A Single Woman the Movie

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

Yesterday Luisa Roque, Frank Dorrel and I got back from Minneapolis where we attended the National Conference for Media Reform.  It was an absolutely mind-blowing experience - I don't think I have ever been more galvanized by a group of people than those participating in this conference.  I felt like I was part of something so large and unstoppable... I won't get too deep into it but I entreat each and everyone reading this to check out freepress.net and watch some of the amazing speeches by progressive leaders such as Amy Goodman, Bill Moyers, Naomi Klein, Arianna Huffington, Van Jones (!) and on and on...  And I highly recommend planning to attend the conference next year - it truly is the heart and soul of the new and powerful progressive movement. People from all areas, geographic and ideological, coming together to protect the interests of the citizens of the United States against the erosion of our rights under a government whose allegiance lies primarily with big business.

While Frank manned a booth in the large Exhibit Hall (with Mansoor and Jeannie from Global Voices for Justice), Luisa and I attended panels and spoke to everyone we could about the film.  It was extremely gratifying because literally everyone we met was supportive of the idea of a film about Jeannette Rankin and genuinely interested in it.  We passed out over a thousand postcards and handed out many many business cards, picking up quite a few as well.

The first night of the conference we saw Phil Donahue's powerful film "Body of War." This film is a must-see.  The movie has a very strong message but isn't didactic and the protagonist is extremely charismatic and funny.  After the screening Phil told the audience how difficult it is for him to get distribution for it (!) - all the majors have turned him down, saying that they just don't see the financial upside, that it won't sell enough tickets.  He did get a PBS deal - it will air the evening of Veteran's Day, and some of the small independent theaters in the major cities are showing it, but it really is outlandish that he can't land a good theatrical deal - I mean he's Phil Donahue for heavens sake!  

There is something very wrong with the system of media distribution in this country if "Body of War" finds itself in this situation.  I believe that there is the need for this type of film to be available to the public and, whether or not it will rake in multiple millions on its first weekend should not be relevant.  Media is entirely too important to be run as a simple bottom line business.  I had this argument many years ago with Richard Gladstein at the Sundance Producers Lab when he was working for Miramax.We had both just been at Cannes and I questioned why they had not picked up an amazing and important film I knew they saw and passed on.  Their argument was that no one would go see a movie with subtitles, despite the content (times have changed a bit since then because of some foreign language blockbusters like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Life is Beautiful") and this dismissal of what was truly important about the film, and about the artform in general, made me livid.  I told Gladstein that it was Miramax's duty as a purveyor of art to distribute such films and the rest of the room jumped all over me with the "It's show business" argument, which I just see as a cop out.  

And I still feel the same way:  I highly doubt that distributing films that benefit the public good will adversely affect the bottom line of the major media corporations in any significant way.  In fact, they should see it as good PR, if that is the only way they can wrap their policies around doing something not just for the cash. But let's just go ahead and call a spade a spade here:  the premise that the corporations' only raison d'etre is the perpetual increase of quarterly profits is flawed and ultimately destructive, not only to the public, but to the corporation itself.  It is a short sighted, philosophically corrupt "law" upon which to base our economic structure - and, as we are all witnessing, it is taking this country down the drain and everyone else with it.

The bottom line is that we need to exert pressure on our government representatives to rewrite the Telecom Act, to insure that further media consolidation does not occur and that the public interests are served by providing space for diverse voices and content that are, at present, utterly (and legally) squeezed out.  They are trying to do the same thing with the internet as well, which would put an end to the free exchange of information that has so invigorated us and re-created a sense of community in the last decade.  

Over the course of the three-day trip I was able to speak with Mr. Donahue, as well as Laura Flanders, Arianna Huffington and Amy Goodman's staff about "A Single Woman," and they were all very receptive and interested.  

I will be following up with all the wonderful contacts made in the next few days by email or phone and I hope to get interviews, leads and support from many of those I met.

The next order of business, as we wait to hear from film festivals and distributors that Jon Fitzgerald is approaching on our behalf, is to organize a fundraiser screening for Cindy Sheehan who is running for Congress in San Francisco as well as a screening in Washington DC that Dennis Kucinich has offered to set up for us for members of Congress.

