Chicago Filmmakers

I attended the Chicago Filmmakers Meet up last night, which was very enjoyable. The meet up is like speed dating, where you are given so many minutes to talk to an individual then you switch and talk to another. A great way to meet other artists int he film community.

So I was talking to a composer who teaches at Columbia College whose name was Hummie. Let me preface this by stating that I am a huge film music fan and collect film soundtracks. The composer asked me if I was a fan of Mel Brooks. Of course. He then tells me he scored Brook's last two films. Then it hit me. This was Hummie MANN, film composer. I really love his score to Year of the Comet. Talk about shock and awe! I was honored to meet Hummie Mann. These are the little gems which are so great about Chicago film.

PAYDAY

I was updating links on the Fish site and noticed something odd, but funny.


Look at the link next to my head which is a link to the actual payday loan site. Payday loans has a sense of humor!

Horrorbles Screening

There was a full house in attendance last night for the Horrorbles screenings of Holmes and Fish. Two people walked out on Fish and I thanked them as it was the ultimate compliment that they could not take any more of Fish's disturbing story. I was very impressed with atmosphere and style of the gallery at Horrorbles. The 16 seat theater is furnished with actual movie theater seats which are very comfortable.If you are a fan of horror, then you must visit Horrorbles.

Halloween 2009

I was Sweeny Todd for Halloween this year. It seemed appropriate that I portray a serial killer. At the first party I met up with my niece, Amanda who was Mrs. Lovett, so we had a great conversation about how to make pies of people. Who would of known that a friend of Sweeny's would be at the party, Hannibal Lector.

The second party was a blast where Sweny found more victims to relieve his blood lust.

My kind of town

Chicago has been showing me some love. Below are new reviews of Holmes and Fish.

Horror Yearbook - SHU-IZMZ - Horror Society

Keep an ear open for John appearing on SHUIZMZ Radio soon.

John with Kelsey Zukowski from HorrorYearbook.com and Horrormoviefans.com.
2009 Chicago Horror Film Festival

October 09 update

The Chicago Horror Film Festival was held at the Portage theater this last weekend, Sept. 25 thru 27 and was a fantastic event. The program listed me as"John Borowski Presents...", which is awesome as a friend of mine once told me that I should distribute other filmmaker's dvd's as "John Borowski Presents", I guess it's a nod to Hitchcock. At the fest, I unveiled the new dvd artwork for H.H. Holmes (now includes the awards won on the bottom 1/4 of the cover art.) as well as autographed DVD's and was on stage to screen trailers, discuss Panzram and also had a Q&A with Mr. Willy, the fest's host. I encourage more people to check out the Portage Theater as they screen many classic films in 35mm, like the classic "The Bat" which is screening soon. http://www.portagetheater.org/


Since moving back to Chicago from Los Angeles, I have attended several festivals here in Chicago. It is so great to be welcomed back to my home town. In future blogs I will discuss bot the highs and lows of living in LA. I actually miss some aspects of it now, Amoeba music being the number one thing I miss- there are now music stores in Chicago! Since the closing of Tower and Virgin, there is only Best Buy. I am on the search for smaller music stores which sell vinyl and used cd's/dvd's. I know Evanston has some music stores.

Panzram is moving forward. Panzram's case is the most research heavy film I had done so far. I have a mountain of paperwork. Panzram fascinates me more than any other subject as there is no one label that can define him.Every time I work on the film, I am discovering new aspects of Panzram's personality. The next steps are to shoot in Minnesota and record John DiMaggio's voice.

Marc Levits' has chosen me to author the DVD for his excellent film, Feast of the Assumption: The Otero Family Murders. More info here: http://feastoftheassumption.unsubfilms.com/

This month, I will be interviewing the owners of a house on the property where H.H. Holmes murdered Howard Pitezel for inclusion in a Holmes special edition DVD.