Four Star Review in Now Toronto!

Well, we're off to Canada tomorrow for our world premiere at Hot Docs in Toronto, and were greeted with a pleasant surprise this morning! A four star (or, four "N"'s is their system) review in the big alt-weekly in Toronto. It's already exciting, and we're not even there yet! Also, a nice story at this Toronto site called Scene and Heard.

Both of us are walking around with massive butterflies in our tummies. That weird excitement/nervousness/worry/anticipation/joy that you have when you're going out on a first date. So many things could go so great and so wrong! We'll be sure to report back on all the goings on after our screening on Saturday, so be sure to check back for delirious ramblings then!

Coming to a theater near you in 2007!

I can't believe we actually get to say that! We finally are being allowed to announce to the world that we've been "acquired" or "picked up" for distribution by Shadow Distribution!!! They're a very cool company, and were the only distributors that we targeted. In our first conference call with them, before talking about money or anything else they asked if they could show it to an organization down the street from them called Hardy Girls, Healthy Bodies. So amazing and wonderful to not have to argue with your distributor about how important it is not to exploit the girls in the movie.

Now, a lot of you are probably saying "Hunh? What's a distributor?" I know that is the case, because we get this all the time from folks not in the movie biz. We say "Hey, we got a distributor!" And they just look kinda bored and say, "Really? Cool." I think lotsa folks think that when you make a movie, you just hand it over to the movie theater and they play it, like "Well, of course it's going to be in a theater, why else would you make a movie? Duh!"

Truth is, we are extremely lucky and it's a great validation to get a company like Shadow, willing to take a risk and open our film in theaters all over the country. It's very expensive and a lot of work, and it's estimated by some that 80-90% of movies made never get ANY kind of formal distribution.

Anyway, the movie will start opening in theaters this Fall (2007)!!!

Woohoo!

Also, we were in the NY Times today, though just briefly...but still, the NY Times!

Another report from the very first few people to see Girls Rock!

I have to tell you that my 8 year-old daughter has had short school days all week long and has come to the office with me in the afternoons the last two days. Yesterday, I let her watch Girls Rock! She didn't have much to say about it, except that it "wasn't a movie it was more like real life." Today when she came in she wanted to watch it again. And both days, with her headphones on, she started singing/screaming along at the end. As a Mom, it feels like such a refreshing departure from the normal "disneyfied" formula films for the tweenie set. I suspect you hear/will hear this often!

I certainly hope we hear that often! Her daughter's reaction is basically our dream...second watching, and she's already cutting loose! We've been hearing lots of reports like that, which is way cool...kids just grimly demanding to watch it again. Coal-burning eyes. I think the girls in the movie really speak to something inarticulate in other girls.

When you've seen our movie, you'll hear the amazing sounds of the band that eventually became Blubird. The band is made up of Una Rose and Katie Alto, both 12 years old, and they evolved from the bands The Ready and Soundboard (what they're called in the film). They will blow you away.

Anyhow, Neil Young is hosting a list of protest songs you can vote on on his site, and Blubird's song "What if we don't want to be warm? (Global Warming)" is currently climbing up the chart and is in the top 20 out of more than a thousand! You vote just by clicking on her song here and listening. Go check it out and support their music and their message!

We're extremely excited and looking forward to our world premiere at Hot Docs! Right now we're furiously getting all our ducks in a row, publicity, screening copies, exhibition copy, feel like we've been living at the fed ex office lately. I read recently that fed ex was struggling financially, but we've been doing what we can to keep them afloat!

Anyway, will be posting more once we're sure how all of this works...

arne n shane
www.girlsrockmovie.com