Saturday May 31st was the Cast and Crew Screening and the first time the finished film was seen by an audience.  Thanks to the graciousness and generosity of my old and very dear friend, Jimmy Honore, we screened the film in the beautiful William Holden Theater on Stage 5 of the Sony Studios Lot.  Both the sound system there and the screen are amazing.  We were able to screen the D5 Master, which was full resolution HD and quite beautiful. 

It had been extremely stressful leading up to the screening as we encountered various technical snafus with the render and creation of the D5 - first of all, Justin's machine went on the blink and he had to rush the film to an outside post house to record the film to a master tape.  Then the outside house misunderstood when we needed it by (which was Friday morning so we could run a print check at Sony during the Friday lunch break - The Holden, the Novak and the Cary Grant are in constant use at Sony as they are dubbing stages and they are mixing the new Will Ferrell film, "Step Brothers" in the Holden at the moment) and our print was not ready in time to check it Friday... 

So we were actually not able to check the print until half an hour before the screening - that was horrifying.  Justin had given me a back-up DVD in case the worst case scenario occurred... but I told him I would rather slowly slice my head off with a butter knife in front of the audience for ninety minutes than screen a DVD (very dramatic of me and probably not very appealing to our particular audience).

As we ran the print test Saturday evening I noticed that the sound synch was off and I started freaking out.  Peter Carlsted was there too and he agreed that the synch was soft.  Luckily, the staff at Sony, starting from Mike Rizzuto (Director of Post Production), to Mike McClarin (Tech Director for Projection) to the 2 projectionists, Nate Oishi and Greg Giacona and Mark Onks, who was in charge of running all the dubbing stages on Saturday were not only top notch in terms of their training and ability, but extremely sympathetic and helpful to me.  They easily made the adjustment to the sound, by delaying it about two and a half frames, and it fell into synch.  The incredible thing is that the D5 was not out of synch, but the room was so big that by the time you heard it, it was!  Apparently these things always need to be adjusted based on the space in which they are being projected.

Once the print had been adjusted both for sound and color, we were ready to let in the audience; and what an audience it was!  Many of our wonderful cast came including Jeanmarie Simpson, Elizabeth Pena, Judd Nelson, Karen Black, Rich Flisher, Mary Kay Riley, Kate Connor and Andy Hirsch, Traber Burns, Cassidy Lehrman, Joel Marshall, Jeff Simpson, and Terri Simmons. 

And at about 7.05... in came Joni Mitchell with her dear friends Shell Burton, Chris, and Valentino -- that was absolutely thrilling.  Joni had never seen the film or heard how we had used her music throughout it.  Danette Christine, our Music Supervisor, had been hoping against hope that Joni would be there to see the film and there she was!  The screening was ready to start!

I spoke a few words before starting the film, thanking the crew and cast for their invaluable support and passion for the project.  It meant so much to me to be finally standing up there with a film that I was proud of and having all the people there who had believed in it and in me, that I just sort of lost it.  Hopefully most of what I was saying was intelligible.

Earlier in the day I had received a letter from Dennis Kucinich, an idol and role model of mine, the Congressman from Ohio whose efforts on behalf of peace stand head and shoulders above anyone else in our present government.   I was so touched by his letter; I read it before the screening.  Here it is:

"Dear Kamala, 

Congratulations on the screening of A Single Woman.  We can't wait to see it.  Your work will make it possible for the singularly important life of Jeannette Rankin to receive much deserved attention.   Her life becomes more relevant for this nation and the world as we continue to proceed along a path of war.  Perhaps your film will point the way to a different path, the road less traveled, the path of A Single Woman.  All of our love is with you as your work begins to emerge.  We look forward to introducing it to Washington, DC so that our nation's Capitol can rediscover the deeper meaning of Jeannette Rankin's life, and, in doing so, it may discover the possibility of peace.  

