Rainbows End. | The Movie

RAINBOWS END director Eric Hueber finds a pot of gold in his cast of crazy Texas characters

Posted on metformin side effects weight gain Apr 8, 2011 in Press | 0 comments

By Lisa metformin side effects appetite McFadden Whaley | April 8, 2011

When an unlikely group of musicians, singers, a roosterman and a baton twirler band together and travel west to chase dreams, it’s the definition of a road trip adventure and the subject of director Eric Hueber’s first feature film, RAINBOWS END.

Several years in the making, the director’s filmmaking quest turned out to be an enormous learning experience and, like his characters discover in the film, proved to himself that tenacity, a unique vision and the sheer will to see something through whether the goal is accomplished or not, are the true elements of success.

Eric took a few moments to talk about the inspiration behind the film and explain how the drama in a movie doesn’t have to come from the actors … the human ones anyway.

Where are you from originally?

I am from TEXAS. I was born in Houston and as a kid lived in Houston, Pasadena, Fort Worth, Wichita Falls, Midland, Odessa, and Amarillo before my family settled down in Nacogdoches and Nacogdoches County when I was 13. Thirteen was my lucky number.

What was your inspiration behind this film? Have you been collecting footage over a long period of time?

As far as other films are concerned, my inspirations were THE MUPPET MOVIE, HALF JAPANESE: THE BAND THAT WOULD BE KING, AND FISHING WITH JOHN, but mostly stubbornness and naivety were my inspirations, since I set out to make a movie whose story was “to be determined.” It’s rather harrowing to commence a film on faith alone in the characters and the process rather than a having a strong conclusion in mind. Consequently, I did shoot a lot of footage, at least 110 hours worth. I collected footage for a few years, at least a year before the trip and a good year after.

Could you tell me again about how you set out to just make a movie – not a documentary?

I never intended to make a documentary, nor did I intend to make a mockumentary. I just intended to make a movie. When people ask what my film is I just say that it is a road trip movie, a comedy with heart. The semblance of the documentary format was the only vehicle I could shoot real people in without a script and with no budget. I had a great cast of characters who weren’t actors. I couldn’t feed them lines and get a performance nor would you ever want to. They are too brilliant on their own. I guess the answer lies in my intent. I never intended to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. From the beginning, along with my friends, I just wanted to entertain people. We generally explain RAINBOWS END as 95-percent fact, 3-percent Texas tall-tale, and 2-percent bullshit.

Were each of the threads intended originally to be their own story before finding they all had something to gain in California?

Actually, finding that each of the characters had something to gain in a single common location is what drove me from the beginning. It was the justification for a road trip movie and gave me the collective framework to get everyone together and document the journey. I think part of the charm of the film is that the characters seem so disparate yet they bond so well. There is no interpersonal drama on the trip between any of the characters; that comes from machines and animals! We were all bonded in purpose and rooting for one another. That being said, however, I think the charm of the film still lies in the strength of the individual characters and their personal stories. The great thing about the film for me as far as the audience is concerned is that they initially feel like they have sat down to watch a circus (or a train wreck) of ridiculous characters that are merely laughable, but by the end of the film, they are always identifying with one if not all of the characters and are invested in their success. The harmony and balance of both the individual and the collective spirits in the film is what makes it such a fun and endearing trip.

How did you meet the other characters?

Willie Edwards is my cousin. Brian “Birdman” Birdwell is my best friend from junior high and high school. Zach Jones and I met at a concert that he and I were both playing, in different bands at the time. After which, I asked him to come and audition for me and Willie. Peter Guzzino was a local campus celebrity; EVERYBODY knew Peter. And Audrey Dean Leighton, the twirler man, traveled through town a lot and was an enigma to many people so I accosted him on the street and introduced myself and we instantly became good friends.

What do you hope people will take away from your film?

I hope that other people see the good in the film. For me, RAINBOWS END is a story about the journey, amazing characters, and the act of telling a story. I hope people can apply something from it to their own lives, and that they walk away with a piece of what the experience has given me. Most of all, I hope it inspires people to try. Always try.

RAINBOWS END director Eric Hueber finds a pot of gold in his cast of crazy Texas characters

Press

Apr08

2011 DIFF Rainbows End Cast and Crew Interview

Posted on Apr 4, 2011 in Press | 0 comments

Press

Apr04

Which Movie Will be This Year’s The Hurt Locker or Winter’s Bone at the Dallas IFF?

Posted on Apr 1, 2011 in Press | 0 comments

DMagazine.com

By Peter Simek | April 1st, 2011

In its second year since dropping the AFI brand, the Dallas Film Society’s Dallas International Film Festival still offers a vigorous schedule, a long lineup, and a decent list of stars and filmmakers making their way to the city over the next 10 days. Since its launch as a full-fledged festival, artistic director James Faust has made clear his intention of helping the Dallas IFF grow into the “Toronto of the South.” The Canadian film fest is known as the launching pad of each year’s Oscar favorites (among the movies that impressed at the 2010 edition were Black Swan and Rabbit Hole).

