DreamRiders News
Facebook & Yahoo Groups Buzzing:
After the Travel Channel Premiere, fans are flocking to the DreamRiders Facebook page and posting comments, asking questions of Bill and Nico and keeping the DreamRide alive. We've also added interactive features to our DreamRiders Yahoo group so you can list your favorite movies, write reviews, add quotes from the film and ask questions. Fan the flames of your inspiration and join one of our groups today.
Soundtrack Released on iTunes:
Just in time for the Travel Channel premiere, our fabulous soundtrack is available on iTunes. Here's the direct link to the iTunes page for DreamRiders: the Original Soundtrack.
Bill and Nico to Watch TV Premiere in LA:
Because I'll be out in Utah until June 20, I'll be able to fly over to LA where Nico is now living and he and I will have our own private DreamRiders broadcast premiere party. And that's just as it should be. After our big world premiere in Sheffield, England together and the joy of having Nico's grandparents, his mom, sister and other family join us for the Hollywood premiere in late February, it's time to put aside the throngs and enjoy the moment with the only other person in the world who really knows how far we truly have come.
Helping Father's and Sons Bond in Utah:
After seeing the film at the International Family Film Festival in March, the directors of a residential center for teenage boys invited William to come and share DreamRiders with the teens and their parents during a special family weekend. We'll be exploring ways the film might be used in educational and counseling sessions over the next few days--exciting possibibilities indeed.
DreamRiders Broadcast Times on Travel Channel:
Eastern: Saturday June 20, 8pm and midnight. June 21, 10am.
Central: Saturday June 20, 7pm and 11pm. June 21, 9am.
Mountain: Saturday June 20, 6pm and 10pm. June 21, 8am.
Pacific: Saturday June 20, 8pm and Midnight. June 21, 10am.
Local cable systems may differ, so be sure to double check your area. These are the only scheduled airtimes.
DreamRiders Wins Best Documentary at New Strand Film Festival:
The jury for the New Strand film festival selected DreamRiders as the Best Documentary film. Jurors cited the universal appeal of the story, so different from many documentaries. The audience was equally enthralled with many comments about the authentic way the story is told: a no-holds barred look at a contemporary issue that has existed for as long as we've had fathers. A very gratifying win from this wonderful festival.
New Strand Film Festival Selects DreamRiders:
From the heartland comes a call for a story from the heart. West Liberty, Iowa has selected DreamRiders as its Sunday afternoon feature film. Will will be traveleling to the festival to speak at schools and community groups in advance of the fest. West Liberty is only 10 miles from where the riders passed by on their cycle trip and a very key scene was filmed near here. It will feel like a kind of homecoming for sure. Festival runs May 1 - 3, 2009. DreamRiders will play at 1PM Sunday.
Selected! Palm Beach International Film Festival :
DreamRiders has just been announced as one of the official selections for this years PBIFF. With over 20,000 attendees each year, it was recently ranked by the international movie publication Movie Maker Magazine as one of the top 10 destination film festivals in the world as well as one of the Top 25 Independent Festivals in the world. Ride On!
DreamRiders on Facebook: DreamRiders now has a fan page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/DreamRiders/52421432959. You don’t have to be a Facebook member to view all the photos, fan comments and videos, so check it out.
If you ARE a Facebook user, be sure to click the link "Become a Fan." You can join in on the fun AND help DreamRiders draw the attention it needs to make sure everyone will get a chance to see this unique film in theaters.
PS William says he feels like a tech dinosaur and thought Facebook would be silly. Now that he’s a member, he feels hip and cool and has reconnected with all sorts of old friends from high school and college. Try it; you’ll like it!
DreamRiders Wins Top Honors at IFFF : At a star-studded gala in Hollywood with presenters including Nancy Cartwright (voice of Bart Simpson) and Dee Wallace (ET), DreamRiders was presented with two awards--the only film at the International Family Film Festival to win more than one.
The first award given was for Best Educational Feature. The directors of the festival moved DreamRiders from the documentary category to the educational category because they felt the film plays "more like a narrative drama than a documentary." Wanting to highlight the immense potential they see for this genre-bending film to inspire others to go the distance for their own dreams, the directors decided that DreamRiders definitely teaches important lessons in the best way possible: through a gripping story that mixes laughter and tears and leaves viewers inspired to never lose hope.
