Thanks Roland!

We went door-to-door on Lankershim Boulevard handing out the poster, so you might notice them now in some windows.

NoHo Documentary tells the story of NoHo

Also look for this ad on the NoHoArtsDistrict.com homepage:

The text inside is:

Santa says, “NoHo ho ho”

Documentary Plans to Chronicle Forming of NoHo Arts District and NoHo Magazine

Here’s the trailer:

NoHo-based film director, producer and editor Ester Brym has been selected to direct the documentary film “Critic’s Dilemma” about NoHo Magazine and the beginning of the NoHo Arts District in North Hollywood, California.

NoHo filmmaker Ester Brym

“Ester is a perfect fit for this project on several levels,” says “Critic’s Dilemma” producer Jim Bursch. “She has successfully produced her first feature documentary, which was recently selected by Arclight Cinemas for their film festival, and it’s about YouTube, so Ester has unique experience and insight into new media and social media. Not only that, but she is a terrific filmmaker. She knows how to tell a compelling story on the screen. And the clincher, of course, is that she lives in the NoHo Arts District.”

A native of Prague, in 1997 Brym moved to New York City to study film making. She worked in independent cinema until 2007 when she decided to move to Los Angeles to direct her first feature film “Butterflies.”

"Butterflies" movie poster

An award-winning documentary feature, “Butterflies” puts YouTube on the big screen and introduces the audience to the world of new and social media.

“Butterflies is the first film, that profiles the life of Internet celebrity as a new phenomenon,” says journalist Veronika Bednárová in her article in Reflex.

The film premiered at Action on Film International Film Festival in Pasadena, California on July 27, 2009 and won the Alan J. Bailey Excellence Award in Documentary Filmmaking. It was also nominated for Best Social Commentary. In 2010 the film won the 10 Degrees Hotter Awards for Best Documentary at Valley Film Festival.

Recently, “Butterflies” was selected for the ArcLight Cinemas’ Documentary Film Festival and was screened on November 7, 2011 in Hollywood.

Brym’s short film “12 Hours” was composed of footage that was shot for Ridley Scott’s “Life in a Day”, in which Brym took part. “12 Hours” showed at 2011 Action on Film Festival and Valley Film Festival and was reviewed by film critic Fred Topel.

“Critic’s Dilemma” is a documentary film being produced by NoHo20 Productions (http://noho20.com) and tells the story of NoHo Magazine and the beginning of the NoHo Arts District in North Hollywood, California. It is about a community that harbored the unlikely vision of someday being comparable to the NoHos of New York and London. It is about a publisher who was uniquely unqualified to shepherd and champion a creative community that barely recognized itself. It is about how a person and a community discovered themselves and did not always like what they found, but nonetheless found something closer to the truth.

In those days you couldn’t miss Solbrooks on Magnolia Boulevard because they would always set out large celebrity portrait paintings on the sidewalk in front of the shop. Pat was the indomitable owner who even in her eighties was going strong keeping the business going. One of her passions that kept her going was charitable giving, and the Valley Community Clinic was one of her favorite causes.

Here is an email from Pat Solomon’s grand-daughter, Jennifer, that we were delighted to receive this weekend:

Hi Jim,

I somehow landed on your website and noticed you are celebrating your 20th anniversary and are looking for people that were featured back then. I do know someone very special on the list and that is my grandmother who used to own Solbrook Display on Magnolia. She is no longer alive.

I am attaching a photo I have of her with Michael Jackson. She ran the business as long as I can remember and knew so many people in the record industry and was a member of the grammy awards. At the same time, she was so humble and giving and did so much for the community.

Please feel free to email or call me if you would like any additional information.  I think it is great that you are doing this.

Regards,

Jennifer Solomon
“Pat’s Granddaughter”

 

In this first Publisher’s Note, we get a glimpse of his motivation and hope for the magazine.

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The NoHo News aspires to be the consciousness of what is an idea in the minds of many community activists who are committed to creating a community where life and art commingle in a mutually enhancing relationship.

Quality of life is a popular term these days as we come to realize the limits of our existence. There was a time when life was a process of accumulation. The bumper sticker summed it up: “whoever dies with the most toys wins.” We’ve come out of the decadence of the eighties (at least for some) and are now realizing our limitations. We are discovering that consumerism is not the meaning of life, and that as we confront environmental annihilation, we are discovering that consumerism can mean the ending of life.

Criticism of consumerism is not necessarily a condemnation of business and the world of commerce. Perhaps it is a criticism of the excesses of commercialism. Certainly we need to feed, clothe, shelter and entertain ourselves, but we are discovering that we need more than what Vons, Nike, Donald Trump or NBC can provide.

Given that we are beginning to realize our limitations and the solution to life’s problems is not simply more, we begin to examine the quality of life. Improving the quality of life is a much more complicated problem than increasing the quantity of stuff. Improving the quality of life requires thought, reflection, ideas, creativity. This is the role of art and artists.

The NoHo Arts District is a place where the opportunity has arrive to create something that enhances the quality of life for those who experience NoHo. It is a place where the artistic community and the business community can join together to create something important and meaningful. NoHo can be a place where there is no distinction between audience and customer, or artist and businessperson. NoHo can be a place where people come to work and create.

The NoHo News is committed to creating a thriving artistic and business community that is the NoHo Arts District. Perhaps the most important element to any community is communication. The NoHo News will act as a means by which the various members of the NoHo community can communicate with each other and, perhaps most important, with the audience that the NoHo Arts District serves.

If you have any questions, comments, complaints, inquiries, etc. you can call or write me.

James A. Berg, Publisher

NoHo News
16830 Kingsbury St. Suite #251, Granada Hills, CA 91344
(818) 831-9803

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