But the timing of the Dallas event leaves it in an odd position. Following Sundance and South-by-Southwest, it is not a festival that is going to discover the next indie outsider hit, but the festival is beginning to cultivate a name as a momentum builder. Films that premiere at Sundance and SXSW can sling-shot momentum from a good showing in the Dallas market, and to that end festival organizers claim both The Hurt Locker and Winter’s Bone as points of pride: two movies that gained audience traction after buzz at the Dallas fest.

Local audiences are likely not as concerned with how the Dallas IFF stacks up in the festival industry, but rather whether the festival can pull together 10 days of quality movies and offer new discoveries. In this way, the timing of the Dallas fest has an upside: Dallas can cull from the hits of some of the other festivals (at least the films that haven’t already been snatched in exclusive distribution deals). This year’s Dallas IFF is especially chockfull of documentaries that impressed at Sundance and SXSW, including The Interrupters, Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, Project Nim, and Being Elmo: A Puppeteer’s Journey.

On the feature film front, I have worked my way through some of the Dallas IFF’s centerpiece screenings and narrative competition films, and I’ve yet to spot this year’s Winter’s Bone. At best, the features are beautifully shot or seductively meditative but lack a feeling of dramatic solidity or narrative oomph. The movies I have enjoyed the most are the quirkier, off-the-wall fare, (like the hilarious Rainbow’s End) the kinds of movies that you’ll likely never get to see again if you don’t catch them on the festival circuit.

And so here are some of the picks from the films I have been able to catch in advance of this year’s festival. We’ll also be providing daily updates with reviews and previews as well as filmmaker interviews throughout the festival, so be sure to continue to check back with FrontRow to stay on top of the Dallas International Film Festival

Texas Competition

In the running for the zaniest, funniest, most enjoyable ride of the fest: Rainbow’s End, a bizarre, Spinal Tap-inspired mock doc about a group of musicians and oddballs from Nacogdoches, Texas, who set out on a rock ‘n’ roll odyssey to Los Angeles where they will record a session with outsider music legend, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy. What sets this band apart is that their drum set made with pieces of the space shuttle that exploded over Nacogdoches. Blurring fact and fiction, Rainbow’s End is populated with the kinds of eccentric fools that lend backwoods Texas its endearing mystique, from a bearded, baton twirling dandy, to a man with a howitzer canon who blows up cars.

Read the rest of the article here:

Which Movie Will be This Year’s The Hurt Locker or Winter’s Bone at the Dallas IFF?

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Apr01

A Favorite Dallas International Film Festival Entry: Rainbows End Outta East Texas

Posted on Mar 31, 2011 in Press | 0 comments

Dallas Observer

By Robert Wilonsky | Thu., Mar. 31 2011

The Dallas International Film Festival, which kicks off tonight with its gala to-do at the Winspear Opera House featuring Elmo and Ann-Margret, features no small amount of must-sees and can’t-misses, among them Clay Liford’s homegrown WUSS, Michael Sheen and Maria Bello in Beautiful Boy, Morgan Spurlock’s product-placement doc The Greatest Movie Ever Sold, and what fest artistic director James Faust refers to as “Fargo but further north,” Small Town Murder Songs. And I see that the dark, even vaguely sweet comedy Lucky — which world-premieres tomorrow and stars Ann-Margret and former Good Guy Colin Hanks as a lottery winner and serial killer — was picked up for distribution only today, which means it comes to Dallas the way most films hope to leave film festivals.

And we’ll get to some of those over the course of the fest’s run, which ends April 10. But while most of those screenings are rush-only, meaning they’re close to sold out, I see tickets remain at the low, low price of $10 for Eric Hueber’s Rainbows End — a sanguine, years-in-the-making doc-ish in which Hueber (as “The Drummer”) loads up his shot-to-shit bus and heads from Nacogdoches to California with a bus full of oddballs and eccentrics in search of fame, fortune, escape, relief and the Legendary Stardust Cowboy. Accompanying them: two roosters who won’t shut the eff up.

The film premiered at the Austin Film Festival last October, where it was warmly received. And you can read the synopsis here, and there’s a nice interview with the director here, but neither do do justice to the wit and warmth that lie beneath the crackpot surface of a film that initially feels like a work of fiction — or “faction,” at least, to borrow a term from an ad man in Spurlock’s doc. I watched it once, then immediately watched it again. You can too: Rainbows End premieres tomorrow at 10 p.m. at the Magnolia, with a second screening scheduled at noon Sunday. Get on the bus. Two trailers follow, for those in further need of convincing.

