anastasia tubanos

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you may have already gotten a sense of how a)insanely busy and b)ego-boosting my previous week was.

Between some fabulous publicity around Your Geek News and my roving red carpet reporter gig with the Mississauga Independent Film Festival, weeks like last week really validate to myself that I’m in the right industry (for now) and I shouldn’t consider a career change any time too soon

Regarding “Your Geek News” (an entertainment news web show I produce and co-host) we recently cemented a partnership with independent TV service Babelgum and got some amazing exposure and media coverage because of it.

Liz Shannon Miller, an insightful journalist I met while at SXSW 2009 earlier this year, broke the story on NewTeeVee, which was then picked up by notable sources like New York Times, CNN, Salon.com and USAToday. TubeFilter also reported on the partnership, getting our story picked up by IMDB. You can’t BUY that kind of coverage and let me say that it has been paying off as we’ve gotten called upon by some very interesting companies and brands offering some rather unique opportunities. And needless to say, I’m excited about it.

Then of course, I was reporting from the Mississauga Independent Film Festival all weekend. It kicked off with a fancy-shmancy red-carpet event and a healthy turnout of more than double the attendees from last year. And yes, I was totally Joan Rivers-ing the evening, asking people why they thought they were important enough to be there and, of course, WHO they were wearing. The FUNNIEST part about this (and can’t say I’m surprised) is not only was no one wearing any famous designers, but a large majority of the people were wearing stuff they picked up at H&M. hahaha I don’t blame them, it’s one of my favourite places. But I think MIFF should consider picking up H&M as a sponsor next year since MIFF filmmakers, producers etc seem to be their target market:)

Gala aside, the rest of the event was packed with an impressive array of feature films and shorts (a surprising amount of which made me cry, of course) and interviews galore with the filmmakers and actors themselves.

The best feature film in my eyes happened to be the one that won at the festival - “Gangster Exchange” a fun, fast-paced Guy Ritchie-esque action film with some sexy leads and laugh-out-loud comedic moments (I know it’s cheesy, but I DID laugh out loud in the theatre). It has thugs, guns, and toilet’s made of cocaine. You just need to see it. Here’s the trailer.

As for shorts, The Prodigal Trilogy was the one that moved me the most (sadly, it didn’t win). The Prodigal Trilogy is a cinematic adaptation of acclaimed solo performer Jason Hildebrand’s monologues based on the Luke 15 parable of Jesus in the Bible. The amazing part of this three-act film is that whether you’re religious or not, the morality tale Jason weaves is one that is guaranteed to speak to anyone who watches it. Simply put, it’s a story about love and everyone can relate to that. Check out the trailer. (On a side note, Jason himself is a fabulous conversationalist with some fascinating stories to share AND has an impressively stylish shoe collection.)

This week has been a nice diminuendo to the excitement last week (which is SO necessary, in my opinion) but, as always, I have at least 2-3 things a day that pop up that I want to share on my blog, and then life gets in the way of it and it has to wait a week, or two. Which is why following me on Twitter is actually a good idea because this micro-blogging system works so well with the type of person I am (this is, of course, only if you care about all the random thoughts/ideas/opinions that roll out of my head). Excuses aside though, I’ll be posting another blog again quite soon:)

xoxo,
Anastasia “Nat” Tubanos