As I’ve talked about before on this blog, Parade has now been selected to run in a 3rd Film Festival. This time it will be showing at the 15th Annual Bradford International Film Festival in March 2009 in Bradford, England.

I’d love to be going. From the Washougal Film Festival to the Torino Film Festival and now to the Bradford Film Festival; I’m glad that film director, Brandon Cahoon’s, debut film is being received with such a great response.

Two very different takes on Utah are on offer in this year’s Uncharted strand: there’s Brave New West, a documentary about how corners of the Beehive State have been “morphing at the speed of greed”, and there’s Parade, a moodily impressionistic debut feature which follows a pair of best-pal cousins as they explore various urban and rural locales and negotiate the transition from – to nick a phrase from the Kings of Leon – youth to young manhood.

Please complete reading this article at the Bradford International Film Festival linked page.

Great movie.

Tonight I went out with a couple of friends from the Marriage and Family Therapy Program (Nate, Jeff, and Triston). We went to see the movie Forever Strong. It was a great movie. I know that it has been out in the theaters for months but I just haven’t been able to go see it. Marlene wasn’t too thrilled with the idea when it first came out so I’ve put it on the backburner until tonight.

I really enjoyed the movie. I like the sports; Rugby is a tough sport. I can appreciate it more now than before. It had romance, drama, parent-child problems, sadness, and action.

I’m impressed by the longevity of the coach at the Highland High School and his dedication to the players themselves. They have a long line of history, tradition, and commitment to themselves to perform to the best of their ability on the field; as well as off the field.

I believe this movie also speaks to the tremendous power of relationship when trying to help adolescent boys and girls try to change. I think that too often we try to make changes in our kids because of things that we want for them and not for what they are actually saying. If you haven’t seen this movie, I’d say go to the dollar theater and see it or rent it at the local Blockbuster.

Review: Two Thumbs Up!

When the film played in Washougal and I was there watching it; I wasn’t sure how interested people were in the film. We had a 10 pm showing after a long drive from Utah to Portland through Roseburg to say hello to Marlene and the kids. Yes, we ran out of gas and thatb made it that much longer. But when we got to the local high school in Washougal and there was a big crowd watching fairly lame bang, bang, shoot em and knife em up flick, I was hopeful that many audience members would stick around. Well no only a few stayed and a few new audience members came. I liked the film and reviewed it earlier on this blog in August.

However it did receive the audience choice award for the festival and that is awesome and I was proud of my good friend Brandon Cahoon, the writer and director of this film about our lives in small town Utah.

I received a phone message last night from Brandon saying to check out the Torino Film Festival website on a few days at the of November schedule.

I then received a more official announcement via email from Brandon about its official acceptance into the Torino Film Festival.

Check it out for yourself at
Torino Film Festival.

Parade will be playing on three dates at the Italian Film Festival: November 22nd, 26th & 27th.

Congrats, Brandon. A much bigger Festival and one that has attracted the Academy Award winning Director, Oliver Stone. He will be showing his new film ‘W’ about George W. Bush. Not that I agree with his political leaning; but this is a huge festival and our little production is playing there. I know I say we but really this is a Brandon and Dayna production. I feel a part since I am a part of the original story.

Now we can hope that the great film will make it to DVD and maybe some extras will be created.

Also the awesome Movie Soundtrack might be a reality. If you haven’t seen the film or heard from Brandon about the music. Keep pushing for soundtrack to come out.

BTW – I like the new home page for the website. Parade – paradethemovie.com. Check it out.

This would be an amazing flight to go over to Europe to see the film at this huge festival. The distance, price, time, and the fact that my passport I think expired last year doesn’t help.

Brand’s movie about our adolescent years received one of the audience awards from the Washougal Film Festival. My vote counted that I handed in on its opening night of play. It meant something. Also Parade was again shown on Saturday and Sunday of the festival. That is cool.

Here is a link to the Official 2008 Festival Winners (PDF file).

Film Reviews
Well the night came of the showing of Brandon Cahoon’s film debut, “Parade.”. I’ve talked about the movie for months and even years as I’ve heard about the writing, developing, production, filming, post-production, and film festival submissions. I’m excited to have had the opportunity to travel up to Washougal, WA to see this film. I was able to travel up with Brandon and we had a great Parade-like adventure. We laughed so hard we about wrecked our vehicle. We did take several wrong turns as we traveled through the central part of Oregon. We ran out of gas between Vale, OR and Burns, OR. How? We planned poorly for that leg of our journey. Thanks to State Farm coming to our aid and a wonderful family that drove me to Burns so I could get cell service to call State Farm. As part of our coverage the insurance was able to send out a serviceman to bring us gas.

