Freedom Dance took Best of Show at Rosebud Film Fest tonight, which came with a hefty monetary prize. Whoo hoo!

Congrats to the Freedom Dance crew!

~Steven

Tonight Freedom Dance won CINE’s Master Series Award! Whoo hoo!!!

This is CINE’s top prize, and a big boost for the movie. :0)

Congrats to the Freedom Dance team, and many thanks for all the efforts and talent!

Steven

Freedom Dance was selected for the Rosebud Film Festival. It will screening on June 14, 2008 at The Spectrum Theater, 1611 North Kent Street, Arlington, VA.

More details to come.

~Steven

Freedom Dance is an official selection at the White Sands International Film Festival. The festival runs from March 16-22 in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Check it out if you’re in the neighborhood!

Hope to see you there!

Details: White Sands Film Fest

~Steven

Freedom Dance just won the Jury Award from CINE (a great honor) and was accepted into the White Sands International Film Fest in New Mexico. (The screening is in March.)

It screens on Saturday February 16 at the Show Off Your Shorts Film Fest in Los Angeles.

If you’re thinking of attending either of those festivals, please contact me for details: steven@freedomdancethemovie.com

Stay tuned for more…
:0)
Steven

Learned today Freedom Dance won a CINE Golden Eagle Award in the documentary category!

Associate Producer
DIANE LEIGH DAVISON

live action production

videography
GREGG LANDRY

production sound
KEVIN HILL
ERIC METCALF

production assistant
THEA MAICHLE

production video
BlueRock Productions LLC
Baltimore, Maryland
bluerockproductions.com

animation production

character design,
illustration & layouts
EDWARD HILBERT

additional animators
JOEL LOUKUS
PAUL SULSKY

digital color
JOHN BINTZ
JORDAN BLOOM
MELISSA CHIOU
MEAGHAN DUNN
BARBARA HERRON
RACHEL KREUTZINGER
JOEL LOUKUS
PAUL SULSKY

watercolors
MARC GILLIS

additional backgrounds
CRAIG HERRON

post production

editors
STEVEN FISCHER
CRAIG HERRON

post video
BlueRock Productions LLC

sound designer
KEVIN HILL

post production audio
Studio Unknown, LLC
Baltimore, Maryland
studiounknown.com

music composed by
PHIL ROSENSTEEL

arrngement
PHIL ROSENSTEEL
KEVIN HILL

performance
PHIL ROSENSTEEL

violin solos
TERESINA PALUMBO

recording and mix
KEVIN HILL

additional recording
The Note Factory
MICHAEL ZAMPI, Producer
zampi-productions.com

ancillary support

translator
ZSUZSA KISS TOTH

gallery show assistant/3-D cut paper
EDY BONDROFF

location photography (Hungary)
MICHAEL DAVIDSON

legal services
DIANE LEIGH DAVISON, ESQ
Baltimore, Maryland

web design
JOHN BINTZ

web hosting
Rydia.net
WEI-LING LORELAI WU
ALAN KASINDORF

Freedom Dance won in the Documentary – Under 30 minutes category at the 2007 Peer Awards held in Washington, DC.

Congrats to the Freedom Dance team!
:0)
Steven

Freedom Dance was accepted into the Utopia Film Festival in Greenbelt, Maryland. Here are the details. Hope you can make it! Tell your friends!

Freedom Dance will screen on
Saturday, October 27 at 1:30 pm
the Greenbelt Municipal Building
25 Crescent Road
Greenbelt, Maryland 20770
301-474-8000

web site
Utopia Film Festival

directions
Click Here

BlueRock Productions owner and Freedom Dance friend/director of photography Gregg Landry will be spotlit on WCBM Radio tonight at 6pm. He will appear on Arts and Entertainment with Jerry Geitka and Lisa Scott.

In typical Landry fashion, Gregg invited me to join him on the air. No doubt we’ll be talking about Freedom Dance.

Thanks, Gregg.

~Steven

A sad announcement:

Rose Crowley, Edward and Judy Hilbert’s daughter, passed away today following a long fight against cancer.

My memories of Rose are of delightful and loving soul who enjoy life to its fullest. Like her father, Rose always managed to see the silver lining and keep a smile on her face, even during the darkest of times.

She is survived by Judy, her husband Art, and sister Michelle Batt. Edward passed away August 22, 2006.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made on behalf of Rose to

Hospice of St. Mary’s
Campaign for St. Mary’s Hospice House
P.O. Box 625
22699 Washington Street
Leonardtown, Maryland 20650

Please remember write In Memory of Rose Crowley in the memo section of your check.

And please send a prayer to Judy and the Hilbert family during this difficult time. I will post updates as received.

~Steven

The Maryland Film Festival started this past Thursday. Freedom Dance had its premiere on Friday, May 4! Nearly three years boils down to this weekend. (Two screenings at the festival.)

The crowd was good and as a direct result a couple of dvds were sold, a rep from a private school in Baltimore approached asking if the school could host a screening, and the program director from the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival approached showing much interest in having the movie screen in Delaware.

The next scheduled screening is at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, May 25 and 26. Check back for more details.

These last three weeks have been exhausting for me, but the premiere has more than made up for it. In three weeks I’ve taken 10 flights, attended one conference and two film festivals screening various films I’ve produced or co-produced, won three awards (one for Houdini, two for Draw the Line) and overall hob-nobbed with some fabulous people in Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami where I am at the moment to work with two Sony Music artists and a broadcasting company.

It really is exciting. In each market I’m selling Freedom Dance, spreading the word, and getting closer to reeling in the right distributor.

