Category Archives: film

Winner ‘Best Cast 2021’ at Couch Film Festival

Move over Steven Spielberg. Step aside Martin Scorcese. Feet the movie is moving up in the world!

We are happy to announce that Feet won Best Cast 2021 at the Couch Film Festival in Toronto, Canada!!

Congratulations to the stars – Richard Chamberlain, Seymour Muchmore and Tony LeBeauf, and to the rest of the amazing cast. We are forever grateful for your wonderful talent and all of the hard work you put towards this little movie.

It’s so much fun to receive this type of news. It kind of erases all of the struggles of filming, the drama of editing, the money spent and the years of working towards the finished movie 🙂 At least it does for Terri and I.

I wonder if it erases the difficult memories our actors have of the scene where we made Rich and Seymour lay on the ground under a gross old mattress with a hole torn in it to shoot their lines. Or the hours and hours spent in the hot tub scenes where I’m pretty sure we were slowly cooking all three of the stars alive…like lobster.

This little certificate makes it all worth while, don’t you think?

Well, maybe…

Making a movie is full of hard work. It’s weird hard work, but it’s still hard work. I hope this award makes everyone in our cast who showed up and delivered everything we asked and more at least a little bit proud to be part of it. I know we’re proud of you. Looking forward to going to some screenings with everyone in the near future, too!

Take care and we will be in touch with more news when we get it.

– Darci

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Feet Semi-Finalist at Couch Film Festival

Well, we sure have been having fun here at Knowhere Media 🙂

We found out today that Feet is a Semi-Finalist at the Couch Film Festival in Toronto! Woohoo!

What does that mean, exactly? It means that Feet is up against two other films in two separate categories and will be voted on by a private jury. The categories are Best Cast (yay everyone!!) and Best Director (which is both Terri and I, co-directing sisters don’t ya know).

Honestly, I hope we win both categories 😀

But, if we only win one, I hope it’s for Best Cast. Our actors were phenomenal AND had to spread out all of that acting talent over a whole year to get the job done. In fact, every person that played a role of any size in Feet did a fantastic job. They all deserve some kudos from a comfy Canadian film festival like the Couch Film Festival.

Also, we get another laurel for our poster! This one actually has a couch on it, which it totally hilarious 😀

We are supposed to find out the winners in our categories at the end of the month. Of course, it’s an honor just to be in the running and we hope to have more good news to put out in the weeks and months ahead.

– Darci

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Going Underground in L.A.

News of the day, lovelies! Feet was recognized by the L.A. Underground Film Forum with an Honorable Mention earlier today, and we are pretty proud of our little movie 🙂


They sent us laurels for our poster and said the Honorable Mention was (I’m gonna quote them here) “for your vision and the film’s unique contribution to cinema”.

Ya, baby!

This is our first festival laurel for Feet so we added it to the poster right away…what do you think? Too much? đŸ€Ł

As always, we will update you with any news on Feet as soon as it happens 🎬

In the meantime stay healthy and stay cool!

– Darci

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Into The Fog

Years ago I lived on a boat and I had not undertaken any large creative projects that were anything that I would consider overly challenging. I had yet to embark on a long boat journey and I had jumped around in my life with very few direct goals. Following a somewhat intuitive nature I had found many adventures that brought great lessons in life but none of them I could say were 100% my own since I was heavily influenced by the opinions and drives of the relationships that meant the most to me at the time.

It was at this time that I found myself sitting at the end of the wooden dock that my little sailboat home was tied onto along with a handful of other boats. I was looking into a thickening fog that had surrounded me, the boats, the dock, and the eerily flat water that I knew expanded far beyond what the thick brume allowed me to see. I was sitting cross-legged, my cell phone held partially away from my face so that I could still hear my sister’s voice but would not be bothered by the heat of the phone against my ear. The fog became so thick that for a moment it seemed that nothing else existed, just me, sitting in a cloud, its moisture dampening my skin. My sister’s voice, the splintering texture of the wooden dock upon which I sat, and the occasional splash of the jumping mullet nearby were my only reminders that there was a world beyond this engulfing thickening cloud of air.

My sister and I were talking about creativity, mostly about writing but somehow we had transitioned onto the subject of scripts and screenwriting. I don’t remember the details of the conversation but I do remember speaking out into the fog the words,

“Why don’t we make it ourselves?”,  in reference to the subject of writing a script for a film.

The words had come out haphazardly, without thought, and the response, at least at first, was silence. I seem to remember a mullet jumping right out in front of me, splashing loudly in the water, as the words traveled out and disappeared into a long pause.

