Sound Unseen // Cults Show // Cinefeasts // Someplace Else

Phew! October was one incredibly busy month for me, well I suppose the 2-3 months preceding that were as equally busy. I took on 4 somewhat demanding freelance projects in addition to having a full-time job late this Summer/early Fall. I wouldn't have taken them all on if I didn't think I had it in me, but there were certainly moments where I thought to myself, "Crap, did I take on too much?" Now that it's all over and done, I can say it was done to the best of my ability and yes, I am incredibly exhausted (but happy). I should mention though that out of all of those jobs, I did make the decision to quit my "day" job (more on that later).

October represented how I'd like my life to be all the time: full of creative projects to work on that I'm passionate about and get paid to do. I think I've figured out what most creatives do here in order to stay satisfied, especially in this economy and geographic location. The reality is, although there are tons of creative people in this city -- most juggle a lot of different gigs in order to do what they love. I'm talking specifically about people like me, whose dream job would be to work full time on something like Sound Unseen and get paid well for it. This isn't Austin, NYC, LA or SF -- places where well-established festivals like SXSW, CMJ, NoisePop, etc. exist and are well-funded. I also used to be a photo shoot producer -- I have yet to meet ONE person here who does this for a living and gets paid well to do it. And if there were people here who do this kind of work, they are wise to know they've got a good gig and are NOT going to leave it anytime soon (pending of course they love their job).

It's been an on-going challenge here for me and I'm growing increasingly anxious. A continuous circle of questions cycles inside my head ranging from "Maybe it's time to move?" or "The economy sucks, you have a great network here, something's gotta give at some point right?" or "Does my dream job even exist here?" I'm not sure I have the right answers (or do I?). See! I'm starting to wonder if I'm going a bit crazy, or perhaps if I have a personality flaw that prevents me from ever being satisfied. Which scenario is worse right?

Anyhow, did I mention that all 4 projects I took on had event dates that took place in October? Sound Unseen was Oct. 10-14, the Someplace Else Opening Reception was Oct. 19, Salon Saloon was Oct. 23, Feast for the Eyes Food + Wine Film Fest took place Oct. 25-28. It was pretty serendipitous that each event didn't overlap one another, which was a sure sign for me to accept each project.

L to R: Jim, myself and a couple featured in the Rick Springfield doc (mega fans!) at our opening night film.

Sound Unseen celebrated it's 13th season this year and I have to say, with important partnerships like new sponsors Harriet Brewing (who hosted our live music HQ - new to the fest) and old sponosrs 89.3 The Current -- we grew our audience and received great press both locally and internationally. With our former director stepping away from the festival in order to focus on his new life in Duluth, our lead programmer Jim Brunzell stepped into the role as interim festival director.

Between myself and Jim, we certainly carried the heavier load of producing this year's festival, but we had tremendous help from our awesome volunteer staff/friends (shout out to Ryder, Dan, Jacob, Sarah, Andrea) and sponsors. We also raised extra funds this year from selling some merch and having people place ads in our catalog (something we weirdly hadn't done in the 3 years I've worked on the festival). As always, Jim did a stellar job of programming some amazing films this year, most of which had either their MN or Midwest premiere. I was incredibly excited to premiere the Journey doc here, which was our "featured" film and it didn't do as well as we had hoped. But that's how it goes every year -- it's always a mystery when anticipating attendance. For lovers of film/music/art, I strongly encourage you to visit our our entire festival line-up to perhaps discover something new you will probably like and appreciate.

My personal festival highlights were having special guests in town, as that always officiates things but adds a special touch for our audience. Our visiting filmmakers and guests were absolutely awesome and as far as we know each had a great time. After carefully curating our live music portion (and pretty much living at Harriet Brewing's Tap Room for 4 nights), I thoroughly enjoyed seeing each and every single artist/DJ/musician do their thing. I know I say this often, but we have a seriously amazing music scene here. Below is a photo from another highlight event: Journey karaoke!

After our premiere of the Journey film, we hosted the official after-party where Jill Riley and Dave Campbell from 89.3 The Current hosted the shenanigans. It was epic.

