Every time we’ve put Echotone on the big screen in Austin, we’ve sold out the theater, whether it was the “Cast and Crew Screening” more than a year ago or the 2 screenings at the Austin Film Festival, people came out in droves. Theater rules were bent. Lawn chairs came out. People hung in the rows and hid in the shadows against the back wall. Or there was Marfa (Austin in the desert). Almost 50 people had to be turned away. But we never expected this.

Every night of the 4 nights sold out. Then the 5^th night the Alamo Drafthouse gave us. The most remarkable part about it, something that could only be seen on the ground level, was how the lines grew with each passing night. Faces became increasingly unfamiliar. It was testament to the power of word of mouth and all the good press boiling up all at once. It got people out. I stood in the lobby, watching people asking for tickets and getting turned away.

It has truly taken a community to prop up Echotone. I just started writing a list to acknowledge everyone responsible, but immediately backed off. It’s ENORMOUS. The lines between friends, colleagues, and family all blurred together.

And now that the Drafthouse has agreed to give us a FULL WEEK run starting this Friday, May 6^th, we’ve reached a new benchmark. If we do well this week, the possibilities open up even further for our future: more screenings in Chicago, New York, LA. It also helps raise our profile and opens us up to more opportunities to continue shooting this fascinating story nationwide.

We’re slated to shoot the pilot for Echoton Chicago this summer and plan to do the same in LA and NYC by the end of 2011. It starts here. Please spread the word and help get people into seats for our extended Austin run! If we’re as successful as we have been, the sky’s the limit!

Thank you!

-Nathan

Director Nathan Christ, musician Bill Baird, AMP co-founder James Moody, Mayor's Chief Of Staff Ritch Bailey, AMO's Brad Stein, and HAAM's Carolyn Schwarz discuss music, politics, and other issues facing Austin's creative class at #aff2010. Photo by Yusef Svacina

It didn’t really register that I’d moved away from Austin until coming back to the Austin Film Festival for the Echotone screenings. I didn’t brood and plan about moving away for much time at all. Austin doesn’t really let you do that. Just when you think you can’t possibly stay another day – when the heat melts you to the sidewalk, when the lack of work becomes too stifling, when your curiosity/travel bug begins to tell you that other pastures might be greener – just when you start to think that way, some incredible 24-hour coffeehouse opens just down the street, or you see an inspiring show from Sleep Good or Machine or Shapes Have Fangs, or the guys at Transmission curate another brilliant Fun Fun Fun Fest. You start to think, maybe I can stay here another 5 years!

It’s hard to know if it’s a velvet rut or not. All I know is that I left. We finished making Echotone in February and have been moving ever since. I was lifted West by the swell of the Robin Lombaria’s Marfa Film Festival, truly one of the strongest weeks of my life – nothing short of a rainbow gathering, a collision of creative people, family, and beloved friends from all over the country. From there, a short respite in Chicago before working as a cook all summer in a Buddhist community deep in the French countryside. It was a different kind of a work, a time to recharge and regroup before the next push – the Echotone film festival circuit and the upcoming plan to develop Echotone into a miniseries.

After France, I decided wintry Chicago was the place for me. We want to explore the concepts and themes we discovered in the Austin story in other American cities (specifically Chi Town, L.A., and NYC). I’ve been up here on an anthropological dig, exploring the massive, sprawling megalopolis, trying to figure out where the passionate individuals lie, whether in music, film, or theater. Chicago’s been my docking point for the growing nationwide Echotone expeditions: Los Angeles Downtown Independent Film Festival, Dallas Video Fest, Hot Springs Film Festival, the upcoming Starz Denver Film Festival, and our madcap Rumble Tour, where we drove all across the West Coast with the film and the musicians from the film in tow.

Coming home to Austin took me by surprise. Both of our screenings were completely sold out, with people in the aisles and on folding chairs. The hometown support was deeply moving. Then there was the annual ATX Converge event, where musicians from the film (Machine, Dana Falconberry, The White White Lights, and Sunset) sent vibrations from within the beloved Mohawk (one of the epicenters of our film).

We racked up a lot of critical praise and had plenty of Austinites come up to us and gush about how we nailed the story, how it inspired them to continue in their artistic pursuits. I even had a young woman come up to me and say that she was about to drop out of her Music Business degree before she saw the film, that it had lit a fire underneath her to keep going and not give up. It was a big step for me when the musicians in the film gave it a thumbs up. Now, it seems, Austin is behind it.

So, yes, Momentum. It’s on the tips of our tongues. I dream about the word. I ponder what it means. I wake up each morning recognizing its importance. It’s up to us to keep going, to turn the vision into a miniseries and scale the mountain before us: the nationwide Echotone story.
- Nathan Christ, Director

All photos by Yusef Svacina, courtesy of Swatch Photography.

