My South By Southwest was pretty crazy and I took a lot of photos, but it was actually slightly tamer than normal. I had some days free during music week and for some reason I had nothing booked on the last day of SXSW Film. Fortunately for me I was asked to shoot the after party for the Robert Duvall film Wild Horses on the roof of a bar called Summit. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect and I spent the afternoon taking photos of Duvall and friends, eating free food and partying with legit cowboys including Matthew McConaughey amazing older brother Rooster.

After the party I moved all my stuff from the couch I was sleeping on at my buddies house, to the couch I was sleeping on at the Sailor Jerry house and spent the rest of the day editing my film week photos and eating more food. No complaints.

Anyway, the Wild Horses party was a good time and I ran into a bunch of people I had photographed earlier in the week. The director of The Goob, Guy Myhill, asked me to take a photo of him with his Leica M6 and believe it or not it was the first time I had ever shot with one and ever since then I can’t stop thinking about getting one. Hopefully my shots with it came out okay.

Oh, and also Josh Hartnett was in the movie and at the party and apparently every lady I know was really excited about that. So enjoy photos of him too.

I have no idea where this write up is going, but you should probably just look at the photos and see the movie whenever it’s out in theaters. The end.

Click here to see all the photos from the Wild Horses after party at Summit. 

Still trying to get up all this SXSW stuff but doing my taxes sort of interrupted my life yesterday but let’s switch gears to SXSW Film for a minute. I have three SXSW Film updates and I want to get one up today, tomorrow and Monday and all the SXSW should be wrapped up by Monday or Tuesday and then I have a pretty awesome set of my friend Erica to go up shortly after that. So keep checking back. Lot’s of stuff to lurk.

Today I want to give you probably my least favorite update from SXSW, but the one with the largest amount of famous people in it… SXSW Film red carpet photos. I really can’t stand photographing people on a giant wall of advertising but I would rather do that and shoot the shit with fellow photographers than stand in line for the movies. Plus people seem to like red carpet photos for some insane reason. I completely half assed this stuff, but enjoy looking at mediocre photos of celebrities anyway.

I shot the red carpets for Hello My Name Is Doris, Fresno, Lost River, Love & Mercy, Spy, and Wild Horses. Probably the coolest for me was getting to photograph Brian Wilson and John Cusack on the Love & Mercy step and repeat. Also shooting Sally Field was great because not only is she a legend but she seems like the nicest human ever. Shooting Robert Duvall is always amazing but I have now shot him three times off the red carpet, three times on the red carpet and I got hired to shoot the after party for Wild Horses so I’ve got plenty of Duvall shots, or as I know call him “Bobby”. Just kidding, he still terrifies me.

Okay, go enjoy your Saturday but quickly lurk my red carpet shots. Be back tomorrow with the Wild Horses after party pictures!

Click here to see all my photos from the 2015 SXSW Film Red carpet.

Remember when I shot elaborate film screenings of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Back To The Future? Those really fun events were thrown by BBQ Films and since that TMNT screening I have sort of become part of the team. I really love what they are doing so I offered to help out and last week they asked me if I would shoot a fake tech event that they created to announce their newest film screening. Of course I said yes and last night I attended “Start Me Up: Activating Events in the 21st Century” at the Flavorpill offices in Soho.

From the invite: “We’ve convinced some of the brightest, most badass minds in the biz to share their industry-disrupting secrets in a quickfire pitch slam. You’ll learn why native platforms, gamification, cryptocurrency, augmented reality, the quantified self, and the internet of things may be the cornerstones to your next event.”

The event featured actual talks from actual start ups RebelMouse and Ultravisual as well as a talk from Flavorpill Co-Founder Mark Mangan. The event also featured BJ Lomax the fictional son of Bernie Lomax. He announced his new crypto-currency “Bern Bux” with an absurd video and hilarious talk that involved throwing note card after note card and popping bottles of YA’cuvee 23. At the end he invited everyone to a party on July 25th at Playland Motel in Rockaway, Queens where he would be launching Bern Bux and showing a “documentary” about his father called “Weekend at Bernie’s”.