Sincerely, Dennis Kucinich"

This really made me cry.  Anyway, I made my way back to my seat and my mom leaned over and said, "What a crybaby!"  (Note that she was crying when she said this!) My husband grabbed my hand and the movie started.  Through the whole film the audience was very quiet and I was shaking like a leaf.  I though I was going into hypothermia.  It was much much scarier to watch a film that you've directed with an audience than watching one that you've acted in - at least for me it was.

After the film, people were very effusive.  Many stayed for hours afterwards talking. Our close friend Alex Webber (who had also catered the film shoot) catered the reception and the food was fantastic.   Joni Mitchell really enjoyed the film and even suggested other songs of hers that could be used, should we ever open up the sound again - that was the greatest compliment ever and something to keep in mind when a distributor steps in.

I would like to share with you some of the highlights of what people said about the film.  Elizabeth Pena's daughter, the beautiful eleven year old Fiona, kept telling her mom throughout the movie, "That lady is right!" referring to Jeannette Rankin.  After the screening I spoke with her and she thought that the film would be very good for middle schools and high school kids to see.  My dear friend Lily Moussa's daughter Rebecca, who is fifteen, also really loved the movie.  

Here is what Lily said to me later by email: 

"I was going to bring a date with me to the screening and decided on Rebecca instead. I was so grateful to have had Becky there because it's a movie every young female should see." 

That to me is SO important and such a coup.  If I can speak to these young women, I have accomplished one of my main goals with "A Single Woman."  Now it's a matter of getting it in front of them. 

Other wonderful comments included, from Police Officer Guillermo Campos, the Law Instructor (specializing in teaching ethics) to the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department):

"Hello Kamala!

I was truly blown away by the story and the film.  Best wishes to you in a broad exposure for the film.   It was truly enlightening and it makes one truly ask again, have I settled for the situation?  Am I doing enough to make a difference in the world or settling for the status quo?  Her life is an inspiration.  If only all of us had the courage to live our convictions and beliefs about what is right and wrong.  It is truly dangerous, but the rewards are everlasting. 

Thank you for living your life that way.  It will help change the world." 

And from Thomas Carter, Chandra Wilson's manager and owner of management and production company, Station 3:  

"You obviously put a lot of work and research into this project. Rankin was a major influence on many issues that I wasn't even aware of and I am compelled to thank you for being a conscious 

filmmaker and perpetuating the spirit of this important woman.  I can imagine that because of your efforts many will be inspired to do the same or maybe take up the same fight as Rankin. Congratulations on your achievement!"

From filmmaker and friend George Hickenlooper ("Factory Girl," "Hearts of Darkness"): 

"Suzanne and I really enjoyed ourselves. You film really moved us. Congratulations on an impressive effort." 

From Patty and John Sharaf, activists and filmmakers who made "Citizen Stan" about Stanley Sheinbaum and are working to finish a film about the flawed Diebold voting machines: 

"What an inspiring movie!  Thanks for the terrific evening and congratulations on all your hard work.  You have accomplished a creative feat that Joni Mitchell can be proud of too. Bravo."

From Sally Marr and Peter Dudar, the fearless and dedicated filmmakers of "Arlington West," who spend their lives going to schools and presenting an opposing view to the military recruiters that are on the public school campuses by showing their film and holding discussions with the students:

"Kamala,   

Thank you for a wonderful evening and for sharing your beautiful film.  It will inspire so many women, girls to stand up and be heard!  We loved being there!!!!"

From our marvelous cast member Traber Burns, who flawlessly portrays Truman and Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn in the film: 

"Kamala, that was a profound experience to finally see the film Saturday night - the love and passion you've poured into it was a perfect union with the love and passion Jeannette Rankin brought to her life and work.  You should be very proud and hopeful."  

From Jeanmarie's brother, Danny, who has dedicated his life to helping others all over the world in the Peace Corps and working for Habitat for Humanity, most recently in Madagascar: 

"Just a quick note to thank you and congratulate you, again and again, for the terrific work you did on your film.  My experience in the screening was remarkably similar to my experience reading an early draft of the play.  I had expectations, of course, that I would enjoy it, based on numerous conversations with Jeannie, simpatico politics, your involvement, etc.  But in fact the experience far exceeded my expectations, caught me by surprise in many ways and made a fresh impact.  In translating the play to film, you've added tremendously to how the values of the material take shape in my mind.  Two obvious examples are the seminal story of the young mother with her baby and the Indians, and the young woman's recounting of an atrocity in Nanking.  You really embraced the moral challenge and difficulty of Rankin's philosophy and so did an excellent job of creating a context for her politics."

