"Dear Zachary" now on DVD

Just passing along more good news from my high school friend Kurt, whose "Dear Zachary" documentary is getting more and more positive buzz. Plus there's a blurb below on another, hilarious short he did a few years back called "Validation." Check 'em out!




---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Kurt Kuenne
Date: Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 2:22 AM
Subject: "Dear Zachary" now on DVD
To: Kurt Kuenne


Hi Everyone,

Hope you've been having a wonderful start to 2009. Just wanted to let y'all know that "Dear Zachary" was officially released on DVD today in North America by Oscilloscope Laboratories (and in Canada by Mongrel Media). It can be ordered on the front page of www.dearzachary.com, on amazon.com, amazon.ca, rented on Netflix, Rogers Video Direct (Canada's Netflix), it should be in most Blockbuster Video stores and a host of other venues. Some folks have been writing saying that various websites list it as "temporarily out of stock", which is just because pre-orders in the U.S. were greater than anticipated, but Oscilloscope assures me the orders will be filled in the next few days and will ship by next week, so no worries. Either way, it's out there!

Since you last heard from me, I signed an agreement with an international sales agent who is going to begin making arrangements for distribution in territories the world over, so for those who have been waiting for it overseas, hopefully it won't be too much longer of a wait. Also since you last heard from me, "Dear Zachary" was nominated for Best Documentary by both the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Online Film Critics Society, who also nominated me for Breakthrough Filmmaker of 2008. The International Film Music Critics also nominated my musical score for "Dear Zachary" for Best Documentary Score of 2008. The response to the TV broadcasts on MSNBC in December and January was very strong; MSNBC told me that it beat out their direct competitors (CNN, Fox, etc.) all but one of the 6 times it has aired thus far, and was seen by between 1-2 million people as best we know. I received well over a thousand emails from viewers (and did my best to respond to all of them :). All in all, the film had a very strong year-end reception.

I'm hosting a screening of the film in Ottawa, Ontario on Wednesday, March 11th to which all Canadian Senators and Members of Parliament are invited. I've been looking forward to this event for a long time, and anxious to see what happens.

Thanks again for all the support! For those interested in my other work, my short film "Validation" - which had a tremendously successful run on the film festival circuit over the last couple of years - has, to my great surprise, recently become a popular breakout hit on the internet. It recently shot up over 1,140,000 views and is currently the #8 top rated film of all time on YouTube (and the #1 top rated film of all time in the comedy category). For those who haven't seen it and are interested, it's here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk980jV7Ao

For those of you who live in San Jose, my short film "Slow" will be playing the Cinequest Film Festival this week and next - Thursday, February 26th at 12 noon, and Saturday, March 7th at 11 AM - at the Camera 12 Cinemas at 201 S. Second Street in downtown San Jose. It'll be showing as part of Shorts Program 4, and I'll be at the Saturday, March 7th showing, so please come out if you're in the area; would be great to see you!

All the best and Happy February,

Kurt

www.dearzachary.com