Rotterdam Film Festival

                                                                           


Eight challenging years in the making, Sammy-Gate is finally complete and I am humbled by its results. Without question, this is my Putney Swope.  It evokes that kind of hilarity.  I can now say a product of my life’s effort includes an actor who worked with the great Orson Welles and another whose childhood home was the set of Scream, Blacula Scream.  Not bad for a first fiction feature.  Additionally, I am also pleased to announce Sammy-Gate will have its world premiere before a sophisticated and discerning audience at the 49th edition of The International Film Festival Rotterdam!  


https://iffr.com/en/2020/films/sammy-gate?fbclid=IwAR2xaZBe53d0uQsaFpIPIV1zaxjoGvb_wp8Fr-DK0JFGDyyUYyt4Jv2FWcQ 

As grand as all this seems, the reality is I do not have the funds required for a stay in Rotterdam.   The festival won’t provide my travel, housing or meals. I’m just a writer, not the actual ‘author’ (filmmaker) -- oh, I was surprised two weeks ago by a round-trip flight given by an anonymous donor, but that’s the extent of my resources -- I land in Amsterdam ten days prior to the start of the festival,  uncertain where I will bed. I don’t have the community there I have in Berlin. And its essential I am present to support the film.

                                           

Sammy-Gate was a long, eight-year process marred not only by the usual production pitfalls but personal tragedy, depression, mental breakdown, and empty pockets.  We had no commercial or institutional support. The film’s execution is due solely to the talents and resources of Noel Lawerence (with a little help from my texts and ideas).  That is the mark of a filmmaker. What can you do with nothing?


Noel’s ability to create a connective cinematic narrative without a single frame of unedited footage blew my freakin’ mind.  There are a few missteps, but in the final cut, images arise out of nowhere, providing a narrative cohesion that did not exist in previous versions.  The images I saw were definitely not shot on set but were created by the mind in some masterful trick of editing. That was some form of diabolic wizardry. I was fortunate in finding the collaborator I found in Noel.  Our creative thoughts swam in similar streams. We were in great rapport. How can I not support this face?

                                           


I calculate I will need a minimum of twenty-five hundred dollars ($2.500.00 USD) to cover costs for a four and a half week stay.   To avoid immediate destitution upon landing in Holland, my solution is to travel by train to Berlin (128 Eur/ 6 hrs), and return at the start of the festival.  My travel costs in and around Europe will be about $500 dollars; hostels without membership fees is $35 - $40 dollars for a single each night; and roughly $1,000.00 to cover monthly household expenses in the US while I’m gone.   This calculation doesn’t include meals and sundry items. Amsterdam is actually a great city for used, hard-to-find English-language books. Also, unlike other periods, alcohol will not cause a problem. I have been clean for well into two years.  Otherwise, I’m smart about drugs. I was the kid in high school who consulted a PDR. 

The final day of the festival is February 2nd  and I return to the U.S. on the 16th. During those two weeks, I plan to record the Voudon-inspired spoken-word texts I’ve been writing for the past five years with various talents I know in Berlin: Eric D. Clark, Ghazi Barakat, Jon Evans and others. I also plan to go to Copenhagen and record with Nigerian-Norwegian singer Linda Lazer and have my portrait photographed by Danish-Ghanian artist Laura Ann Morrison for my upcoming Patreon page.


                                                   


I will continue promoting Sammy-Gate in Berlin.  Plans are already underway for a night of readings, music and film at a night-time commie hotspot.  I also hope to resume my internet-based radio program Dr. Snakeskin’s Hoodoo Kitchen at the House of World Culture.    

                                          http://reboot.fm/2012/09/16/dr-snakeskins-hoodoo-kitchen-with-joaquin-la-habana/ 


Admittedly, a so-called artist panhandling loose coins in order to hang out at a European film festival is clearly a booshie first-world problem. But contrary to misinformed and shoddy journalism, I am not the progeny of the paper-bag-testing set.  I come from educated working-class people. My mother was a psychiatric nurse who conceived, designed and created the nation’s first outpatient program through the Ct. Mental Health Center in New Haven. My father was a painter/ sculptor/ jazzbo who inspected rocket parts to support his family.  He made sure Neil Armstrong arrived safely on the moon. Pops had an amazing line.  Bold. Original  Knowing.  But art foundations weren’t trampling each other to support his black ass, either.  His occasional sales were to condescending shrinks.  


                                              


The point is I don’t have a trust fund.  And its never been easy for anyone with a stubborn vision. They are required to have the courage to give themselves the permission to be and be supported in that permission.  


Otherwise, without that courage, they fade into the herd, never to be.  Its especially important now to support those needful artists, particularly those artists of the resistance, given the Morlocks have set the table with polished silverware.