And from our dedicated and ever supportive co-producer (and co-star) Rich Flisher and his beautiful wife, Leigh, who have stood by the project with their support and resources when times were very tough: 

"Congratulations. Your movie made us so happy, inspired and proud. It has such a strong, relevant, timely message, a message so poignantly and visually pleasing. It's uniquely informative and beautiful. Passionate. I've never seen anyone make so much, so well, so powerfully, with so little money, time and support. Your tenacity and commitment are impressive. You have worked so hard, in such an honest manner, that I can't wait to see you receive some payback. And you will. We want to be on your team." 

I want to thank everyone who came to the screening for making it a profoundly rewarding experience for me. My deepest gratitude to all of you who have been and continue to be of great support to the project and to me personally.  And most of all, I want to thank Jeanmarie Simpson for writing this play and bringing the life of Jeannette Rankin to my attention.

Hopefully this is film is the beginning of a movement to bring her legacy into the mainstream consciousness, where her message and her life can live on and show us another path - a path towards peace and non-violence.  

With love,

Kamala 

Jeannette Goes to Cannes!  

I just took these 10 babies over to J. Fitz's office. 

He's going to Cannes tomorrow and taking them with him to give to select distributors. Vive la France!

The past week has been pretty intense as we move truly past the post production period and firmly into the post post period, also known as the "holy f**@ what the bleep do I do now period?!"  I got the 22 page Marketing and Distribution Blueprint from Jon Fitzgerald and what is exceeding clear, in answer to the question is:  a lot and in all directions.

Film Festival Submissions:

This is critical and has to be ongoing but the lag time between submitting and being notified is so excruciatingly long that it cannot be the only plan in motion to get the film out - at least in our case where timing is of the essence.  

This week I submitted the film to The Hamptons International Film Festival, which has a perfect category for us called "Films of Conflict and Resolution - films that utilize the power of cinema to increase awareness and understanding of the human realities of war and conflict."   How can we not be picked for that?!!

I also submitted the film to the Telluride Film Festival, which, by all accounts is the most enjoyable, although non-competitive film festival around.  Apparently the Telluride Festival is really interested in cinema itself, as an art form and as a tool to be used consciously within society.  Some fantastic filmmakers have had their first films shown there - I really hope we get selected to that one. 

Here's a quote about it from their website: 

“The most exclusive film festival of all is Telluride. Why? Because it is the most difficult to get to, it doesn’t announce its program in advance, it charges the press for a pass and it has as its guests some of the best filmmakers in the world. It’s one of the friendliest and most democratic, as if the least important attendees were just as consequential as the most distinguished.”
– Derek Malcolm, The Guardian (London)

Next Step:  Producer's Reps

The next person that I need to find to join our team is a Sales Agent, otherwise known as a Producer's Rep.  What this person does is contact distributors on our behalf and sell the film for us.  They look at the contracts, have the contacts, and they work on a  commission basis so they have incentive to make the best deals possible.  I'm not sure how much they take but from what I understand it ranges from 5 to 15% of all sales.  These people are not to be confused with Foreign Sales Agents - these reps specialize the Domestic and North American markets.

Last fall I did the Film Independent Distribution Summit, in anticipation of this post post period eventually arriving and I met a few of these mythical creatures - Producer's Reps.  My immediate impression was that they were pursued like the prettiest girls at the Hollywood Dance, which makes me not want to pursue them at all (I have a bit of a contrarian nature, unfortunately).  In my brief conversations with them, or watching them speak on panels, they seemed very nice, bright and true film lovers. Some were also attorneys (which is great when there are contracts to be read through) and those had that certain gleam in their eye... you know, a little less "lover of film" and a little more "lover of green."  But all of them looked a bit harried and overwhelmed - at that point they were all heading to Sundance and somewhat crazed.  Now, of course, they're all heading to Cannes and completely nuts.  And then it will be Toronto or whatever.  Regardless of timing, I have to find a way to get to them and distinguish myself from the crowd.  I have some of their phone numbers (from a list from Jon Fitz) and I suppose I'll have to start getting on the phone and cold calling them.  But that never really seems like a great plan - I need personal connections to these people.  Anyone?  

