FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
CONTACT:
Angela Alexander
Tempest Production Company
(214) 942-8830
(214) 942-9728 fax
Angie?T...
www.TempestProducions.com
Tempest scores three more film festivals
Dallas, TX, -- August 22, 2003 - Dallas-based Tempest Production
Company announced today that their first feature-length documentary,
Invasion: Anime, has been accepted into three film festivals this
week. While specific time and date information are unavailable for
screenings at September's Great Lakes International Film Festival in
Erie, PA, and the Savannah Film Festival in Georgia in October, the
Silverlake Film Festival in Los Angeles scheduled Invasion: Anime for
midnight on September 16, 2003 at the Los Feliz 3 Cinema, located at
1822 N. Vermont Avenue in Los Angeles, CA. Festival tickets start at
$10.00 and are available through TicketWeb.com.
The documentary most recently enjoyed its European premiere at
Animotion, the film festival hosted by AniMagic 2003, one of Europe's
largest anime conventions held annually in Nistertal, Germany.
Invasion: Anime is a broad look at the history of Japanese animation
(or "anime") and its effect on American culture and entertainment
over the last half-century. Interview subjects include names well
known to anime fans across the world. Steve Bennett, president and
founder of Studio Ironcat, artists and animators Akemi Takada, Senno
Knife, Makoto Uno and Nobuyuki Takahashi, North American voice actors
and directors Amy Howard Wilson, Tiffany Grant, Scott McNeil and
Taliasen Jaffe and international anime experts like author Helen
McCarthy and Dr. Susan J. Napier, Associate Director of Asian
Studies, University of Texas, are but a few of more than 20
individuals who donated their time to this project.
AUDIENCES LOVE THE INVASION
At its world premiere at the St. Louis International Film Festival
last November, Invasion:Anime brought in an estimated 65% larger
audience than the Steve Spielberg-produced miniseries Taken, which
screened immediately before it. After the St. Louis premiere,
independent film expert Chris Gore wrote, "Invasion: Anime is a great
doc about Japanese animation...an independent film that deserves
attention."
FilmThreat.com reviewer Eric Campos writes "Invasion: Anime ...gives
a nice history run down of the Japanese animated film...(and serves)
as a nice eye opener, offering up information that fans may not have
known about from industry professionals and folks that actually study
anime."
And audience members from across the country have called Invasion:
Anime "fun," "exciting" and "terrific history."
THE REST IS HISTORY
"The whole documentary has been a series of happy accidents," says
Producer/Director Angie Alexander. Originally slated to be an inside look at science fiction/fantasy type conventions, a case of missing tape stalled that
concept and gave birth to Invasion: Anime.
"We were shooting at Project: A-Kon, a Dallas anime convention. The
hotel's front desk misplaced a case of video tape we had set up for
delivery during the weekend, limiting what we could shoot," explained
Alexander. "So we chose to use the possibly once-in-a-lifetime-
opportunity to get interviews with the Japanese artists who were
guests of the convention."
"The rest, as they say, is history."
Invasion: ANIME encompasses several important firsts for Tempest
Productions, as it is their first feature-length production and first
attempt at a modern-day subject. The company is best known for their
short-form examinations of Dallas-Fort Worth history, nearing
completion of a series of documentary shorts for the Centennial
Celebration in Irving, Texas, and An Authentic American Haunting: The
Bell Witch of Tennessee. Previous productions include Etched in
Stone: A Monumental History (submitted for consideration in the
CableACE awards) and Utopia Lost: The La Reunion Commune.
More information about Tempest Productions and their documentaries
can be found at www.TempestProductions.com. For information about the
film festivals, please visit
http://www.tempestproductions.com/ia/screenings.html
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