A Favorite Dallas International Film Festival Entry: Rainbows End Outta East Texas

Press

Mar31

Colorful characters tell crazy road-trip tale in ‘Rainbows End’

Posted on Mar 30, 2011 in Press | 1 comment

Star-Telegram

By David Martindale | Mar. 30, 2011

Rainbows End, an endearing shaggy dog of a movie that’s playing at the Dallas International Film Festival, is like the Texas cousin to such mockumentaries as This Is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman.

It chronicles what happens when a cacophonous rock band, Country Willie and the Cosmic Debris, and some oddball tagalongs make an ill-conceived road trip from Nacogdoches to California.

The film showcases a curious collection of characters and offbeat adventures that are certain to leave bemused moviegoers wondering: Is Rainbows End real, or is it a put-on?

“Well, we like to say that it’s about 95 percent documentary, 3 percent tall tale and 2 percent B.S.,” says Fort Worth native Andy Cope, who served as producer.

Adds director Eric Hueber: “They’re all real people — and they’re all real characters!”

The story? Members of the Cosmic Debris, so named because the drum set is made of space-shuttle parts that rained down over East Texas during the 2003 Columbia disaster, head west because Country Willie Edwards’ rock ‘n’ rock idol, the Legendary Stardust Cowboy, invited the group to jam with him.

What’s that? You say you’ve never heard of the Stardust Cowboy?

As far as Willie is concerned, he’s one of the heavy hitters in American music. As Willie says in the film, “How can you grow up without knowing who the Legendary Stardust Cowboy is? How were you a kid? How could you play baseball in the evenings? How can you eat ice cream or even live in America without knowing who this person behind the music is?”

In an archival clip, music legend David Bowie also sings the Stardust Cowboy’s praises.

It’s sufficient to say that if you’re a blip on the Legendary Stardust Cowboy’s radar, it’s a big deal. So Willie and the band pile their things into an old rattletrap of a bus and hit the highway.

Also along for the ride: a cockfighting enthusiast who believes that his birds have a shot at Hollywood stardom, a baton-twirling Nacogdoches celebrity who’s en route to L.A.’s Gay and Lesbian Center (so he can take free courses on using the Internet), and a tone-deaf singer who is a legend in his own mind.

The movie premiered at the Austin Film Festival in October 2010 and was a viewer favorite there. It’s competing in the Texas film category at the Dallas festival, which begins Thursday.

The film took eight years for Hueber and Cope, who met in a cinematography class at Stephen F. Austin State University, to complete.

Hueber, who was also the drummer in the band, encountered many obstacles along the way.

“We tried to do the trip in 2003, but the bus broke down before we got out of the city limits,” the director says. “So we had to do repairs on the bus for a whole year. That bus was the biggest money pit ever. But finally we did the trip in 2004.”

Hueber came back with 110 hours of footage: of Willie and the band jamming with the Stardust Cowboy; of “Birdman” trying to fast-talk movie-studio execs into auditioning his fighting birds; of wannabe singer Peter caterwauling for anyone who will listen; of Audrey Dean, the “Twirler Man,” letting his freak flag fly; and of that bus, dubbed “Green Hell,” breaking down time and again in the Mojave Desert.

From that, Hueber and Cope edited together a hilarious and often touching film about the pursuit of impossible dreams.

In the process, Hueber and Cope’s impossible dream — to make a movie — came true.

Now the filmmakers are planning their next movies and hoping it doesn’t take eight more years.

Hueber’s new project is called Flutter, about a mother raising a son with glaucoma.

Cope — whose grandfather co-starred in Manos: The Hands of Fate, one of the worst films in history, according to numerous critics, and “our family shame for decades” — plans a documentary about an in-the-works Manos sequel.

Meanwhile, Rainbows End continues to make noise.

“The response we’ve been getting is overwhelmingly positive,” Cope says. “There was one lady at the Austin Film Festival who came up and said, ‘Ten minutes in, when the cockfighter came on, I was about to walk out. But by the end of the movie, I was rooting for him.’ We couldn’t ask for anything better.”

Although the viewer reaction during the Nacogdoches premiere came mighty close.

“We screened it for our friends in Nacogdoches, about 400 people,” Cope says. “They just went crazy. They were jumping up on the tables and screaming at the screen. It was wild.

“We’re very much looking forward to selling the DVDs there.”

Colorful characters tell crazy road-trip tale in ‘Rainbows End’

Press

Mar30

From RAINBOWS END to Center Stage – an interview with Eric Hueber & Andy Cope

Posted on Mar 28, 2011 in Press | 0 comments

BigFanBoy.com

By Gary Murray | March 28, 2011

The production duo of Eric Hueber and Andy Cope look more like two graduate students than film-makers. With Eric’s Daniel Johnson T-shirt & heavy frame glasses and Andy with a thick dark beard, the two men look like they should be attending lectures and not out on the interview circuit. This director-producer duo has crafted a very unusual mock documentary Rainbows End which will be a part of the Texas Film competition category at the Dallas International Film Festival.

