Kickstarter (and we’re off….)

And, in a tight race, the above poster wins for our Kickstarter page!!! Yes, that’s right, visit  our Kickstarter page and yes you can be a backer to this lovely film project.

Posters!

So I made this poster as a first step for our kickstarter campaign that was approved last week and should be up and running in a few days.  For those of you who haven’t yet discovered the joys of kickstarter, here is just one of the many interesting projects up right now (click here) .

Church!

Catia everyone. Everyone Catia.

For past few weeks I’ve been blogging about our adventures in putting this film together and organizing our trip to Haiti.

Our biggest adventure yet was last Sunday when Marianne and I attended morning church services at the First Haitian Church of Prophecy in Northern Philadelphia. That’s where we met Catia, our trusty translator and guide to all things Haitian. 

 

 

 

Film Screening

Brief aside from the Earthquake for a moment. My good friend Ofer Morag has been working for two years on a project to make it easier for filmmakers to find crew and vice versa in San Francisco. This weekend his project, Fast Frwrd has its big debut and he’s invited The Fish (first film, 2008) to be the closer for the event. For anyone interested in his work, or interested in attending the festival, here is the link http://fastfrwrd.com/

Trip to haiti

It is officially unofficial. We are going to Haiti. 

Last week Marianne and I met with Bob Busser, a Philadelphia architect who had just returned from a 10 week trip to Cabaret and Leogan, Haiti with Habitat for Humanity. He was generous enough to take us through a slide shows of his work and travels, from the mountains of rubble on hillsides to the new designs he and fellow volunteers conceived for both permanent and transitional houses around the country.  I was really surprised to see how some structures, including traditional houses made of sticks and mud survived the earthquake while others, build with shoddy steel frames and poor quality cement, just crumbled. 

Bob also gave us a lot of helpful information for how to arrive to and move about the country. Not as easy as we thought! Evidently the hotels remaining in Port-au-Prince are expensive and mostly booked. To get around the country safely one needs to hire a car with a driver, which is also not particularly affordable. Fortunately we have come across a number of generous people who are willing to lodge us, help us move around, and most importantly, get us to the point where we can make this film with the kind of authenticity it deserves.

Marianne makes magic (..again)

Photo from her last project, The Welcome House, just one of many examples.

During this past week Marianne has been working hard to involved a number of designers, filmmakers, and volunteers with relationships to Haiti to give their support to our film.

First on the list is Dimitry Chamy a a graphic designer working in Florida, who came to the US from Port-au-Prince.  He completed his MFA at Yale School of Art Graphic Design Program.  He has agreed to be an Advisor/Designer to the project and will help us navigate our trip to Haiti.

Next is Bob Busser  (a friend of  The Welcome House architect Daryn Edwards) whom who we hope to meet with soon. Bob works with Philadelphia’s Habitat for Humanity and spent the last ten weeks in Haiti. He will be invaluable during this research stage of our film.

Also advising is Marianne’s longtime friends Julie Sisk, Founder and Director of the American Pavillion at Cannes
and New York designer/producers Rita London and Erik Schurink.

The search for our actors begins.

It’s never been quite clear to me how to go searching for people to play themselves in your  film. For my last film I stood in a Fishtown supermarket for a week looking for my actress. That is how I found Anna (who really did an incredible job in the film). I also got kicked out.

This time I was thinking of taking a less intrusive approach. I have started putting up these hand-written posters in Haitian community centers in Brooklyn and Queens. I am confident that the right person will find them.

If anyone wants to help with the posters or to simply get the word out… email me!

Eran Preis is my Hero.

Eran was kind enough to bestow his film wisdom on me today. We met at 9am at the Starbucks on South street, second floor, near a table of people discussing important things and a woman in the corner reading the paper. He was reading the paper too when I arrived and jumped in his chair when he saw me.  At first and I thought it was because I somehow caught him by surprise, but later when I went home, I realized I was looking rather “wild,” with my hair giving the appearance of having just woken up still searching for its glasses. Me at 9Am.

Eran recommended a number of films for me to watch among them were:

Wild Reeds by André Téchiné, to get a sense of how a radio might be used during times of distress.

La Promesse by Jon-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, for an approach to directing

Seven Days by Ronit Elkabetz, for ideas on how to move from room to room in an apartment.

He also gave me incredible insight on how to better shape the relationship between Olivia and Simon and a number of people to contact to help with the shoot.

Next STEP: finding someone with a relationship to Haiti who can teach me a thing or two.

A Film That Has A Blog (and a producer!!)

I met with Marianne today at the Good Karma cafe today to discuss our big plans for this film and to catch up. She had just returned from a trip to London where she represented the Flux Space Gallery at the Tate Modern… AND said yes to producing my next film tentatively titled, The Earthquake. Big week… for me especially.

First thing first, we decided to make this blog as a way to document our progress with the film. To watch it  grow and morph and become a new strange beautiful creature over the course of the next four months. Yes that’s right. Four months.  Almost half a baby.

Our hope is to shoot the film over five days during the second week of September in Queens. Our biggest challenge I think will be to find the actress to play Olivia.  Ideally we are looking for 17-year-old girl who is currently around three months pregnant and is new to the US via Haiti.  If she can act too that would be helpful. No easy feat. Marianne also suggested that we take four days to visit Haiti in July. It never occurred to me but thinking about it now it seems like an important part of the process.

So there is that. For now feel free to click around this blog to learn more about the film, the makers, our big ambitions and the shoe sizes of everyone involved. (that last part will be one of the many things to come…(yes, NOW you’re on the edge of your seat …))