I've left several messages for Jeff Dowd (the producer's rep who was the inspiration for The Big Lebowski character) because when I met him at the DGA, he actually KNEW who Jeannette Rankin was, which was a first, and he seemed really interested.  He has not, however, returned my calls so far...  What up with that?

In the meantime, my neighbor's son, Joel Heller, who is a documentary editor, referred me to a friend of his, Sarah Jo Marks, who reps very select documentaries that she really loves.  Her company is called At Risk Films and one of the films she repped was "Can Mr. Smith Get To Washington Anymore?" which won the Audience Award at Silverdocs (the premiere doc festival in the US).  Sarah only reps docs and we aren't really a doc, but I'm hoping that she will fall in love with our film and what it stands for and want to take it on.  Otherwise, maybe she'll give me a lead to another rep more suited to "A Single Woman."  

Political Fundraiser Screenings:

While we wait to get into one of the big festivals, we are planning to have a Fundraiser Screening of "A Single Woman" for Cindy Sheehan, who is running for Congress in San Francisco (aiming for mid June) and also for Dennis Kucinich, who is an incumbent Congressman in Ohio and one of my idols.  I am very excited about this plan as it serves so many excellent purposes:  it helps candidates that promote peace and who are essentially continuing to forge forward with the policies and positions held by Jeannette Rankin; it brings the film to the attention of progressive and politically minded people, who are our audience base; and it gives us a tangible event that Luisa can publicize.  It is very difficult to get press attention without anything to attach it to, such as a release date or an event screening.  These screening will be newsworthy!

Other Screenings:

There are two other screenings that we are planning to do in the near future.

First and foremost, the Cast and Crew Screening, which hopefully will be at the end of the month at Sony.  I still don't have a firm date... but I'm working on it.

Also the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (of which Jeannette Rankin was a founding member) is having their triennial congress in Des Moines, Iowa from June 25-29th and Jeanmarie Simpson (who stars in and wrote the film) is also a very active participant in WILPF.  We are hoping to do a screening there as well, which will help continue to create interest and buzz for the film while being true to Jeannette and her message.

Foreign Sales Agents...  I'll leave this topic for another day, I've got a lot of studying to do on that score before I have anything of substance to say about it.

Thanks for checking in - please comment here and tell me if you have any leads for my on reps or just want to weigh in on anything!

Sent the DVD and press kit by FedEx to the Toronto International Film Festival today!

Tomorrow they will announce the line up for the Los Angeles International Festival...

Also received the Marketing and Distribution Blueprint from Jon Fitzgerald today - it's twenty two pages long and filled with specific media outlets and strategy that I need to really analyze.  Jon is going to Cannes soon and we need to decide whether he should approach some distributors there on our behalf.  

Over the weekend we had two exciting things happen:   KPFK Radio (Pacifica Radio 90.7 fm here in L.A.) phoned and are very interested in promoting the film (thanks to Frank's glowing review!) and Kenneth Turan (prominent film critic from the Los Angeles Times) responded to Luisa Roque's query letter and expressed an interest in seeing the movie.  He said he knew who Jeannette Rankin was and thought it was a fascinating subject for a film.  

Things are starting to happen!  

Last night I had a private screening of the film for the producers and department heads that were available.  We were extremely fortunate to have the use of Sony's Backstage Theater, courtesy of my dear and long time angel, Jimmy Honore.  The theater seats a little over a hundred and boasts an awesome Dolby sound system.  We were only nine in that big theater:  myself and Joel Marshall (associate producer), Sven Shelgren (Exec. Prod.), Jeanmarie Simpson (Exec. Prod. and Star), Justin Shumaker (Post Production Supervisor), Frank Dorrel (co-producer), Johnny Wilson (composer), Gabriel Diniz (Cinematographer) and Jefferey Macintyre (production designer).  I was very pleased with how the team responded; I think the story is much clearer now and moves along at a good clip. The cuts and additions I made since the Montana screening seem to have really improved the overall effect of the film.  Of course I heard and saw a couple of things that put my teeth on edge but these will be straightened out in time for our Cast and Crew screening, which I am hoping to arrange for the last weekend in May.

