A Single Woman Update

Hello Everyone!

I wanted to give you an update on what's been going on with the film as it has been ages since my last blog entry!  

First of all, I have submitted the film to thirteen film festivals so far:

The Hamptons, Sundance, Toronto, Big Sky Doc Festival, AFI, L.A. Femme Festival, Telluride, Austin, Santa Barbara, Sebastopol Doc Fest, Boulder International, Santa Fe and Fort Lauderdale.

Unfortunately, just two days ago I found out that Toronto has decided not to include us, but we must not let that get us down given that it is, after Sundance, the most competitive film festival to get into in the world.

Besides the festivals, I have been seeking out potential distributors all summer.  We have been doing this in various ways including holding small private screenings at the homes of supporters specifically for sales agents and distribution execs.  

A wonderful person by the name of James Otis came to the original cast and crew screening at Sony and contacted me afterwards.  He had been very moved by the film and Jeannette Rankin's story and was determined to help get the film out into the world.  He offered his beautiful home to show the film in and gave me a great deal of important advice on how to try to position the film to distributors given that he had been in the same position with his documentary about the CIA years ago.  

We have met some great people at these small screenings who have been giving us leads and helping us brainstorm on how to achieve our distribution goals.  Here are a couple of examples:

Karen Hunte, the executive producer on "Wired Science" (the show I hosted for PBS last year) saw ASW at one of the private screenings and really responded to it.  She was kind enough to take it directly to the Senior Director of Programming at PBS  in Arlington, VA.  After many weeks of waiting, Karen let me know that many of the top brass at PBS had watched the film and felt it was an extremely impressive and creative approach to the material and subject.  However, they couldn't see where it would fit with their brand and therefore didn't feel it had a home at PBS.  I must say I was disappointed, as I thought ASW would have been a perfect fit, but I nonetheless was very appreciative of Karen's efforts on our behalf and happy that it was seen by decision makers. 

Another one of the executives present at one of the private screenings, John Hegg, took the film in to his company, Lonely Seal Releasing.  While they specialize in international distribution, and we all agree that securing international distribution will be difficult without first getting a domestic deal, Grant Rayham, a partner in the company met with me and offered to show the film to a colleague  who specializes in selling to the major cable companies.  This person, Seth Kittay at All Channel Films, responded well to the film and is presently submitting it to the domestic cable outlets he thinks are most suitable which include The History Channel, Ovation, Stars Encore and others.  Again, getting responses from these large companies can take excruciatingly long but I'm pleased that ASW is coming to them through a source that they trust and purchase from regularly.  That should help us go to the front of the line, hopefully, and get an answer one way or another in a reasonable amount of time.

As well as these private screenings, I also traveled to New York City for the HBO Latino International Film Festival where a short film I directed in Spain called "Ese Beso" was in competition.  While in New York I was able to also talk about ASW to the various media outlets that interviewed me for the festival including an appearance on the top rated morning show in the Tri-State area which airs on Univision (in Spanish).  At one of the panels at HBO I connected with a CBS executive and told him about ASW, gave him a package and am presently following up with him.  He was in charge of bringing the film "Swing Vote," that Kevin Costner produced, to the Eye Network and was very politically oriented.

While in New York I also had dinner with an old college friend who may (fingers and toes crossed) be able to connect me with the new (and sole) executive at OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, which is set to launch in 2009.  That would really be wonderful!

Also while in New York, I was able to give Grit TV, the show hosted by Laura Flanders, some clips of the show that they have agreed to air in conjunction with a "hook," meaning some newsworthy item about the film like a screening or release date or some such.  Sven and his wonderful editor Eric Murphy also worked very hard on cutting together a new, and longer, trailer of the film which is almost finished.  Once complete, I think this will be a very helpful piece to post on this site as well as send to media outlets to try to secure press. 

I am still working on securing a firm date with Dennis Kucinich's office for the Washington DC screening of the film.  Unfortunately all the dates in September were taken and we are now trying for various dates in October.  Cate Veith in Dennis' Congressional office is a huge supporter of the film and has been working very hard with me on trying to get this done; there is a great deal of paperwork and bureaucracy involved with booking a screening room and one has to have the patience of a... well, more patience than I have, let's put it that way.  One of the issues is that at this point it is not clear if Congress will actually be in session in October or not...! Although they are on summer break now, and do not return to DC until after the first week in September, they may go back out in October!!  If this is the case, we may still go ahead with the screening in October because top legislative aides (who are more likely to be our audience in any case) will still be there and may actually have more room in their schedules to attend a screening.  

Until this past Friday I had been working feverishly on securing a three minute slot at the Democratic National Convention for a clip of our film - Patricia Foulkrod put me in touch with Victoria Hopper and Jaime McGurk who have organized a series of screenings during the DNC including Mary Lambert's "14 Women" (about the female Senators).  Originally I had hoped to screen the entire film but there was no slot left open and then they agreed to show a three minute clip if Dennis Kucinich would introduce it and speak.  I have been trying to make that work but unfortunately I couldn't arrange it with Dennis' office and the organizers were not willing to show it without his introduction...  That was a bit of a bummer as well but, hey, no one said getting the movie out there was going to be easy!

Viviane Dzyak Hahn, PhD., is our new Outreach Coordinator.  She is located in Northern California and a close friend of my sister, Nina's (who is a world renowned educator; see:  www.ninazaragoza.com ).   Viviane has agreed to take on the very important job of reaching out to the universities, museums and other educational outlets to set up a tour of the film this fall.  She has been working tirelessly writing, calling and emailing and is finally (now that summer is over and people are getting back to their offices) getting initial positive responses from those potentially interested in hosting the film.  If you have any strong leads to universities or museums, please let me know so I can pass these along to Viviane.

Frank Dorrel and I are planning a fundraiser screening of ASW at a movie theater in Culver City in the immediate future.  This will be a great opportunity to invite all those folk who were not at the cast and crew screening and who have expressed an interest in seeing the film.  I will let everyone know the details as soon as we nail them down.

In the meantime, thank you for your continued support and good wishes.  I look forward, as always, to hearing from you.

With much love,

Kamala