Before we summarize the final production of TRIUMPH67, we are proud to announce that we'll be the closing night film of the Chicago Palestine Film Festival at the Gene Siskel Theater on May 3, 2012. We'll be in attendance and would love to see you there! You can reserve your tickets today: 

http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/triumph67

and find out more about the other films in the program:

http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/palestinefilmfest2012

Status: Complete

When we set out on our path of making TRIUMPH67 we truly didn't have any idea of the time commitment involved. Of course, had we listened to ol' Ben Franklin, we would've realized that time is money, and on a micro budget project with the money factor being low, the time factor would be ramped up to high. Very high. Money for a film means you can hire crew and post-production and horsepower to get things done faster. Sans money, you spend nights and weekends doing the work yourself and waiting for your computer to render and export enormous files. But we've finally reached the thrilling conclusion of our first feature film: This week we've committed the very last of our kickstarter funds to the final production of discs and digital downloads!

What took us so long, exactly?

The festival circuit, mainly. We planned to submit TRIUMPH67 to the various larger festivals around the world and try our luck at getting accepted. This was time consuming as well as frustrating. And expensive, with each festival typically charging between $35-75 for submission fees. There were a lot of rejections from the big fests, but we did get in a film market early on and fielded some interesting inquiries (which we turned down). We had a ton of fun showing our work-in-progress at Flyway and at our sold-out premiere at MSPIFF last spring. The Honorable Mention award and local press coverage was a thrill. As mentioned above, we'll be the closing night film at the Chicago Palestine Film Festival on May 3rd.

Another factor that took up more time was that we decided (rather late in the game) that a rewrite of some of Mohannad's narration would benefit our film. After much deliberation, we undertook the extra recording and editing session to add some clarity to our story. We think it was well worth it, even though it also meant that re-submitting to festivals was likely not an option (us filmmakers tend to want so badly to exhibit our creations up on the big screen even though the times they certainly are a changin').

Thank you!

We've thanked you before and we'll just keep on doing it -- your generous donations allowed us to bring some high-end polish to TRIUMPH67 through color grading and music composition, as well as the mentioned final film materials and festival submissions. We've been extremely diligent and responsible and we've truly stretched every dollar to its limit and we haven't gone in debt!

What next?

The discs and such are being manufactured and will be sent out once we get them in our hands. The digital download process has also been set in motion and once the film has passed quality assurance and been accepted, it'll be available online for your viewing pleasure! The other promised rewards, of course, will also be sent out as required. 

As far as new movies go, Dan Tanz is in the middle of finishing his new script, currently known as "In Their Turn," and hopes to start pre-production before the end of the year. Jeremy Wilker is in the thick of pre-production on the feature teen comedy "Death To Prom," which is slated to shoot this summer! Find out more at http://www.deathtoprom.com/

www.triumph67film.com

2011 was a year filled with momentous global events both political and social... it felt like new things were happening constantly... hope and exhilaration kept surfacing, even in these challenging economic times. Closer to home we had our own big moments and were thrilled to be part of some great (sold-out, even) premieres and we continued to put in a lot of hard work.

The year really got going for us here in a visible way with the April 2011 premiere of TRIUMPH67 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF), where we were the first film of the festival to sell out the theater and gain a second showing, which was also well-attended. The critics called our film “a handsomely shot psychological drama” (Chris Hewitt, Pioneer Press) and “Poignant and moody, the film recalls ‘Blow Up,’ the French New Wave and such indie American classics as ‘The King of Marvin Gardens.’” (Colin Covert, StarTribune). We were thrilled to take home an Honorable Mention award from MSPIFF!

In the fall TRIUMPH67 was very honored to be an Official Selection at the 7th Twin Cities Arab Film Festival (TCAFF) by Mizna. This is an amazing and well-respected film festival and what better place to show our Arab-American film! We all had a very good time with our audience and the other filmmakers from around the world. The staff and crew of TCAFF did a great job!

We were featured on KFAI's ArtMatters program twice, on BelAhdan twice, mentioned on MPR twice, and we will be appearing on the TPT/SPNN/MTN film show Butter City in early 2012.

We now have the film subtitled in a couple of languages, too, thanks to some amazing volunteers!

Once again, we Thank you for your involvement that makes all this possible (and your patience). We are currently sending the film out to a few more festivals, and then we will finish work on getting the official DVD/BluRay ready. When this is done, we'll start shipping out the donor appreciation rewards you've earned!

Here's to an amazing 2012!

-- The T67 Team

PS - If you are curious about future film projects, Dan is wrapping up a new screenplay (working title: "In Their Turn") and Jeremy is in preproduction on a new feature called "Death To Prom," which you can find at http://www.deathtoprom.com/

Photos by Giovanna Nido.

Hello and happy autumn to you all!

This summer was gorgeous around here, but a bit frustrating as we've gone through several film festival submissions without a nibble (and those non-acceptance form letters are all the same). We still have a number of festivals on our submission list and we've a strong belief in the worth of pursuing a few more.

Today, I'm pleased to announce that we are an Official Selection of the 7th Annual Twin Cities Arab Film Festival put on by Mizna! We'll be screening TRIUMPH67 on Sunday, November 13th at 2:30pm, followed by a Q&A. If you haven't seen our completely Minnesota-made entrant in the Slow Cinema genre (inspired in part by Ozu and others), then get to the beautifully restored Heights Theater and check it out on the big screen.

We'll also have discs of the film there, so if you want to pick one up in person, you can!

Recently we also were able to translate the film into French thanks for our pal Anna. A couple of more languages are in the works and then we'll have a feature ready for the global audience!

Your participation is what made the finishing of TRIUMPH67 possible and for that we thank you once again -- it looks stunning when projected off of Blu-Ray!

All the best,

-jeremy wilker
cinematographer/coproducer
on behalf of the cast and crew of TRIUMPH67.

PS - I'll be at the super fun Flyway Film Festival this coming weekend and should have some T67 DVDs with me. I hope to see you there!

As if it wasn't exciting enough to finally debut our feature film on the big screen at our first festival (and our long-running hometown fest as that), we were thrilled to also be honored with an Honorable Mention award from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival (MSPIFF) jurors!

Your support made this possible and we know we've already said thanks, but seriously, THANK YOU.

Here's our laurels and a shot of Adam, Sami (Kareem) and Flora (Sarah) at the theater.

So, where to next?

It took us three years, but the day is soon here: TRIUMPH67 will premiere on the big screen on Friday, April 15th, at 7:00pm, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival! 

All your support and contributions got us to this point and, again, we humbly thank you for participating and creating a beautiful feature film with us.

Tickets are already on sale and going fast! Get your seats reserved right here: http://www.mspfilmfest.org/2011/content/triumph67

Watch the official trailer here: http://vimeo.com/21579658

Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) wrote today that our film is "very beautiful." Rick at Flyway (he programmed our work-in-progress screening) said, "It has stayed with me, inspired me, and fed me intellectually." We are very proud of our Minnesota-made film and we believe you'll enjoy it on many levels.

And, of course, visit the main website (and spread that word-of-mouth for us, too): http://www.triumph67film.com/

Cheers! See you at the theater!