(April 6, 2009) Grand Jury Award - Best Documentary nomination - LA Asian Pacific Film Festival 2009. Click below for more information/ticketing!!!
(March 6, 2009) Official Selection at the inspiring LOS ANGELES Asian Pacific Film Festival @ Director's Guild of America to be held in May 2009
(Feb 11, 2009) Extensive Radio Interview with director Kai-Duc Luong about SOMEPLACE ELSE on WELH 88.1FM Providence conducted by Spoiler Alert Radio host Toni Pennacchia! Check it out here and listen to many insights on the creative process behind the film!!!
EXCLUSIVE Sneak preview for HIBERNAROCK 2009 festival of music on Feb 4, 2009 @ 6pm - see screenings for details ;) Director to be present.
IFP Chicago presenting SOMEPLACE ELSE in DEC 2008 - Please come see the film in CHICAGO @ FACETS cinematheque - Kai to be present
THE VILCEK Foundation in New York City distinguishes SOMEPLACE ELSE in NOV 2008 - Come see us in NYC & RSVP @ The Vilcek Foundation - Director will be present
Official Selection at the prestigious LOUIS VUITTON HAWAII International Film Festival LVHIFF to be held in October 2008!!!
Official Selection at RHODE ISLAND International Film Festival RIIFF held in August 2008
!!! TRAILER to be featured @ LOOPTOPIA 2008, May 2, 2008 (Chicago "white night" celebration of arts) !!! GO SEE IT DOWNTOWN CHICAGO from 5pm to Midnight @ DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson (at State), Chicago Loop Organized by Full Voice
!!! SOMEPLACE ELSE featured ON NPR !!!!
Listen here (starting at 3min till end of talk 4 mins later, & help us spread the word! Love, Kai and Avisheh
Excerpts from the NPR talk/review: "It's great, we call it, "a personal documentary"... a documentary on Vance's career but it's also how the blues music and how things have affected Kai-Duc while he's been living here... this guy's got some talent... he quit his job just to focus on filmmaking and finishing this film. It's reflective, it's poetic... those kind of reflections, sort of internal musings are juxtaposing with Vance Kelly who's a real showman and very raunchy... this film has a lot of character and personality..."
!!!! READ other REVIEWS !!!
"AFFECTING" "A TENDER PORTRAIT of one of Chicago's hardest-working bluesmen, an impressionistic meditation on place, belonging, and passion." (A. Mast, Flavorpill.com)
"ENGAGINGLY INFORMAL" "PERSONAL AND POETIC" (B. Scharres, Gene Siskel Film Center, Director of Programming)
"IT'S FRESH!... AN ART DOCUMENTARY!" (M. Saeed-Vafa, critic/writer/director Documentary & Critical Studies Programs Columbia College)
"Someplace else is SOMETHING ELSE in FILMMAKING" (The Vilcek Foundation, NYC)
"To see Chicago life in motion through the lens of great cinema is BREATHTAKING." "Life is about change and change is what you make it." "Someplace Else is PACKED WITH snippets of GREAT SONGS and not all blues." (C. Freeman, Chicago Independent Bulletin)
"A GREAT ADDITION to Looptopia" (C. Polizzi, Full Voice programming for Looptopia 2008)
!!!!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR THE WONDERFUL SUPPORT, IT MEANS EVERYTHING TO US !!!!!!
someplace else - the movie - trailer
Add trailer to My Profile | Go to www.someplaceelsethemovie.com
Poster by French contemporary artist Alexandra Loewe
SYNOPSIS:
----------
Part musical documentary, part personal meditation, SOMEPLACE ELSE is the engagingly refreshing portrait of Chicago's soul-blues-funk musician Vance Kelly through the director's film journal.
Weaving the narrative, the photography, and the lyrical content of the music in a poetic and rhythmic way, this feature debut transforms the visual experience of a documentary into a fresh and captivating journey of many facets.
SOMEPLACE ELSE is Kai and Avisheh's feature film debut.
DIRECTORS STATEMENT:
-------------------------
At the core of molding this documentary debut feature, was our intent to break free from the conventions of traditional documentary storytelling and filmmaking, and give the experience a fresh, new feel.
While 'Someplace Else' keeps many elements of a musical documentary genre, such as stage performances integrated with traditional interviews, it also introduces a resolutely modern approach to weaving these pieces together through sound and visual techniques found in the modern art and music video frameworks - employing the featured songs' lyrical content and the filmmakers' personal take on them, and using a film journal, as vectors for the narrative. The end result is a refreshingly modern experience of blues music, a genre that has been relegated, these days, to clichés of old blues legends and touristy hangouts.
The movie is a poetic cross-portrayal of an old blues man's upbeat stance on life, and the filmmaker Kai's uncertainties in life, a thirty something Gen-Xer who has 'the blues' in his corporate life, and tells the story on both sides of the camera.
This project was produced over the course of the past three years from 2005 to 2008.
'Someplace Else' offers a freshly engaging audiovisual experience of a documentary feature by using innovative storytelling and editing techniques.
------------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------
The film offers the style of RYTHMIC, TEXTURED FILMMAKING & EDITING that the filmmaker Kai is most recognized for.
SOMEPLACE ELSE - The portrait of legendary soul-blues musician Vance Kelly through the filmmaker's journal.
My kind of blues in my kind of town. A personal documentary.
(70 min, color, 2008)
Direction : Kai-Duc Luong Co-direction : Avisheh Mohsenin
Story by : Kai-Duc Luong / Khai-Dong Luong / Avisheh Mohsenin
Cinematography and Sound : Randall Darden
Editing : Kai-Duc Luong / Khai-Dong Luong
Assistant Editor : Julien Branlard
Art consultant: Anne Holmes
Camera Operators: Julien Branlard / Sebastien Beysserie
Music by Vance Kelly and his backstreet blues band
Production: Kai-Duc Luong / Avisheh Mohsenin