 Next up was the opening reception for "Someplace Else", which was the 2nd art opening/exhibit for my friends Blake & David whom are partners/gallery owners at Friedman Iverson (a boutique law firm serving consumers & creatives). They approached me awhile back if I'd be interested in helping them with some PR and event production for each art exhibit. As a supporter and lover of art, I of course was happy to help! Both David and Blake are incredibly cool guys and I'm excited to see their firm and gallery grow. Funny enough, one of the artists featured in this exhibit was also a guest on the same Salon Saloon show I was invited to partake in (more on that below).

In between the art gallery and Sound Unseen, I had also been hired by Vita.mn to program the shorts portion of the inaugural Feast for the Eyes Food & Wine Film Festival. A food themed film fest was something I had been in talks with a few of Vita.mn's event staff for awhile. By the time we all gathered to focus on it, I found out that the Mpls/St. Paul Film Society beat us to the punch. Since our metro area is too small to compete for film audiences, we had 2 choices: post-pone our event until next year or partner with the film society. We obviously decided on the latter. So, when I wasn't working full-time at my day job or working part-time on Sound Unseen, I was watching loads of short food-themed films. It might sound like an easy thing to do, but trust me -- it takes extra energy, effort, and a lot of time to watch dozens of films.  Not to mention, it wasn't just one time slot I was programming but 2 sixty-minute time slots with 2 different food themes (brunch + dinner).

I think the food fest went well overall -- definitely something there to build on for next year. It's always a pleasure to work with the folks over at Vita.mn and it was a definite honor and pleasure to program the shorts. I scored a lot of good films that also screened at the NYC Food + Film Fest, which is the fest we were inspired by. The food was a big hit as well (oyster bar!) where we featured a lot of very popular Twin Cities restaurants/cafes.

A still image from one of the short films I programmed called "Ramen Dreams" which also won "Best Short Film" at the NYC Food & Film Fest.

 Last but not least, I was asked to be a guest on a local "live-action" arts magazine called Salon Saloon. The series is produced by Works Progress and hosted by our local distinguished artophile Andy Sturdevant. I had always wanted to attend a previous show, but for some reason or another had never attended. Each show always has a theme and the show I was asked to be a part of had a theme of "Cults". At first, I had zero idea what I was going to talk about -- we threw around the idea of me working around cult films/music, rabid followers/fans of cult films/music, etc. But as soon as I watched one of our festival films called "The Source", the decision was pretty much made for me. I hadn't planned on chatting about such a literal interpretation of the theme of the show, but this film, the story, and its amazing footage just astounded me. It had to be shared! I think I made the right choice because the audience seemed to enjoy the clips and photos I shared. I seriously could have talked about it for hours.

I never realized how much I use my hands to talk.

Oooh! My name spelled correctly and on the big screen!

This is where it all began: The Source Family restaurant in Los Angeles on Sunset Blvd. The beginning of the cult family I was talking about.

Me asking the audience if any of them had previously ever heard of the Source family. No one raised their hand, so I most definitely in the right company.

At the end of the night, Andy asks us to partake in a Space Jazz sing-a-long.

Now the question remains...what's next for me? Well, as mentioned earlier I made a bold, but "follow-your-gut" decision of quitting my day job. I won't divulge too much about where it was and what I was doing, but despite my feelings about it all, I do feel it was the right decision. Life is just too short and I have to continue believing there's just more in store for me than what was offered there. I will continue to job search and keep all my options open. I've made things work thus far and will do what I have to do.

I will leave you with a excerpt from a book (author/book not mentioned in post) that a friend of mine posted on Facebook that really hit home with me. It sort of captures a bit of my wild spirit and made me feel a bit hopeful:

"People with interesting lives have no vanity. They swap cities. Invest in projects with no guarantee. Are interested in people who are opposite of them. Resign without having another job in sight. Accept invitations to do things they've never done. Are always open and prepared to make changes. They start from zero countless times. They are not frightened by getting old. They climb on stage, shear their hair, do craziness for love and purchase one-way tickets."

Okay...I probably wouldn't shave my head, but you know this girl owns 30 wigs!

Love,
Vilay