Fish Kill Flea

Sweatin' in Florida and Los Angeles

Aaron Hillis — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:46:00 +0000

Has it really been a year since our SXSW world premiere last March? We're terrible about posting upcoming screenings, but always be sure to check our MySpace page to get the most up-to-date listings.

COMING SOON! If you happen to be in or near the Orlando area in late March or early April, come check out FISH KILL FLEA, which will be playing at the 2008 Florida Film Festival in the documentary feature competition (our first time ever in juried competition, click image for details):

And if you're in Los Angeles, here's our long-awaited L.A. premiere:

Thanks to all who keep continuing to support our little film, especially those filmmakers and programmers and other moviegoers who have come out to see it for the second and even third times. In reverse chronological order, here's where we've been since we posted about Dallas last August:

2008:
Bradford (UK)
Lake County (Lake County, IL)
Würzburg (Germany)

2007:
Cucalorus (Wilmington, NC)
Cork (Ireland)
Brooklyn Independent (Brooklyn, NY)
Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival (Birmingham, AL)
UnionDocs (Brooklyn, NY)
Milan (Italy - INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE!)

Dallas!

Aaron Hillis — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:00:00 +0000

Just a quick note, true believers and '80s oil barons: FKF will be back in TX at the 20th annual Dallas Video Festival. If you still haven't seen the film (or you'd like to make yourself laugh and cry for the 8th time), we'll be screening on Sunday, August 5th (@ 3:00pm) at the Dallas Theater Center.

For tickets and more info, clicky here.

(Thanks for the invite, Bart!)

NYC Premiere July 21st... on a Rooftop!

Aaron Hillis — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:26:00 +0000

Man oh man, we've been waiting half an eternity for this one, and it's finally here. FKF will make its home-turf premiere (Brooklyn, not Fishkill) on Saturday, July 21st at Rooftop Films!!! We'll be screening the film under the stars of the New York summer sky, all on top of the Old American Can Factory in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Doors open at 8pm.

But wait, as the man says, there's more! Rooftop has organized a uniquely exciting program around us that night, so we hope you all can make the trek. At 8:30pm, renowned experimental filmmaker Jennifer Reeves presents her Sundance short, Light Work Mood Disorder, a live collaboration with equally renowned clarinetist-composer Anthony Burr that should blow your minds so hard and fast that you may not recover in time to see our film. Here's a taste of that experience:

"Found images from 20th century educational films are sewn together with melted down pharmaceuticals affixed directly to the film, and form a concentrated fusion with pulsating electronic sounds and an acoustic multi-tonal bass clarinet."

At 9pm, representatives from Interboro Partners and The Center for Urban Pedagogy will offer up a short architectural/design presentation about many of the themes in Fish Kill Flea. We ran into Daniel D'Oca at the flea market while filming two years ago, as he and his crew were constructing a project about reinventing the Dutchess Mall's dead space. They went on to win some awards, and the Rooftop curators just happened to meet them after programming our film. The rest is pure unabashed synchronicity, and a lovely way to segue into our NEW YORK PREMIERE AT 9:30PM... (And yes, we'll be there for a post-screening Q&A.) See ya then!

[get directions] * [buy tickets] * [more about Rooftop Films]

FKF Visits "deadCENTER" of the Country

Aaron Hillis — Sat, 05 May 2007 20:47:00 +0000

Did you know Oklahoma City is officially and geographically the bullseye heart of the United States? (We didn't, sadly to say.) And did you know that OKC's deadCENTER Film Festival has invited FKF to screen as part of its 7th Annual extravaganza? (Well, you do now!)

With a projected attendance of 4,000 cinephiles and over 100 films to catch, plus panels and boozy soirees, Oklahoma's hip lil' downtown event ain't so little any more! Jennifer and Aaron will be representin' (while Brian ventures off for the next month to teach kids about the wonders of DV filmmaking), so if you're anywhere near OKC' s Harkins Bricktown Three on either Friday, JUNE 8 (3:00pm) or Saturday, JUNE 9 (5:00pm), come see the film and hang out!