We made it to Roseburg to pick up Marlene to take her to the screening of the film. My father-in-law wasn’t feeling well so Mar stayed back with the kids. Well we left and cruised up thru Portland to Washougal, WA.

We went to a couple of film segments prior to Brandon’s film playing at 10pm PST. Thursday night. The first night of the festival was a little slow for most films. We met up with Brandon’s parents Kevin and Jeri Cahoon. We had a good time watching the films and going to dinner. We went to a mexican joint in town. I enjoyed my enchilada, taco, and tostada combo. It was way too much food and I was thinking it was a small meal. I enjoyed it.

Film Review: 24 Frames
The first film we saw was a claymation short “24 Frames” about an ill-fated film crew in which most of the crew dies. It was funny but a little crude. I’d give it a 2 of 4 stars.

Film Review: Change
This second film was a feature length documentary. It was intriguing for a couple of reasons. It was informative about cancer but not in a boring, classroom or American Medical Association type film about cancer. He interviewed many individuals and went with them to appointments etc. It was personal; his mom was diagnosed with lung/breast cancer during the making of the documentary.

Some thoughts I wrote while watching the documentary.

What is cancer? He discussed several types of physical and emotional cancers in our lives and world.

This film did a nice job discussing the role of cancer and the potential benefit of proper diagnosis and prevention or early prevention.

I have had some emotional response because of dad’s death earlier this year to the film. I would like to be prepared to deal with cancer and possible prevention when it comes in to my own life.

Film Review: Parade
As the last film on opening night and our hopes and anxieties about the first screening of the film mounted, we arrived about an hour early and talked a little while in the parking lot. We then went in to use the restroom, etc and prepare for the start of the film. There were some 5 different screening rooms playing at movies one time. All the previous films we watched were in another part of town, near the downtown. Parade was played at the high school auditorium; by far the best location for this film festival. It could have seated 400 and had a nice projector and screen.

We were early so we watched part of the film that was just ending “Ex Morte.” It was a bizarre, fairly lame, low-production zombie flick. The audience seemed to like it and we hoped that some of the audience would remain to watch Parade with us. The director of that film was from Washougal area and had lots of supporters.

A handful of us, the group of supporters sat in the middle, the best seats in the house. We then proceeded to watch 2 short films in preparation for Parade to begin. The first was a little sad about unplanned pregnancy and the reaction of a girls father when he finds out she is pregnant. She had wanted to feel loved and accepted by her father but he had been cold and uninvolved with her prior as a parent. He was a busy politician and worried more about his success than her.

In the end, dad was pushing her to get an abortion done. Although the film was 14 or 15 minutes, I think the point was made prior in this short flick.

I do believe in woman’s rights and also parental rights but I believe strongly that every child has the opportunity to live, breath, and experience life. I believe that they are a child even before birth. I also feel that we need to provide the best home for these babies and kids. Thus, even if they decide not to keep the baby for themselves, there are options like LDS Family Services that help young, loving families adopt children just in this situation. The film Juno is an excellent example for adoption to happen for a birth mother to find the right person(s) to adopt these little precious babies. We just had some wonderful family friends receive a little baby in their lives through adoption. It is a beautiful story.

The second was a funny comedy short about a young man’s first job interview. It cursed excessively, but it was funny the main woman and man in as they interviewed fought like a conflictual married couple. It turns out they were in a relationship (marital status unknown) and they were experiencing some relationship difficulty. It was a funny comedy about love relationships within an office setting.

A third film was supposed to show but it was skipped for whatever reason.

Therefore, the feature-length film Parade began. The movie was indeed the portrayal of young adolescence in Millard County, Utah. We were young kids during this time of our lives. Anyway the cinematography and camera work were beautiful and well-done. The production of the film was beautiful; the scenes led one to another as a fast sequence of events played out in the lives of about 5 or 6 youth from Millard County. The film depicted primarily the author/director’s perspective of the events that occurred during our senior year of high school in 1996. The main characters of the film Dean Barrett (pseudo-name for the director Brandon Cahoon) and Nate Moore are the central figures of the film with the likes of Matt Pruitt, Brett Morris, Cody Rasch, and Phil Scoville as well. Additional characters were also involved in the film but had more tangential roles in the movies like Esther Scott and Megan Bettis.