Was with Judy recently, dropping off DVDs of the movie for her family. We sat in the living room chatting and she asked me to tell her about my day. As I answered, I realized just how insane life is for me these days.

Well, I started, actually it began yesterday. Was up at 4am, in Virginia by 6 to work on my Civil War docu-drama, left 4pm and straight to Baltimore to finish burning some Freedom Dance DVDs to send to sales reps I’d met in L.A., then stopped at the gym about 9, home by 10 and continued packaging Freedom Dance distributor packs until 1am. Slept for two hours, back in Northern Virginia by 6am to resume work on the docu-drama (start shooting in one month!), to Baltimore by 5pm to finish the DVD burns. Stop at Craig’s place to see a new trailer he’s cut for the movie, then here to drop off the DVD’s. Next onto the Maryland Film Festival office to drop off the Beta tape they’ll screen, and THEN home to bed.

But you know what? This is what it takes to get a movie out into the world. You think production is tough? Just wait til your movie’s done. Then the work really begins.

But I love it, and the rewards are sweet.
~Steven

This just in: Freedom Dance has been accepted into the Maryland Film Festival which runs May 3 – 6, 2007. If you’re in Baltimore then, please try to stop by and see the movies! Details to appear at the Maryland Film Fest website.

Whoo hoo!
~Steven

Some exciting news to today. It was announced that Houdini, an effects-heavy music video directed by Steven Fischer with composites and visual effects animated by Craig Herron has won a Remi Award at the 40th Annual Worldfest in Houston, Texas.

The video was for indie rock favorite Jim Camacho to help promote his 2005 album Stalker Songs.

~Steven

Edy Bondroff, the artist who helped us organize the gallery show of Edward Hilbert’s artwork at the JCC last year, has just had one of her own works of art featured on the cover of Tradition A Celebration of Jewish Life in Baltimore County. The magazine also contained an excellent article about Edy and showed many more of her paintings.

Edy contributed two wonderful cut paper shadow boxes of color prints of scenes from Freedom Dance. These appeared at both of the Freedom Dance art shows.

You can view Edy’s painting in Maryland at Suburban House Restaurant on Reisterstown Road in Pikesville or contact Edy direct at: edybondroff@yahoo.com

For those of you who’ve expressed interest in buying a copy of Freedom Dance on DVD:

The final cut is being cleaned, sweetened and tweaked as we speak. The tireless efforts of Sound Designer Kevin Hill at Studio Unknown cannot go unnoticed at this. Kevin is really going the extra miles to meet our fast-approaching deadline (screaming towards us like a hot line drive).

The plan is to have a sales page up in March, so please check back then. And if you have questions, email info@freedomdancethemovie.com

Also those who cannot go unnoticed as we push to wrap things up : John Bintz for his generous and wonderful web work and DVD design packaging; law gal Diane Davison for her awesome efforts to secure much needed Mariska Harigtay promo material; Gregg Landry at BlueRock Productions for his generosity, friendship, and duplication services; Paul Sulsky for giving and giving to make the end title roll a reality; and the gracious Phil “I need a web site” Rosensteel for being so generous with his inspiring music score.

They really define the meaning of dedicated teamwork.

~Steven

I’ll be attending Real Screen Summit from Jan 29-Feb 1 to solicit Freedom Dance, and have been promoting it heavily to registered delegates two weeks prior. If you’re a fellow Real Screener dropping by the site and would like to learn more about this documentary, please email me to arrange a summit meeting.
I’d like to meet you.

~Steven
steven@freedomdancethemovie.com

Discussions continue with the Creative Alliance to include Freedom Dance in a program for Barbara Lanciers’ Leaves with a Name performance piece in May 2007. Keep checking back for details about this Baltimore screening!

Otherwise the past several days/weeks have included continued work on the featured extras, DVD packaging/ authoring prep, crew/supporters holiday cards, contracts, licensing agreements, fiscal sponsorship reports, updates to John Bintz for the website, follow ups for future screenings all over the place, and continued prep for festivals and distributors.

Continued development on my Civil War romance for NVCC in Northern Virginia (development for story and logistics). Much to do, but I now have Prince William County’s Historic Preservation department on the team in a BIG way. The county has offered a great deal of support. More details later. :0)

~Steven

Received email today from the producer of an ipod show called Montage (based in the UK). I had contacted them months ago about doing a promotion piece about Freedom Dance. Looks like they’re interested. More details about it later.

Yesterday picked up publicity photos from my most recent shoot with the very gifted photographer, Stuart Dahne. Our meeting was held at Mari Luna, a great Mexican restaurant in Baltimore, with Freedom Dance webmaster John Bintz joining the fun.

~S

Pearl Harbor Day …. please let’s all remember.

On a happier note, the January 2007 issue of the national magazine, Documentary, arrived today and features this blurb about Freedom Dance.

:0)
~Steven

Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay recently recorded the narration for Freedom Dance, an animated documentary by Emmy-nominated producer Steven Fischer and Telly Award-winning animator Craig Herron, retelling the story of artist Edward Hilbert who, during his four months on the road to freedom with his newly wedded wife, kept a journal of cartoons detailing an adventurous escape from communist Hungary to the US during Hungary’s bloody 1956 revolution against Soviet occupation.

“What impressed me most about Mariska was how seriously she took the role,” notes Fischer about the September 22nd recording session at Gramercy Post in New York City. “She prepared extensively and performed with energetic enthusiasm. For someone in her position to invest all of that into a low-budget movie says a lot for her personal character.”