With this momentous year drawing to a close, we’re not above waxing nostalgic about the incredible ride this film has taken us on–from 0 to 100 in 7 years.
Check out this very cool write up of ALLY by our friend, Chithra Jeyaram, in her doc film blog Real Talkies…
Recent feature article about A Lot Like You by Rahkia Nance in Neo Black Cinema, an online Independent Film Magazine for People of Color…
Earlier this year, I spoke with Angela Peabody, author of Exiled and Editor-In-Chief of Global Woman Magazine, about our journey with this film.
Check out the resulting feature article about ALLY in Global Woman that was just e-published in the Fall issue of this online magazine…
the more i write, the more i need to write. i find this fact profoundly liberating and maddening.
at my most disciplined, i write 3 pages first thing every morning…a shotgun prose-free, stream of consciousness brain dump to clear my head and make way for my day.
for me, this writing ritual is the perfect union of intention, attention and energy. there’s something about the physical act of writing out my thoughts, seeing them march across the page in my own handwriting, that helps move them through me. i tried writing these “morning pages,” as julia cameron calls them, on the computer, but because of the speed of typing, i find i don’t have time to process what i’m saying before moving on to the next topic. hand writing these pages slows me down, feels more deliberate, and allows time for more careful consideration.
getting my thoughts down and out on the page brings my life into focus. i see more clearly what i’m struggling with, what i need to let go of, where i want to go and how i want to get there. and these pages pave the way for me to imagine possibilities and recognize opportunities.
but helpful as writing is, i feel like i’ve developed a dependence on it that at times verges on debilitating. i like to think i’m a together enough person to manage my life affairs on my own. but truth is, when i don’t write, it shows—in the quality of presence i bring to my work and my relationships. so now i know, i owe it to myself, and to the people in my life, to make the time to write every day.
i don’t always choose it. but whenever i do, i’m amply rewarded.
In 2010, Artist Trust received 795 applications from artists working in all disciplines across Washington State. The Grants for Artists Projects (GAP) program provided up to $1,500 to 63 outstanding Washington artists for various projects.
A Lot Like You was awarded the full amount (Yay Us!!!) ArtistTrust, Thank You for your continued support of WA artists!!!
The fall equinox is Tom’s and my anniversary. What better way to honor it than to share this photo from our 2004 trip to Tanzania.
This card was literally one in a million. A phenomenal Do’s&Don’ts list, worthy of consideration. (Apologies for the blur & the glare…)
My personal favorite: “Don’t ever do too much of that desired quantity.” 🙂
When this film journey began, never could I have imagined that 7 years later, I would be in the East Wing of the White House, waiting to present President Obama with the DVD of my film, A Lot Like You.
But there I was, sipping champagne with approximately 100 bisexual, transgendered, lesbian and gay activists from around the country, mingling with Vice President Joe Biden, Rahm Emanuel and other senior White House officials while casually stuffing extra cocktail napkins with the Presidential seal in my purse.
Then half an hour later, without much fanfare, I was face to face with the man himself.
In the note accompanying my gift to President Obama, I told him, “I wish I had read Dreams From My Father before embarking on my film journey, because your book would have uniquely prepared me for the family stories I was about to hear.” And it was true.
As a mixed-race, first-generation American filmmaker thinking about having kids, I felt compelled to understand the cultural roots of my Blackness. My father is a Chagga man, born and raised in Tanzania (East Africa) on a coffee farm on Mt Kilimanjaro. At 18, he received a scholarship to study in the US, where he met and married my mother, a fellow grad student from South Korea. My parents worked for 30 years as economists for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank before they retired and decided to move back to Tanzania…for good.
In 2004, I decided the best way for me to learn about Chagga culture would be to film my father’s efforts to fit back in to the family and culture he’d left behind 40 years earlier. So my partner and I quit our jobs, packed up our gear and bought one-way tickets to Tanzania. But during our 9 month shoot, I discovered more about both the beauty and the brutality of my Chagga roots, and the story of my film evolved into something quite different than I’d originally intended.
Only 85 months after I first signed up for film class, the journey of bringing A Lot Like You to the screen has come to an end.
Marc Brown generously offered to host a screening in AlphaCine’s beautiful theater. So on August 12th, we had an intimate screening for the creative team and the film’s producers. It was the first time any of us got to see the finished film. What a pleasure to be able to relax and enjoy the movie without the looming pressure of asking for feedback or funding.
Personally, I was extremely moved by the whole experience. Making this film has been such a collaborative process…I know all filmmakers say that. But only now do I appreciate how truly true this is. When I watch the final film, every scene is loaded with backstory…and holds its own memories of in-depth conversations, multiple re-writes, alternate footage from earlier cuts, different music cues, loving but challenging feedback from friends pushing us to dig deeper. Every scene reminds me of some extraordinary, hail-mary effort that individuals put in to make that scene work as well as it does. And my gratitude for how well this project has been loved knows no bounds.
So Thank You for having such high expectations of what we (and this film) are capable of.
Starting July 26th, Eric and I spent a week over at Bad Animals working on the sound mix with Dave Howe. He’d already mapped out the sound design for the film, complete with effects, natural sound, and foley.
I’d been told that nothing enhances the movie experience more than sound design, but had a hard time imagining the difference it would make for our film. But holy cow!!! Sound totally shapes your emotional experience of the film.
And let’s be real for a moment—recording voice over and tweaking levels in those hallowed halls of rock, in the same room where Stevie Wonder and Elton John recorded albums, was divine!
Pete and Elaine joined us for our color correction review and the final day of sound mix. Getting their fresh eyes and ears on the film in its finishing stages was invaluable. (Our 2+ year collaboration with Puzzletree warrants its own entry…promise to post that soon!)