Tuesday, April 19, 2011
ITW II EARNS GOLD REMI @ WORLDFEST
"Into the Wind II, The Adventure Continues" accepted the "GOLD REMI" award for Feature Film - Documentary during the 44th annual Houston International Festival Saturday April 16th. The "REMI" is named after Frederick Remington, the artist and sculptor who created many western and Texas works. The awards dinner and banquet was held at the Marriott Westchase in Houston, followed on Sunday by a V.I.P. NASA tour and then a BBQ reception and boat cruse from the Houston Yacht Club. A busy fun filled weekend. Director Chris Page (right) and Narrator Dave Gorham (left) pictured.
Saturday, March 19, 2011
44th Houston International Film Festival
"Into the Wind II" The adventure continues, has won a coveted "REMI" award at this years' "Worldfest". We will world premiere this 60 minute documentary along with the short "Lanesplitters" on Sunday April 10th, 7:00 pm at the AMC Studio 30 2949 Dunvale in Houston. Come check us out.
www.worldfest.org
Friday, December 10, 2010
Fox News Houston Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7e1Qo4ALyw&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL
Labels: japanese zero, pearl harbor, powered paragliding, PPG
Monday, April 28, 2008
Krasnogorski ITW Screening & Closing Ceremonies
1. ITW screening crowd
2. Closing ceremony performance
3. Festival Participants & Film groupies
4. Chris & Dave with honorable mention plaque
5. Chris & Julia (Festival Curator)
Later Friday evening was the closing ceremonies for the festival. About 30 of us boarded a large bus outside our hotel at 4:00 pm. The evening festivities were to begin at 7:00 pm in a convention center located about one hour away traveling by bus. About two hours later, we were still in the bus and were no where near the destination. (Moscow traffic is a bitch!) We were told by someone that the weekends are time to get away to a country house and most of the population of Moscow was headed out of town. We got to the convention center at about 9:00 pm! The bus ride from hell for sure. (no bar, and no bathroom on the bus = no good).
The festival people herd us into the auditorium and it is set up really nice. There were two emcees, guy and gal, who spoke in Russian (of course, hey we're in Russia after all!)The evening was full of awards, speeches, musical performers, singers, and the most memorable rendition of "Strangers in the night" by the female emcee, (in English) including the "dooby dooby doo" part. This was not a joke performance, totally serious. Dave & I will be breaking into the "dooby dooby doo" lyric for the rest of our lives with a wink and a smile remembering this evening. Not like a typical American festival for sure.
ITW got an honorable mention, and I was called on stage to accept the plaque with all the other award winners. Two Russian male singers rushed out and sang the official festival song, very popular with the Russian festival goers, all singing along.
Afterwards, back to the bus, (only an hour to get back!) and over to the "Golden Fish" restaurant / bar for a late meal and some cold Piva's (beer's for you that haven't been paying attention). A long day for sure, I think the clock read 3:00 am when I hit the pillow.
Monino Russian Air Force Museum
Dave & I were lucky enough to meet one of the PPG pilots (Andrew) on Thursday whose father is a retired Russian Air Force pilot who was stationed at Monino Air Base during his career. Andrew heard Dave & I talking to Dmitry about making a phone call to Monino as translator to get permission to visit the museum there. Andrew's father just happened to be there watching his son's first solo, and they had a discussion that resulted in a couple of phone calls to officials at the base. Andrew pulled me aside and said "I will be your guide." I looked at him and said "What?" He said, "I'll pick you up from your hotel, and take you to Monino, get you in and serve as guide / interpreter." WOW! How cool was that! I told him we could take the Metro (subway) from downtown out to meet him, but he insisted on picking us up, easier that way.
Andrew met us in front of the hotel at 7:30 am on Friday morning and we headed to Monino. It seems Andrew was on a week vacation and it was somewhat of a treat to practice his English and visit his childhood home.
As we got to the base entrance, Andrew told us to lose the sunglasses, and ball caps, etc. Don't smile so much, and try to look more Russian. I guess it was just easier to get us into the base without explaining so much. We stayed in the car and Andrew got our permit to enter. We then drove through the base to the museum area.
Andrew went in to get us tickets to tour the museum but returned just a few minutes later. He asked if we had our passports, (we did) and rushed us into a hanger. A middle aged Russian woman took our passports and visas, talked to Andrew in Russian, asked for about 1500 rubles, (about $64 U.S.) and sent us on our way. Right about then an older gentleman approached with some booklets. He talked with Andrew and then Andrew told us he was a retired Air Force colonel pilot that had personally flown in a lot of the planes to the museum. He walked us out to the museum area and talked to us a bit using Andrew as a go between. (See photo, he's in the middle between Dave & I with the giant helicopter behind us.) We were like kids in a candy store taking picture after picture and getting the translation from Andrew about each plane, helicopter, and aircraft.
If you saw the movie "Firefox" with Clint Eastwood about stealing a Russian super fighter plane you'll see in the other photo above, there really was a plane that looked like the one in the movie. We saw so many planes, including the Russian Concorde, a space shuttle test vehicle, the first all metal Russian airplane, and many more. It was an incredible day! I'll be posting more photos and video later, and I'm sure some of this experience will make it into ITW II.
More info about the museum...
The Central Museum of the Air Forces at Monino, Russia is located approximately 38 kilometers (24 miles) from Moscow along the Gorky Highway in a lovely wooded area. It is the largest and best aviation museum in Russia. The museum was formerly known as The Russian Federation Air Force Museum and, prior to that, The USSR Air Force Museum. The facility was an operational air base from 1932 through April, 1956. The museum was founded in 1958 and opened in 1960 at the original airfield location and in the original airfield structures. The area was off-limits to civilians during the Soviet era so it has been neither easy to find nor easy to access. Advance permission to visit the museum was recently required for non-Russian citizens. The facilities are largely unimproved and the majority of aircraft are exposed to the harsh Russian weather. Many of the Russian aviation Design Bureaus (Tupolev, Ilyushin, Antonov, Mikoyan, etc.) have contributed exhibits and resources to the museum and its maintenance. Despite these conditions, the aircraft are in surprisingly good shape and most are sitting on the original tires they landed at the Monino airfield with. This is a testament to the museum employees who have a great historical legacy to preserve.
Here's a link to a photo album logging most of the aircraft at the museum...
More to come...
CP & DG
Friday, April 25, 2008
Moscow Days 4 & 5
(Sorry for any mistakes, no time to proof and the interface is in Russian for spell check.)
CP & DG.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Moscow Day 3
CP & DG.
Monday, April 21, 2008
We went to breakfast, some kind of hash, toast, strong coffee, cheese, & yogurt. At least if filled us up.
Comrades Chris & Dave.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Watch out Moscow - ITW arrived
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Leaving for Moscow
We'll arrive tomorrow night around 10:00 pm their time, around 11.5 hours in the air, (ouch). I've been in contact with a pilot over there, and he says he has me covered for PPG equipment. Now all we need is for the weather to cooperate.
Dave & I will be working on a segment for ITW II, and another movie short (not about PPG) to enter in film festivals, etc.
Stay Tuned...
Comrades Chris, & Dave.
Do Svidania
Monday, March 31, 2008
ITW goes to Russia!
http://www.sportsfilm.ru/
Director - Chris Page, & Narrator - Dave Gorham, are going to Moscow to represent the film and attend the festival.
I am in the process of contacting PPG pilots in Russia to try and arrange equipment and do some flying while there. If we can arrange it, we'll record everything in HD to use as a segment in the upcoming movie...
"Into the Wind II".
Do Svidania Comrades...