IN APPRECIATION OF THE BRAMBLES: Queen Mob’s Teahouse & Portland International Film Festival

STRANGE THEMATIC CONFLUENCE ALERT: two of Sean’s pieces that focus on mysterious entities living in blackberry brambles are getting attention at the same time. A piece of his novel that he turned into a short story (Carrieanne & The Old Voice) was published on Queen Mob’s Teahouse on January 25th. He originally conceived that story over 13 years ago.

And now his newest short film (BRAMBLE ON) was recently selected as part of the 41st Portland International Film Festival. It’ll be playing on February 18th at 1:30pm at the NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium (located at the Portland Art Museum). Sean is pleased to live in thriving time for bramble art. He hopes to see you at PIFF!

 

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SEAN’S UNDERRATED OPINIONS

If you’re anything like Sean, then you probably spend hours and hours (and hours and hours) of your life sorting through VHS tapes in dusty backrooms of thrift shops and estate sales. But, if you live your life with more purpose than Sean, then you can just read a few of his articles he wrote for the website Rupert Pupkin Speaks to glean some of the best titles he’s stumbled across during all the tape-shuffling.

If you’re not familiar with the site, it was created to “Keep older films in the public consciousness via lists and short reviews.” Past contributors include Lars Nilsen (Austin Film Society), Zack Carlson (Bleeding Skull/Alamo Drafthouse) and Joe Dante (Gremlins, The ‘burbs). Brian Saur (founder of the site) is also co-host of the Pure Cinema Podcast with Elric Kane (Shockwaves Podcast).

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Sean has three curated lists for you to dip your beak-in. He forgets to post them when they first come out, so he’s posting the whole batch here:

Underrated ’86

Film Discoveries of 2016

Underrated ’87

Enjoy!



WORK SHOWN SOMEWHERE OTHER THAN INTERNET! MATT McCORMICK AND CHRIS FREEMAN’S BOATHOUSE MICROCINEMA!

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Back in 2005 or 2006, while attending school in Ithaca, Sean and Christof first saw Matt McCormick’s SINCERELY, JOE P. BEAR. They’ve been ardent admirers of his work ever since. It was with great delight that they were given the chance to show their work at the Boathouse Microcinema (founded by McCormick and fellow PDX filmmaker Chris Freeman) this last spring.

On April 26th they were part of the experimental corpse collaborative work (A Tale of Two Cities: Portland and Seattle) with a group of other Portland/Seattle filmmakers and then, on May 7th, they were part of Short Stories / Sh0rt Films where they were able to show selections from their most recent 29 Films in 29 Days endeavor and take part in a QnA.

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Sink your peepers into the fall Boathouse schedule HERE.



October Diaries Bonus: “Zeke the Plumber” — Salute Your Shorts

 
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Illustration by Max Brown
Blurbs by Jesse, Sean & Christof
Read On! »


October Diaries: We Are Still Here

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Illustration by Max Brown
Blurbs by Jesse, Sean & Christof
Read On! »


The October Diaries: The Willies

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Illustration by Max Brown
Blurbs by Sean & Christof
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The October Diaries: Rockula

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Illustration by Max Brown
Blurbs by Sean & Christof
Read On! »


The October Diaries: Nomads

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Illustration by Max Brown
Blurbs by Jesse, Sean & Christof
Read On! »


“SONG OF SEIKILOS” SCREENS AT THE PORTLAND MUSIC VIDEO FESTIVAL

The music video Sean directed for There Is No Mountain’s “Song of Seikilos” was recently accepted to the Portland Music Video Festival! On March 10th it played alongside a couple dozen other videos plucked from around the world to show at Portland’s Hollywood Theatre. This marked the first time Sean got to show his work at his favorite movie theater.

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The screening was also notable because Sean had to ask the young boy sitting in front of him if he would turn off his iPad during the show. This made Sean reminisce about the days when he was a child and adults bemoaned how music videos were destroying the attention spans of a generation. Now, as an adult, the new “kids these days” have trouble making it through a music video without reaching for their devices.

Sean is pictured below contemplating this generational shift (photo by Shannon Neale).

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PEEKABOO ROSE Plays Peekaboo With 5th Avenue Cinema

Back in February, in the midst of our latest series of 29 Films in 29 Days, we were invited to show our 2008 experimental film PEEKABOO ROSE at 5th Avenue Cinema (as part of their digital documentary series). 5th Avenue Cinema is PSU’s student-run cinema and one of only a few venues left that still show 35mm films every week. The Willamette Week had a nice little mention of the event:

“[FLASHBACK FILM] Shot over the course of three days, the Whiteman brothers’ avant documentary Peekaboo Rose is a gorgeous look at Portland in 2008, certain to draw wonder, as well as inspire at least someone in the audience to bemoan how much the city has changed since then.”

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We were hella stoked (et cet, et cet) to be invited at all but we were even more honored to be sharing the same calendar weekend as a rare film print of Cory McAbee’s The American Astronaut (a pillar-inspiration in the Whiteman Brothers brain trust) — in fact it was playing in the theater right next door during our Q&A. And here’s the film in full for those interested in playing a little Peekaboo at home.

PEEKABOO ROSE from the WHITEMAN BROTHERS on Vimeo.