My sister was living in her own world, far from the boat that rocked me to sleep, upon a sheep ranch in the desert high plains of Southern Colorado. There she worked and raised her family. Our worlds were very different but upon reflection, looking at it from my point of view today, they were similar in that they were worlds we both were immersed and participating in but had not fully chosen consciously for ourselves. I do not mean to imply that we had not made choices to be in the lives we were living but only that we had not made those choices based off of our own personal dreams. We had, in essence, supported the dreams of those around us to such a degree that we had somewhat forgotten our own.

There are moments in life that feel like you might be shifting the trajectory of your fate, or perhaps realigning yourself with it, and those moments stick with you in your memory, holding profound meaning for you for years to come. Stating, “Why don’t we make it ourselves?” into the mist before me felt like some strange incantation, as if I had asked the primordial creative forces of the world to allow me, us, for the first time, to take on a quest that was our own. That incantation ultimately started my sister and I down the path of filmmaking.

Don’t get me wrong. There were a lot of other decisions that were made that kept us on that path. We did not know how to make films when those words were uttered. We had both been creative, my sister was a writer and I was an artist but we had not even dabbled in film. Yet, it still seems to me that it was that conversation that ultimately launched what turned into over a decade of change for both Darci and I. On that day we saw a path that we both wanted to take and we began to move down it, a path that changed us profoundly internally even as we just tried to simply piece together the physical mechanics of storytelling and filmmaking. It is a path that we are actually still traveling on and learning from today.

We finished the final details on our first independent feature film this year. It is a funny film, one that I am proud of. However, I do not think it is our final one. It may be only the beginning chapter of our filmmaking/storytelling lives. It’s hard to say how far the paths we create will lead us when our first steps are words recited into the endless fog.

Peace,

Terri

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What We Did On Our Holiday

Big David Tennant fan here. Dr. Who, Broadchurch, Good Omens, are just a few of my favorite performances. He’s a fantastic actor, seems to be a swell guy in general, and happens to be from Scotland. This, in my book, gives him an extra level of appeal.

So imagine my delight when we were flipping around options on our giant living room TV looking for something to watch and ran across a little gem of a movie starring David Tennant called What We Did On Our Holiday – a movie I had no idea existed, yet had needed to see all my life.

Let me tell you, my delight was complete.

First of all David Tennant gets to be Scottish in this film, which is charming beyond measure. Billy Connolly as his unruly Scottish father gives an entertaining and moving performance. The whole cast is wonderful, including the children. The way the film captures the chaos and craziness of having young children is funny and accurate in many ways. I laughed
a lot.

Relatable, heartwarming, comical, this movie looks at one family during a sad, broken moment in their journey while also showing the joy of life.

It made me think about summer holidays and family visits and all of the things that are, for many of us, still on hold in the spring of 2020. It made me think about love, how goofy and imperfect and wonderful it is, and that we should cherish each other while not taking ourselves so seriously.

For me, and maybe for others during this time, an uplifting movie about life, death, grief, and hope is a wonderful way to spend an afternoon.

(The funniest part is I liked this little movie so much I kind of forgot David Tennant was the reason I had started watching!)

Be well, friends,

– Darci

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Strictly Ballroom – Just Keep Dancing

Today I’m going to suggest to everyone that we Just Keep Dancing.

Like Dory’s suggestion in Finding Nemo to just keep swimming, I think it’s always good to remember that we have a choice, every single day, to keep dancing.

And what movie would I suggest you take a peek at to get yourself in the mood to dance?

I’m glad you asked.

Strictly Ballroom.

Easily in the top two of my list of all time favorite movies, Strictly Ballroom (directed by Baz Luhrmann, who, coincidentally is easily in the list of my top 10 directors of all time) is more than a “quirky romantic comedy”. It is deeply funny, thoroughly gorgeous, genuinely sweet, and profoundly inspirational. Now that I have exhausted my online thesaurus, let’s get down to why.

Writing. Acting. Music. Costumes. Production design. Over the top comedy while also being perfectly on point emotionally, Strictly Ballroom doesn’t only make you want to dance, it makes you want to change your life.

When you are done watching this little Australian dance movie you will be ready to make a giant leap of faith. Follow your bliss. Go for it. Take the bull by the horns. Turn everything that’s not right with your current existence on a dime and, in one fantastic slo-mo moment, change your trajectory so that it’s aimed at pure joy.

No small feat for a “quirky romantic comedy”.

– Darci

 

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16 Reasons Thor Ragnarok…Rocks! (pun intended)

It’s April, 2020. There are a LOT of things going on that deserve our attention. But right now I would like to put all of that aside and address something near and dear to my heart.

Thor Ragnarok.

