Chano, our director of photography

Director and Cast of Loving Annabelle at Q&A

Back in New York

We are finally catching our breath after a busy trip and an even busier return. We were flung directly back into our not-so-fun workaday lives, but so it must be at this stage in the game.

To summarize our trip to Los Angeles for the premiere of Contemplating Emily at Outfest: if we were virgins going in, we didn’t return as such. The festival and all the various activities surrounding it quickly ushered us into the world of Independent Film with no holds. We met with all sorts of people from within the film industry as well as many, many filmmakers doing their work completely outside of the system.

We gained some wind under our sails as we gear up for the next phase of our quest, and we strongly sensed that there is hope. Some people were determined to let us know that it couldn’t be done, that we didn’t know what we were doing, that we would need big name actresses in all the key roles, that we should misrepresent our project in order to seem more appealing etc…But certainly by far, there were many more people that shared with us their stories of success and their journeys along the way, no matter how bumpy. They liked what we were doing and they believed that we have every reason to sally forth – as do we.

Highlights from the last few days:

We screened again on Sunday July 16 at the Barnsdall Art Park, a Frank Lloyd Wright complex used for many various arts events. This was a smaller screening room holding about 400 people. Over 100 people were turned away at the door, which was unfortunate, but a sign that the film they were coming to see (not us – we screened in front of Loving Annabelle) was a major draw. The projector was not as good as the one at the DGA, but hey, it all went over well and I think people were pleased – they laughed, they cried, they applauded loudly – what more could I want? Well, our DP was there, CC, as were some personal friends - DB from my teaching days at Baruch College and BR and his partner from my graduate school days at UNC-CH.

The awards ceremony was a good old gay event hosted by comedian, Bruce Vilanch. My Oberlin friend, Rex Lee gave an award (Rex is on HBO’s Entourage http://www.hbo.com/entourage/interviews/rex_lee.html ) Loving Annabelle, the feature film we opened for won two awards, one for HBO’s Outstanding Narrative Feature and Diane Gaidry, one of the lead actresses, was recipient of the Outfest award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film. One of the judges for the awards was Mia Riverton who was an actress and producer for Red Doors, the feature film that did so well last year at Outfest and with which we share actress Kathy Shao-Lin Lee.

The awards: http://www.altfg.com/awards/2006/outfest.htm

Grease Lighting!

Our premiere was triumphant! We played to a soldout audience of over 600 people in the glamorous Theatre One of the Directors’ Guild of America on Saturday night. I spoke before, which was a bit nerve wracking, but went over well. Here is what I said:

"Every filmmaker has exactly one opportunity to premiere her first film. I am thrilled to do so this evening with all of you.

I would like to thank Kim Yutani and the members of Outfest for so aptly pairing “Contemplating Emily” with “Loving Annabelle” and not just because of the present participle/name title which puts us in company with “Educating Rita”, “Chasing Amy” and, of course, “Kissing Jessica Stein”, but more importantly because these two films address a similar theme albeit in different light.

“Contemplating Emily” is a poetic treatment of a feature film project. My success at this juncture lies in leaving you, the audience, wanting more, for indeed, it is more that I hope to one day create with this story. Thank you."

She looked gorgeous fully projected and the sound was magnificent. Marilys’ music and film score was a hit. We will have our second screening on Sunday the 16th at noon. That evening will be the awards ceremony and then we will return to New York on Monday the 17th.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at a pool party on Mulholland Drive. The really wonderful thing about Outfest is that the festival is championed by the gay heavy hitters of Hollywood’s film industry. This means that we benefit from private invitations to their lovely homes. This one was spectacular and the experience unlike any I have ever had. The garden was beautiful, the views magnificent and the home very charming. I played in the pool which was complete with a waterfall and we made our rounds and talked with as many people as we could.

This morning Marilys and I attended an HBO sponsored breakfast panel about documentary filmmaking and this afternoon I attended a directors’ lunch sponsored by the DGA. I sat next to Randal Kleiser, who is mostly known for having directed “Grease”. I wish I could say I asked him intelligent questions and got him to impart critical industry wisdom on my behalf, but mostly we talked about the weather and the food. I gabbed much more comfortably with some of the other filmmakers in my league, however, and feel that I am starting to cultivate some camaraderie among them.

Marilys and I will try to get tickets for a dinner and a movie series for this evening. Tomorrow we have a VIP tour at Paramount in the afternoon.

Slowly the buzz is building about who we are and what we are on track to do. That is what I hope to continue to cultivate over the course of this next week.

I wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to all those who have visited the website and made contributions to our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas, over the course of the past few days. Your patronage sincerely helps us at this point in our process.

Neverlost in La La Land

We are here! Thanks to Wendy – the name we gave to our trusted GPS navigator, we have been managing to get around town for the various events without getting lost. Not used to being a VIP, the special treatment has been almost shocking. No waiting in lines, free food, always people there to help, no paying for parking, valet services, complementary tickets – LA’s not such a bad place after all (Or rather, great kudos to the organizers of Outfest for sponsoring such an extraordinary event.)

I actually skipped out on the first VIP event last night because Marilys and I are still jet-legged and were absolutely exhausted. (It was a big see-and-be-seen party for “Project Runway” at Ivar – not exactly my scene anyway.)

Today, however, is our BIG DAY and we wanted to be rested and ready. (Marilys is napping as I write.) "Contemplating Emily" premieres this evening. There will be a pre-party arranged by Power Up, a women in film organization. We chatted it up yesterday with one of the lead actresses from "Loving Annabelle" at a meet-and-greet for the filmmakers. (We saw it already in New York at New Fest.)

