Trachtenburgs Join Fritz Donnelly On Their Way to Times Square for 'Awesome' tothehills 2 Screening

To the Hills filmmaker Fritz Donnelly presented his latest DVD tothehills 2 during a From Here to Awesome screening Thursday night in New York at the Times Square Arts Center. It was quite an ecclectic evening, as the party actually started a few hours earlier at the Lower East Side performance/art fun space HiChristina, where the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players (represented by Mom Tina and daughter Rachel, dad was not present) sang Rachel's song "Black Cat." (FYI, last week Rachel appeared at the New York City Term Limits hearing, where she testified that Mayor Bloomberg is "the worst Mayor ever," as documented in The New York Times.) A second and third rendition were performed on the subway on the way over to the Times Square Arts Center. One of those performances was captured on video as seen below with Fritz MC'ing. The Trachtenburgs gave one final performance of "Black Cat" before the tothehills 2 screening, after which Fritz took some questions from the audience. You can hear the Q&A in its entirety in the audio file here: Fritz%20FHTA%20Oct.%2023%2C%202008.dvf

tothehills 2 presents short films in an enterprising way. Between character-driven episodes of "Financial Advice," and "Awkward Social Situations," orange and blue clones fight their way through a Kafka-inspired world, one very like our own. Many of the shorts have won acclaim at festivals such as the audience award at the High Concept Low Budget Film Festival in San Francisco and the curator's choice at Rooftop Films Summer Series 10 year's Best Shorts Program in New York.

"Making art is a compulsion. Sharing art is a choice. Everything we have—our language, our clothes, our money—we've gotten from other people, so I believe in sharing. From Here To Awesome is a way for filmmakers to share their fans with one another. I'm a fan of fans," said Donnelly.

From Here to Awesome, an open-source discovery and distribution film festival that kicked off July 26th in Los Angeles and rolls out over a six-month period with stops in New York, San Francisco, Boston and London, showcases its 12 selected features, including tothehills 2, in all forms of distribution from theaters to living rooms to computers and mobile devices. Filmmakers retain all the rights, see direct revenue from each of the outlets and enjoy global audiences. The goal is to create a direct connection between the audience and the filmmaker.

In addition to making films, Donnelly hosts tothehills movie nights and open mics at venues such as the Glasslands in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and at HiChristina, where he presents music, films, and performance art. Donnelly also presented Vidopedia, a 'counter-conventional' encyclopedia that illustrates verbs, at the New Museum of Contemporary Art on October 11, commissioned by Rhizome.

You can contribute to Fritz's upcoming To the Hills projects on IndieGoGo.com.