The second award was the highly coveted Top Applause award, given to the film selected by festival audiences as their favorite. When the votes were tallied, DreamRiders received the highest rating of any other film at the 2009 IFFF.
William S Roulston and his son, Nico, were both present to receive the awards and made acceptance speeches.
Report from the Screenings at IFFF : Many laughs, lots of tears and plenty of cheers at the two screenings of DreamRiders at the IFFF. Friday’s screening of the latest cut of the film was introduced by the Director of the Festival, Patte Dee McKee. Nico and Will were lauded by an adoring audience afterward in a question and answer session that focused, predictably, on the relationship between father and son on screen and how the audience felt about it. Each time we screen the film, we see again the power of a movie to move people to connect to their own stories, to the stories of tragedy and triumph in their own lives. It’s amazing what happens from the experience of sitting in a dark room and laughing both with and at the numbskulls on screen as they doggedly try to make it across the country and find a connection between them.
The conversation continued at a reception thrown for us by the Travel Channel. Along with the food and drink and music by Saint Tone (thanks, guys!), Will had meaningful encounters with no less than two organizations who work with youth that want to explore how to use the film to help these young people work through their own family pain. Also spoke briefly with an international distributor who put us on their priority list for projects to acquire. Plus, many more conversations for both Nico and Will with people touched by the film. The only negative? The ballots for audience award were never mentioned so no one voted!
Sunday’s screening started with a photo shoot organized by Pat Younge of the Travel Channel. “Come on. More leg. Give me a pout. That’s right: you’re too sexy for your shirt!”
And then the screening. Describing it as magical would hardly do it justice. This was the first time Will and Nico’s family had seen the film. In attendance were not just Will’s parents, daughter, brother and nephew, but also Nico’s mom, Sara, and most of her families. Add in almost all of the family of Will’s partner Heidi and friends coming from Denver, San Diego, and Sun Valley, ID to see the film for the first time. What an honor to have everyone share the day with us.
When the lights came up after the film and Nico and Will stood before the applauding group, they could see just how touched the audience was. Filmgoers who had not met Will and Nico before shared lovely insights and gave kudos to the two, but the most magical moment of all was when Nico’s mom came to the front of the room and presented plaques to Nico and to her ex-husband Will, honoring them for the courage and tenacity to not only start, but to finish the film and more importantly their journey of reconciliation. With every eye in the room moistened once more with tears, we had proof once again of the power of this film to both entertain and to bring healing to viewers.
After posing for the “paparazzi” outside, Nico, Will and a large contingent (rallied by cuñada Carla) headed to the Farmer’s Market complex in Hollywood for food, frosty beverages and lots of time to celebrate the whole DreamRiders experience. Until we got the call from the festival director that we needed to be in attendance at the awards ceremony…
DreamRiders Receptions at IFFF : A reception to honor our film has just been announced at 7PM Friday, February 27 in the Raleigh Studios Cantina, right after the screening of DreamRiders. This will be the only reception for a film on Friday, so attendees from the whole festival will be there, enjoying food, beverage and live music. Come join us for a chance to talk with the cast and producers and network.
On Sunday, March 1st an informal gathering will take place at 2pm after the noon showing with cast and producers in attendance. Email Will at DreamRidersMovie dot com for the latest details.
Tickets Now On Sale for IFFF Screenings: Tickets for the Hollywood showings of DreamRiders are available at http://iffilmfest.org/09Screenings.html. Cost is $10. As of this writing, the page was still being constructed. If it is not available, you can reserve your tickets by calling 661-257-3131. Tickets must be reserved in advance. We expect both shows to sell out, with Friday's showing going very quickly because the theater is smaller.
International Family Film Fest Screening Times Announced: DreamRiders has been given two screenings at the International Family Film Festival. Friday, February 27th at 5pm in the Pickford Theatre and Sunday, March 1st at noon in the Chaplin Theatre. The festival is being held at Raleigh Studios, 5300 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, across from the Paramount Studios lot. Click here for directions.