For a fake event it was still a pretty good tech mixer and I met some pretty interesting people and I am pretty interested in using both RebelMouse and Ultravisual in the future. RebelMouse creates websites that pull from a variety of social networks so that you can quickly create a website around a hashtag or key word. Seems ideal for events or a place to put all your social at once. Ultravisual is a content sharing mobile app that is a lot more advanced than something like Instagram, but from my standpoint it’s really exciting because they allow nudity! As long as you tag your content as adult and aren’t posting actual porn you can get away with a lot more than on Instagram or Facebook.

Anyway, the important thing is that tickets for the BBQ Films screening of Weekend At Bernie’s went on sale today! (Update: They already sold out!) The event should be a really great time and I wish I could go but I will be at the Gathering of the Juggalos… Oh yeah, that’s happening again. Get excited.

Now click here to see all the photos of the BBQ Films/ Flavorpill fake tech event “Start Me Up”!

As I work through organizing my massive photo library I keep stumbling on gems from the past. Building a portfolio website has become a massive undertaking but it’s going to be fantastic to eventually have my work organized. During the process I keep finding amazing events and crazy moments in my life that are worth resharing. Some of my Throwback Thursday posts on Instagram have done very well and since I am shooting less and less nightlife I feel like it’s worth taking a look back at some of the better nightlife moments from the past. So this might become a new feature of the site… perhaps even on Thursdays…

Today it’s Monday and if the internet can come up with dumb things like Throwback Thursday and Flashback Friday I don’t see why I can’t call today Moveback Monday. I realize that’s insanely stupid but I am highly caffeinated and found some amazing photos from exactly four years ago. Well, okay, the images aren’t actually that amazing from a photography standpoint but it was a pretty incredible event and one that can never happen again.

Four years ago I shot a benefit for the Anthology Film Archives celebrating their 40th anniversary. The Virgins opened for Sonic Youth and Lou Reed an Hiro Ballroom. The Virgins and Sonic Youth have split up and of course Lou Reed has died. Philip Seymour Hoffman introduced Lou Reed and he has sadly passed as well. Amazingly the 91 year old avant garde film legend Jonas Mekas is still alive. Badass filmmaker and writer Keneth Anger also is still living and played the theremin to end the evening. Moby DJ’d and Julian Schnabel spoke as well. Ben Foster hosted the evening and I got to take a photo of Nan Goldin which V Magazine ran. All and all it was a pretty epic night.

So take a look back at this amazing night four years ago. Click here to see all the photos from the Anthology Film Archives benefit from May 19th, 2010.

A few months ago I went to see a very interesting screening of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. The screening took place inside the lair of the Foot Clan. There were breaks in the movie where actors dressed as TMNT characters came out and interacted with the audience. I thought it was amazing and I said so in my write up.

Shortly after Gabriel Rhodes, founder of BBQ Films who put on the screening, contacted me saying how much he loved my photos and the write up. I told him that I loved what BBQ Films was doing and that I would love to be involved in future events. We ended up getting coffee and I got invited to one of the first planning sessions for the next movie: Back To The Future.

On Saturday and Sunday night (I only attended the Sunday screening) BBQ Films brought a few hundred people Back to the Enchantment Under The Sea dance. This dance is where Marty McFly’s parents kiss for the first time so Marty needs to make sure this happens or he will have never been born!

BBQ Films turned St. Patrick’s Gymnasium in Nolita into The Hill Valley High Gym complete with not one but two DeLorians! They had the fantastic Postmodern Jukebox perform before the screening and of course they came back on during the epic moment where George and Lorraine McFly finally kiss. Marty McFly came out and played Johnny B. Goode and then they played the rest of the movie. Finally Doc Brown came out and started a dance party. It was all pretty perfect.

I only made one of the BBQ Films planning meetings because I was out of town for the rest but my one suggestion that made it to the final production was an important one. They ended up raising several thousand dollars for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for parkinson’s research. People were very willing to donate a little extra to help “save the clock tower” and hopefully make a little bit of difference in the world.

