• DECONSTRUCTING DAD •

On Thursday August 25th at 21:00, the film is being screened at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (Köln) Germany during an event that’s part of the reiheM concert and film series.  Here’s a link to reiheM, and a link to the museum listing for the film.

 Museum Ludwig is devoted to post 1900 works of art — from their website: “Roy Lichtenstein‘s M-Maybe, Andy Warhol‘s Brillo Boxes and George Segal‘s Restaurant Window, all icons of American Pop Art, had all just been completed when in 1969 they arrived as a loan at Wallraf-Richartz-Museum.  The works came from Peter and Irene Ludwig, who had put together the largest Pop Art collection outside of the USA.  The donation of 350 modern artworks by Mr and Mrs Ludwig marked the founding of Museum Ludwig in 1976.  It was to be

the first museum to exhibit contemporary art in Cologne.  Apart from Pop Art, the Ludwigs also made a permanent loan to the new museum of their Russian Avant-Garde collection from 1906 to 1930, as well as several hundred works by Pablo Picasso.”

Of course I’m thrilled to be having the film shown there, and in fact I will be attending — really looking forward to visiting Cologne, and seeing the museum — will definitely be looking at some of the art.

This has all come about through the efforts and enthusiasm of Frank Dommert from A-Musik, and reiheM.  Many thanks to him and to Museum Ludwig for staging this event.  Hope to see you there!

—Stan Warnow

Happy to report that the film will be screened on Sunday, August 7th, by ‘Movies on a Big Screen‘ in Sacramento, CA.  M.O.B.S. is a great, dedicated cineaste community in Sacramento that shows lots of quality films you won’t find at the local multiplex, and I’m thrilled to be a part of it.  Here’s a lovely quote from the mayor about the program:

“Movies on a Big Screen puts on artsy, offbeat, totally inappropriate for children films, regularly…” —Christopher Cabaldon, Mayor of West Sacramento, CA, State of the City Address, April 2009 

Of course my film is actually perfectly fine for kids! Show starts at 7:30pm at the Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street, Sacramento, CA 95817, admission is $5 — here’s a link to the M.O.B.S. site.  Wish I could be there, unfortunately I can’t this time around, but hope you can!

Stay tuned for imminent info about other upcoming screenings, including England and Cologne, Germany.

—Stan Warnow

Across the river from the main festival venue...

Just back from a truly memorable 4 days at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.  Though it’s a world class festival that attracts stars and players from the top of the heap, it also caters to thousands of young people who each summer make a pilgrimage to this world famous mountain spa town at the beginning of July — and contrary to what you might expect, the festival welcomes these young backpackers, even providing camping facilities.  Partially as a result of this philosophy, the KVIFF is known for having really enthusiastic audiences, and that was certainly the case for Deconstructing Dad.  There were two full house screenings while I was there, with excellent Q+As after — and a third after I left.

Yes...me in a tux!

But at the other end of the spectrum from backpacker campsites was the opening night party and screening.  This was a black tie event and though I’m generally more comfortable with the backpacker group, I dug out my old tuxedo that I hadn’t worn for maybe 10 years and wrestled my way into it.  Getting dressed that night was kind of agonizing….all those buttons!  I couldn’t bring myself to wear the “official” white pleated shirt though, so managed to find a purple dress shirt so I could be a little bit different.  Anyhow I can state with pretty much absolute confidence that this is the only shot of me in a tuxedo that will ever appear on this website!

But I had a great time, (was also interviewed for the festival daily newspaper, as well as by Hana Gomolakova for the English language prague.tv website — here’s a link), saw several fascinating films, and recommend this fest highly to anyone who can make it over there to attend in the future.  Thanks to all the people who make this festival a truly extraordinary event, especially Pavel Klusak, the festival programmer for music films, and to Anna Purkrábková also from the programming department, as well as Jana Ptáčková from guest services who does a great job supervising travel and lodging for all the invited participants.

Also, in my rush to get ready for the trip, I didn’t get to post about an interview I did in May for a radio show on the University of London radio station.  They put together a terrific piece about the film and Raymond Scott for their Technically Classical  radio show.  To have a listen to this half hour show click here.  Thanks to Laurel Murray and everyone else at the show for making it all happen.

Stay tuned for some imminent announcements about other upcoming events…

Delighted to report that the film will be shown July 3rd, 4th, and 8th, at 4pm (yes 3 screenings) during the upcoming Karlovy Vary International Film Festival in the Czech Republic.  Karlovy Vary is an internationally famous spa town, and the festival is also a major international event — the most important film festival in central Europe, with 179 feature films of all type on the slate for this year, and I’m excited that mine is one of them.

The festival attracts a huge contingent of young film students and fans, and has gained a reputation as a sort of Woodstock like film festival — sounds good to me.  But it also has the glitz and glamor of a major festival with A-list actors and films on display — this year Judi Dench and John Turturro are getting awards, and John Malkovich will also be in attendance.

But enough about them (and enough dropping of names) — I too will also be there for the first four days of the festival (I’m definitely not getting an award, the film is being shown out of competition), but I will be doing Q and As at the first two screenings, and looking forward to enjoying the town and other festival events and films….and sampling the healing waters that started it all in this legendary spa town.

Here’s a copy of the website listing for the film:

Basic film info	Section
	Deconstructing Dad	2011: A Musical Odyssey

and a link to the overall festival website.

If you’re in that part of the world, hope to see you there!

Stan Warnow