To briefly chronicle the events thus far: We flew in on Thursday to Long Beach (Jet Blue) and drove to West Hollywood in our rented Taurus. We are staying at the Ramada Plaza, a very queer looking complex in California pink and green.

Thursday night was the opening Gala at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA. A special award was given to Kenneth Anger for his 60 plus years in queer filmmaking. He was there to accept which was apparently a rare treat. (All communication between the festival coordinators and him had been done via fax and snail mail. No one was certain he would show up.)

A brief on KA – born in 1927, he began making films at the age of 9, as a child he appeared in the 1935 Hollywood production of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" (the one with Mickey Rooney as Puck). Most of his films were experimental and too risqué for US audiences; consequently, many of them were made in France. Among his most notable are "Scorpio Rising" and "Lucifer Rising". He is perhaps best known, however for authoring the landmark "Hollywood Babylon" books, which detailed a seamier side of the Hollywood film industry than most were aware of.

The film of the evening was "Puccini for Beginners" written and directed by Maria Maggenti. We were especially interested in seeing this piece since it has received such high acclaim. Additionally it was produced by Eden Wurmfeld, someone I have been trying to cross paths with for sometime as she was also a producer on "Kissing Jessica Stein". She was at the Oberlin reunion when I was there a few weeks ago, but we didn’t get introduced. She wasn’t at the Gala because she is in production, but hopefully we’ll catch up with one another back in New York. In short, I think she might be interested in our project.

We did meet up with other Oberlin folk, notably the lovely Linda Santiman who is helping with Outfest and has been giving us a good talking up among those she knows. Also a chance encounter with RL on the dance floor made my night. 16 years is just too long to go without seeing one of your favorite gay boy sweethearts who was coming out with you during the troubling early years of the AIDS epidemic.

Two other Obies will be joining in this evening’s events: TR who lives here and is a doc filmmaker and ESC who lived with me in Spanish House. But roots go even deeper as we will also be joined by junior high and high school classmate from Burlington, IA, fellow runner and now quite accomplished athlete, TE.

The good omens of the evening were: one, the mention and quoting of Emily Dickinson at the end of "Puccini for Beginners". And two, the magical incantation of ‘Open Sesame’ by a lady in the hotel elevator. (It worked.) For those of you who don’t know, Open Sesame is the name of the fledgling production company that Sarah E Shively SES and Marilys Ernst ME are creating for the purposes of moving "Contemplating Emily" forward toward feature film production.

Then, good omen number three came from an unlikely place. I received an email yesterday from the MacDowell Colony because they are asking all of their filmmaking fellows to submit material they have done that highlights MacDowell to be part of a centennial celebration of the Colony next year at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Given that the opening and closing of "Contemplating Emily", the short film, was shot at MacDowell, I think they may be interested in including it in their showing. Additionally, I am going to have Marilys help me edit together some of the other material that I shot while there last year. I was working with an old super 8mm camera and have quite a bit of film from which I could create a nice tribute.

The next festival film we saw was "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" at DGA Theatre One. Let me first note that this was the first time we had seen the venue where CE will open tonight. It is a truly lovely and superb space: arched screen with full red stage curtains that glide open at the top of the show, plush seats with plenty of room for legs and people passing by to interior seating and a state of the art sound system. Mom would be proud. No shitty downtown, rat-infested hole-in-the-wall this.

Maxi was a touching a wonderful portrait of an openly gay 12 year old from the slums of Manila who lives with his family of thieves and develops a crush on an upright and uptight new cop in the hood. Directed by Auraeus Solito and written by Michiko Yamamoto, this film had me in tears and aching from the sheer beauty of remarkable cinematography that brought everything of the Philippines (except the smell) to life.

This morning we saw the Boys’ Shorts. They were all very well done. My Spanish exchange brother, HAD will be pleased to know that the Spanish short, "K" screened here and was very well received. Additionally, my brother in Madison, WI, PS will be interested to know that "Straight Boys", shot on the campus of the University of WI, was also screened and was a critical success.

Aside from the exciting events of this evening, we have on the horizon a filmmakers’ pool party tomorrow afternoon, many films to screen, the HBO Breakfast Series (this will be our ‘school’ of the week.), and after speaking with an Executive Director of Feature Production Finance at Paramount Pictures yesterday, Marilys and I have a private invitation for a VIP tour of the studios whenever we’d like this next week. I’m looking forward to it.

I feel pretty! Everybody Sing!

Marilys and I leave in a few days for Outfest.

There has been a lot of work done, and yet a lot remains to be done. In addition to all the preparation that we need to do to present ourselves as producers of this film project, we also have many things to attend to right here in New York. I will be missing the classes I teach and have to prepare lessons for eight other people that will be covering me while away. Marilys has her many clients to juggle in order to create some space for her to leave for ten days.

There has been little time for things like clothes shopping, haircuts etc. But these too are important as we need to look and feel our best. At the moment, we are both a bit scrappy after weeks and weeks with no time off. Trust me, you don’t want to be a guest in our home right now. Who knows when the vacuum cleaner last saw the light of day.

For those of you just tuning in: Contemplating Emily, the short film, is about to make her premiere at the Outfest Film Festival in Los Angeles. In addition to all the festivities of a festival, this one is also a major market for the film industry. In other words, we are going to be shopping our feature film project and hope to begin to dialogue with potentially interested producing parties that are themselves shopping for a film project.

Pulling resources together to enable this trip has been a challenge to date, so if you are in a position to help up off-set some of our expenses, we would be grateful. You can do so as a tax write-off by giving to our fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas and designating it for Contemplating Emily. Here is the link: https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/161

Our expenses between the trip itself and all the marketing preparation are shaping up to be around $4,500. To date, we have about $1,500 covered from donations, but we are still seeking the other $3,000. So, help us along if you can. Thanks, Sarah