AMIGO at the Smithsonian

Okay, it was ages ago, but at the kind invitation of our friend Konrad Ng, Director of the Pacific Asian Program of the Smithsonian, we went down to DC to show AMIGO.

 Here we are at a terrific Mexican restaurant called Oyamel with, from the right, Konrad, John and me, Robert Perkinson, and our pal Catherine Park, all the way from LA. That's Robert's book and his other project is campaigning to locate the President Obama Library in Hawaii. Seems like a good idea to me.

We never got any state money for any of our films, but I am considering this trip paid for by the government. They covered our train ride from Poughkeepsie and two nights in the lovely Washington Plaza Hotel, built in  1962 and kept amazingly intact.

Our room was tiny but the price was right and the atmosphere in the lobby and bar was international.
Nicole joined us and we visited Occupy Wall St. Washington.
They had a library

and a very tidy campsite. We dropped off some used towels and floor mats to make life there more comfortable. I can mother this movement and I am proud of how it has captured the conversation in this country and around the world.
Through AMIGO we continue to meet smart, young Filipinos (and some great older ones! like Sonny Izon with whom we had a nice but hurried dinner during the show-both interrupted by power failure at the theater in the Museum of the American Indian). Teddy Gonzalves is a professor in American Studies, which discipline is now including Empire Studies.
Here is Teddy's lovely wife, Charita.

John makes anyone look small.

I've been away

Did you miss me? I have actually had some time off-and I'll be doing more of that, just watch me-but we haven't stopped promoting AMIGO and MOMENT IN THE SUN.

I'm going to work backwards, and take you to the most recent stop on our American Lakbay/Tour: The Sixth Annual Sanibel Writers Workshop. John was the keynote speaker and also read from the Tampa chapter to a warm crowd of about 300. Speaking of warm, thank you to Tom De Marchi for the invitation-once accepted, we cooked up a mini-tour of Florida and Louisiana, follow us along. For more about the conference,  go to http://www.fgcu.edu/siwc 

 
Here's Tom with John. Florida Gulf Coast University is very lucky to have teachers as enthusiastic as Tom and his wife Karen Tolchin. Their students had to buy John's book!

Here are some getting autographs.
Here is the view, through the screen of our 2nd floor lanai, of the beach on Sanibel Island.





We fled New York after 9.5 inches of snow and 4 days without power. We deserve a view of the Gulf.

AMIGO has a billboard on 5th Avenue

Last Thursday Consul General Mario de Leon hosted a forum with us and UniPro www.facebook.com/unipronow a great group of young Filipino professionals.
(Does anybody have photos from this event?)
We showed the AMIGO trailer and John answered  really good questions about AMIGO and the history between the U.S and the Philippines. The site was the Philippines Center at its posh address, 5th Avenue between 45th and 46th. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Centeren.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_Center.
When Ms. Elena Maningat of the Consul asked if perhaps they could move the monitor to the window and show the trailer in a loop to passersby, I gasped and said YES.

Can you see the bus passing by, in the reflection? Tricky photos to take and we have U.S. Background Soldier Kenny Guay to thank for these. Just as Ms. Maningat reported to me yesterday, lots of people are stopping by to check out the trailer, the poster, and a card listing the show times at AMC Empire 25 where we open this Friday August 19.

Go see for yourself.
Thank you, NY Consulate. Your support means a lot to us.

That's the way it's supposed to be

Here's an anecdote from Dylan Marchetti, head of VAriance Films which is doing such a good job releasing AMIGO in the U.S.

"The night security guard in our office stopped me and asked me if we were doing Amigo.  He said he'd seen the ads popping up on TFC and his grandmother said she wanted the family to go on opening weekend."

One month later...

Time passes!
It's been a month since my last post, urging you to see AMIGO in the Philippines.  We did just fine there, stayed in the theaters for 10 days, against TRANSFORMERS, and started a positive buzz for the provincial and scholastic release of the film in the upcoming month.