Best Marvel movie ever? Absolutely (except Black Panther
that one makes me cry). Best Superhero Movie of all time
? Let’s see some possible reasons why


1. Led Zeppelin

2. Jeff Goldblum snapping

3. Anthony Hopkins being classy

4. Cate Blanchett
also classy
and her unfolding devil antler headdress

5. Um
Tom Hiddleston being endearing and tortured and untrustworthy

6. Badass love interest – Tessa Thompson – for Chris Hemsworth

7. Chris Hemsworth

8. That hilarious guy made out of rocks

9. Idris Elba’s eyes

10. Karl Urban
most memorable role since Chronicles of Riddick imho

11. Thor’s weird amusement park intro to the Grandmaster

12. The “Get Help” scene

13. Chris Hemsworth’s voice
which gets its own mention

14. Mark Ruffalo
he’s adorable


15. Mark Ruffalo’s Duran Duran T-shirt

16. The fact that (besides Black Panther, which stands on its own, and Guardians of the Galaxy, which was good, I admit) I’ve literally only seen one other Marvel movie all the way through, Iron Man. Still, even with my limited viewing history, I thoroughly enjoyed Thor Ragnarok and completely understood the plot and characters. Excellent job.

(Disclaimer: technically I’ve seen Iron Man II but I had a few margaritas before watching it and fell asleep in the theatre
I remember Mickey Rourke was awesome AND I’ve seen the Avengers: Infinity War, but I watched it after I saw Thor Ragnarok and only because I liked the latter so much. Sorry, it just wasn’t as good.)

So. There you are. A thoroughly pointless defense of Thor Ragnarok written YEARS after its release.

Stay safe everyone!

Darci

If you’re in the mood, you can watch the trailer or the movie on Amazon 🙂

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Embrace Of The Serpent

At the end of the day, we are all on our own journey. Whether that journey takes us to far exotic places or is the daily journey of living within one selected space of this planet from birth to death, orbiting around the same people and conversations within the culture that suckled us as babes and will weep at our funeral. In the end, the journey is the same. It is the journey of our souls navigating the waters, making choices that can change the world around us in ways we never fully understand.

We live with and ultimately die with the choices we make on this journey. Unfortunately, we are often not as noble in our actions as we would like to believe. Our frail selves sometimes are caught shuddering in the cold reality of mistakes we cannot fix. If we are lucky we may have a chance to change ourselves and, if possible, the web of consequences that we unknowingly produced from our ignorance and pride.

Embrace of the Serpent IMDB Trailer

To me, this is what the movie “Embrace Of The Serpent” is about. The journey of a few souls from different cultures who now travel together in search of a cure. Ultimately, they move through their regret, pain, prejudice, mistakes, fears, lies, and anger. They face their raw humanity.

Yes, there is a bigger picture, there always is, and yes, their landscape is within the harsh realities of the rainforest jungle. A place scarred with the violence of colonialism and the horrors of exploitation. Around them the world is at war, the rubber barons have made slaves of the people, and religion has festered into insanity. Still the story is about a couple of souls, a few choices, a journey that spans over two lifetimes that becomes a rare chance for the individuals to both find redemption and embrace reverence.

I wanted to share this beautiful film as one of my favorites in a time when I feel fragile and a bit frightened. When my own humanity and that of those around me has been put under the spotlight of our limited mortality. It is a reminder that we are all part of a larger story but in order for us to right the wrongs of the world we must learn to dream and become whole again.

In the final words of the shaman Karamakate at the end of the film, “Give them more than what they asked for. Give them a song. Tell them everything you see
 Everything you feel. Come back a whole man.”

If you have a chance, it’s a film worth watching.

Terri

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Finishing Feet…Finally!!!

Last Friday, March 27th, began the final edit of our first feature film, Feet. This is a thorough sound edit which should be complete in about two weeks.

Confused? Understandable.

Yes, we have declared this movie finished previously (please don’t remind me). But we came to the conclusion that it needed a more professional sound edit and finally pulled the budget together to get that done this year…2020…the Year of Total Insanity.

It’s been almost seven years since we held auditions for this movie. SEVEN YEARS!! In some ways it feels longer than that and in others it seems impossible that so many years have sped by since we started.

I am full of emotion as I write this, and it’s not necessarily excitement. We are currently on a stay-at-home order due to a pandemic sweeping the world, which is an absolutely un-freaking believable turn of events. I can’t even focus on the news for too long or I fall into a pit of despair. And as far as obstacles to finishing a movie go, this one is a real doozy.

We have faced so many obstacles on our way to the completion of this film. Money – we have never had any kind of budget to work with, literally next to zero. Time – we both have had to work full time all seven years, sometimes more than one job, except for a three month stint when we quit our jobs and edited non-stop to get picture lock. And in the middle of that three months the electricity failed and we had to run an extension cord to our editing bay because we couldn’t afford to pay an electrician. A crazy, crazy journey to be sure.

