I’ve got some great news. Co-Director Elaine McMillion and I were in Los Angeles this weekend for The Caucus Foundation Awards Dinner. The Caucus gave us a grant last year for The Lower 9.

To our surprise, we were given another award for The Lower 9, the Gold Circle Award. This award includes a $20,000 post-production package from the Hollywood based company HTV/illuminate and will be applied to our next film. So awesome!

Thank you again for all your support. We’re waiting to hear back from film festivals and will let you know once we know.

Here’s an article on the awards dinner from The Hollywood Reporter.

Matthew Hashiguchi

Here’s a picture of me awkwardly accepting the award.

Photo Credit: © Steve Cohn/ Steve Cohn Photography

They had a 20/20 style interview with a Globe reporter on Catherine Greig (Whitey Bulger’s girlfriend). I was really interested in the topic of Catherine Greig but wasn’t impressed with the production of the video. It had bad lighting, really bad audio and a black background that made the individuals on screen look as if they were floating in space.

I like the effort to improve their video content, but I’d expect better quality from The Boston Globe. Would they run an article with an overwhelming amount of misspelled words? No. So why run a video with poor quality?

This is our film from Brazil on a fisherman named Edmundo.

The Lower 9: A Story of Home is a feature length documentary showcasing six determined Lower-Ninth-Ward residents who share their most intimate stories of home, as they resume their lives nearly six years after Hurricane Katrina ravaged their neighborhood. The individual’s stories find voice in a narrative that intersperses contemporary interviews, abstract cinematography of destruction, and powerful scenes of present-day lives.

Directed by: Matthew Hashiguchi
Produced by: Matthew Hashiguchi, Elaine McMillion

More at thelower9.com

Bottletop Trading Ltd is dedicated to designing and producing ethically sourced and environmentally friendly products, especially from countries where they support education programs.

Text by Brian Byrne

It’s 5:45 a.m., and while most Cleveland football fans are still dreaming of Peyton Hillis stiff-arms and Colt McCoy touchdown passes, the “Brownies Bus” is being loaded on Cleveland Heights’ Beechwood Avenue for another Sunday morning of tailgating in the downtown “Muni Lot” outside Cleveland Browns Stadium.
Captained as usual by co-owner Bucky Spoth of Cleveland Heights, the orange former school bus arrives at sunrise, carrying an enthusiastic crew of 20-somethings catching up with old friends and making new ones as live Phish tunes play during the short journey. It’s a team effort setting up camp for the day in the middle row of the second lot, as a tent is raised and food and beverage prepared for pre-game festivities before the Browns’ Sept. 25 match-up against the Miami Dolphins.
The idea for the bus originated in Burlington, Vt., a few years ago while Spoth and co-owner Alex Frank of Cleveland Heights were in college, with both die-hard Browns fans dreaming of having their own unique tailgating transportation. Spoth found the bus on Craigslist in 2010, already painted and equipped for its current use – including bench seating along its walls – by its former North Ridgeville owners.
“All they asked was for us to keep the legacy going,” he said of being felt-out by the sellers before the purchase was approved.
Cleveland Heights resident Matthew Sadler and Shaker Heights native Alex Grodin also contributed to the $1,500 purchase of the 1976 GMC, which has clocked 43,000 miles to date. During the season, it’s parked behind historic Cleveland Heights restaurant Nighttown; “a Cedar Road treasure,” said Spoth.
The tailgate’s in full swing by 9 a.m., with the warm early autumn sun shining as revelers clad in Browns gear toss footballs and sip keg beer alongside colleagues on similar busses with names like “Old School” and “The Dawg Cage.” Frank mans the grill; cooking-up tacos, burgers and hot dogs with kick-off approaching and the bus’ lively crowd growing as late-comers are happily greeted.
“As long as I’m tailgaiting, I’ll always be rocking the bus,” Spoth said. “It might not be this bus, but I’ll be bussing it until the day I die.”
The party thins as those lucky enough to score a ticket begin the short walk to the stadium and others head home to catch the game on television. And the Browns didn’t disappoint, utilizing an 80-yard late fourth quarter drive to beat Miami, 17-16, and improve to 2-1 for the first time since 2002.
The bus will be back in action Oct. 2 for the Browns game against the Tennessee Titans.