If you haven’t been following the exclusive web-only reality series, catch up on the episodes where three girls competed for the chance to design Kat DeLuna’s red carpet dress and find out who will win tonight!

Check it out at:

http://prom.about.com/b/2009/06/05/ultimate-prom-dress-design-competition.htm

There are lots of surprises along the way…and the fun starts now! Meet the contestants and celebrities of the Ultimate Prom on www.mypromstyle.com plus enter to win free dresses, makeup and more!

Check it out at:

http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/ultimate-prom-2009/17380466

In “The Ultimate Prom” competition, three students from New York City’s High School of Fashion Industries will compete to design not only their own prom dress, but also a dress which a panel of fashion-industry experts will judge as the perfect prom dress. All the while, their creative triumphs and travails will be chronicled via “webisodes” online at YouTube and through Hearst Teen Network, which includes Seventeen.com, Cosmogirl.com, MisQuinceMag.com, and MyPromStyle.com.

As an official sponsor, Hancock Fabrics is proud to provide the three designing contestants with all the fabric, embellishments and notions they need, from Hancock’s beautiful assortment, including its “bff” (beautiful fine fabrics) by Lauren Hancock line.

The Ultimate Prom webisodes go live on YouTube and Hearst websites mid-March and run through June 12^th. They’ll also be accessible on www.hancockfabrics.com/prom.

The winning dress design will be worn by Universal Motown artist Kat de Luna at The Ultimate Prom on June 5^th at Chelsea Piers in Manhattan. What’s more, Simplicity Pattern Co. will create and produce a pattern from the winning design, to be available in Hancock Fabrics stores in early 2010.

Says Hancock Fabrics CEO Jane Aggers, “The Ultimate Prom contest and our ‘bff’ fabric line seem, quite literally, made for each other. We are very excited to support these talented young designers – Larissa, Laquasia, and Havanna – in not only creating beautiful dresses, but advancing their future careers. It is a real opportunity for all three of them, and we wish them the best of luck.”

Founded in 1957, Hancock Fabrics Inc. is committed to fabric and sewing, serving creative enthusiasts with a complete selection of fashion and home decorating textiles and sewing accessories. The Company operates 264 stores in 37 states and an online store at www.hancockfabrics.com.

By Maxamillion Blick

http://www.fashionnewspaper.com/articles/947/1/Designs-on-The-Big-Dance-Who-Will-Create-The-Ultimate-Dress-For-The-Ultimate-Prom/Page1.html

http://www.cosmogirl.com/entertainment/backstory/st-claire-falls-trailer?click=main_sr

LA 2007 Awards

Grand Jury Award
Grand Jury Award for Best Feature- Red Ridge
Grand Jury Award for Best Short- Keys
Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary- The Manson Movie
Grand Jury Award for Best Actor – Willie Nelson in Fighting with Anger
Grand Jury Award for Best Director –Damian Skinner for Red Ridge

Best Director Awards
Best Director of a Feature Film – Zack Parker for QUENCH
Best Director of a Short Film- Crystal Braunwarth for Graffiti Flowers
Best Director of a Documentary –Johnny Boston for My Name is Alan and I Paint Pictures
Best Directorial Debut Awards
Best Directorial Debut of a Feature Film – Myrna J. de la Paz Abadeha neo-Ethnic Rock Cinderella
Best Directorial Debut of a Short Film – Peter Iengo for Blood Oath
Best Directorial Debut of a Documentary – Louell Crowley for Acquiring A Connection with the American Homeless

Founder’s Choice Award
Founder’s Choice Award for a Feature Film- Agenda
Founder’s Choice Award for a Short Film – Anno Domini
Founder’s Choice Award for a Documentary – Stolen Lives
Founder’s Choice Award for Best Original Song – Willie Nelson

Achievement in Filmmaking
Achievement in Filmmaking for a Feature Film- Devil’s Canyon
Achievement in Filmmaking for a Short Film – The Myth of the Devil
Achievement in Filmmaking for a Documentary– Acquiring A Connection with the American Homeless

Excellence in Cinema Award
Excellence in Cinema for a Feature Film – Tears for April: Beyond the Blue Lens
Excellence in Cinema for a Short Film– Pictures at an Exhibition (Choreographed Paintings)
Excellence in Cinema for a Documentary – Darfur Too Dark Too Far

International Film Awards
Best International Feature Film- Keyeye The Movie
Best International Short Film- Djinnova
Best International Documentary – A Movie Buff at the Turn of the Century
Best International Director- Ashok Kumar Nanda for “Rivaaz” Trapped in Tradition

Feature Film-Genre Awards
Best Comedy- An Adventure of Captain Slam!
Best Action – Fighting with Anger
Best Horror – Secrets of the Clown
Best Thriller – Little Bruno
Best Drama – Almost Destiny
Best Original Screenplay – Lezpires by Arthur St. James

Short Film-Genre Awards
Best Comedy- Charlie’s Bitch Ass Hos
Best Drama – Closure
Best Dark Comedy – Payaso Triste (Sad Clown)
Best Experimental – Proverbs 6:16 – 19
Best Action – Two Men in Suits
Best Sci-Fi- Where the Sun Don’t Shine
Best Psychological-The Game
Best Childrens- King’s Red “Roar into Action”
Best Mockumentary-Rebel Studz: The Uncensored Documentary
Best Romance-The Letter Home
Best Student – Tantore!

