Spreading the Trans-World Creative Commons Love

So the other day I got an email message from Simone Damiani, who has directed a movie and released it under a Creative Commons license as well. Who is this group of people?

We are only a group of people working in film industry who have got only one purpose in life: demostrate it is possible to make a movie that is not being "sons of ..." or "fucking with ..."

So, rather than wait for permission, they went ahead and made the film. Torno Subito ("Be right back") is available for viewing, free, as an online stream and on the iPhone. So check it out and support truly independent film making!

Honey DVD for sale now!

Hi all--

I'm pleased to report that you can now purchase your very own copy of Honey for the low, low price of $9.99. So if you've been thinking about the Echo Park Film Center's Honey screening on Friday, September 18th and wishing that you could go, here's your chance to do the next best thing.

The title is also available on Amazon.com, but I get a better deal from the first link. Wherever you end up purchasing it, please review it on Amazon--particularly if you liked it. Thanks for your support, DB

Honey Showing 9/18 in Los Angeles

Honey will be screening on Friday, September 18, at the Echo Park Film Center (Google Map, call 213-484-8846 or email info@echoparkfilmcenter.org) There will be refreshments served at a light reception starting at 7:30, and the film will start at 8:00. Seating is limited, and admission is first-come, first-served. Tickets are pay what you will; there will also be DVD's available for sale.

Thanks and look forward to seeing you then! DB

Honey Director's Statement

This is from the old press kit I made when I was (fruitlessly) sending Honey out to film festivals. Forgive the use of the word phenomenological--I just wanted to convey the sense of life as it feels when you're living it, not life as someone else might observe it. The perils of studying even a little bit of philosophy...

When I set out to make Honey, I was motivated by a desire to dramatize the smaller, more phenomenological moments of life, to show how easy it is to miss them in oneself and others. Doing this requires that the film contain moments that cannot readily be defined, moments that the lazy film viewer will tune out because they are "too hard." Important moments in life are not highlighted for us; we must pay attention to them before they are gone. To make a movie about these moments requires incorporating them into the film itself. If you do not pay attention, nothing will make sense.

While Honey is about something, the something it is about is not plot. Its defining quality is its style—a style of storytelling which requires inference on the part of the viewer and an ability to discern things which could easily be missed. I didn't want to make a film about people's insensitivity to others while letting the viewer off the hook, and by not calling attention to details that are important, I hope to create empathy in the viewer, rather than simply suggest it. One cannot shout about silence. One cannot point things out as a means of teaching someone to look more closely. Behind the apparent chaos is a meticulously plotted script--none of the scenes was improvised to any degree.

Mike Brett Review on Ray Carney's Site

As I wrote about earlier, I'm trolling the internet for material related to Honey. I came across this wonderful review on Ray Carney's site. I've never met Mike Brett, but Mike, if you're out there, thanks for the review and I'm glad you enjoyed it. And yes, I am tentatively going to get back into making films once I can figure out how to balance it with my legal academic career.

Anyway, the review is here: Mail, Events, Screenings, News: 81. Scroll down until you get to this paragraph:

ray,

david ball's honey was exceptionally great. i saw it on creative commons very recentely and although the picture was so small i almost had to squint to see it i was deeply affected by it, which must be some sort of a testament to the overall quality of the film. on one hand i think that it truly is a wonderful thing that a film of that calibre or a piece of peoples emotional lives is so readily available sitting there on a free website waiting patientely to be discovered by all who would just discover it (you figure into that equation also of course). it does make one wonder how many other masterpieces or gems are out there covered by dust waiting to be undusted and uncovered and that's a good feeling or a great feeling...that feeling of possibility, what a classy move too... but on the other hand it is a great
tragedy that seemingly so few have yet to even uncover this particular one. if it rocked you it certainly reached out through the screen of my boring computer grabbed me tightly by the shoulders and jostled me around. i'm left with hazy snapshots of a journey i was taken on or let into to.

it seems silly to me almost to point at isolated specific moments in the film because the effect or experience was definately a cumalative or a flowing one for me but there's a moment or a scene in the kitchen between ruth and the silent stranger that is one of the rightest but inexplicable things i've ever seen in a film. come to think of it there's tons more...the scene on the stairs after the whole paltry party has ended on the staircase between ruth and john (or is it tom? - great) and by the time ball cuts to the flashback and then to that guy sitting on the couch smoking and rocked while his girlfriend stands silentley by the door looking at him you really feel you've lived through something. you're moved on so many different levels in so many different ways..at least as many different ways as there are characters
if not more....and then you see the gated elevator door window that you saw at the very beginning and it's even stronger now and nothing is the same as it was. what a strong beautiful haunting film. i genuinely hope david ball is still making films. is he? cause i look forwards to seeing anything that guy ever makes...what an amazing filmmaker...

peace -
mike brett

Always nice to find good reviews that you didn't even know about.

Email "Interview"

I've decided I'm going to go ahead and release a Honey DVD myself, so that interested parties have a better way of seeing it than streaming it from the Internet Archive. As I've been gathering material for the DVD cover, it occurs to me to post it here. So, even though these links aren't particularly timely, I thought I would post them here anyway.

First up: an email "interview" between me and Wesley Tank on the making of Honey. Wesley programmed Honey in Milwaukee last summer. Link courtesy of the all-powerful, all-knowing Ray Carney.

News and Events: David Ball Interview

Honey is Playing in Milwaukee

Honey is playing in Milwaukee as part of the Transmutative Cinema series. It's showing on March 7th at 10 p.m. and March 8th at 8 p.m. at the Alchemist Theater. And check out the new poster!