Justin Rice, Brooklyn superstar

Whitney at Pop Candy has an interview with Justin Rice of the band Bishop Allen and star of Andrew Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation. He talks about his sudden, brief period of overexposure in relation to that film:

Well, we shot Mutual Appreciation almost three years ago...And then, honestly, I kind of forgot about it. I think the thing that surprised me most was when it came out. One day, sort of out of the blue, Mutual Appreciation was getting a theatrical release in New York, and on a Friday, all of a sudden, it was like total media saturation in the city. They put up posters of me all over my neighborhood. And for that day and the next day, I felt a little bit shell-shocked. My face was everywhere.

Embarrassing personal anecdote: I saw Mutual Appreciation for the first time at SXSW in 2005, and proceded to gush about it at every opportunity on Cinematical. That spring, I was living in a basement apartment in Williamsburg with a shaky internet connection, and I would often go to a coffeeshop called Fix to work. Justin Rice used to go in there to get coffee at least once a week, but every time I saw him, I was too starstruck to go talk to him -- even though it was my job to talk to indie film stars. I think I was also worried that I'd introduce myself, he'd recognize me as "that girl who writes about Mutual on the internet like twice a week," and have me arrested for stalking him. Which I wasn't. Really.

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Andrew Bujalski joins Bruce Weber, Pipilotti Rist at Cinemart

Variety has a bit on this year's Cinemart lineup at Rotterdam. Bujalski will be there, competing for co-production assistance with Bruce Weber's "Robert Mitchum tribute, Nice Girls Don't Stay for Breakfast, a work-in-progress that has already been shot," and Swiss video artist Pipilotti Rist feature debut, Pepperminta. Sounds it'll be a great place to be; fortunately or unfortunately, I'll be in Park City for most of it.

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