Recent Press from Austin Film Festival

-Interview with Director Nathan Christ and Producer Dániel Perlaky on KUT 90.5′s Texas Music Matters
-Feature Article by the Austinist
-AV CLUB’s AFF Recap – Echotone earns ‘best hometown representation.’
-Review by Jette Kernion at Cinematical.com

The Line extends around the block for a sold out screening at the Alamo Ritz. Slated for the same time that day was the AFF Award's Luncheon with David Simon, and a Texas Longhorns Home Game...Live Music is Austin's Pro Sport! Photo by Yusef Svacina.

Mayor Will Wynne's Chief of Staff Ritch Bailey, and Producer Nicholas Jayanty discuss momentum and community action after a sell out screening at the Alamo Ritz during @austinfilmfest. Photo by Yusef Svacina.

Director Nathan Christ post Ritz screening at #aff2010. Photo by Yusef Svacina.

The Voodoo Highway team basks in a pitch perfect screening of Echotone. Photo by Yusef Svacina.

Soaking in success Associate Producer Nate Ferrone is A-OK. Photo by Yusef Svacina.

Bill Baird and Victor Moyers catch a breath at the Driskill post screening #aff2010. Photo by Yusef Svacina.

I get by with a little help...Photo by Yusef Svacina.

Dana Falconberry hypnotizes at the ATX CONVERGE 2010. Photo by Yusef Svacina.

Jenny Gacy of the White White Lights delivers a sonic sermon... the Reverend Gacy has the stage. Photo by Yusef Svacina.

Woke up all of us in the Albuquerque Days Inn in good spirits, realizing we were in the midst of the balloon festival, the one that clouds the skies multi-colored once a year. We couldn’t stop and behold, though. We’re passing through too many captivating corners of this strange and vast country to get stuck in every moment.

As I mentioned in our first stream cast, the Stern Maid of the Partridge Family must be active. The role morphs hourly. Sometimes it’s Nick, which his Big Picture epic ideas about where the horizon is taking us, sometimes it’s Brian, our tour coordinator, who’s already handled some wicked late night driving weather, sometimes it’s John Kolar, Sunset’s drummer, with the commanding and very effective shouts: “Alright! Everybody load up!” Sometimes it’s me, like today, when I realized our route was potentially taking us directly into the Rockies – long, harsh inclines, switchbacks, and bone-narrow roads. It would’ve been bad. So we skimmed it at the last second and cut across the desert.

It’s all going surprisingly well. With so many creative people stuffed into van, one might think it could be like herding cats. At the moment, it feels like a laptop village, many people buried in their projects. Bill Baird worked for literally 13 hours straight yesterday on the mixing of some of his new tunes. It’s an inspiring atmosphere.

Our last-minute alternate route spit us directly into the Navajo Nation, where we happened upon the aftermath of a big,messy parade.

Nick said, “Third World America” and, lord, it was true. The streets were impoverished.

It jolted me to the conditions I’ve seen in Mexico and Morocco for a moment. Truly a marginalized people. It weighed heavy on our souls.

We found our way out, skirting Monument Valley and the Four Corners, as Neil Young/s After the Gold Rush embraced the melancholy open space. It was heavy.

We bear northbound now towards Salt Lake, then Washington, as we get closer daily to THE RUMBLE.

-NC

Director Nathan Christ and featured artists, Sunset, Dana Falconberry, and The White White Lights, will be onsite at select Q&As and performing live shows.

Echotone Sneak Preview Tour Schedule and Line Ups

Oct. 4
Echotone Sneak Preview Seattle & Q&A
@ SIFF CINEMA, 7:30 PM
Tickets $7 w/ RSVP
The Rumble: Seattle @ Havana Social Club, 9:00 PM FREE
With Performances by SUNSET, The White White Lights, Dana Falconberry

Oct. 5
Echotone Sneak Preview Portland & Q&A
@ Someday Lounge, 7:30
Tickets $7 w/ RSVP –
The Rumble: Portland @ Someday Lounge, 9:30 PM FREE
With Performances by SUNSET, The White White Lights, Dana Falconberry

Oct. 6
Echotone Sneak Preview San Francisco & Q&A
@ Café Du Nord, 7:00 PM
Tickets $7 w/ RSVP
Echotone and the Recording Academy San Francisco Chapter presents a live streaming panel @ Café Du Nord, 8:45PM
Tune in at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/echotonefilm.
The Rumble: San Francisco, CA Café Du Nord, 9:30 PM FREE
With Performances by SUNSET, The White White Lights, Dana Falconberry

Oct. 7
The Rumble: Los Angeles @ 3 Clubs, 9:00 PM FREE
With Performances by SUNSET, The White White Lights, Dead Trees

Oct. 8
Echotone Sneak Preview Los Angeles w/ Q&A
@ Downtown Independent 8:00 PM
Tickets $10 w/ RSVP

Oct. 9
The Rumble: San Diego @ Bar Pink, 9:00 PM FREE
With Performances by SUNSET, The White White Lights, Chairs Missing

Oct. 10
The Rumble: Las Vegas @ Bunkhouse, 9:00 PM FREE
With Performances by SUNSET, The White White Lights

Sneak Preview at the Dallas Video Fest:

Angelika Film Center
Mockingbird Station
5321 East Mockingbird Lane, Suite 230
Dallas, TX 75206
Get Tickets

Keep your eyes close to the facebook, the twitter, and here.  We have a big announcement planned for Thursday!