Rainbows End tells the story of a Nacogdoches guitar player Willie Edwards and his band “The Cosmic Debris” who has as a part of their drum kit actual pieces of the Challenger. The band gets an invitation to record with The Legendary Stardust Cowboy in LA. So the band, along with Bird Man and his two fighting cocks, opening act ‘one man band’ Peter Guzzino and locally famous twirler Audrey Dean Leighton all board a bus dubbed Green Hell and head out West.

The story is of their bonding on the bus and the gigs along the way. The unscripted story is partly true, with all the ‘characters’ not being characters but are the actual people depicted on screen. Eric referred to it as ‘a home movie and a celebration of my friend’s talents‘. They took three weeks to shoot the primary film and years in editing.

It is a loving homage to the city of Nacogdoches and to the eccentric spirit that lives the Lone Star State. It plays somewhere between Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind with a strong helping of The Last Picture Show and Napoleon Dynamite daubed in. According to Andy Cope, the Tyler newspaper called Rainbows End ‘a real life version of The Muppet Movie’.

The cast are all friends Eric Hueber, people he has known in Nacogdoches for years. Willie Edwards is his cousin. Brian ‘Birdman’ Birdwell is childhood friend. Much later in life, Eric became friends with Audrey and Peter. All of these men had a dream of going to the golden land in California and that is where the genesis of the film was born.

Eric explained, “I didn’t have the resources to make a film in a small town but I knew all these great characters and I wondered how I could put them in a movie without having them to act. I started looking for common goals. At the same time I didn’t want to make a documentary. I knew to make a film I would have to put them in a scenario where they could to be themselves. My intention was to make a ‘narrative-esque’ film, just film it like a documentary. It feels like a put-on but it is not.”

One of the problems Eric had with his non-acting cast was getting them comfortable in front of the camera. “Unfortunately,” he said, “They clammed.” He said that he wished Birdman would have hammed it up for the camera. “Birdman is larger than life and I caught a couple of moments but I wish I could have caught more.”

According to Eric, Brian ‘Birdman’ Birdwell had never been as far as Lufkin and his goal in Rainbows End was to see Las Vegas. With the brakes of Green Hell going out, they didn’t even get to cruise the Strip at night. After the fact, Eric admits that not seeing Las Vegas at night is “to the spirit of the film.”

Willie Edwards and Eric Hueber are room-mates. “Willie and I have been playing music together since 2002,” Eric said. “He’s an interesting character. He is a legitimate outside musician. He plays old-style country music but he sings with his own spice. He sings about aliens and zombies. He’s becoming a local celebrity in Austin because he is what a lot of people want to be in Austin–legitimate real country. But, he has a warped sense of creativity; he’s very real and organic.”
Almost as a physical character, the Green Hell bus takes center stage on more than one occasion. It is the most temperamental of stars, breaking down and giving the production more hell than any Hollywood diva. “I acquired the bus from Mazzio’s (Pizza restaurant in Nacogdoches) and I realized now why he was willing to give it to me so cheap.”

The film production started in 2003 and the bus broke down before they reached the city limits of Nacogdoches. In 2004, they attempted the trip again but with a second camera man. A major amount of the finances in Rainbows End was repairing the Green Hell.

Andy Cope said that the only part of the film that was scripted was the voice-over narration. “It is 95% documentary, 3% tall tales and 2% BS. And the narration is the BS part,” he said. “Nothing with anyone on screen is scripted.”

“Surprisingly,” Andy said that some audience members have believed the movie was real all the way through, “even with all the historical inaccuracies. “ Eric added at one screening a young lady said that she didn’t want to hear the Q&A. He said that she said, “I just want to believe it is all real and would be hurt to hear that anything is not.”

Eric said that editing the film is the credit he is most proud of. “I had 110 hours of footage, no script. Do the math on how low it takes to watch 110 hours of footage just to see what you have. But to actually edit to what you have, I’m pretty proud of that effort. That is what took me so long to make the film.”

He tried to bring on different editors at different times, but they could not make sense of all the raw materials. “Ultimately, it is my story,” Eric said, “because for me, the whole collective act was my friends coming together to make a movie.”

The biggest lesson Eric learned from making Rainbows End, he laughed and said, “I will never make a movie without a script.”

With so much raw footage Andy Cope said that there will be many DVD extras, concentrating on establishing the characters. Eric added, “Part of the issue of the film is that we had to hurry up and get out on the road.” Though they tried adding character details in flashback, it became too confusing. Eric said, “Andy made that easier for me because he would just come in and say ‘Just lose it’.” Andy concluded by saying, “If it doesn’t tell your story, just drop it.”

