Boys on the Inside

In addition, the new production company name being used for my productions is CONTRAST VISION PRODUCTIONS.

My other film project, in pre-production, is titled ‘Blue Tuesday (and the broken riddles),’ a queer fairy tale filmed in abandoned buildings around Berlin, Germany. I have been working with Katie Jacques, who is staring in the film and writing the script, and we are working with some amazing concept themes and character development, as well as having some other great collaborating artists on the film doing costumes, music, hair/make-up and of course actors. Production dates will either be this summer or next spring.

I am currently looking at different distributors for ‘Travel Queeries,’ my last feature film and gathering all the different subtitles that have been created for the film. In May, ‘Travel Queeries’ is having the Polish and Swedish premiers, as well as other exciting screenings (see here for screening tour dates). The film also premiered in the my home town of Olympia, WA (USA).

Besides editing ‘Boys on the Inside’ I am also doing research on the ‘Culture Wars’ which I plan to have as the focus for my next feature documentary (production projected to take place in 2012-2015).

In addition there is another new film project, in collaboration with Katie Jaques. “Blue Tuesday (and the broken riddles)” is a film about a girl wandering through an alternate reality full of whimsical and eccentric characters that aid her in cracking codes or riddles that will lead her back to the path. The film has a sort of dorthy/alice-esk theme and will be shot outside Berlin in an abandoned hospital, staring some of Berlin’s underground personalities. “Blue Tuesday” will be in Production in August 2010 and have an early 2011 premiere.

In Berlin, Elliat has become involved with the international artists group titled Neukölln Imports (see page here), which will hopefully be integrated into organizational structure research in the coming year. In regards to US based research, she been in conversation with Arlene Goldbard about Art and Public Purpose: A New Framework and hope that this spring will see her editing a new video to promote and help bring out stories related to this cultural policy change movement for the arts in the US.

Friend Debi Weathers has just started a new publishing house called Hammon Press and in March 2010 will be releasing the long awaited publication of her phD thesis titled Adventures in Kate Bush and Theory.

More news to come soon! Happy New Year!!

November has settled with life in Berlin, daily German classes, warmer clothes for the winter and research/work. After a long and successful month in the US with a residency in Vermont for a week followed by the US premiere of Travel Queeries in Seattle and film shoots of next short film ‘Boys on the Inside,’ the trip in the states was very rewarding.

Moving forward with research in Berlin, the focus is looking at organizational theory in relation to several arts organizations/groups as research subjects (in Berlin and also Hamburg and Kassel, Germany). Research will try to then compare these organizations/structures with cultural arts organizations in the US. Professional networks in the performing arts in Europe, the Bulkans and the US is a new development in research as well.

November will involve: the Berlin theatrical screening of Travel Queeries Nov. 12-15 at Sputnik Theater; ‘Cheries-Cheris’ in Paris, France Nov. 22nd; and Nov. 29th in Bonn Germany, along with a workshop on ‘Queer Media Activism.’ The film and workshop are potentially being booked for Hamburg, Germany for mid December as well. The ‘Boys on the Inside’ film will begin post-production/editing in a few months, first logging footage, and creating an official trailer and posting it online to help develop pr and visibility for the project.

Additional side project is the launch of the Berlin Femme Mafia, meeting to create some project ideas around ways to create more awareness and visibility of femme gender identity within Berlin queer culture.

Performance projects, research, films, language lessons, work, warm layers, winter meals, holidays, trips on the ubahn, travel, friends and more…. making for a wonderful life in Berlin.

After working a bit on the Schwarzer Kanal ‘Up Your Ears’ music festival (see promo video here), and working on starting up a Berlin Femme Maffia, Elliat has continued to book some new exciting screenings for Travel Queeries including Paris ‘Cheries-Cheris’ in November.

Boys on the Inside will be in production again in October in Seattle, as well as screening a rough cut in the ‘Trans Shorts‘ program at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival on October 17th (4:30pm). Directly after 6:30pm there will also be the US premiere of Travel Queeries, followed up a reception.

Travel Queeries (film) just had its North American premiere at the Vancouver Queer Film Festival and is scheduled to premiere in the US at the Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in October 2009. The summer 2009 tour has been going really well with screenings and workshops at Queer Festival Copenhagen and Queer Festival Aalborg9000.

Boys on the Inside, new film project (see above tab BOI) will also be screening a rough cut short at the Seattle film festival in October as a part of the 4Culture project grant. Currently Antonia Gogin and Sid Person are supporting production/post-production design and project development.

Sir La Muse performances have also been developing and there were performances in both Copenhagen and Aalborg, as well as performing as a ‘doll’ for CJ and the Dolls in Aalborg (Denmark).

Elliat is currently creating an arts web space also for Goddard College that will be launched in the next few months, functioning as a sort of blog where people can post new art work and share resources and project development with other members of the college community. (link and more info coming soon).

August 19th was also Elliat’s 26th birthday.

The month of June, Travel Queeries (her current feature film), screened in Berlin, Zurich, Tel Aviv and Barcelona.

Through her work as an IBA student at Goddard College, this spring she was awarded the Patricia Van Kirk Scholarship from the Pride Foundation.

Currently working on her next film production, Boys on the Inside is a documentary about butch/trans boy culture in US women’s prisons, working with the Pat Graney Company Keeping the Faith Transitions Program. The film was recently awarded a Special Projects Grant through 4Culture.

Travel Queeries had it’s international premiere March 26th/27th at the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival at the British Film Institute. There was a great article about the project in Gay Times London and the screenings were both sold out two weeks before the festival. The film is now being tour internationally and in the process of being translated into over 10 languages. See here for Upcoming Screenings.

Elliat is in the process of crossing the sea and after the summer tour in Europe will be based in Berlin full time. Currently going through an APL (Assessment of Prior Learning) petition process at Goddard College, she will be transferring into her senior thesis project in the fall ‘09 semester while studying ‘Leadership Development and Organizational Structures with an Artist Mentality and International/Cross-Cultural Focus’ through doing research on Berlin/European based arts organizations while also running an active international arts collective in Berlin.