 Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House My ride with 1001 Production House has been like a rollercoaster. From the very beginning, april 2014, this place flet like home. Working with Nafiss and Farshad, inspiring people who taught me Iran isn't a scary place at all, was like working with family. We didn't always see eye to eye, we sometimes debated decisions and at times there were heated discussions in Farsi which I couldn't understand even if I tried. But passionate people talk passionate about their projects, in this case the film Dance Iranian Style, so no harm done and everybody just wanted the best for their "baby".
We've been through some highs and lows. Highs being for example the cast/cew viewing in Hilversum. Watching all the ideas come to life, seeing how the cast saw themselves on a huge screen en seeing the happy faces of Nafiss and Farshad after. But with the highs the lows are not far away and of course we had some. The struggle to find a distributor (still), or the right audience at a film festival. The constant money struggle, because the courage Nafiss had, making this film without any money but with donations or some art funds, is admirable. With me leaving this project isn't even close to meeting it's whole and ultimate potential. So the rollercoaster ride isn't even close to reaching the end. There will be premieres at festivals, there will be enthousiastic responses from distributors and there, in the end, will be succes. It doesn't have to be world domination, or a Hollywoodfilm contract, but just the acknowledgement of our work, of the work of Nafiss and Farshad. And that's is the beauty about this project and this 1001 Production House family, it is never over. Thanks everybody for the wonderful times in the 1001 Production House office, in the filmtheaters, in the postproduction studio Red Line and on the road. Thanks for the great memories and for the confidence in me and my work. I hope Dance Iranian Style will get the audience it deserves and Nafiss and Farshad the respect and adoratioin they deserve. Hope to see you soon! Simone
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 Along with a great team I am working on our film Dance Iranian Style for about three years now. We have come a long way since the day I talk to Farshad Aria (our director) about Roya and her story. It has been hard, difficult and stressful, but at the same time extraordinary and joyful. I have many many people to thank to, because everyday I am amazed and blessed with the generosity of wonderful people with big heart. Some of them are my dear friends, some of them become my dear friends during my journey and some of them I haven't even met yet! Every time I meet or hear from one of these wonderful people I pinch myself and wonder if i'm not dreaming! I'm really not exaggerating. Here are two examples: Thanassis Moraitis: www.thanassismoraitis.gr & Carlos Vamos: www.carlosvamos.com were truly generous to us by giving their permission to use their music for free for our film Dance Iranian Style. I salute them and thank them with all my heart!
.... and there are more.... Nafiss <3  Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House Today a blog not so Dance Iranian Style related, but a personal fascination and discovery combined. There is something about the concept of memory that intrigues me. Some of it is vivid but there are lots of times I can hardly remember what I ate two days before. The little trick of stopping hiccups by telling what you ate for supper all week? It works for me every time, because I get stuck at two, maybe three days ago. How to keep these memories and keep track of all your doings over the course of let’s say a year? Last week I downloaded the app ‘Room for thought’. This app asks you once a day to make a picture of what you’re doing. There is no time for posing of positioning, because when you get the notification and open up the app the picture will be taken within three seconds. But you can add a comment and location. The timing is random, so it’s not going to be 365 pictures of you eating breakfast or being at work all year. You’re actually making a random memory book but then with an app on your phone. (You can link it to you Facebook or Instagram if you want, as kind of back up, but that’s not necessary). You can even order a photo album at the end of the year with all you ‘Room for Thought’ entries all together for the perfect random overview. So downloading the app meant actually opening it and making my first ‘thought’. Here comes tip number one: do not open the app for the first time in bed with the lights out. My very first picture is completely black. With the caption: ‘in bed with the light out’ my first random memory picture is a big black hole of absolutely nothing. But the last three days if been surprised by the app and his question for input. My library is starting to fill himself up with random pictures of experiences and little whereabouts of my last week. I do catch myself in seeking a perfect picture w_ithin the three seconds, posing or positioning myself or my surroundings, but the concept is pretty cool. Just capture what you’re doing on that one time, without hesitation. I would like to invite you all to download this memorycapturedevice and try it for at least one week. After that you can throw it out if you don’t like it, but try one week of random memory capturing and see where it takes you. I’m totally hooked and cannot wait to order my overview book of 2015 somewhere next year. 
 Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House Today was fieldtrip day! Together with Nafiss, Farshad, the key characters, sound designer, director of photography and some more crew we went to Hilversum to see Dance Iranian Style on a big screen for the first time. But don´t worry it wasn´t the premiere where you were not invited, it was a test. We wanted to know what the film looked like and if the sound and color were as good as we wanted them. It took some trains, cars and a couple of motorcycles to get us all to the Filmtheater Hilversum where the manager Piet invited us with open arms and lots of coffee. Everybody was feeling extremely nervous! For me, already saw the film twice but not in this final version, so even I was feeling a little bit anxious. Everybody took a seat, lights when off and the opening credits of Dance Iranian Style came flying through the screen. The feeling was fantastic. I can´t image how Nafiss of Farshad felt, the overwhelming sense of pride they must have had, the satisfaction of finishing this project. It was an 85 minute long rollercoaster in this little filmtheater in Hilversum. Afterwards everybody waited until the credits were done, of course carefully looking for our own names, and after the screen went black and the music faded out we were still blown away from what we saw. Slowly getting out of the comfortable chairs and our eyes adjusting to the light the only thing I could see were huge smiles. Everybody was smiling from ear to ear. Whatever happens to this film, this moment today was absolutely magic. There will be a lot more of these moments, hopefully one on the first of December. I will keep you posted, because I would like to share something of this magic and I want to let you see the genuine smiles on the faces of people who worked months or even years for the moment we had today. It was lovely. 
 Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House I’m in love with lists. And everything that has something to do with lists. Doesn’t matter if it’s a list with ingredients, a list with the 10 ugliest movie posters or if it’s my own to do list. I am officially in love with lists. And with my impressive notebook collection I can make a million lists if I want to. And it doesn’t really matter if I finish a list (there are several half-finished to do lists in my orange notebook) but the making of the list itself; wonderful.
The different lists I find on the internet can be either funny, educational of intriguing. Some are hilarious and some remind me of the past. And of course I love the different websites that provide me with lists. So I absolutely love Flavorwire, Buzzfeed, Taste of Cinema and any other blog that gives me the joy of reading lists. Don’t tell anyone but I’ve got a special tab in my browser that stated: Lists. Over 57 lists I’ve saved to read again, look at and smile about. Some examples of awesome lists (click on the links to see the actual lists!) Buzzfeeds 45 most powerful photos of 2011. A small history lesson through the lens of talented photographers. Flavorwire’s books that define the last 50 years of literature. And I can tell you, I’ve got a lot of reading to do. Pigeons and Planes who gave me: Women in their 20’s who are changing indie music. For those rainy days not knowing what music you should put on. But the best one of all are movie lists. If it’s best or worst, if it’s year based or genre, the best lists of all are lists about film. There is so much to see with so little time. So if there’s someone who can tell me what to see I’m totally for that. I would like to make you fall in love with these movie lists too, so I’m providing three today. And with these in mind I hope you will understand my love for lists and everything that has got something to do with lists. 50 Foreign Language Films Everyone Needs to See The 50 Directorial Debuts in Movie History 10 Incredibly Surprising Film Soundtracks Please ENJOY!!  Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House Time for some complaining and I want to tell you about a game I’ve been playing for some time now.
The last month or so we’ve been sending Dance Iranian Style to distributors, film festivals, or to whomever can help us with this project. One thing I never really thought about is happening right now. It’s what the people call “the waiting game”. I really have no idea what the rules are and no idea what the duration of this game is. But one thing I do know: it’s a silent game. Total silence, not a word. We have to wait for replies from distributors and we have to wait for festivals to give us the green light so we can proceed. I’ll explain this last part of the waiting game a little more. Every festival wants to be unique. After my blog last time you know that there are a lot of weird festivals in this world, every single one looking for its own audience and unique factor. But a lot of the big festivals are all looking for the same; the next gem in the film business, the next big hit. So the festivals made up some rules and regulations. One of the festivals our film was send to is the International Film Festival Rotterdam. It’s a beautiful festival with lots of attention for experimental films and work of visionaries. Just the right festival for our Dance Iranian Style. BUT in the rules and regulations of IFFR it states that the movie has got to be a world premiere. This means we cannot show DIS anywhere else before the IFFR screening. Okay, so that’s not such a big deal you might think. What if I tell you the deadline for the IFFR to tell us if we made the selection in mid-December?! We have to wait until the end of the year before we know if we have a chance. Until then I can only focus on festivals starting after February 2015. And that’s just so far away in time. Totally working in the future over here. So it’s not so much the fault of the IFFR, absolutely not, but it shows me the rules and regulations of the waiting game. Preparing for what might happen. I have to make different scenarios for all the possible “what ifs”. The festival in Cannes is even worse. They want a world premiere too, but the festival isn’t until May. So waiting for that might be worth something, because the festival has such a good name and would be an excellent starting point. But then I have to play the waiting game for 5 more months!! And it’s frustrating already. No can do, I want some action. And stubborn as I am, I WANT IT NOW! ps. I know i sound like a little kid. Sometimes I think I'm 6 all over again. Next week time for some positive things. Maybe some rainbows, unicorns and fairies. :)  Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House Last week was a pretty hectic one. Our submissions for the Sundance Film Festival and IFFR were finalized and we hoped that our dvd would arrive savely in LA. The deadline was yesterday and this morning Nafiss got a text that the dvd was delivered right on time. Fingers crossed that the programmers love the film!