Eric is currently working on a project in Bastrop called Flutter, which is a slice of life drama about motherhood. Since his mother recently passed he said, “I wanna make a beautiful story that celebrates her memory.” A documentary about using insects as a food source is also on Eric’s plate. Andy is currently helping with the production of the sequel Manos, the Hands of Fate.

Eric summed up the process of making Rainbows End by saying, “To me it is a film about characters, about people. I got an entertaining group of friends, let’s go entertain some people and see whatever happens—happens. I think that is why the film resonates with people. That makes me happy.”

Rainbows End plays at the Dallas International Film Festival on Friday, April 1, 2010 at 10 PM and on Sunday, April 3 2010 at noon at the Magnolia.

From RAINBOWS END to Center Stage – an interview with Eric Hueber & Andy Cope

Press

Mar28

Rainbows End at DIFF

Posted on Feb 25, 2011 in News, Press | 0 comments

The DALLAS Film Society Announces

Twelve Titles for the DALLAS International Film Festival in Official Selections

FOUR World Premieres & ONE U.S Premiere

Lineup marks return to DALLAS Intl Film Fest by indie filmmakers Calvin Reeder and Dave Boyle

CADILLAC takes the wheel as presenting sponsor for 2011

The DALLAS International Film Festival announced today the first twelve films that will screen at this year’s fifth festival (March 31 – April 10) including four world premieres and one U.S. premiere. The festival announced three films set for its Texas Competition, two films in its Family Friendly section and the first film selected for a brand new India Spotlight series. Films entered into the narrative feature and narrative documentary competition will once again have the chance to win an unrestricted cash prize of $25,000 per category courtesy of Target.

The twelve official selections include:

BLOOD OF EAGLES (Darah garuda – Merah putih II)(Indonesia) – US PREMIERE
Director: Yadi Sugandi, Conor Allyn
The action film BLOOD OF EAGLES follows the exploits of an elite army unit recruited to halt the construction of an enemy’s key airfield. The cast includes Doni Alamsyah, Ario Bayu and Atiqah Hasiholan.

COOPER & THE CASTLE HILLS GANG (USA) – WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Sam Ditore
COOPER & THE CASTLE HILLS GANG is an action-packed, family-friendly story that takes lead character “Cooper” on a quest to help Castle Hills’ favorite grandpa, “Mr. Wilson,” find something he has lost. The film’s cast includes rising child star Kyle Kirk as Cooper and JB Edwards as Mr. Wilson.

ELEVATE (USA)
Director: Anne Buford
From rural Senegal to American Prep schools, ELEVATE documents the basketball journey of four particularly tall African teenagers with NBA dreams.

LUCKY (USA) – WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Gil Cates Jr.
Darkly comic LUCKY follows the journey of $36 million Iowan lottery winner Ben Keller as he follows his life-long crush, Lucy St Martin. But can all the money in the world compensate for the fact that Ben is a fledgling serial killer? Starring Colin Hanks, Ari Graynor, Jeffrey Tambor and Ann-Margret.

MUMBAI DIARIES (Dhobi Ghat)(India)
Director: Kiran Rao
MUMBAI DIARIES is a drama following the intersecting lives of a collage of people, emotions and situations in the diverse city of Mumbai. The film stars Aamir Khan, Prateik Babbar and Monica Dogra.

OK BUCKAROOS (USA) – WORLD PREMIERE
Directed by: Patrick Tourville
Patrick Tourville’s documentary OK BUCKAROOS is the story of Jerry Jeff Walker, whose music has led him from the nation’s biggest arenas to hundred-year old honky-tonks. Walker is an artist who has been a cog in the wheel of the recording industry’s star-making machinery and an involuntary pioneer on the frontier of artistic independence. Among those appearing in the documentary are Jerry Jeff Walker and Willie Nelson.

THE OREGONIAN (USA)
Director: Calvin Lee Reeder
THE OREGONIAN follows the experiences of an Oregon woman who enters a nightmarish unknown after suffering a brutal car accident.The film stars Lindsay Pulsipher, Robert Longstreet, Matt Olen and Lynne Compton.

THE PERFECT GAME (2009) (USA)
Director: William Dear
THE PERFECT GAME is based on a true story about a group of boys from Monterrey, Mexico who become the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.The film stars Clifton Collins, Jr., Cheech Marin and Moises Arias.

RAINBOWS END (USA)
Director: Eric Hueber
RAINBOWS END is a comedy that follows a band of native East Texas misfits West as they make a run at California gold. The cast includes William Neal Edwards III, Brian Birdwell and Legendary Stardust Cowboy.