Yesterday I also filled out the on-line submission form for the Toronto International Film Festival, which Chris Gore in his book ("the Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide") labels the second most important film festival on the planet (second only to Sundance, whose deadline we unfortunately missed this year).  On Monday I will send off the first complete package with our beautiful press kit (courtesy of the amazing and patient Jennifer Hoffman at FedExKinkos/Miracle Mile) and one of our brand new screeners (care of Video Lady and Shirley Harlan who said of the film:  "I watched A Single Woman. Your film is very inspiring. I liked the innovative ways you developed the story, so many levels. Good job. I am very proud to be in the credits.").  I am also going to rewrite the cover letter we wrote for the LA Film Festival and include that as well...  I must find a way to impress on these festivals that this film, as Danette Christine so eloquently put it, is critical to the democratic process in the sense that it helps start a dialogue which is so desperately needed in this era of unilateral "decider-ism."  And that this dialogue should occur before the November elections.  I realize that most filmmakers feel that their picture is time-sensitive and must get out there "now!", but I honestly feel that in the case of "A Single Woman" it is indisputably so. Let's hope that the screening committees at these festivals agree...

One thing that is a bit confusing to me about the Toronto application is that they state that they must be the North American Premiere of a film (they prefer to be the world premiere) but then they ask what other film festivals you have applied to... I wrote that we had applied to LAFF, but as we don't know the outcome of that submission, how would I know whether or not we would be a North American premiere, should we be accepted by Toronto?   Also, the paperwork was quite formidable and the shipping instructions were labyrinthian and redundant - 3 copies of the carrier bills in the application envelope, etc etc...  It also perturbed me that the film goes off into the ethos without being addressed to an actual human being... just to the Toronto Film Festival...  I suppose one must just let go of these things but I really am hoping that Jon Fitzgerald will make some phone calls on our behalf and put a human face on our submission, as previously discussed.  He is presently out of town but returns before leaving for Cannes on May 14th.  He is also going to present us with our Marketing and Distribution Blueprint which I am very anxious to see...

Yesterday was a day of final tweaks on the film.  I started with Peter Carlstedt at 10am, back at KRA Creative to adjust the mix slightly.  I noticed that when I watched the film at home on a TV set with crappy little speakers, certain things became inaudible.  Peter told me that most films will do two mixes; one for theaters and one for TV, as the sound quality is so different.  The other thing we discussed was Foley (which is recreating sounds that occurred on set but that are either not recorded properly because the boom operator is correctly concentrating on the dialogue, or the sounds are married to dialogue and cannot be separated and edited in).  At present, we don't have a Foley track and when we shot the film, in many of the scenes of Jeannette either writing a letter or hearing a voiceover you can hear off camera dialogue which ruins the sounds of what she is actually doing in the scene.  As an example, when Jeannette is cutting lemons and squeezing them during a scene, she is also hearing a reporter (who is seen in the window behind her) talking about Miss Rankin's demeanor in Congress.  In order for Jeanmarie to react properly to what was ultimately going to be heard by the audience coming from the window we had Cameron read his lines off stage.  And while this gave me the performance I needed in  order to cut Cameron in later, it ruined any hopes of using the sound of her cutting and squeezing the lemons... What to do?  Well, in the big budget world, we would create a "Foley track" where foley artists would recreate all the sounds that are being "seen" in the film:  footsteps, clothing rustle, body movement, lemon squeezing, etc etc.  This would be put on a completely separate track and mixed into the film.  The additional advantage of having this track is that later, when the film is being dubbed in a foreign language, there is still ambient sounds to fill out the experience.  Otherwise there will be music and sound f/x tracks but no other sound but the dubbed dialogue.  To make a long story longer-- that is what Peter had to contend with and he did a brilliant job salvaging little bits of lemon squeeze noises and sewing them together and editing them to the picture, matching her movements with the sounds and now, it sounds really good.  He did the same with the letter writing scene where it is obvious that we would be hearing pen scratches but we didn't have any.