DreamRiders is an Official Selection of the International Family Film Fest: We are thrilled to be making our Hollywood premiere at the International Family Film Festival taking place February 26 through March 1st. More information on screening times and tickets will be announced on February 5th.
Our EP Up for an Oscar! First it was our editor, Andey Ford, who won a big award: Documentary of the Year from the IDA. Now our Executive Producer, Phil Fairclough’s latest film, Encounters at the End of the World, is a finalist for an Academy Award. Pat Younge of the Travel Channel believed so much in our project that he introduced us to Phil based partially on his work on Grizzly Man. We will be eternally grateful. Thank you, Pat and congratulations, Phil.
DreamRiders is an Official Selection of the Macon Film Fest: The 2009 Macon Film and Video Festival has announced that DreamRiders will be screening in the historic Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon, GA on Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 2:30pm. See their page for DreamRiders here.
Editing Continues: Based on the outstanding feedback received at our screenings and a few critiques, I continue to work with Andey Ford to tweak the film. We’re currently working on a new opening, the most difficult part of a film to get right. Things are shaping up nicely.
Quotes from Sheffield Doc Fest: A couple of gents from the UK who saw our film at the Sheffield Doc/Fest wrote up some very positive reviews for us. James Mullighan works for the 37,000 member Shooting People Independent Film community, so he’s seen his fair share of films before making his review especially meaningful for us. Steven Lake, a fledgling film producer gives a longer, heartfelt review.
Victory at the Sheffield Doc/Fest: Our world premiere at the Sheffield Doc/Fest was a huge victory for our truly independent film team. We were placed in a venue with only 80 seats, but due to an effective onsite marketing campaign run by Nico and my partner that played off the just completed American elections—"Vote for Bill! No! Vote for Nico!"—we sold the place out.
What made this even more amazing was that we were competing against the Meet Market event where all the producers are trying to sell their films by schmoozing with and pitching the buyers. Though our audience was too small to allow us to compete for the audience award at the fest, filling every available seat was truly a victory for us.
Not only that, the reception was amazing. I'll be posting some reviews from audience members soon. For now, take a look at the following link (skip to paragraph 7 for the review of DreamRiders.)
Heading to the Sheffield Doc/Fest Nov 5-9, 2008: The Sheffield Doc/Fest is perhaps England’s most prestigious documentary film festival in the country that is sometimes called the home of the documentary. We’re thrilled to be presenting our world film festival premiere there.
Travel Channel to Air DreamRiders Father’s Day 2009: we finally got a solid air date from the Travel Channel. Primetime on Saturday June 20 and at least once during the day on Sunday June 21. Travel has been very supportive all along this long journey to bring the film to market and are very enthusiastic about the finished product. They simply love the film.
Esquire Magazine Review: At our private NYC screening, the executive editor of Esquire Magazine, Mark Warren, came to check us out. He was so moved by the film that he wrote to Charlie Sadoff and told him he wanted to write a full review of the film when DreamRiders is released. Esquire is HUGE! Obviously, we're thrilled to have them backing us, but just as importantly it makes us even more convinced that we are reaching the audience we want to reach.
Private New York Screening June 17 a big hit: A private screening was held for crew, and select distributors at Magno Studios. We packed out their 70 seat auditorium. There was a lot of laughter, a lot of tears and a thunderous applause at the end of the screening. We now have some offers to consider regarding distribution and one thing’s for sure: we need to have a soundtrack ready to sell with the film. Everyone is asking “Where can I buy the soundtrack?” A great evening.
Our editor wins IDA Documentary of the year!: Andey Ford’s last film, A Walk To Beautiful, beat out all the favorites to win this huge award of the International Documentary Association in LA. People were left shaking their heads; how could this small film beat out all the Iraq war films and Michael Moorer too? Simple: Andey did a fantastic job editing this film. We are so proud to have him recognized and very happy to have him editing DreamRiders
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DreamRiders
named Best
Documentary
Official Selection
Palm Beach
International
Film Fest
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DR fun on
Facebook
DR Scores TWO
Top Awards in
Hollywood
International
Family Film Fest
Selection
Doc/Fest screening a sold out smash
DR Screening at Sheffield Doc/Fest