Los Angeles Theater Women's Festival

The Los Angeles Theater Women's Festival is holding their Sixteenth Annual Festival March 26 through 29, 2009, and they have extended the deadline for video submissions until September 30th, 2008. They are seeking female solo performers of all ethnicities and ages with original performance pieces: Actors, performance artists, dancers, comedians, storytellers, singers and performance poets from throughout the world. Send them a videotape (cued to a 10-minute viewing segment), showing the exact performance under consideration for the Festival.
Send your video, (along with a $35 submission fee), and a self-addressed stamped envelope for returns to: Los Angeles Women's Theater Festival, 11411 Cumpston Ave. Suite 204, No. Hollywood, CA 91601. Include a photograph, resume, and other supporting materials, as well as a letter of introduction describing your work. Performers will be paid! If you are interested, download an application at www.lawtf.com. If you have questions, call them at (818) 760-0408, or email lawtfspotlight(at)yahoo(dot)com

How to Pitch an Idea to Hollywood

This morning's Los Angeles Times Magazine has a very informative story written by none other than Michael Wright himself (V.P. at Turner) about how to pitch show ideas to networks. His main point? Skip the gimmicks, remember you are selling to a buyer who reps a certain brand, go straight for the why-this-works-for-your-brand sell and then back it up with the goods and talent to actually make your project happen. Well, with one caveat. Sometimes gimmicks do work as he reveals at the end of his article. So let's see... follow the rules only to find the right moment to break them? It's so much more fun to just break the rules right out of the gate, though...

Read the article.

Free Movie Screening!

For foreign film aficionados, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will be showing a series of Korean director Lee Chang-dong's films from Thursday, January 3rd, to Saturday, January 5th. His debut film, "Green Fish," which follows a young man who returns home from military service and joins a criminal gang, screens at 5:00 PM on January 5th, and admission is free! Just click on the link, and scroll down for details.

Call for Film and Video Interpretations of Poetry

Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Call for film and video
"Deadline: postmarked by January 30th, 2008
Entry fee: $15.00 (non-refundable)
Notification by February 15th, 2008
Festival dates: March 20th-23rd, 2008
Poems of Provocation & Witness
Poets have long played a central role in movements for social change. Today, at a critical
juncture in our country’s history, poetry that gives voice to the voiceless, names the unnamable, and speaks directly from the individual and collective conscience is more important than ever. The festival will explore and celebrate the many ways that poetry can act as an agent for change:reaching across differences, considering personal and social responsibility, asserting the centrality of the right to free speech, bearing witness to the diversity and complexity of human experience through language, imagining a better world.

Film & Video Submissions:
We are looking for artistic, experimental, and challenging film/video interpretations of poetry
that explore critical social issues. Selected work will be screened during the Split This Rock
Poetry Festival film program. Entries must be submitted on DVD (NTSC only) or CD (.mov format only), no HD formats. Please note: videos with h264, divx compression or any format not mentioned above will not be accepted.

• Running time for entries should not exceed 15 minutes.
• All entries must be in English.
• All work submitted must be original. If portions of the submitted work contain material from
• third parties, author must have and be able to provide written permission to use such material.

All entries must include:

• - Completed entry form
• (download at: http://www.poetrycenter.org/calls/Split_this_Rock-ENTRY.pdf)
• - $15 entry fee (check made payable to: The Poetry Center)
• - A short synopsis, artist's bio, and artist's statement (on one page only)

Please label all DVDs and CDs with title, running time, director’s name and contact email.
Please mail entries to: For more information:
The Poetry Center of Chicago www.SplitThisRock.org
37 S. Wabash, Suite 704
Chicago, IL 60603
info(at)splitthisrock.org
www.poetrycenter.org
Attn: Francesco Levato/Split This Rock submission
NO PHONE CALLS ACCEPTED"