As an added touch, and for a nominal extra cost, I’ve decided to offer autographed certificates of authenticity as an option with each film, to guarantee a quality print from the original source file.

This is one of the important ways indy filmmakers like myself recoup the high costs of their craft and help make future films possible. So I hope you’ll stop by and have a look around at the exciting new projects that are in pre and post-production, and maybe even purchase a film or two.

Just to let you know, one of my big concerns in life is closing what I call the loop in independent filmmaking. Meaning, I’ve worked for many years making films, both experimental and more traditional feature films and I know how to make movies. I’ve even figured out ways to fund my own films through developing land in Taos, NM. But, to be truthful I haven’t found a way to consistently get my films out into the marketing distribution arena’s and really make my money back on each film. I’m part of what I describe as the gladiator school of indy filmmaking. Now what does this mean you may ask yourselves? It means that almost all independent filmmakers slave away to make their films, but when it comes time to get them out into the world of marketing/distribution/exhibition it turns into a frustrating morass of what I call “Alice’s Tea Party”. But, I’m getting off the gladiator metaphor. It’s also like being a slave/gladiator. If you don’t get the ‘home run’ deal where a mini-major distributor comes in and buys your movie outright and gives you some significant money up front, you then fall into what I call the ‘shark pool’ of distribution. Meaning, all the second level distributor’s expect you to throw your film into the distribution/gladiator’s arena and good luck ever seeing a penny from them after they sign you up. If you are a filmmaker who’s run into this problem please respond to this blog. I’m toying with putting together my own distribution company. Possibly a co-op type of deal. I mean it feels like all of us with films are frustrated with how the hell do you not only get your film seen in the marketplace, but how do you make your money back on it?

So, let me ramble about my marketing experiences…I have a significant mini-library of films I’ve made over the past 35 years (god I hate admitting how long I’ve been hacking at films). I have a few mini-cults of fans for different films I’ve done. Within the English Literature crowd, I’m somewhat known for <a href=”http://www.taoslandandfilm.com/independent-films/Good-Country-People-Flannery-O-Connor-film-adaptation”>adapting Flannery O’Connor’s short story GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE</a>. Some people will think this is the best work I’ve done. And some professor’s within the university literature community consider this film the best adaptation of a short story they’ve seen. My frail ego wants to say it is probably the best adaptation of any of Flannery O’Connors works and that would include John Huston’s WISE BLOOD. Here’s a clip from Good Country People on our YouTube channel and hopefully Paul has put up some of the old reviews. [Paul: No. Not yet Jeff. Shooting to have GCP page by eod.] I recently was invited to a Flannery O’Connor Conference in Milledgeville, GA to show GCP and talk about the making of the movie. Hopefully, we’ll put up a clip of my rambling about the details of making this film.

This blogging makes me feel like Philip K. Dick writing his epic elegy diatribe. So, I’m gong to stop here and break up these blogs into things that are shorter than novello’s.

I have no idea what we’ll be talking about, but hopefully spontaneity is my game. Nancy had asked me to send her some ideas and of course I woke up the next morning with a list that bordered on insanity. There were enough ideas in it to cover about a year of radio shows. Luckily she didn’t boot me after that first email and said, let’s just go with what’s happening. I’m hoping we might talk about the KickStarter fundraising revolution which I’m about to embark on and I think might be of interest to a lot of the artists in Taos. Also, because Nancy is so active on the political/economic revolution, I’m thinking I might bring up what I call the “Chicken Little Syndrome” and how do you overcome it.

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas Starring Melissa Ordway

Okay, I’m watching TV and here comes the ads for Harold & Kumar’s Christmas. Lo & behold there’s our leading lady, Melissa Ordway playing a funny scene with Neil Patrick Harris. If you like her in the trailers and ads you might want to catch her in CALLERS where she plays a very funny lost soul trying to make her relationship work from the otherside. I guarantee you’ll see a lot more of Melissa in CALLERS than in Harold & Kumar’s Christmas. So, keep an eye out for the release of CALLERS which we’ve just completed.

Callers film review

Okay, this is my first blog as we begin to launch our newly renovated www.taoslandandfilm.com website. It’s only been about ten years or so since I touched the website. So, this site is about to go up into the public realm here hopefully in the next 24 hours thanks to the diligent efforts of our web designer/master Paul Gutches.

First things first, CALLERS is a film I’ve been working on for the last four years. There is a long story to how it came to be and the struggles and controversies to getting it completed. But, I’d like to invite all of you reading this to come to the premiere at the Santa Fe Film Festival this coming Friday Oct. 21st @ 8:30pm at the CENTER FOR THE CONTEMPORARY ARTS (CCA)
1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM  87505  505/982-1338. For those not familiar with the area, the CCA is located right behind the Children’s Museum. I’ll be there doing a Q&A afterwards…

Here’s a link to our page on the festival website http://www.santafefilmfestival.com/callers/.