SURROGATE VALENTINE (USA)
Director: Dave Boyle
Directed by Dave Boyle, SURROGATE VALENTINE is about a San Francisco indie musician who lives a life on the road, navigating friendships and relationships. The film stars Goh Nakamura, Chadd Stoops and Lynn Chen.

TRAVELING (USA) – WORLD PREMIERE
Director: Rachel Shepherd
Traveling is a drama which follows the story of three people who have never really had a family that find that connection on a road trip to Austin. With one passenger just looking for a ride, another greatly needing a distraction, and the third looking for any kind of connection, they may or may not find what they need along the way. The cast includes Reece Rios, Melissa Odom and McKaley Miller.

WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE (USA)
Director: Alex Dawson, Greg Gricus
WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE follows a handful of unforgettable characters who set out on a 100-day quest to tame a totally wild mustang for a Texas competition. This stunning documentary highlights the profound bond between people and animals.

DALLAS IFF also announced that CADILLAC will be the film festival’s presenting sponsor for the 2011 edition.

Gil Cates Jr.’s comedy LUCKY stars Colin Hanks as a wannabe serial killer who wins the lottery and decides to pursue his lifelong crush. Hanks will return to Dallas where he filmed the FOX television series “The Good Guys” last year. The film also stars Jeffrey Tambor, Mimi Rogers and Ann-Margret.

Three selections for DALLAS IFF’s coveted Texas Competition category were announced. Sponsored by MPS Studios, the first films lined up for the Texas Competition are: Patrick Tourville’s documentary OK BUCKAROOS, which profiles Country Western music troubadour and legend, Jerry Jeff Walker; Eric Hueber’s RAINBOWS END, a comedy that follows a band of native East Texas misfits West as they make a run at California gold; and Rachel Shepard’s TRAVELING, which connects three “lost” strangers on a road trip to Austin.

A festival highlight, Family Day, will be returning on Saturday, April 2, with the world premiere of Sam Ditore’s COOPER & THE CASTLE HILLS GANG, a children’s action adventure filmed on location in the north Dallas community featuring the title character’s attempts to help his neighborhood’s beloved grandpa find something he lost. Sponsored by Bright Realty and supported by the Junior League of Dallas, adults and children of all ages will be invited to walk the Family Day red carpet, participate in arts and crafts, watch live performances, and experience the fun buzz of families and film. Also announced for the Family Friendly Section is William Dear’s THE PERFECT GAME, which is based on the true story about the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series.

The initial international entries on the DALLAS IFF slate include the first official selection for the debut of a new India Spotlight section. Kiran Rao’s MUMBAI DIARIES (Dhobi Ghat) is a drama involving the lives of four different people living in Mumbai. The movie brings into focus, among other things, the problems and situations of non-resident Indians, in particular those raised in the U.S. The second international selection revealed today also has strong Dallas ties. Dallas residents, Rob and Conor Allyn, produced (Rob Allyn) and co-directed (Conor Allyn, with Yadi Sugandi) BLOOD OF EAGLES (Darah garuda – Merah putih II), an Indonesian take on a classic Hollywood premise: an elite army unit is put together to halt work on the enemy’s strategically situated airfield. BLOOD OF EAGLES was the highest grossing film in Indonesia last year.

Two selections vying for the $25,000 Target cash prize in the Documentary Feature competition were announced. Alex Dawson and Greg Gricus’s poignant WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE and Anne Buford’s ELEVATE, a story documenting the journey of four teenagers from Senegal as they embark on life in American Prep schools in the hope of reaching the NBA.

Having just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, Calvin Lee Reeder brings his signature surreal and horrific filmmaking style back to Dallas with a screening of his debut feature THE OREGONIAN. The film follows an Oregon woman’s experiences after she survives a brutal car accident. Reeder’s work is familiar to DALLAS IFF audiences following screenings of his short films LITTLE FARM, which was the 2007 Festival’s Short Grand Jury Prize winner, THE RAMBLER and SNAKE MOUNTAIN COLADA. Another indie filmmaker returning to DALLAS IFF will be Dave Boyle. Boyle’s SURROGATE VALENTINE about a San Francisco indie musician on the road will mark his second appearance at the festival following BIG DREAMS LITTLE TOKYO in 2007.

“These first dozen selections really highlight how international cinema and our own Dallas and Texas filmmakers intersect at DALLAS IFF. We are proud to present the inspired work of our local filmmakers and returning DALLAS IFF alumni side-by-side with other auteurs from around the world. Just as much as the city of Dallas is truly an international center connecting the world with our local businesses and culture, DALLAS IFF has become a southwestern hub for international and local filmmaking,” said James Faust, DALLAS International Film Festival Artistic Director.