From a sold out screening of over 500 attendees at the Crowley Theater, to a live Teepee Cast from El Cosmico to the Talking Pictures Festival in Chicago, we just want to express our extreme thanks to Robin Lambaria, Ralph McKay, Rob Crowley, David Beebe, Kathy Berger, Ines Sommer, Brian Grabiner, Miguel Rangel, Lulu, Tootie, all of the other amazing members of Marfa Film Fest, the Talking Pictures Fest, our publicists Heather West and Lily Pollak, and the Marfa, TX community.

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
“Clear-eyed, Atmospherically Rich- a documentary true to its place and time” – Michael Phillips

The ONION’s A.V. CLUB
“the film glided along weightlessly, a timely valentine with purpose.”

HOLLYWOODCHICAGO.com
“Will Captivate Starving Artists Everywhere” 4.5 out of 5 Stars

SPIN EARTH
Movies about Music to look forward to in 2010

THE DALLAS OBSERVER
“Go See it. It’s beautifully shot. It’s loud. It’s terrific.” – Robert Wilonsky, lead critic at the Dallas Observer for 20 years, Host of The Ultimate Trailer Show & guest critic on Ebert & Roeper At The Movies

You can read more at EchotoneFilm.com in our Press section. Stay tuned for updates on our Fall release plans, have some very special things in the works!

Free TV : Ustream

Feel free to tweet in and add your two cents as we will be monitoring this feed from Marfa!

The result of this documentation resulted in an 88 minute exploration of the present cultural zeitgeist, living, breathing, sleeping in the gulleys of 10th st. and the alleyways of Red River.

It brings us great pleasure to announce that Echotone will World Premiere at the cultural epicenter of Marfa Texas on Friday, May 7th 2010 at 4:30 PM at the legendary Crowley Theater and Premiere in Chicago the following evening, May 8th, 9:00 PM, at the Next Theatre as a part of the Talking Pictures Festival.

Our producers and Director Nathan Christ, cast members Bill Baird, Black Joe Lewis, and Cari Palazzolo  will all be on site to celebrate in Marfa TX and be a part of the Q&A following the screening on Friday at the Crowley.

We will also be streaming Nathan’s Q&A for the Chicago Premiere of Echotone live from Marfa, TX, direct to the Talking Pictures Festival audience via the world wide web. You can check it out right here – Saturday, May 8 at 10:30 PM CST.

Get Tickets to the World Premiere of Echotone, May 7th, 4:30 PM at the Crowley Theater, Marfa Film Festival 2010, Marfa TX.

Get Tickets to the Chicago Premiere of Echotone, May 8th, 9:00 PM at the Next Theatre, Talking Pictures Festival 2010, Chicago, IL.

Much love to Producer Daniel Perlaky for designing a poster that represents an idea hard enough to describe in words let alone in one single image.    Feel free to download it, post it, repost it and share with a friend.

You can check out your some of your favorite Echotone artists at the ATX EMERGE 2010 going off at the Mohawk, Monday March 15 from 7:30pm – 2am during SXSW Film!

FEATURING:

BLACK JOE LEWIS AND THE HONEYBEARS (Austin)
CALIFONE (Chicago)
SUNSET (Austin)
WHITE WHITE LIGHTS (Austin)
CAPYBARA (Kansas City)
BRAZOS (Austin)
WHISKEY THIEVES (Sonoma)
FOCUS GROUP (Austin)
TREY BROWN (Austin)
MOTEL AVIV (Austin)
PELIGROSA ALL-STARS (Austin)
ECLECTIC METHOD (Brooklyn/London)

The schedule of acts can be found ATXEMERGE.com And be sure to look for special updates by following the event on twitter! @atxemerge

We hope you enjoyed the Valentine’s goodie we sent your way! If you missed it, you can find Live versions of Dana Falconberry’s “Possum Song” in our Trailers and B sides section.

We wanted to share the first Echotone Video B side, Dana Falconberry’s live performance video of “Possum Song,” book-ended by some lyrical city moments that provide a glimpse into the film’s aesthetic. Through our experience working with Dana and Austin’s other amazingly talented musicians, their struggle raises a key question in the self proclaimed Live Music Capital of the World…what really qualifies that statement?

We would love to hear your two cents on what qualifies a live music capital, as Dana Falconberry’s struggle is universal, whether you are creating in Austin Texas or other live music hubs across the globe. What threatens a music culture and how does one thrive? Is it the size of the community that supports a scene, the amount of venues or working musicians, the degree of community support a scene receives, or perhaps policy makers that work to preserve the cultural asset that is live music?

Feel free to leave a comment here, tweet, blog or post on your facebook what you think qualifies a Live Music Capital.

If you are interested in more from Dana Falconberry…download “Possum Song” and “Baby Blue Sky”  recorded live during the production of Echotone below.