Just Do It at Women & Hollywood

I've been thinking a lot lately about how long I waited for someone to give me permission to make a film. It took me a long time to realize that it was something that I just needed to do with whatever resources I had. You can read about it at Women & Hollywood where I provided a guest post to Melissa Silverstein's blog at IndieWire.

Women's Film Festivals

After my last rant, um, I mean, post, I realized that I need to get out there and find my audience. Women are my primary target for "In Montauk" and therefore I need to do more investigation on that front. So imagine my excitement when I discovered a list of International Women's Film Festivals on Marian Evan's blog, Wellywood Woman. She includes festivals from all around the world, including several that I've never heard of. We met on twitter (@devt), and connected in the comments section of Melissa Silverstein's blog, Women & Hollywood on IndieWire. Marian is a fabulous resource for female filmmakers. I feel the beginnings of a new online community coming on!

Naked Filmmaking

Aha! I got your attention, didn't I? I'm seriously thinking about sending out a press release about how my preferred method to make films is in the nude. I could quote myself saying something like, "I like to direct in the buff to show solidarity with my actors, so that they feel that I'm putting myself out there 110%, just like they are." Then maybe get a quote from one of my male crew saying something like, "Whoa, yeah, it was weird at first. I mean, that scar on her abdomen, did she give birth to an elephant? And stretch marks - I never knew they could be that color. But after a while, you know, you stop looking because there's work to be done." And of course a quote from a female crew-member, "I think the female form is beautiful. I don't see what the big deal is. Deal with it." Now that would be a story.

Because it seems like making a good, solid film about a woman struggling with the real issue of how to be both an artist and a mother isn't enough. You need a story to go with it. Maybe the fact that I made this film while being a full-time mother to my now-10-year-old twins while my husband worked 12 hours/day isn't enough of a story. Perhaps if I'd been a single mother of 14, who suckled twins at my breasts during production, nay during takes would make better copy. Trust me, feeding my kids and my crew breakfast at the same time during the three days we shot in Queens was stressful enough. Finding someone to pick up my kids from school and watch them until my husband could come home and take them out to dinner, so that we could shoot until 7:00 p.m. in our apartment nearly gave me an ulcer. And when we wrapped my apartment, trying to clear out before 9:00 so the kids could get enough sleep to be up for school the next day - let's just say there was a lot of tiptoeing and whispering going on. But that's not an interesting story.

I have to think that a film about a woman struggling with life issues of motherhood and work is just as important as a film about a man dealing with his wife of 20 years being in a coma and discovering that she was having an affair (Oscar-nominated film, "The Descendants"), no? Women, I want to hear from you!