For the first time since the inception of the DALLAS International Film Festival, automotive giant CADILLAC has signed on as presenting sponsor. Metroplex Cadillac Dealers will be providing the festival with a Cadillac fleet to transport filmmakers and festival guests around Dallas for the entire 11-day duration. “We are proud to be able to support the DALLAS International Film Festival in this capacity,” said Tom D’Angelo, Regional Marketing Manager for Cadillac, South Central Region. “Metroplex Cadillac Dealers are dedicated to celebrating the arts within the community and what a better way to do this than supporting an internationally respected festival of this caliber.” To entice festival audiences even further, the DALLAS Film Society will be launching a raffle for one lucky winner to walk away with a 2011 Cadillac CTS Coupe. On February 10, a CTS Coupe will be unveiled at an ultra chic festival kick-off party at Stanley Korshak in Dallas – only 1,000 raffle tickets will go on sale for $100 each or 6 for $500 (for information on how to buy a ticket visit dallasfilm.org). The winner will be notified following the DALLAS Film Society Honors on April 8, 2011.

The 2011 DALLAS International Film Festival presented by Cadillac will be dedicated to founder and Chairman Emeritus, Liener Temerlin. “The creative influence of Liener Temerlin has left a mark on the city of Dallas,” said Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert. “As Mayor, I have always been proud to be a part of the DALLAS International Film Festival, even more so in 2011 when the festival is being dedicated to Liener, a true trailblazer.”

Downtown Dallas will become a vibrant epicenter of the festival as the stylish Joule Hotel will host out-of-town filmmakers and visiting celebrities. With the Festival Lounge only steps away from the Joule, filmmakers and film fans can mingle and experience the energy of downtown, whilst within striking distance of the Dallas Arts District, which will offer thought-provoking panels, museum-oriented events and red carpet Galas. With theaters in the fashionable West Village, hip Mockingbird Station and family friendly Plano, filmmakers and attendees will receive a 360 degree cultural Dallas experience.

The DALLAS International Film Festival will run March 31 – April 10, 2011. Passes are currently on sale, tickets go on sale March 14. Passes and tickets will be made available via online (www.dallasfilm.org), and phone (214.720.0555).

News
Press

Feb25

Rainbows End #1 on Trailer Addict

Posted on Dec 13, 2010 in News | 1 comment

Rainbows End trailer reaches #1 on popular industry website traileraddict.com.

News

Dec13

Rainbows End: Documentary Captures Endearing Oddness Of East Texas

Posted on Nov 26, 2010 in News, Press | 0 comments

Tyler Morning Telegraph

By STEWART SMITH | November 26, 2010

There has never been another documentary quite like “Rainbows End.”

When I first sat down to watch director (and East Texas native) Eric Hueber’s film about a ragtag group of musicians, a baton twirler and would-be cock fighter from Nacogdoches, I was under the impression that it was a film Hueber had cooked up and filmed mockumentary style, delivering a product that felt like an odd mashup of “This Is Spinal Tap” and “Napoleon Dynamite.” It was entertaining enough, though at times it felt a little forced, I thought.

Then I found out it was all real and suddenly “Rainbows End” became something far more fascinating and poignant.

At its most basic, this documentary tells the story of a motley crew bound for the West Coast in pursuit of their dreams. After speaking at length with Hueber and his producer, Andy Cope, I realized that the “Spinal Tap” and “Napoleon Dynamite” comparisons were all wrong. These are not inept musicians (ala “Spinal Tap”), nor are they airheaded and aloof (ala “Napoleon Dynamite”). It’s a colorful collection of characters, to be certain, but they each display an incredible amount of heart and sincerity. That realization is what lead me to my ultimate conclusion and a far more apt comparison: This is a real-life version of “The Muppet Movie.”

I say that with the utmost sincerity and in the most positive way possible, as “The Muppet Movie” is also about musicians who strike out for California in the pursuit of their dreams, undaunted by the gauntlet of challenges and obstacles that stand in their way. Like the Muppets, they head out in a gargantuan, perpetually broken-down bus that serves double-duty as the traveling performance venue for the band. And just like The Electric Mayhem (the band fronted by Dr. Teeth in “The Muppet Movie”), Country Willie and The Cosmic Debris is a band unlike any other.

The six men are led by “Country” Willie Edwards, frontman of The Cosmic Debris who sends their latest EP to Norman Odam, aka The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, the only musician to ever have a song banned from being played in space by NASA. Edwards contacts Odam in hopes of having a chance to record with him. Odam agrees and invites the band out to San Jose.