Until then, PLEASE help us generate some buzz down there in Flaming Lips country, simply by scheduling to see us on your B-Side calendar. Details can be found here.

(Mucho thanks to Cacky, Kim and the whole deadCENTER squadron!)

Weren't We Just in Austin Last Month?

Aaron Hillis — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 23:03:00 +0000

You bet. But the Austin Film Society has invited Fish Kill Flea back to that wonderful town as part of this year's Texas Documentary Tour! We'll be screening at the Alamo Drafthouse Theater next Wednesday, April 11th at 7pm.

Afterwards, the three of us will be there to participate in a lengthy Q&A, followed by Brian and Jennifer giving slideshow presentations of their photography from Fishkill, NY and the Dutchess Mall. That's, like, added value!

Plus, not only does the Alamo serve you food and beer while you're watching movies, the opening shot of Quentin Tarantino's half of Grindhouse is the exterior of the very movie theater we're screening at. If you come see the film, it's almost like you get Rose McGowan with a machine gun for a leg AND a doc about a flea market in a dead mall... but, y'know, without that first part.

Swing on by next week, Austinites!

We Came, We SXSW, We Queso'd

Aaron Hillis — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:51:00 +0000

Team FKF has returned home to Brooklyn from the salsa-lined streets of Austin, which we might as well call a descent from cloud nine. Our world premiere at South by Southwest 2007 was nothing short of incredible, from our nearly sold-out first and second screenings, to all the great films we saw (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Quiet City, Silver Jew, Kamp Katrina... too many to list here!), and new friends we've made. We're so grateful for the invite, and feel pretty blessed that both local and national press found our little film in a sea of buzz titles, then scribbled some kind words, too:

"One of SXSW's pleasant surprises! FISH KILL FLEA has a great, early Errol Morris feel for American weirdness."
- PREMIERE [link #1] [link #2]

"An unanticipated delight..."
- SALON.com [link]

"A wistful, thought-provoking rumination on the cost of progress."
- FILM THREAT [link]

"**** (FOUR STARS)! Sad, funny and astute..."
- AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN [link]

"Compelling! FISH KILL FLEA whispers its concern for our disposable culture as it captures a subculture losing its battle for survival."
- AUSTIN CHRONICLE [link]

We also did a few interviews for the Austin press, including the aforementioned Chronicle, Statesman, and the cool kids over at Austinist.

Aaron took a few cameraphone photos during the trip, including this single-shot bootleg of the film during our tech check on Saturday. If you squint, you can see Brian under the screen, setting up the HDcam to film our first live Q&A.

Minutes before the premier screening, Aaron calmed his nerves in the restroom stall, where he tore the appropriate notch on his FKF audience award ballot.

Hannah Takes the Stairs auteur (and the first-ever recipient of SXSW's Eagle Pennell award) Joe Swanberg shoots Kevin Bewersdorf outside of the Alamo Drafthouse theater. Joe co-starred in so many films at this year's fest that we started joking about how he played three of the vendors in FKF.

SXSW Film Festival director Matt Dentler called this super-pairing weeks back.

We hit it off with Orphans director and special jury prize winner Ry Russo-Young right away, so much so that she let us shut her in the trunk of our rental car to accommodate more passengers.

Helvetica director and founding partner of the Plexifilm DVD label, Gary Hustwit. We like him a whole lot, and you can't stop us.

Aaron and Silver Jew director Michael Tully, two film critics turned filmmakers. Note Aaron's stone-faced professionalism.

Just as SXSW began, Brian became an old man as he celebrated three decades of life. Fortunately, 30 is the new 15, so now he has puberty to look forward to all over again.

Thanks to everyone who helped support the film... See y'all at the next fest!

Yeeha, Our First SXSW '07 Interview

Aaron Hillis — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:44:00 +0000

The three of us were invited to spill a few words about the Legend of Fish Kill Flea. (Okay, fine, it's a legend in our own minds, but you can't take our excitement away.) The interview is posted on eFilmCritic (thanks, Scott!), and here's a taste of us bravely answering those hard-hitting questions:

Of all the Muppets, which one do you most relate to?