This was a beautiful artistic piece of work trying to come out and show the world the beauty that lies within an adolescents soul as it struggles with the internal dilemmas they face during that at-times difficult time of life. I am grateful for the opportunity to see the director open up his heart and memories to the world through this film. The explicit character development was at times difficult to understand because the dialogue and story line were at times sporadic and contextualized in the memory of the author. Implicitly I knew many of the characters because I lived through this period of life with the director. I believe the author was trying to stay true to the actual occurrence of the story and not taking too much license to change it; but at times for a feature film the character development would help the audience and viewer to understand the many wonderful stories and historical treasure that this film is for the cities of Delta, Lynndyl, and Leamington, UT.

The soundtrack was amazing from Spoon, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs, Toad the Wet Sprocket and many more. It helped the film flow, but at times felt as though I was wanting to hear dialogue and conversation that lead from scene to scene so that I could know how these characters grew and progressed throughout the film

This film is a story of adolescent love, unity, friendship, loyalty, wanting and adventure. I was happy to see this excellent filmmakers debut into the feature film genre. This is artistic and the casual viewer may have a hard time following the storyline. I saw his short film ‘fits’ back in 2004 and also felt compelled to want dialogue but then as I was able to think more about the film I could see his artistic attempt to have the viewer develop his/her own thoughts and perceptions of the film.

I give this film a 3 of 4 stars.

Check out the Washougal International Film Festival Official 2008 Film Selections and Official 2008 Schedule for more details on Parade and the selections debuting at the first year of this festival.

I recommend watching this documentary. It tells of sad tale of drug use and abuse that leads to the death of young adults in Utah Valley. This also tells a beautiful story of love, forgiveness, and family.
Click here for a link to watch the film. Also check out the film’s website for more information about the film and contacting real-life characters in the film.

I miss the family already and its only been an hour since I dropped them off at the airport. I hope they fly and drive safe to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Roseburg.

Parade will be shown to audiences at the 1st Annual Washougal International Film Festival on August 20th – 23rd, 2008. World Premiere. We hope to maybe be able to make it up to the film screening. You can click on the image above or go to http://www.washougalfilmfest.org/.

Also please go to paradethemovie.com online and read about the film. You can watch the trailer and now a “making of” video that has been posted under the “bonus” section of the website.

My dad’s funeral was Tuesday. The proceedings were wonderful.

Here is a copy of the program [I've got to find my copy and then I'll post it]*.

Here is also a copy of my remarks for the Life Sketch for Rodger Lorin Scoville, May 20, 2008. This was an honor and privilege to talk about my dad. Also it felt healing to think about him and the good that he did throughout his life.

I have also included links to see the photo I took of my dad’s obituary in the Deseret News. It was the same in the Salt Lake Tribune. I have also located the written text so you can read what it says.

Dr. Rodger Scoville
Delta
1945 – 2008

Dr. Rodger Lorin Scoville, age 62, was born November 2, 1945, and raised in Alberta, Canada to Ellsworth Earl and Annetta Gibb Scoville. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the French East Mission and was a faithful member throughout his life. He married his beautiful bride, Mary Michie, on October 2, 1969. He studied French and German at BYU then obtained a Doctorate of Chiropractic degree from Logan College.

He practiced Chiropractics in Delta, Utah since 1984. He was actively involved in the community and state in many different capacities from Delta City Council to the Utah Chiropractic Physicians Board. He was very proud to serve on the Delta City Fire Department since 1986, including Fire Chief for several years.

A devoted husband, father, and grandfather, he passed away May 16, 2008, after a short struggle with pancreatic cancer. He is survived by his wife: Mary; children: Juliette (Aaron) Muir, Smithfield, UT; John-Paul (Mary Ann) Scoville, Gilbert AZ; Spencer Lee (Jonene) Scoville, Richfield, UT; Amie (Mathew) Levine, Asheville, NC; David Phillip (Marlene) Scoville, Provo, UT; Sarah Scoville, Mesa, AZ; and Rachel Scoville, Mesa, AZ; grandchildren: Alex, Shaelea, Abigail, Oscar, Mackenzie, Isabella, Lilly, Max, Ian, and Henry; brothers and sisters: Earl (Celanie) Scoville, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada; Mary Ann (Randy) Lewis, Edmonton, AB, Canada; Jane (Bob) Milner, Medicine Hat, AB, Canada; Stewart (Gail) Scoville, Price, UT.

