JailCity and Dan Eberle — Congratulations…truly inspirational
I received a really wonderful text message around 6pm tonight. My friend and former coworker from The New York Times, Dan Eberle, sent a note with two beautiful words, “We won”.
Dan worked with me at The New York Times as a customer service representative for the online classifieds at nytimes.com. He supported my product, The New York Times Job Market. But he has been tirelessly moonlighting as a competely independent film producer, director, actor and writer for the past two years or so. And tonight, he learned that he won Best Feature at the 2006 Avignon/New York Film Festival for his second completely self-produced feature, JailCity.
I left Brooklyn for Los Angeles in July 2005, shortly after helping Dan shoot his first film, Vicissitude, over a weekend. (As compensation for my help holding the boom mike, Dan wrote me into Vicissitude. I’m not sure if this was a reward or a subconscious way for him to work out some day-job aggressions…in the scene he wrote me into, he beat me to a bloody pulp and crammed my lifeless drug mule body into a garbage can). I wasn’t living in New York in time to see the final cut of Vicissitude aired at Hunter College. Dan sent a copy to me via DVD. But he worked tirelessly on that film for months, self-editing it into the wee hours most nights. And the end product was really good. Though the plotline had some pretty noticeable flaws and inconsistencies (Dan, why didn’t you just call the cops?), the visual storytelling was really wonderful…and quite amazing for someone who had only taught himself how to edit while making the film!
This first film, which he wrote, directed, produced (funded), starred in and edited, was barely in the can when I received an instant message from Dan telling me that he was about to jump right into his second film, JailCity. This time around, his production values (and aspirations) got a lot bigger, but he still completely ran the show as director, producer, editor and star (though his long-time friend and former high school drama teacher Paul James Vasquez this time joined him as co-writer). And once again, he did all of this in about a nine month span while working full time at The New York Times.
I’ve seen JailCity, though also only on DVD. It’s beautifully shot and the storytelling is absolutely top notch. For a taste, here’s the JailCity trailer. I hope now it will soon screen in a festival or theater out here in LA.
And this brings us to today’s Avignon Film Festival press release announcing that JailCity wins 21st Century Filmmaker Award for Best U.S. Feature.
Congratulations, Dan. Your dedication and drive to pursue the thing that you love is truly inspiring. I wish you nothing but continued successes in pursuit of your dreams. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a more pure example of sheer DIY willpower prevailing. And to the rest of the JailCity cast: fantastic work and congratulations. You have truly earned the recognition.
P.S., And on a more geeky internet-dork note, on the JailCity site Dan offers a widget/badge
for people to paste into their MySpace page or blog to promote the film! Check it out.
