Hey folks,

I’m packing bags for the screening of The Ordinary Radicals at the Crossroads Film Festival in Jackson, Mississippi!  Here’s the details:

Thursday, April 2nd @9pm
Regal United Artists Theaters, Theater B
1075 Parkway Blvd.
Flowood, MS 39232

Michael Wong, featured in the New Orleans section of the film, will be hanging out with me.  Come out and say hey!

~jamie

I want to apologize for the hokey title to the post, but let me explain…

“The Ordinary Radicals” is an official selection for the Ion International Film Festival, and each year ION holds their festival in a new location.  This year the festival will be held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates!  We are very excited to be part of this unique festival.  From the festival’s website:

“ION FIlm Festival strives to bring awareness to individuals and organizations who are creating socially relevant films to positively impact our worlds.”

So, if you happen to be near Dubai, stay tuned as more info will be coming very, very soon.

ALSO, we’re very excited to receive an “Award of Merit” from the Acolade Film Awards!!!  We’re off to an exciting new year!!!

Peace-

Ryan

Screening: Berkeley, CA

What a great time! Had a fantastic screening of The Ordinary Radicals at the Pacific School of Religion for their Earl Lectures and Leadership Conference. I had the chance to meet so many good folks, eager to watch the film and talk about all sorts of great stuff.  Special thanks to Mary Donovan Turner and John Davis for their commitment to the film!

I had a chance to spend a couple hours with Jay Bakker of Revolution NYC.  Turns out we know a ton of the same folks and had a great time chatting it up and talking about faith, the interconnection between Christian and Agnostic folks (plenty of room at the table), and the wonderful world of media.  I knew of him of course through his media famous parents Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker, but heard nothing but good things about him from Shane and folks.  Let me tell you, the stories are true: this guy is quality.  The quantity of drama he’s been through would make an average person throw in the towel.  He’s pretty much living out the “Love everyone, no exceptions” model and doing it well.  Check out a Sundance Channel mini-series about him called One Punk Under God on Netflix.  It’s currently at the top of my queue.

Happy 2009!  All of us here hope your 2009 is off to a great start.  Things are busy for us here, in Philadelphia.  We are continuing to schedule some screening for the film (if you’d like to set up a screening, there’s still a little time left to email events@theordinaryradicals.com), but at the same time we’re working on additional projects (you’ll hear about them sooner than later).  On Tuesday, Jan 27, Jamie will be screening the film out in Berkeley, CA.  For more info check out http://events.theordinaryradicals.com.  We continue to be really excited by the support we’re still receiving on the film.

Eastern University (the alma mater for some of us involved with the film) recently did a two-page article in their magazine “Spirit”.  You can see the whole article in its .pdf glory by clicking here.

We hope 2009 is a great year for all of us.  And we hope to see you out on the road.

Happy New Year!!

-Ryan

On the way back to Philly, the Detroit Airport had a string of delays.  No sweat, as Jessica from the Potter Street Community house just so happened to be on the same flight!  Great times dreaming and scheming about gates and gardens for our little piece of the world in Kensington, Philadelphia.

Made it just in time for the Philly screening at Trinity, home to quite the bunch of close friends from movies, college and life in the 2-1-5.  Included in this fine bunch were senior editor Dave Manzo, producer Kevin Hackenberg and visual effects supervisor Stephen Chandler.  Special thanks to Meg and folks from Yes! And… CAMP for the popcorn, sweets and “The Ordinary Radicals” cake!

OK, this trip’s been a blast.  I’m going to take a nap or two, work on paying off my sleep debt and catch up on life back home.  Keep an eye out for info on the Jesus For President tour DVD and the five 60 minute DVD’s of The Ordinary Radicals: Special Topics series coming out in the new year.

On the homestretch, I had a great time with Nancy and the folks from True North GR, who hosted the film at the ATC Center, part of the 15,000+ student Community College there.   All sorts of great questions after the show, and I got to hang out with fellow directors Eric Johnson and Eric Machiela  of Gorilla Pictures and talk film nerd over some great local brews.

Screening: Grand Rapids, MI!

Now, back to the good ol’ City of Brotherly Shove.

Made it across the border to Ann Arbor, MI for a screening with some great folks.  Lots of eager moviegoers came out for the film, with tons of great questions afterward.

Jon Ellegood, Director at Chelsea First UMC, really took the lead on setting this up.  Rev. Eric Stone, Chaplain/Director of the Wesley Foundation at the University of Michigan and Tim Seigler of Ann Arbor FUMC co-sponsored this well attended event.

Eric and his wife took me to a great breakfast joint with delicious waffles and a waitress from Alaska who filled me in on the checks ($2500!) Alaskans get for having oil drilled there.  Guess that’s where the “Drill baby drill” comes from.

Screening: Ann Arbor, MI

Next stop: Grand Rapids!

Well kids, we’ve reached a new milestone.  500 (yeah, five hundred) people came out to the famous Bloor Cinema in Toronto to see our little film that could, The Ordinary Radicals.  It was an honor to get to hang out with Brian Walsh, the fine folks of Empire Remixed and a last minute fly in from good ol’ Shaner for the talk back session.  We had a great little after party at a new community in Toronto who were so gracious to host our lively bunch.  I’m hoping to figure some way back to hang out again.

Super special thanks to Philly’s favorite Canadian editor, Jon Marck, for letting me crash at his place for a couple days.  I keep trying to convince him to move to Philly, but after spending time with great folks in a great city, I can see why he’ll stay.  Also, check out his band, Barn Owl, and pick up some sweet tunes.

Screening: Toronto, ON Canada!

Off next to the ol U.S of A. with screenings in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids.

Hey there kids.  So, I got to hop a flight to Detoit, pick up a rental car and scoot across the border at Port Huron to London, Ontario: population 350,000 and home of the University of Western Ontario.   There I stayed with professor John Dool– who teaches systemic theology at St. Peter’s Seminary–and his wife Pat, who made a great cake for me!  It was gooooooooood.  I really enjoyed hearing what a Phd in religious studies had to say about the film and the shift happening in Christianity in the last couple years.

Next I had the chance to visit Mike Wagenman, a Chaplain at UWO and along with John, one of five groups in London who pitched in to host & promote The Ordinary Radicals at the theater on campus.  We hung out all day and had a great time talking movies, social justice and meeting students excited about all that seems to be happening in small ways (with great love of course).

More than 200 excited folks came out to the screening, which could not have happened without the fine work of James Waite-the Coordinator for Western Film.  It’s nice to hop from place to place like this and talk shop with a fellow film nerd.

Follow that up with nearly three hours of questions at the college pub’s back room with about 60 eager folks!  It was a blast.  Thanks so much to Theology on Tap, UWO, and the other great supporting groups that made this fantastic screening possible.

Screening: London, Ontario – The Ordinary Radicals