Jim Riffel, whose feature film “Black-Eyed Susan” won the Grand Prize at New Jersey’s “Garden State Film Festival,” is making a unique offer to New Jersey native and Hollywood filmmaker Kevin Smith: “If you review my feature film I’ll give you $10,000 to donate to the charity of your choice and I’ll also give you the worldwide rights to the film to sell to any company you want as long as you take the money from that sale and also donate that to the charity of your choice.”
“I think it’s a pretty good deal” said Riffel, “you get $10,000 right off the bat and then, if you sell the film, you’ll be able to get even more cash to a worthwhile charity.” The feature film Riffel is offering to Mr. Smith is a strange and entertaining “midnight movie” type flick called “Night of the Day of the Dawn of the Son of the Bride of the Return of the Revenge of the Terror of the Attack of the Evil, Mutant, Hellbound, Flesh-Eating, Crawling, Alien, Zombified, Subhumanoid, Living Dead – Part 5.” It’s the just finished sequel to the sequel to the sequel to the popular cult film, “Night of the Day of the Dawn…Part 2″ and is a parody of the “golden age” of television. It takes a comedic look at what was considered appropriate and enjoyable TV family fare in the 1950s and 1960s and what’s considered appropriate and enjoyable television today. So why did Riffel choose Kevin Smith for this offer? “This film is a comedy and Kevin Smith’s made some great comedies so I’m hoping it might be a good match.”
And does Mr. Riffel think Kevin Smith will take him up on the offer? “You never know with something like this. I guess it’s a long shot, but it would be great if he seriously considered it. Maybe me being from New Jersey and the film being made in New Jersey help a little bit. And “Black-Eyed Susan,” the feature I made that won the Garden State Film Festival, was a low budget black and white film shot on 16mm, like “Clerks”, so, maybe all these things count. Who knows? I’ve seen him in dozens of interviews and he seems like a really down-to-Earth guy. The offer’s out there and I really hope he does it. We’ll see what happens.”
In addition to “Night Of The Day Of The Dawn…Part 5″ Mr. Riffel is also donating the rights to four other feature films he directed and three non-fiction screenplays he wrote. You can find more info at http://www.NightOfTheDayOfTheDawn.org.