WE ARE ABOUT TO OPEN IN THE US! I think we have a really good strategy, opening August 19 in cities with large Filipino populations, and expanding during the following weeks to more cities where lots of Filipinos live. Our outreach to the FilAm community has been so rewarding, resulting in more openings than we had originally planned, and- thanks so many times to Dylan Marchetti and his team at Variance Films- we are in all the right theaters. We'll be playing in mainstream theaters in cities like Milpitas and Tukwila and also in art cinemas, where we hope the non-FilAm Sayles fans will find us easily.

NEW YORK AMC Empire 25! Little AMIGO in a great 42nd St theater. How cool is that? Come for the 7pm show on August 19 and 20 and you'll see John Sayles answering questions at the end of the show.


Here's the line-up for August 19 openings around the country. Spread the word to your friends and family.


19-Aug        New York, NY    AMC Empire 25
19-Aug        Los Angeles, CA    Laemmle's Monica 4
19-Aug         Los Angeles, CA (Cerritos)    Edwards Cerritos Stadium 10
19-Aug        Los Angeles, CA (West Covina)    AMC Puente Hills 20
19-Aug        San Diego, CA    UA Horton Plaza 14
19-Aug        Tukwila, WA (Seattle)    AMC Southcenter 16
19-Aug        San Jose, CA (Milpitas)    Century 20 Great Mall 20 + XD
19-Aug        Stockton, CA    Regal Stockton City Center Stadium 16
19-Aug        San Fran (Daly City)    UA Stonestown Twin
19-Aug        San Fran (Union City)    Cinemark Union Landing 25 + XD



26-Sep        San Jose, CA (Santa Clara)    AMC Mercardo 20
26-Aug        Honolulu, HI    Regal Dole Cannery
26-Aug        Guam    Micronesia Mall 10



2-Sep        Virginia Beach, VA (Norfolk)    AMC Lynnhaven 18
2-Sep         DC    West End Cinema
2-Sep        DC (Gaithesburg, MD)    AMC Rio 18
2-Sep        Las Vegas, NV    Regal Village Square 18
2-Sep        Seattle, WA    Northwest Film Forum
2-Sep        Portland, OR    Hollywood Theater
8-Sep         Albuquerque, NM    Guild Cinema
16-Sep         Dallas, TX    Texas Theater
16-Sep         Minneapolis, MN    St. Anthony Main Theater
16-Sep   
Chicago, IL    Gene Siskel Film Center
23-Sep        Denver, CO    Denver FilmCenter/Colfax

If you don't see your city here and you think you can help us bring out an audience for AMIGO, go onto our website www.amigomovie.com and let us know.

This is it.

This is your moment, like voting for the candidate you really want to win. Go tonight to a theater near you to see AMIGO. Small movies don't stand a chance if YOU don't support them. Don't wait till your whole crowd wants to go. Be the first.
This movie will not be out on DVD for at least two years.
See it now.

PHILIPPINES
06 July 2011
Selected Theaters

Selected Theaters

QUEZON CITY

Ayala Cinemas
TriNoma*

SM Cinemas
SM North Edsa*

Others
Gateway Cinemas*
MAKATI
Ayala Cinemas
Glorietta 4**

MANDALUYONG
SM Cinemas
SM Megamall*

Robinsons' Cinemas
Robinsons' Galleria*

MANILA
SM Cinemas
SM Manila*

Robinson's Cinemas
Robinson's Ermita*

PASAY CITY
SM Cinema
SM Mall of Asia**

OTHER AREAS
CAVITE
SM Bacoor*

CEBU CITY
SM Cebu**

DAVAO CITY
SM Davao*

* Only Spanish and Cantonese dialogues have English subtitles
** All non-English dialogues (Filipino, Spanish, Cantonese) have English subtitles

Have a look at some of the recent AMIGO press:

An interview on The Bottomline with Boy Abunda: http://www.flipbooth.com/video/2feb5278841e43e/The-Bottomline-02-July-2011-courtesy-of-ABS-CBN-FlipBooth

The Philippine Star, by Wilson Lee Flores: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=702095&publicationSubCategoryId=86

The Philippine Star, by Bibsy Carballo: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=702211

Pep Takip Silip coverage: http://www.pep.ph/photos/2379/%22Amigo%22_reveals_the_truths_untold/num/0