Wow, what a trip. I'm home for a few days, having landed back in San Francisco, yesterday, before I head back to New York. The screening of I Am a Ghost at The Chelsea Clearview in Manhattan was a success. Unfortunately, neither Anna Ishida nor Mark Del Lima could make it out to New York. Rick Burkhardt and Jeannie Barroga were in attendance for a really in-depth Q&A that bled into the surprisingly well attended afterparty/meet-and-greet, afterward.
Martha Tien, Sophia Giddens and Lesley Qin of the New York Asian American Film Festival all made the whole process very approachable, and I STILL managed to not see everyone at the afterparty. I discovered that a bunch of people came to the screening from out of town! When I asked them how they heard of the film, they mentioned the Dread Central article:
"Buzz Growing Around H.P. Mendoza's I Am a Ghost" - Dread Central
It's because of this article that I suddenly started receiving lots of requests from festivals, journalists and filmmakers. And it brought these horror fans to The Chelsea Clearview. Some from Philadelphia, some from Pittsburgh and one very knowledgable guy from New Jersey who seemed to have all of the same touchpoints that I had, which told me that he had to have been my age. Within minutes of talking to them, I felt like the film has found its audience. Thank you to Avery Guerra and Doctor Gash from Dread Central for the coverage!
I was happy and proud to see so many people in the audience, lots of whom were fellow filmmakers, composers, actors and playwrights. I had to catch up with a lot of them via facebook, though, because it was next to impossible for me to talk to everyone by the time the party was over.
And after doing a bunch of interviews and trying to get reviews, they're starting to trickle in, and I want to post this one by Joe Bendel.
"SMART, ORIGINAL AND UNSETTLING! Anna Ishida [gives] an extraordinary performance." - Joe Bendel, j.b. spins
As more pieces trickle in, I'll post them here. But for now, I'm signing off with a thank you to everyone who supported the film in New York. Thank you ACV, Dread Central, Quiet Earth, Core, Bram Stoker Film Festival, B-Movie Celebration, Avery Guerra, Darryl Pierce, Frederick Gorey, Courtney Jones, Nicholas Reiner, Robert Hood, Chris Evangelista, Lewis Tice, Robert Hood, Susan Chinsen, Chucho Quintero and Edna Campos. In the course of one week, so much attention has been thrown on I Am a Ghost, and I'm so thankful.
Oh, and by the way...we also got accepted to:
MACABRO: Mexico City International Film Festival!
More on that, later. ;)
H.P