The rest of the band is populated by Hueber on drums and punk rocker (and genius-level mathematician) Zach Jones. Their opening act is the one-man show of Peter Guzzino, a self-styled musician obsessed with the 1970s. Rounding out the crew is Brian “Birdman” Birdwell, a skilled mechanic and Hueber’s best friend who is eager to audition his trained fighting cocks in Hollywood, and Audrey Dean Leighton, a wandering baton twirler who has spent much of his life on the road and provides the requisite navigational skills for their road trip. Leighton wants to become an internet parapsychologist, but lacks the proper knowledge of Internet usage to do so and thus makes the Gay & Lesbian Resource Center in Los Angeles (where free Internet courses are taught) his destination.

Along the way, roadside shows are played, brutal natural elements are endured and their behemoth of a bus, “Green Hell,” is almost always on the verge of breaking down. It’s the kind of story that seems too oddball to be true, and yet Hueber and his crew managed captured the reality of it all.

In addition to capturing this fascinating group of characters, Hueber has also crafted a loving tribute to the endearing oddness inherent and indigenous to East Texas.

“In East Texas, people are such characters and it comes so natural. It’s so rich,” Hueber said, commenting on the eccentricities of his friends in the film. “What’s so telling to me is, a lot of people think Birdman is an actor because they say he’s too eloquent for a redneck, which actually infuriates me. It’s like, ‘You haven’t hung around with the people you think are idiots, because they’re really not.’”

Cope, a graduate of Stephen F. Austin University, said one of the film’s main objectives was to capture the unique creative spirit pervasive throughout East Texas, a goal they heartily achieved.

“It’s one of those places that has that palpable spirit and soul. When you drive in to Nacogdoches, you can feel it. There’s a spiritual and emotional depth, this gravity,” Cope said. “No matter how strange you might be or what kind of an outcast you are, people accept you. They accept you as one of theirs. At least you are their weirdo. If you’re strange, you’re their stranger. They may not talk to you, but they are aware of you. And I think that’s one of the strangest things about the whole trip is that there wasn’t more drama. Everyone just kind of got along, they were all in it to do their own individual things and they all were fine. And I think, day to day in East Texas, that’s the way it is.”

Hueber is currently seeking distribution for “Rainbows End” which was received well when it debuted recently at the Austin Film Festival. Its trailer is currently the sixth most-viewed trailer on TrailerAddict.com.

For more information about the film or to view the trailer, visit rainbowsendthemovie.com

Rainbows End: Documentary Captures Endearing Oddness Of East Texas

News
Press

Nov26

Independent film features East Texas eccentrics

Posted on Nov 8, 2010 in News, Press | 0 comments

KTRE.com

By Donna McCollum - Nov 08, 2010

NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KTRE) – A troubled economy was a blessing in disguise for a couple of filmmakers from Nacogdoches. The team’s commercial production company was struggling. They had a lot of time on their hands, so director Eric Hueber and producer Andy Cope devoted it to a film project shot two years earlier.

It led to a feature film called ‘Rainbows End’. The stars make up a group of eccentrics going after their unique dreams during a journey from Nacogdoches to California.

The real life characters will bring back memories to a lot of east Texans and create new ones for others.

There’s the soulful, tender twirler man, Audrey Dean from Hemphill. He was often seen in local parades with baton in hand, while wearing red ‘hot pants’ and knee high white boots.

Cope says Dean, now deceased, carries the film’s spirit. ” People would know Audrey when they saw him on the street and in parades, but they didn’t really know him,” said Cope. “This film brings out his true gentle spirit and energy. He does an exciting thing because he really did leave a lot of himself in this project.”

Other real life characters on a bus to California include the 70′s man, Peter Guzzino, who believes his less than perfect pitch will charm audiences. Then there’s the rocking music style of Country Willie and a cock fighter, Birdman Birdwell and his two roosters.

They leave the audience wondering. Cope shared an overheard conversation at the Austin Film Festival.

” One lady said to another lady, ‘ You think those guys are for real?’ And the other lady said, ‘ If they aren’t for real, that’s the best acting I’ve ever seen.”

Rainbows End, both the film and trailer, are receiving fantastic reviews from the Austin Film Festival and critics around the world. It was called one of the top 10 movies to see by the Austin American Statesman, according to Cope.

The trailer is listed among the top 20 most seen trailers on an industry web site. ” If you’re in the top 150, that’s something pretty impressive. We were at 16 and now sitting at 20. It leaves us scratching our heads,” said Cope.

Director Eric Hueber and Cope like the praise, but the SFA film graduates most respected critic is their former professor, Dr. William Arscott. ” It’s a good movie. It’s both a movie and documentary, I guess,” said Arscott.

Cope has a unique word for the unique film. He calls it a “Nacomentary”. ” It’s 95 percent documentary, 3 percent tall tale and 2 percent false,” laughed Cope.

The truth Cope wants viewers to see is, “its unique portrayal of the creative, energy and spirit of East Texas, which we think is Nacogdoches.”

Independent film features East Texas eccentrics

News
Press

Nov08

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The twelve official selections include:

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