids, juniors in High School and we lived at home and it was the early 60’s in small town Texas. Not like we had our own condo. We were confused but tried to be polite……..”I’m not sure we could do that. I mean, we live at home with our parents.” It seemed simple enough to us, I guess we thought that would be the end of it.<br /><br />But he went on to sell the virtues of Guthrie and it’s small friendly high school and friendly townspeople and the great opportunity we would have to make top grades in a smaller school. And, he added, “…you could play football!”.<br /><br />We commented that we were not jocks and did not play football at Monterey. He looked at us as if we had simply lied to his face. <br /><br />After a few awkward seconds of silence he set the record straight, “It don’t matter, you boys’re big enough!”<br /><br />I glanced over at his buddies in the booth and they were all staring at us, as if they were waiting for a signal from their ringleader to crank up the diesel pickups and head for Lubbock to gather up our bedroom furniture while he called the local sheriff. <br /><br />I felt the need to be a bit more emphatic, “Thanks”, I said, “….but I don’t see how we could do that, what would we say to our parents? But thanks anyway.”<br /><br />He stared at me for a second, and then, ”Well….you boys think about it, we sure could use a couple more guys to make our Six Man football team this year.” Then he walked back and sat down. <br /><br />We didn’t feel like hanging around much longer so we quickly finished our dessert, paid the cashier and left the restaurant.<br /><br />“Jackie,” I said as we got back in the Ghia, “…..what the hell is Six Man football?” <br /><br />He just stared at me, shook his head and started the car. The resonators had been pulled for our trip and it sounded pretty good for a 40 horse VeeDub motor. Jackie then looked over and smiled, “Lets find some beer”. Then he wound it up through all the gears without taking his foot of the gas but for a split second. “and girls…..”, I added. Highway 114 was pretty much abandoned. Three minutes later we were almost at 55, Dallas would be a while.GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7980421972594218272.post-31613158786789544012007-07-26T22:24:00.000-05:002007-12-10T23:11:11.593-06:00My first documentary film, did I do anything right?After almost seven years, this question remains unanswered. The bigger question of why, after graduating with a BFA in Ceramics way back in 1969 and having started two businesses, would I want to make a film in the first place? I won’t even take a stab at that one, except to say that I ALWAYS wanted to make movies. In the late 90’s my plan was to retire in a few years and fish and build hot rods and maybe finish a series of paintings I started back in the 70’s. But I kept remembering that I always wanted to make movies. Every time I would see another film, every year I would stand in lines at SXSW, I would remember how much I wanted to make movies. And if you are reading this, you probably want to make films as well. So in 1999 I took a comprehensive film class in Austin, Texas, Production One by Steve Mims. <br /><br />After that class I realized that I was likely to old to start yet another career, that this was a game played by MUCH younger, smarter and more creative people and that the chances of making a “First Film” that anyone but a few friends and family would even want to see were minimal. The odds are stacked as there are literally THOUSANDS of films made in the US each year and only a few hundred secure any kind of distribution deal. But then I remembered that I ALWAYS wanted to make movies. I did not know it at the time, but other events were unfolding that would soon open the door to my first film.<br /><br />The final assignment in the class was a five minute film and I was pretty discouraged at that point since everything in class had started to feel too fast, too chaotic and very out of control. To top it off, when we screened at Dobie, my film was by far the worst in the class. Seriously, I am neither being modest or self-deprecating, it was a horrible, painful three and a half minutes. It would have been much worse if I actually had the time to stretch it out to five.<br /><br />During the last few days leading up to the screening I was ready to put my desire to make a film in the same box as my boyhood dream of going to the moon. Ain’t gonna happen! <br /><br />But then, once again, I remembered that I always wanted to make movies. So I was in conflict about why I even took the class for the last few weeks and after the screening I felt like a complete idiot to still hold onto the desire to do something cinematic. After the screening most of the class went for beer at the Dog and Duck on Guadalupe and I did not want to look the rest of the class in the eye after such a lousy showing. But I went anyway thinking, “They have already seen the worst, how much worse can it be?” I decided I would stay for only one beer and then go home and let go of yet another post mid-life crisis fantasy……………..GABhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00713430684144596981noreply@blogger.com0