Canadian Television Premiere

Tonight, August 14th, at 9:00 pm EST, I Am What I Play will have its Canadian television premiere on CBC’s The Documentary Channel:

http://www.cbc.ca/documentarychannel/docs/i-am-what-i-play

We are also pleased to announce an international distribution deal with Blue Ant Media.  They took the film to France earlier this year for MIPCOM, the annual international broadcasting trade show.

http://blueantmedia.ca/portfolio/i-am-what-i-play/

Stay tuned to this blog for updates on other broadcast screenings.

Radio Days Europe

We showed the film for the first time to a European audience at the biggest radio conference in the world, Radio Days Europe.  This year, the conference was held in Paris March 13-15.  Director Roger King was invited to Paris to present the screening and participate in a Q & A hosted by Radio Futurologist James Cridland.   It was a tough assignment to have to go to Paris but Roger bravely agreed to attend.  Here’s an interview with the Director in advance of the screening.

http://www.radiodayseurope.com/news/european-documentary-premiere

IMG_2391Director Roger King introducing I Am What I Play in Paris.  Also pictured, moderator James Cridland.

The Spirit of College Radio

Given that on college stations today, you still find the free form spirit highlighted in the film, we are happy to be part of events that raise a little money for college radio. Loyalist College and 91X in Belleville, Ontario are presenting a special screening of the film on Wednesday, November 25. We hope to do more events like this with other college radio stations in the coming months:

 

Belleville Poster

I Am Where We Screen

We have neglected you, the faithful blog reader and for that, deep apologies.  Our excuse is we’ve been screening the film and arranging other screenings.  In fact, we got really clever and created an I Am What I Play Screenings page right on this site.  No more guessing where the film might be playing.  You can visit the Screenings page any time to get the up-to-the minute report.

We had a great time at the Beacon International Film Festival in late September.  Beacon is a 90 minute train ride from New York City and they’ve carved out a nice artistic community there.  I Am What I Play opened the festival this year and we encourage film fans to keep an eye on Beacon in future years.

We had another screening in Toronto on October 15 as part of the Reel Independent Film Festival.  It was at the same theater as our Canadian premiere earlier this year – The Royal Cinema.  Director Roger King and film subject David Marsden were in attendance and hosted a spirited Q & A after the screening.

Roger went to high-school in Kitchener-Waterloo (about an hour from Toronto) and will host a special presentation of the movie on October 29th at the beautiful rep cinema, The Princess Theater.  Tickets only available at this link:

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2327724

Stay tuned for news on special screenings later this year in Vancouver and Boston, among other cities.  We are taking this to radio & music fans, one city at a time!

 

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Director Roger King joined Steve Anthony on CP24 Breakfast Television in Toronto, October 15th, 2015.

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The Princess Cinema.  Waterloo, Ontario.

Jacob Burns sell-out

The Jacob Burns screening was apparently a big success.  A sold out crowd we’re told!  Meg Griffin was in attendance and did a well-received Q & A about her radio career, hosted by WFUV’s Rita Houston who also appears in the film.   Below are some pics that were posted on social media:

MegRitaJB

From left to right:  Rita Houston, Meg Griffin, Karen Goodman – Jacob Burns Programmer

jacob burns screening rita and meg

Q & A with Rita Houston and Meg Griffin.  Photos c-2015 Gayle Miller

Hello Boston!

On Sunday, April 26, the film premiered to an enthusiastic crowd at The Boston Independent Film Festival.  Boston was of course the radio home to one of our 4 featured DJ’s, Charles Laquidara, for over 30 years.  Lots of Charles/WBCN fans were in attendance and it was great to finally see the film on a big screen with an audience.

There are plans to bring the film back to Boston in late May or June so stay tuned for details on that screening.

Thanks again Boston radio & film fans and IFF Boston!

 

bostonfest

Producer/Director Roger King, during Q & A, at the U.S. Premiere in Boston.

 

I Am What I Play Premieres

Well, we are happy to announce both our American and Canadian premieres.  I Am What I Play will screen at the Boston Independent Film Festival on April 26th at the historic Somerville Theater.   Here’s the film page on their website with ticket information:

http://bit.ly/1CmE2YL

 

somtheatre

And then on May 8th in Toronto, I Am What I Play will be the opening film of the film festival portion of Canadian Music Week (CMW).  This screening will take place at The Royal Cinema on College St.  Another great venue.  CMW is kind of the South x South West of Canada so we are thrilled.

Tickets available here:

http://cmw.net/film/events/i-am-what-i-play-canadian-premiere/

 

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Much more to come on these two premiere screenings of course!

Indie 88 – I Am What I Play (Toronto)

Since completing I Am What I Play, I’ve been outreaching to the radio community with an interest in discussing the key theme of the film: disc jockey creative control.  I continue to be curious about who is still out there on the dial, doing radio in the spirit of free form so a couple of weeks go, I dropped into Toronto radio station Indie 88 for a chat with Program Director Adam Thompson.

Indie 88 burst on the Toronto radio scene a little over a year ago with the mandate to give a voice to truly independent music.  I wanted to get Adam’s thoughts on programming music, his approach to radio and get a sense of the amount of freedom he gives the DJ’s.

Three encouraging things:

1)Adam is clearly a radio guy.  I mean that in the most positive way.  He clearly knows the business but is coming at it from deep love and knowledge of the music, rather than from some kind of marketing and PR background.   He is a decade younger than me but grew up a radio die-hard.

2)The DJ’s have input into the music they play.   The station definitely thinks in terms of shows, not shifts.   As the name implies, the station is independently owned – family, not corporate.   There are DJ’s on the show who program their show entirely and most at the station are involved in the music programming.

3)The music is not narrow-casted.  Of course, they have a target audience but they program a wide spectrum of artists.

Indie88

They vow to put music first.  There is even a manifesto:  http://indie88.com/about/indie88-manifesto/

As any good radio station should, they are slowly but surely integrating themselves into the Toronto community and giving a voice to indie artists and events.  And hey, they even threw it open to the general public to not only audition to be the voice of the station but to vote on the finalists once the field was narrowed a bit:  http://indie88.com/jen-is-the-new-voice-of-indie88/

As a voice talent agent, how can I not love this?

It will be interesting to keep an ear on Indie 88 in the next couple of years as they gain more of a foothold in the Toronto scene.  Will the reins tighten a bit on the format or will they continue to push forward in “the spirit of radio”?

This is the first in a series of pieces exploring radio programs and stations where the music programming is unpredictable and the DJ’s are given freedom.  We are interested in hearing from you.  Do you host a radio show or work at a station that fits this description?  Or maybe you listen to one?  Drop us a line: distraction@distractioninc.com

We’d love to publish your blog piece about the show or station.   We aim to spread the word about current radio operating in the spirit of “I Am What I Play.”