But after these two entries we’re looking further in the future to other festivals we would like to be a part of. And when I first started working for 1001 Production House I already made a festival list, but this one wasn’t up to date anymore. So I decided to do some research today and make a new list with all the information we need. And you can’t imagine how many festival there are in the world. There are the regular ones everybody knows: Sundance, IFFR, Nederlands Film Festival, Tribeca, Cannes and many other that sound familiar. But within the depths of filmfestivalworld I found some very very strange ones. I would like to thematically share them with you. First strange themes: So is there the Equus Film Festival with the caption: An equestrian film festival dedicated to horse and human relationships. Sound like a perfect festival for horse lovers. A little niche within the film industry. Secondly genre related film in another country: I would like to bring the Japanese Short Film Festival in Serbia to your attention. Of course there are a lot of short Japanese movie lovers in Serbia, so this festival makes total sense. Then the festivals with badass names (don’t really care about the content): the Shorts That Are Not Pants Festival in Toronto, Canada. I would like to crop Dance Iranian Style into a short film just so I can send it over there. And last but not least, the festival with a connection to home but you can’t really wrap your mind around why: The Amsterdam Festival of New Cinema in Los Angeles. No connection to Amsterdam or the Netherlands what so ever. I. Don’t. Understand. Loved the research of today, made me smile a lot and giggle. But now I have to make a beautiful Excel sheet out of the information, with accurate dates and links so it is not only fun but also helpful. And maybe think of a short film project about the horse/human relationship.  Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House The entry form from Sundance Film Festival is way harder than it looks. They asked me all kinds of questions, technical but also content related. And because air travel is not to be trusted, and we want to be sure we have a chance we gave ourselves until this Friday to finish everything. And that’s the trickiest period, because when you think you’re almost done all these little problems and loose ends come popping up. Where they were hiding all this time, I don’t know, but we have got to fix them. But the technical part of the entry form gives me a lot of information I didn’t know about our film or film in general. I never really looked at all the technical stuff during a project, to be honest I never really got the hang of it. I just didn’t get it. Now, I have to get it because otherwise the Festival will think we’re crazy for filling in the entry form all wrong. But with the help of Farshad and the guys from Redline we’ll get there.
So that’s basically it for this week. The only thing that’s on my mind is getting that DVD at the programmer’s desk by the 29th of September. All my positive energy goes to the airplane with our precious cargo and to the trucks that have to bring it to its final destination in LA. So if you have any positive energy left? Send it to us. Or to our DVD. It’s signed, sealed and not yet delivered, but it is definitely almost on its way. Now the only thing we can do is hope. Hope that the people at Sundance love our DVD and the whole journey wasn’t only for ourselves.  Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House So today I did something we anticipated for a very long time. I pressed the send button! After contacting dozens of distributors in the beginning of August we were left with a couple of very interested ones. So I sent the latest version of Dance Iranian Style to several of these distributors today and it felt wonderful to finally have something to offer them. They started downloading immediately and we are very curious what they think of it. Hopefully we’ll hear something within the week and can talk about further collaborations.
We hit another milestone today because I started with filling out the entry form for the Sundance Film Festival in January. The video file has to be at their desk in Los Angeles at the 20th of September so we have to hurry! And the entry form is nothing to think litely about. They want to know EVERYTHING. Every little detail, every date of birth, camera setting, genre… It made my head spin. But it is slowly coming together, and we’re starting to take the future to the present. No talking about things we should do when the film is ready, but now! And we are finally showing our project to the world. This 9th of September is a busy day, there is also a meeting with graphic designer, Joost Waardenburg, this afternoon. We will be talking about posters and more graphic design stuff, to make everything appealing and coherent. We, and with us a lot of people, were very pleased with the results of the press kit so we are looking forward to the ideas of Joost on the poster, dvd cover, etc. So this time is pretty fun, because we are living the dream of finishing the film. Next week: probably all the distributors love us and we can choose which one fits us the best!  Simone does the PR at 1001 Production House In this reclaimed summer period (or late summer week) I’m confronted with stories about the horrible experiences of refugees in Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands. With hideouts like the Vluchtkerk, the Vluchtmarkt and Vluchthaven closing up or being labeled unsafe they have literally no way to go. Before my work at 1001 Production House I did noticed these news items, but since working with this film and with Nafiss I’m more aware of this situation. In our film Roya lives on the street, doesn’t have anywhere to go, doesn’t have any money or food, no shelter, no shower, nothing. She is all alone in a city with so much resources. That’s why I think the resolution of bed, bath and bread (like Amsterdam does with the homeless) is a good starting point with giving the refugees a human existence. It’s not like they like to live on the streets and choose to live in unsafe buildings.
With that in mind I’m thinking about the universal character of this project. This is of course not a Holland-bound problem. Refugees will always have these struggles, especially when their asylum is denied. What to do if the country you ran off to sends you back to the place you fear the most? Would you make the same decision Roya and so many others made? Staying in a city with no place to go, with no place to call home and no possibilities to build a new life for yourself? I’m intrigued these questions keep haunting me after working on this project and seeing the final version of this film. What would I do if I were in Roya’s shoes? Would I run? So together with the fact that this film is beautiful and the images are magnificent, the theme questions your view on refugees and the way they make decisions. Dance Iranian Style made me appreciate my situation even more. I have a house, a love, a family and more than one place to call home. One more reason to make this film a success is for all of those refugees with no place to stay. With this project we want to give them a voice, of at least we try. Next week: making festival plans and sending the last edit to 4 distributors. Everything is slowly coming together! |
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