A Tattoo on My Brain goes to Times Square

As I mentioned last month on this site, Lois and I learned that the documentary film, A Tattoo on my Brain, was accepted at DOC NYC, a large New York film festival devoted to documentary long and short films.  A total of 129 short films were accepted from over a thousand that were submitted, and Tattoo joined 15 of these films on the shortlist for screening at the festival. 

Last Thursday, Paramount/MTV flew Lois and me to New York and put us up in the Hard Rock Hotel, a short three block walk from the Paramount building on Times Square. We had some time Friday morning to take in a new Picasso exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art and walk around the neighborhoods nearby. 

Friday evening, we  walked over to the Paramount building, passed through security, and took an elevator to the third floor.  Along the corridor leading from the elevator to the screening room was a graphic display of multiple glowing images of the poster for the film arranged in a frame to look like old-fashioned projector film with sprocket holes. (See photo above.) Very cool! The private screening was attended primarily by friends and families of those who had worked on the film. There were about 50 people there.  My publisher donated copies of the book version of Tattoo that I signed for the guests. After the screening, Q&A and reception, the husband-and-wife film directors, David Heilbroner and Kate Davis, took Lois and me to dinner at Sardi’s, a famous NY eatery decorated by caricatures of Broadway stars and musicians going back for many decades. 

The next morning, our final event was the public screening of Tattoo for the DOC NYC film festival.  In our session, there were four films, including Tattoo, screened and followed by a group Q&A discussion. The other three films in our session were all really good, so I have no expectation that we will go farther, like being nominated for best short documented film at the Oscars. But one can still dream!

By the way, I understand that streaming of Tattoo will start on November 21 on Paramount+.