Anyway, the whole event was amazing and I hope I can be involved in future BBQ Films events. If nothing else I will keep photographing them! The photos are pretty awesome so click the link below!

Check out all the super fun photos from BBQ Films Back To The Enchantment Under The Sea movie screening and dance party!

On Friday night I got to see the newest film from Troma the oldest independent film studio on the planet! I have been a huge fan of Troma and it’s founder Lloyd Kaufman since I was about 14 years old. Kaufman is the creator of the Toxic Avenger and director of such classic films as Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, Tromeo & Juliet and the Class Of Nuke Em High. When he was profiled for the Village Voice I was lucky enough to be able to photograph him for the cover and take a tour of Troma Studios. While I was there they were casting not just one but TWO brand new Nuke Em High Films: Return To Nuke ‘Em High Part 1 & 2 and finally on Friday I got to see the first part

Return To Nuke ‘Em High actually had a special NYC premiere at the MOMA on Thursday but I had a meeting and couldn’t make it. Fortunately the film opened at Cinema Village East the next night and Lloyd and the crew were going to be there. Before the screening the film was introduced by Evan Michelson and Mike Zohn owners of Obscura Antiques and stars of the creepy reality show Oddities. They had a cameo in the film and are old school Troma fans.

Return was the first time I have seen a Troma film in a proper theater (I did see a press screening of their last film Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead) and it looked fantastic. Had everything you would expect from a Troma film: sex, violence, questionable political satire, gross practical effects, fart jokes, penis monsters and the Tromatic mix of horror and violence pioneered by Kafuman 30 years ago. Asta Paredes and Catherine Corcoran were great as the lesbian couple leads (Asta has pretty much the greatest boobs I have ever seen which is saying something considering how many boobs I see) and four cast members from the film were in a big budget corporate advertisement I just did. Normal people will not like this movie, but if you are a fan of Troma or b-horror/comedies you are going to love Return to Nuke Em High. Might be Kaufman’s best film since Terror Firmer. The movie does just stop suddenly without any real wrap up but it just makes you look forward to part two which if I know anything about Troma will be out several years from now.

After the film there was a Q&A with Lloyd, Asta Paredes and Catherine Corcoran and then we all headed over to Beauty Bar for an after party. It was great to hang out with Lloyd and his amazing wife Patty. Lloyd was a few drinks in and kissed me on the cheek and told me he would get my face tattooed on him if I got him tattooed on me. Clearly I am going to have to hold him to that.

Over all it was a great night and if you are a fan of any of this stuff you should check out the pictures. I know posting them Sunday night during an NFL playoff game and the Golden Globes isn’t exactly a good recipe for getting traffic but I am leaving town tomorrow for 10 days so it’s better to get them up now. I am headed to Vegas for the AVN Awards and to LA to shoot some babes and hang out with these guys so hopefully I will have a ton of cool photos for you while I am gone. But yeah, go look at these Tromatic photos already!

Click here to see  all the pictures from this screening of Return To Nuke Em High at Cinema Village East and the after party at Beauty Bar!

Last night I went to see a screening of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie in the party warehouse spot Villain. I had so much shit to do and I almost blew it off, but I had told the Village Voice I would photograph it for them and the event looked like it would be pretty fun. Thank god I went; It was probably best event I have been to in months.

TMNT was pretty much my favorite movie as a kid. It came out when I was 9 and it was the most excited I was about any movie ever. To this day I remember exactly where I was when I first saw the trailer. It made that much of an impact on me.

BBQ Films hosted the event and all they do is create amazing pop up movie events where they bring you inside the movie. Last night they turned Villain into the Foot Clan headquarters and pitched the events as a foot clan try out. If you haven’t seen the movie, the evil Shredder recruits his army by going after troubled New York youths and offers them a Pleasure Island style headquarters equipped with arcade machines, skate ramps and even free cigarettes! At Villain there were no cigarettes but there were video games, skateboarding, plus free pizza and beer! There was a video game room upstairs where you could play the Super Nintendo version of TMNT as well as the new video game. They also had free pop corn, breakdancing and you got a foot clan headband when you walked in. They even had the Turtles leader Splinter chained up in a corner just like in the movie! It was pretty epic.

