Today's L.A. Film Premiere, Our Books, and the Indie Filmmaking Life

I love being an independent filmmaker.

It is a lonely life. But the rewards are great. To make movies that are important to you, that no one else can make....filmmaking can be very satisfying. Take it from me, the son of a stripper. My films are really out there. If there is an audience for my movies, I'm living proof that anyone can make a movie. No matter what.

A lot's going on this fall with our low-budget film company Dixie Productions:

Today is the official Los Angeles premiere of our award winning short documentary film THE ACCEPTABLE SIN! After over 30 film festival screenings worldwide, the film about the direct link between obesity and religion, finally plays L.A. today through Sunday, daily at the Blue Planet Film Festival.

Our brand new documentary short film 2 OLD WHORES is being released to the film festival circuit, scheduled to begin playing early 2011.

2 weeks ago, our hit comedy short film PHONE SEX GRANDMA rocked Atlantic City; last week, ACCEPTABLE SIN had its Colorado premiere in Pikes Peak; the L.A. premiere is this weekend; and next month, our award-winning documentary short film THE OUTHOUSE has its Kentucky premiere at the River's Edge Film Festival. To date, our short films have screened at over 300 film festivals worldwide. And continue to rock the festival world.

We are still in production for our feature film documentary THE OLD STRIPPER. After over 4 years of shooting, production continues for this upcoming mind-blowing feature film.

Other projects are currently in development as well.

And for our books.....

The book department of our business, Dixie Publishing, continues to release amazing books. Last year's inspirational autobiography THOUGHTS OF A STRIPPER: A Mother's Story is available only on Amazon and Lulu. Recently, the new reference book ANIMAL CRUELTY LAW IN THE UNITED STATES, A Comparative Analysis, became available on Amazon. And our recent humor book 100 STORIES FROM AN OLD STRIPPER just became available on the internet library. You can check out all of the available books from Dixie Publishing's library HERE

One busy fall. With books and films. And with the life of an independent filmmaker - the son of a stripper.

The DIXIE PUBLISHING Library on LULU

THE OUTHOUSE in San Francisco....

Well....

This has been one busy week out here in the middle of nowhere, to say the least.....

Last night was the World Premiere of our new documentary short THE ACCEPTABLE SIN in New Mexico. And tomorrow, is the West Coast premiere of our new hit short film THE OUTHOUSE!

THE OUTHOUSE will be playing San Francisco's Frozen Film Festival. I'm so glad an audience in California is going to have a chance to see this film.

And I just got word today that THE OUTHOUSE will be playing again this summer in California in Santa Barbara!

All of this....plus these other projects....it's a busy time out here in farm country....

Wish I could be in California tomorrow night!!!!

THE X-RATED GRANDMA on Indiegogo

Well...we now have a new website for our film project THE X-RATED GRANDMA....

INDIEGOGO!

Indiegogo has partnered with us to help us raise money to make our new feature film. It took me over 2 years, but I finally filmed the movie, and got that done...7 different short films of my Mother Opal, aka PHONE SEX GRANDMA!

We've got to raise just a little more money to get the editing done for this film, so we can start getting it out on the film festival circuit. Indiegogo is going to try to help us make this happen.

PHONE SEX GRANDMA, THE OUTHOUSE, THE 60 YEAR OLD STRIPPER, THE ACCEPTABLE SIN....these little short films I've made have played over 60 festivals worldwide....now we just need to finish editing our first feature...and we'll already have a worldwide film market for THE X-RATED GRANDMA to play!

One Crazy Sunday...

Well, it's Sunday out here in the sticks...and I can't believe the day I've had. Out here in the middle of nowhere.

I think this is a record day for me as a filmmaker....acceptance wise.

I got up late. This frozen shoulder bone has been killing me for months, and I haven't been able to sleep for shit. But after I got up, had my coffee, and a vanilla cigar smoke, I went to check my emails...

My new film THE OUTHOUSE got 2 acceptances today from festivals; at San Francisco's Frozen Film Festival, and Washington's Washougal Film Festival. It'll be the state premieres of THE OUTHOUSE in California and Washington. That makes 15 festivals this year for the new short so far.

Then, if that wasn't enough, I got an invitation for PHONE SEX GRANDMA to Spain's largest Gay and Lesbian Festival.

Then, on top of that, I received an update email of our Dallas screening next week of THE OUTHOUSE.

And on top of that, I have several fee waivers from festivals for my new short THE ACCEPTABLE SIN.

Things are nuts out here. I don't know how I get everything done. I feel like I'm going mad; promoting PHONE SEX GRANDMA like hell on YouTube, getting THE OUTHOUSE and PHONE SEX GRANDMA promoted on the film festival circuit, getting my new short THE ACCEPTABLE SIN submitted to festivals, getting this new project finished for Slamdance next year....keeping all my blogs and social networks going....and trying to make a buck with all of this as well. Plus, working on trying to start shooting my first narrative feature film this fall. And that doesn't even include the lists of things I need to get done that aren't even being touched.

It's a crazy life out here in the boonies....especially when you don't have anyone else working with you, and are doing everything yourself....but I love it. I have total control, and am making my films my own way.

But things are becoming so large, they're getting out of my hands and out of my control. I think that's a good thing.

John Steinbeck once said, "Ideas are like rabbits...you get one or two, learn to control them, then pretty soon, you have a dozen." How true that is.