Then there were the General Life Obstacles – including all of the normal challenges of adult existence, things like the buying and maintaining of homes, the ins and outs of family, raising kids, caring for pets, trying to make a profit at our company, deciding to get day jobs instead, finding day jobs, worrying about retirement accounts, student loan debt, politics, global warming, you name it. And that doesn’t even include the emotional and spiritual obstacles that all of us tend to put up when we are trying to accomplish an epic creative goal.

And yet. Here we are.

Days away from having the final professional sound edit completed and weeks (more like months because of the pandemic) away from the official premiere event of our movie, Feet.

One has to wonder during this time of chaos, uncertainty, and low grade panic, if any of this was really worth the struggle. In light of everything the world is going through right now, and everything we have gone through to get here, I have to say that I truly don’t know. Is anything we have to say in a quirky little indie comedy going to be remotely important in the vast scheme of the world? Could the time, effort, and stress involved in pulling this whole movie together from script to screen have been used in wiser pursuits?

Perhaps.

But, honestly, right now, I just don’t know.

And I suppose I never will, because that’s not the path I chose. It’s not the path Terri chose. And good or bad, pass or fail, our paths have led us to this point. Side-by-side, with the help of some wonderfully talented friends, we have created a movie. As I write this and know that the process is nearly over, I must admit to hoping we do it again. Because I don’t think we’re done. I don’t feel done. In fact, I feel like everything is just beginning.

Here’s hoping. Hoping for the best and looking toward the future.

Be well, everyone. We want you to come see our movie when it’s out!

Darci

Oh! I almost forgot…a shout out to Eric and Kirk at Crosspoint for helping us and being so thoroughly patient and professional!

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A Curious Comedy

Along the path of filmmaking (and creating any art really) one learns to accept rejection as a normal part of putting your work into the world. I mean, you can’t please everybody all of the time can you? And the competition is intense in the world of film.

As our little movie, Feet, makes its way through the submission process of film festivals around the world, it has yet to be selected to screen at any of them. While that can be a little wounding to the ol’ ego, now and again we have been lucky to receive sincere compliments on the film, on its story and on the acting, from some pretty great film festivals even while they were not naming it as an official selection.

One of the most exciting of these has come in the form of an endorsement from Oaxaca FilmFest. Oaxaca FilmFest was named by MovieMaker magazine as one of the Top 50 Festivals Worth the Entry Fee four years in a row, and this is what they had to say about Feet.

“Feet is a curious comedy about a man’s fascination turning into art, and the effort he makes to protect his vision from external meddling forces.

Feet is written and directed by the duo of Darci Alishouse and Terri Balogh, with a minuscule budget they manage to create an entertaining film with a very clear vision of who their characters are and the true meaning of artistic integrity. It is fascinating that they decided their main characters would be senior citizens, something that doesn’t happen quite often in film. There’s also a point to be made here, it’s never too late to do what you really want to do.

Both Richard and Pete get involved in a medium that is often dominated by much younger competitors, however, their point of view brings something new to the table. Richard, as played by Richard Chamberlain, is a man with a curious hobby sprung out of his own ache that he further develops into an area of expertise. He’s naive, even for his age, but still willing to fight for what is his. Pete, as played by Seymour Muchmore, is a man who acts much younger than his true age. There’s a vitality to his performance that makes him that friend your mom disapproves of, but that is a genuine mate when things get real.

As for the antagonist of the story, Tony LeBeauf is the deranged Adrian Marco Day, the prototypical nightmare of any filmmaker, as he represents the madness that comes with money and the power that comes with deciding over the final product.

The film works on three different levels: It’s a story about the pursuit of happiness, it’s a crime caper and a story of friendship against adversity. All three levels work well off each other, and make for a varied and entertaining experience. This is also an example of get-out-there-and-make-your-movie filmmaking. There was a story to be told, and the filmmakers went camera in hand, with clear vision and made the film without compromise.

Feet can be a wacky comedy of two senior friends trying to get into the YouTube game so well-played by Millenials, it’s also a caper and a crime thriller, but ultimately its heart lies in a declaration of artistic freedom and purity of vision.”

The biggest thrill for Terri and I about this endorsement was that they got the ultimate message of the story! Behind its “curious” facade, the message of Feet is a declaration of artistic freedom and the idea that it is never too late to do what you really want to do. It was truly heartening to us that they were able to see that message.

The other thrill for us is that all of the hard work the cast and crew and everyone involved in this film put out there was not lost on the people screening it for Oaxaca FilmFest. We wanted to put this out there to let everyone know that we appreciate everything they did to help create this film. We will continue to push Feet into the world through however much rejection is necessary until we finally all get to snuggle into theatre seats and see it on the big screen!

Carrying On,

Darci

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