Before the movie started BBQ Films tried to introduce the film but were rudely interrupted by motherfucking Shredder! He came out to the hoots and hollers of the wanna be Foot Clan audience members. Reenacting a scene from the movie, one audience member was granted an opportunity to join the Foot and of course she did so with great honor before the movie finally started.

Halfway through the film Turtle pal and hockey fan Casey Jones broke into Villain and rescued Splinter while the Foot Clan were distracted by the movie. Before they could escape Shredder showed up with his team of Foot Clan and confronted Casey Jones. There was only one way to settle this… a break dance battle! Several 80’s street toughs represented Casey Jones and Splinter and break battled the hip hop dancing foot clan. Boogaloo ensued and it was looking like the good guys were in trouble. Just then the actual Ninja Turtles broke in and saved the day. The tides were turned and Shredder limped off defeated. The movie would continue!

Just when you thought shit couldn’t get any more awesome, when the final credits to the film started and the classic anthem “T.U.R.T.L.E Power” hit, Golden Voice himself of Partners in Kryme showed up and started singing his hit over the credits. He was followed by the Turtles and Casey Jones and even Shredder joined in on the dance party. After performing the greatest movie theme song of the early 90’s (Yeah you heard me right Hammer!) , he played a BRAND NEW Turtles song called “Rock The Half Shell”. It was fucking incredible. I bet it must have been awesome for him to get to play that song along side a bunch of Mutant Ninja Turtles (who I am pretty sure are no longer teenagers) in front of a crowd full of TMNT fans dressed up as foot clan thugs.

After the show was over the dance party continued and I got to tell Golden Voice about how I lost the talent show in the third grade to two kids who rapped Turtle Power. He thought it was hilarious, but what I didn’t tell him was that we both actually lost to a fucking ballerina. Bullshit. They came in 2nd though and me and Michael Grunenberger had to settle for 3rd for our rendition of the McDonalds menu song.

In conclusion, that shit was awesome. The movie held up too. It looks bad ass. Makes you wish CGI wasn’t a thing. TMNT is so dark and creepy and the costumes are amazing. It’s still really funny (although probably in more of an ironic way than it was in 1990) and it was a really great way to watch a movie. This was really the most fun I have had at a party in ages. Shout out to BBQ Films and Flavorpill and everyone else who worked on this event. I can’t wait to see what they do next.

Click here for some truly bodacious photos from the Foot Clan Tryout’s an Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles screening at Villain. Cowabunga dudes!

Ps. For bonus credit, watch the mumble core/ TMNT parody my little brother directed!

The Tribeca Film Festival is in town and one of the films I was most interested in was a documentary called Bending Steel about a man named Chris “Wonder” Schoeck who is training to become a strongman. Like sideshow Coney Island style bending bars over your head type strongman. I have always been fascinated with the sideshow and while I sort of hate magic, I love actual feats of strength that seem like magic. When I was a kid I learned how to blockhead (hammering nails into your nose) learned to swallow hot dogs whole with the idea that maybe one day I could learn to swallow swords. Two of my favorite photographers growing up were (and still are) Diane Arbus and Bruce Davidson who both documented sideshows and circuses and there was a time in my life where I really spent a lot of time researching and learning about this amazing culture.

Eventually my interest wained, mostly because there are only so many feats you can do. Unless someone is particularly innovative or captivating eventually seeing someone swallow a sword, eat glass, spit fire, etc eventually somehow gets old. But actual strongmen are few and far between. Sword swallowing is incredibly difficult and dangerous but I have seen dozens of people do it. But before Saturday I had never seen someone bend a steel bar into a bunny head.