Funeral Services will be held Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 11 am at the Delta 1st Ward, 222 W 200 N, Delta, UT. Friends may call Monday evening, 7-8 pm, at the Nickle Mortuary, 190 S Center Street, Delta, Utah, and at the church Tuesday, 9:30-10:40 am. Interment at Sutherland, Utah Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Perpetual Education Fund or a charity of your choice in Rodger’s name

Published Obituaries: KUTV Website, Utah Tributes.com, Deseret News, Salt Lake Tribune, Millard County Chronical Progress (For a week or two).

Then I’ve added a portion of the Guest found on the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune to document the remarks made by others about my dad and messages to my mom and our family.* This is just a portion of them up until May 20, 2008.

Deseret News/Salt Lake Tribune Guest Book

for Dr. Rodger Lorin Scoville

May 20, 2008

Our Thoughts and Prayers are with you and your family Mary. I remember the Scoville’s from years gone by when our family lived in Raymond. May Father in Heaven Comfort each of you at this most difficult time.
With Friendship and Love,
Mary (McGilvary/Hancock) Phillips (Murray, UT)

May 19, 2008

Mary and family,

It was such a great surprise to see you and Rodger at your “Aunt Illa’s” (my next door neighbor) a few months ago. I was saddened when Illa told me that Rodger was ill.

You and your family will continue to be in my thoughts and prayers.

Sincerely, Michelene Jex
Michelene Jex (Salt Lake City, UT)

May 19, 2008

Our family loved Rodger and will miss knowing he is in Delta and available for Gibb reunions and family connections. We loved your visit in March 19th, and lasting memories of Rodger and his love for genealogy. Ronald sends his love and Marilyn and Lorraine and I will attend the funeral on Tuesday. We love you Mary and pray you will find peace in your home and with your children.

Aunt Ila Gibb (Ken)
Ila Gibb (Salt Lake City, UT)

May 19, 2008

Dear Mary:

I was so saddened to hear of Rodger’s illness and passing. I have so many fond memories of his parents and your family.

Please accept our condolenses and know that you are in our prayers.

Love,
Barbara Gibb Bell and family (San Clemente, CA)

May 19, 2008

Dear Family

Sorry on Lost of Roger. He was Great man. It was fun say to Hi to him Angels Are Watching. He was my
Neighbor down the Street. Love Jenny Timothy

Jenny Timothy (Delta, UT)

May 18, 2008

Dear Mary and Family,

Kind thoughts and sympathies are sent across the miles from North Carolina to all of you. May the love of friends and family always be a source of comfort to you. Truly a handsome picture of Rodger, looks like when we were all together at Mat and Amie’s wedding in Colorado.

Love and hugs to all of you,
Naomi and Ron Levine (Weaverville, NC)

May 18, 2008

Dear Mary and Family,

Just want to say how much we will miss Roger he was a great and wonderful guy. Mary you and your family are in my prayers and thoughts. Lots of hugs.

Love Jennifer Wilkes Hickman and the kids.
Jennifer Hickman (Delta, UT)

It was wonderful to so many familiar and new faces as we spoke to those who knew my dad and a common refrain that I heard over and over again. “Your father was a good man.” “He helped me so much.” At the family history center, chiropractic office, fire department, people felt that this was the least they could do for such a wonderful man. I love you, Dad!

Additional comments have been made on my previous blog post about my father’s passing. Check them out, friends from Provo and Delta, and cousins. Another section with a comment from the Pruitt’s.

We’ve received flowers, food that has taken care of us for days, many cards and notes, visits. It has been wonderful. Thank you.

Check out the trailer for this new movie.*

If you scare easily, then maybe you don’t want to watch it. A warning comes up about offensive material; however, it is about the fear factor, not because of violence, sex, or swearing.

Click here for some more funny Seinfeld clips that you can download and watch.

For tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld, click here. He isn’t coming to Utah; however, he will be in Denver on June 7th, 2008.

Surprised. This looks scary. But it is not really going to be a movie.