After the adjustment to the mix, I went to Justin Shumaker's place to see the final notes of picture changes that he had executed and it really looked great!  We made a final last minute decision to replace a portion of a background shot with another one - kind of funny... Originally I had thought that we would use still images behind Jeannette during her speeches (to replace the greenscreen) but when we did that, it bothered me that nothing moved.  So a few months ago I went out and ran around with my camera shooting backgrounds.  I was looking for something pretty for the background of the Butte Country Club and, as it was winter, everything was kind of drab looking and dry except... the cemetary!  So I got a cool background of a grassy area with a lake and ducks and swans and blood red roses.  We put it in and then I realized that the "gazebo" in the background of the shot (which was actually a sepulcher) there was yellow police caution tape all around it  and a ladder- apparently there had been a homicide or something horrific had transpired there the night before.  Well that was hardly the scene for a Ladies Lunch!  So I had Christel Thompson, one of the compositors/artists paint the caution tape and ladder out of the frame!  Well, as you can imagine, this was a pain in the a**.  So a couple of nights ago, when I'm watching the final picture, I ask my husband, Joel, to be a second set of eyes and make sure I'm not missing anything (he hadn't seen the new version so he was fresh meat).  We get the the Butte Country Club scene and it starts on a static shot before moving onto Jeannette and Joel suddenly shouts "Hey!  that's a graveyard!".  Needless to say, I was disturbed.  I realized that all the nice grey stone bumps and crosses were not really blending into the foliage like I was convincing myself they were and it looked like Jeannette had decided to give a speech a the Dead Ladies Club.  So last night, despite all the the time and work that went into cleaning up that shot, I replaced the offending shot with ducks swimming around in the lake and then cut straight to Jeannette filling the frame!

Last night was another long one - got to bed at 4 after checking through the whole final version of the movie, sound and picture.   It was so good!  I really felt proud of how far along it has come and I love it.  Jeanmarie is luminous in the role - I am so happy (and have absolutely no doubt) that she will finally get the recognition she deserves as a top tier acting talent.

There were, of course, a bunch of little things that have to be fixed but it is ready for Justin to burn a DVD to take over to Rachel Rosen, programming director of the Los Angeles Film Festival........!

We are going to delay taking the film to Shirley Harlen to make the 100 copies until Wednesday, when we have hopefully made the tweaks we want to and the film is finalized.

I noticed a couple of things in the sound, too, that bothered me today - I think Peter and I were so exhausted at the end there that we didn't know which end was up!  There aren't many but one is right at the beginning (a level change that I think is extreme) so I want to take care of it... We'll see if Peter has the time.

One of the things that has been both so difficult and so wonderful about making this film is that, having little or no financial resources, everyone has been dedicating their talent and time for next to nothing if not completely gratis.  This really moves me and I am so deeply grateful to everyone; but by the same token, people have to make a living and so when a paying job comes along, the film has to take a backseat until the person can re-dedicate their time to it.  Hence the protracted and convoluted Post Production period...

Alright then - just got a few hours of sleep and I'm off to Justin's to pick up the first DVD submission - a historic moment in "A Single Woman"s path to greatness!

So yesterday, at 7am, I got up to start my third day of the ASW mix with Peter.  It's now 9.40 on Sunday morning and I am just getting home, almost 27 hours later.

But the good news - no the GREAT news - is that the mix is done and it is awesome.  Peter is really excellent - never lets something go because he's tired or lazy or we've been there for AN ENTIRE DAY AND NIGHT.

I am a bit delirious.  And strangely nauseous.

After I wake up, I will go over to Justin's to check the final picture. Then sound and picture get married and live happily ever after. 

Monday morning we submit to the LA Film Festival....

We also take the DVD to Shirley Harlen, the kind woman from Video Lady who is donating 100 burned DVD screeners to the cause.

Buenas noches.