Let’s get to the point here… After posting the trailer for Bending Steel on my Tumblr page I was asked to photograph the after party at The Red Door. Aside from free Sailor Jerry rum and a bunch of cute girls running around there was an amazing strongman show! Adam Realman, who hosts the Coney Island Sideshow Spectacular, hosted an evening full of incredible feats of strength featuring Chris “Harculese” Rider, Sonny “Man Of Steel” Barry, Steve “The Crusher” Weiner, Gary “The Brickman” Brown, Bill Solony and of course Wonder Shoeck himself. On top of that Cardone performed a straight jacket escape which is always impressive. The highlight for me was watching Adam Realman blow up a hot water bottle. It’s a feat I have heard about and seen online but never in real life. It’s legitimately terrifying waiting for the bottle to pop, especially being a few feet away from it. A piece of exploding rubber could honestly do some serious damage. Another highlight of the show was just watching the camaraderie of the strongmen. You had four generations of strongmen there rooting each other on. It was a cool glimpse into a world the most people never see.

I didn’t get a chance to see Bending Steel yet but I know it’s playing a few more times this week. Go see it if you live in NYC and if not I am sure it will get distribution and we will all be able to see it soon! Anyway, these photos are pretty cool but you need to see this stuff in real life to really appreciate it. Some of these guys are twice my age and they are beding steel like its tin foil meanwhile I seriously hurt my back trying to rip bubble wrap. Maybe it’s time I started strongman training!

Click here to see all the photos from the Bending Steel Tribeca after party at the Red Door!

Gotta make this quick as SXSW Music week is in full swing, but I wanted to try to get some more stuff up while I had a chance. I saw five films at SXSW and I shot the red carpet for each film. I have seen some really great stuff at SXSW and this year was no exception.

The opening film was the Incredible Burt Wonderstone with Steve Carell, Jim Carrey and Olivia Wilde. Steve Buscemi and Alan Arkin were in it too, but sadly they didn’t show up to the red carpet. Huge films that open at SXSW tend to be really, really funny and Burt Wonderstone was fucking hilarious. Go see it even though it’s about magicians.

The next film I saw was Prince Avalanche directed by David Gordon Green. It had Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch in it. It was a slightly confused movie, somewhere in between a comedy and a slow meditation on loneliness. I enjoyed it but I think Paul Rudd fans will find it pretty boring.

The highlight of the festival for me was Joe Swanberg’s film Drinking Buddies. I have known Joe for about 10 years and I have seen probably 5 of his films and enjoyed them all but Drinking Buddies blew me away. It was his first film with big name actors and that helped make the film more accessible and added a lot of emotion that you don’t get from Joe’s indie film friends. I remember thinking Hannah Takes The Stairs was the most real film I had ever seen, but this film had that same realness with a lot of talent and acting chops behind it thanks to Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick, Oliva Wilde and Jake Johnson. Jake Johnson is really a fantastic actor and was in my favorite film of SXSW last year, Safety Not Guaranteed. At the press conference after the movie all the actors were so complimentary of Joe, I was so damn proud. I think this movie is going to do really well and make Joe a household name. Fuck mumblecore jokes.

Spring Breakers had the most hype at SXSW and it totally lived up to it. Harmony Korine is a fucking lunatic and makes the most insane films that exist. Spring Breakers is no exception. I don’t even know if I liked the film but I was really glad to see it. You need to see it. James Franco plays his weirdest character yet and a bunch of teen idles play over sexed criminals. Also, on the red carpet watching teen girls try to trample each other to get to Selena Gomez was pretty amazing too.

The last film I saw was Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s film Don Juan. He wrote and directed and starred in it. Tony Danza played his father and was really great in it. Tony Danza needs to be getting more work. Joseph Gordon-Levitt on the other hand can fuck himself because he made a film about how bad porn is. Fuck that shit, you puritanical motherfucker. Don’t go see Don Jon. Stay home and jerk off to porn instead.

Click here to see all the red carpet pictures from the 2013 South By Southwest Film Festival.