See NODEHAUS In-Person!
Making stops in Grand Rapids, Detroit, Sioux City, NYC and Milford
If you’re expecting the usual thought-provoking writings, I’ve got a few bits at the bottom — but I’m sending this out simply to let you know what film festivals and events NODEHAUS’s work will be screening at/where I’m going to be.
My latest documentary [HAS HEART] will be screening throughout ArtPrize this year. This film is about Michael Hyacinthe, a US Navy Veteran, and Tyler Way, a graphic designer, and their journey connecting veterans with art as they work to transform their experiences, thoughts and traumas into expression.
If you’re not familiar, ArtPrize is one of Grand Rapids’ most notable events of the year. Started in 2009 as a public art festival and competition, it brings in thousands of people and artists from around the world to experience art all over the city.
This year, ArtPrize takes place from Sept 18 thru Oct 4 — during that time, [HAS HEART] will be screening at the Has Heart Cafe right off of Veterans Memorial Park alongside the film Citizen: The Jilmar Ramos Gomez Story.
Additionally, we will be premiering the film at a live event on this week Thursday, September 18 at 7pm at the Has Heart Cafe to kickoff ArtPrize.
Because ArtPrize is such a major event for Grand Rapids, we also have the Grand Rapids Film Festival happening this very weekend as well (Sept 19-21)! Has Heart will be screening twice at this film festival:
Saturday, September 20 at the Wealthy Theatre, Koning Micro-Cinema at 3:45 PM
Sunday, September 21 at Celebration Cinema Studio Park at 12:15pm
Tickets are $8 and can be purchased online and at the door.
This weekend is looking very busy because I will be speaking on the other side of the state, in Detroit, at the Better Cities Film Festival. I will be on the panel for the Workshop: Beyond the Frame, discussing how we make films to have an impact. This will be from 1:00 - 2:30pm at Cabana 313 in Campus Martius this Saturday, Sept 20.
Admission is totally free of charge!
This festival has a special place in my heart because it’s a film festival all about urbanism, placemaking, transit and community — and it’s where Nolan Gray and I first premiered our half-hour documentary Arbitrary Lines: the Free Spirit of Caroline in 2023.
This festival is also where we hosted a happy hour that brought housing abundance advocates from around Michigan to launch the organization I am a board member of today: Abundant Housing Michigan, a 501c4 advocating for the legalization of housing state-wide.
Abundant Housing Michigan will also be a media partner of the festival, hosting the Green Detroit Social Hour, also at Cabana 313 at 7-8pm on the same day (Saturday, Sept 20). Join us there!
Shoot Shovel and Shut Up will be premiering at the Sioux City International Film Festival on Friday, October 3 at 3pm and Sunday, October 5 at 12pm the ACX Promenade Cinema.
I will be there for the Friday Premiere!
Shoot Shovel will then go to New York City for the New York Shorts International Film Festival (October 10-16). This is an awesome festival to be a part of and it all takes place at the iconic Cinema Village on E 12th St.
Tickets go on sale October 2. I am not sure what film block I will be in, but I will be there in-person! I’d also love to grab a drink if you’re in town. I always love to be back around my old college stomping grounds.
After NYC, Shoot Shovel goes to Milford, PA for the Black Bear Film Festival (Oct 17-19). We will be a part of the Sunday, Oct 19 short film block at 1:15pm at the Milford Theater.
I will also be there!
THERE IS ONE MORE FILM FESTIVAL TO BE ANNOUNCED FOR LATE OCTOBER, so STAY TUNED.
My Analog-August was a failure.
It is insanely difficult to unplug, especially when you’re a parent.
My wife, who bless her soul is stay-at-home so she gets to experience our daughter essentially 100% of the time, described it as being simultaneously overstimulated and mind-numbingly bored. That’s because you can’t fully engage in any task that you might want to do as an adult (whether that’s chores, hobbies, or work), but you also can’t fully engage with the play because, in our case, our daughter is still learning to speak. Therefore, you’re in a suspended state of lucidity and the easiest way out of the boredom is your phone.
I did have some minor successes, though. I was given a second mobile phone by my business internet provider as a requirement when I asked for a discount on the next year, and so I have two phones — I moved all my social media apps, with all their annoying notifications, to that business phone so that my personal phone is purely a communication device with my wife and friends. I don’t get a needless stream of notifications now, while I can still use social media when I want to.
I also spent some time drawing and my hand-writing instantly improved. It reminded me of when I spend a week in Houston with my parents and my Vietnamese-language skills immediately return.
For any of these benefits to actually improve in my life, they’d have to become lifestyle changes, but, by-God, that is very hard to actually commit to. It really just takes a few opportunities for the habits to return.
"We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."
- President Abraham Lincoln: first inaugural address, 1861
"If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want ocean without awful roar of its many waters."
- Fredrick Douglass; Speech at Canandaigua, New York (August 3, 1857)
you can always reach me at hello@nodehaus.co
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