Here’s the ticket ordering information:

Tickets to the 12th Annual Santa Fe Film Festival go on sale Thursday, October 13, 2011 @ Tickets Santa Fe

TICKET PRICES FOR ALL SANTA FE FILM FESTIVAL SCREENINGS*:  

GENERAL ADMISSION $15  General Admission Multipak – Buy 6 Tickets for the price of 5 ($75)  STUDENT (WITH ID) $10

BE SURE TO GET TICKETS TO THAT MUST SEE FILM! 

3 Easy Ways to Buy Tickets

Call (505) 988-1234
Our box office representatives are happy to assist you.

Stop By The Lensic
211 W. San Francisco St., Santa Fe, NM

Buy Online at TicketsSantaFe.org

Check back this weekend for more screening and event listings.  

Mark your calendar for 

opening night and our kick-off party at Cowgirl BBQ

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011! Everyone’s welcome!

So, let’s get back to some rambling diatribes about CALLERS…

CALLERS
(Synopsis)
“Nobody believes William Pierce. Not the cops, not the shrinks, not even his own mother. And why should they? You see, Will has a direct hotline to the afterworld: his dead fiancée’s cell phone. Here’s the problem: the dead talk only to him.

In this dark romantic comedy, Will straddles this world and the next, jumping through hurdles to appease those who have crossed over, in an attempt to exonerate himself from a murder charge, prove his sanity, and find closure with his fiancée. Yes, she’s dead, but she’ll go to any lengths to make their relationship work, including asking Will to do the unthinkable: join her on the other side.”

And, here’s the bio I created for the festival. I can’t help myself when I write these things…

Jeffrey F. Jackson, Writer/Producer/Director/Executive Producer

…is the owner of Taos Land & Film Co. which produces feature films through the development of land in Taos, New Mexico. As a filmmaker Jackson’s projects cover a gamut of genres and issues. He considers himself lucky to have escaped the grasp of Hollywood’s soul-sucking demons and found a means of creating films which are both upsetting and untainted by the crass commercial world.

His first mentors in the movie business were Stanley Kramer who he worked with at the end of his career through an American Film Institute (AFI) Internship on Kramer’s “The Trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Robert Wise then assisted Jackson as his executive producer on his adaptation of Flannery O’Connor’s short story, GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE, which was funded through an AFI Independent Filmmaker’s Grant. David Jauss of the Vermont College of Fine Arts had this to say about  GOOD COUNTRY PEOPLE, “I think it’s terrific—one of the best adaptations of a short story I’ve seen….it leads to some interesting conversations about storytelling in film vs. prose.”

Jackson then went on to spend a decade or so of hedonistic living in Venice Beach, California in an effort to gain some material for his life as an artist. “I think you have to have some decadence and hardships in your life to discover some purpose in your work as an artist” states Jackson.

He finally clawed his way out of his ‘Life Experiences’ phase through working as public relations director for author John Gray (“Men Are From Mars. Women Are From Venice”) where he plunged John into places like San Quentin Prison to hone the depth of his processes with murders and rapists and other various rejects of American society.

At that point Jackson decided it was time to get sober and get back to his filmmaking career and he spent the next five years working as a freelance journalist for Larry Flynt researching and writing exposes’ about the corruption within the federal government. This led to his feature length documentary, DEATH & TAXES, the story of North Dakota farmer Gordon Kahl and his life and death struggle with the IRS.

As the fertile land of Taos, New Mexico was funding Jackson’s film efforts, he decided it was time to give back some of this good fortune to other filmmakers and he started the Taos Land Grant Award with Taos Talking Pictures Festival (RIP) which involved his donating five acres of land in Taos each year to the most innovative film director with a feature film entered in that festival.

Next up was his narrative dark comedy delving into the emerging psychosis of POSTAL WORKER. HBO liked it enough to run it for eighteen months while Jackson discovered there were real life postal workers out there just like the ones he portrayed in his film.

Then came a late in life “Domestic Bliss” era where Jackson spawned a family and settled down to raise two children and become trained in the spiritual arts by his guru i.e. wife.

And, that brings us up to CALLERS. This movie has a very long complicated and controversial story behind it and if you’re interested in hearing about it, come on out to it’s World Premiere at the Santa Fe Film Festival at 8:30pm Friday Oct. 21st at the Cultural Center for the Arts where he’ll be answering questions before and after the screening.

Here’s our CALLERS trailer