AARON: Dr. Teeth, mostly for the way he spins language in The Muppet Movie: "Too true. Too true. It is indeed a problem for us to 'probosculate' upon. But it seems to me the frog and the bear are temporarily out of service."

JENNIFER: When I was eight I had a subscription to "Miss Piggy" Magazine. Need I say more?

BRIAN: I've always liked the blue eagle that read the news -- he always took himself and his message a bit too seriously and, I believe, suffered greatly for it. I also liked the one that threw boomerang fish... he also suffered, but for different reasons. I like suffering puppets.

World Premiere at SXSW 2007

Aaron Hillis — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 06:53:00 +0000

We're happier than a piglet in his first mud puddle, because Fish Kill Flea will make its world premiere as a documentary feature at this year's South by Southwest Film Festival (March 9th - 18th). YES! We'll be a part of the "Emerging Visions" section, and while we don't yet have any screening times available, we'll be sure to update the blog and our MySpace page as soon as we do. UPDATE: SXSW Screening Times can be found there in the top-right corner of the blog. Let us just reiterate: YES!!!

This year's SXSW line-up looks like seventeen heaps of fun, what with overdue rock-doc portraits of The Silver Jews and the visionary Scott Walker, Joe Swanberg's third SXSW premiere in three years (go, Joe!), the Aqua Teen Bomb-Scare movie, Mike Mills' look at Japanese depression culture, and Grace Lee's non-eponymous zombie project. We're hoping to meet some of you down in Austin, TX while checking out these must-see flicks (don't forget ours), and maybe we can scope out some secret shows together when the music section takes over the fest. Just look for Aaron in these, then buy him a drink. He swears he'll get the next round.

We have a lot of prep work to do in the meantime, so please pardon us if the blog's a bit quiet for a couple weeks. These days, it's hard just to schedule ourselves in the same room together, since Brian only got back from a whirlwind tour of Sundance and Rotterdam yesterday, and Aaron leaves tomorrow for the Berlinale on behalf of his new DVD distribution venture. Taking watch here on the New York front, Jennifer's been hunkering down for her upcoming photography exhibition next month. We're all feeling lucky right now!

Mega-thanks again to Matt Dentler and the rest of the SXSW crew for inviting us to be part of what's guaranteed to be an extraordinarily awesome fest. See y'all in Austin!

Come to the Mall, It's Just Like Disneyland

Aaron Hillis — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:40:00 +0000

Excepting for the holiday shopping season, it often seems -- at least to us (and by "us," I mean the filmmakers of Fish Kill Flea, if you haven't yet clicked on the tab above) -- that people don't congregate at shopping malls like they used to. Why would anyone want to fight traffic and crowds when Amazon.com and other online retailers sell pretty much everything under the sun, and at lower prices? Can you remember back when mall-going meant something more than a good deal?

There were a slew of reasons that we (ahem!), none of whom had ever before pursued filmmaking with any degree of seriousness, came together to shoot a documentary that sets its stage in a mall that time forgot. Nostalgia is the most obvious reason (especially in Brian's case, since his parents used to bring him to this very place when he was knee-high to an aisle endcap), while others are more creative, personal, and as you'll hopefully read in our press kit, sociological.

Fish Kill Flea is probably not the most commercially viable film we could've made in this age of trendy "pop docs." We don't have incendiary political agendas, crowd-pleasing characters with mainstream appeal, celebrity talking heads, flashy graphics that can help take down evil corporations, or seemingly banal subjects made exciting through suspense. We even like a lot of these films, and don't mean to make cop-outs by saying distribution wasn't our primary goal, but that's the scout's honored truth. We played by some doc rules and broke a whole bunch of others to best emphasize our ideas.

For better or worse, we (and a small few who've seen it so far) think Fish Kill Flea is endearing, sad, funny, odd and original, so we hope you give us a mere 50 minutes of your time when it finally reaches a film festival, theater or DVD store near you. If you like the trailer and site, please add our RSS feed to your blogroll, join us on MySpace, tell your friends, and check back as we'll be announcing our WORLD PREMIERE in the next few weeks... even if you think most documentaries are kinda boring, we promise you won't see another film quite like this one.

Thank you for shopping wit us.