Those of you who ride the metro to work and around town, you’re in for a unique treat this month. Starting June 13 there will be a continuous loop of short films created about Los Angeles and especially for those who ride the metro.  This collection of films is called “Out of the Window”.  The Los Angeles Weekly got the jump on the details of this event last week. If knowing whose idea this was and who is funding this film festival click here for all those details.

My 2 minute film “LA Woman” was selected to be a part of this first group of films created by 30 professional artists and teams of teen filmmaking students. The films will be shown on 2000 LA Metro buses over 4000 square miles of LA County—wow! I’ve never been in such a mega media blitz before. The buzz was that there were an overwhelming amount of ‘car culture’ themed entries. Well, hell LA is all about how you get around the city–whether it’s on the metro, bike or car—it’s one our our daily preoccupations. My film is all about cruising. This festival will be interactive too. Films will end with a question prompting metro riders to text their response. My film question is “Who is your favorite LA woman?”.  Simple, because I like to keep it easy-breezy-lemon-squeezy.

On Sunday, June 12, all the student entries will be screened followed by a reception at Inner City Arts, 3pm. This is such an exciting project for these young Cecil B. DeMilles in-the-making. [I’m more of a Godard.]

On Tuesday, June 14, the Los Angeles Central Library’ s ALOUD program will feature a panel discussion on “Media, Art and Activism in Los Angeles and Beyond” with the curators of “Out of the Window”.  The role artists play as innovators of media technology in the public realm will be the focus of this presentation. The entrance is free but registration is required.  This talk will take place at the Los Angeles Central Library, 630 West Fifth St. Downtown LA at 7pm.

“Out the Window” films will screen on Transit TV for five minutes an hour June 13-17, and for two 45-minute cycles a day June 18-19. For those who do not ride the metro lines in LA, you can go-to the “Out of the Window” website and view the films there. All the films are not posted on their site yet—like mine and my friend Raul P.Baltazar’s. Que pasa?   Raul’s film is about his alter-ego Tochtli 7 (the Aztec Bunny) representing in the 2011 Chinese New Year parade, pues it was the year of the rabbit. Here’s a taste of Tochtli 7, which has me pondering how can Raul be in front of the camera and filming at the same time?  That silly wabbit must have ‘people’.

UPDATE!! [File this under “See?  That’s how I find out what is going on in my life”.]  I got an email from one of the organizing groups for “Out of the Window” who saw this blog and FYI, the youth created films will be shown first (in fact now) —THEN the two-minute artists-activists-storytellers’ films will be screened in September-October, 2011.  Concurrently at that time (called Phase 2), the artists-activists-storytellers’ films will also appear on the Out of the Window site.  Ay, con razon me confundieron.