Documentary Awards
Best Historical Documentary– Meet Mary Pleasant (Mother of Civil Rights in California)
Best Educational Documentary – Confusion Burning
Best Political Documentary-The Candidate
Best Booth at the opening night party

Louell Crowley in association with Pennington Palm Productions for “Acquiring A Connection With the American Homeless”

Thank you to all participating filmmakers
Much luck with all future projects

The Staff of
The New York International Independent Film & Video Festival

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True to its title, My Name Is Alan and I Paint Picturessees the world through its subject’s childlike eyes. Alan Russell-Cowan (a.k.a. Alan Streets) is a schizophrenic artist whose paintings both distort and insulate him from reality, but instead of understanding this process, writer-director Johnny Boston lets Alan’s corrosive worldview speak for his documentary. Boston films Alan acting out his inner torment in front of a green screen, and worse, imagines his brain chemistry in gimmicky X-ray visualizations. Paranoid and aloof to an extreme (though he’s a struggling street artist, he frequently complains about pedestrians invading his “space” and refuses a second interview for the film), Alan doesn’t let anyone inside his head, which is why the movie’s naïve speculations come off as especially disingenuous. The filmmakers pitch Alan against his wealthy English family’s alleged oppression, but it’s clear that the artist’s world-weary woes are more delusion than anything else: After dropping out of private school, Alan affects a faux working-class accent and starts hanging out with his brothers in the ‘hood. In all the talk of “healing” and resisting conformity, one expert makes the critical point that disordered artists are also fiercely repetitive and unable to grow. Although most interview subjects are only too happy to coddle Alan’s fantasies, any amount of insight into his unhinged art is almost as fascinating as the pictures themselves.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=3215

There is no shortage of documentaries about mentally ill artists, but “My Name Is Alan and I Paint Pictures,” by the director Johnny Boston, finds a fresh way into the subject.

 
Zev Greenfield/Raw Films

The artist Alan Russell Cowan with one of his paintings.

At first this feature about the British-born New York painter Alan Russell Cowan — a k a Alan Streets — seems merely an efficient portrait of a schizophrenic artist. Mr. Cowan is an affable art school dropout whose jumbled, elastic cityscapes and figurinelike caricatures suggest Thomas Hart Benton gone psychedelic.

The movie recounts his journey to New York in 1988, his obsession with graffiti and his struggle to sell his paintings and deal with his demons (represented in animated effects shots that place Mr. Cowan in the frame with his creations).

But while Mr. Cowan’s story is sympathetically told, it’s ultimately a springboard for the movie’s lucid explanation of how creativity and mental illness interact within the brain. The film insists that there’s medical proof of art’s healing power — that with the right mix of medication, therapy and routines, schizophrenics with substance-abuse problems can make creativity their sole addiction.

Mr. Cowan seems living proof of this theory, telling the director that when he paints, his dark thoughts are evicted from his mind and transferred onto canvas.

MY NAME IS ALAN

and I Paint Pictures

Opens today in Manhattan.

Directed by Johnny Boston; director of photography, Jarred Alterman; edited by Todd Drezner; music by Adam Balazs; released by Raw Media Network and Raw Films. At the Two Boots Pioneer Theater, 155 East Third Street, at Avenue A, East Village. Running time: 76 minutes. This film is not rated.

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Johnny Boston’s involving documentary about Alan “Streets,” a paranoid-schizophrenic artist from Britain trying to make it in New York, walks a fine line between easy sentimentality and dry, clinical analysis. But despite the obvious pathos of its subject, the film somehow manages to avoid both pitfalls, thanks mainly to its foregrounding of the artist’s imaginative and vibrant work, which often comes alive through simple animations.

http://nymag.com/listings/movie/my-name-is-alan-and-i-pa/

The documentary My Name is Alan, and I Paint Pictures focuses on Alan Russel-Cowan, a street painter diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, as he works to break his way into the professional art world.

Reception
The film has received sparse and varied reviews. The Village Voice gives a generally negative review[1], while the New York Times a positive one.[2]

References
^ http://www.villagevoice.com/2007-09-11/film/my-name-is-alan-and-i-paint-pictures/ A September 11th 2007 review of the film from The Village Voice
^ http://www.alanstreets.com/images/New_York_Times_Sept_19_07.pdf A September 19th 2007 review of the film from The New York Times

My Name Is Alan and I Paint Pictures

Directed by Johnny Boston
Produced by Colleen Ryan
Written by Johnny Boston
Starring Alan Russell-Cowan
Editing by Todd Drezner
Release date(s) September 19, 2007
Country USA
Language English

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Release Date: 2007
Duration: 76min
Category: Biography, Visual Arts, Illnesses & Disabilities, Psychology, Culture & Society, Graphic & Applied Arts
Cast: Johnny Boston, Alan Russell Cowan

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