DocuWeek @ the Arclight

For my fellow Angelenos:

International Documentary Association presents:
The 12th Annual DocuWeek Theatrical Documentary Showcase August 22-28, 2008


DocuWeek is a public theatrical exhibition of outstanding new documentary films --a week-long journey of color, music, human drama, laughter and tears. This year DocuWeek will showcase 23 diverse and extraordinary documentary feature and short films at ArcLight Hollywood and ArcLight Sherman Oaks.

- General Admission $12
- ArcLight members $9 (IDA members, seniors, and students must also be registered as an ArcLight member to receive the discount. ArcLight membership is FREE and easy; click here to join now.)


Ticket Purchase Online: NOTE SCREENING LOCATION PRIOR TO PURCHASING TICKETS. Tickets for ALL DocuWeek theatrical showcase screenings (programs A-S) are available for purchase online at www.arclightcinemas.com .

virginia wolfe's room has broken angels

In reading, researching and writing about adoption, adoptee's rights, baby brokering and probing into my own family history, I'm unearthing details I couldn't write for fiction. This space - my blog- I think of as an online "room of one's own". And that is two-fold: it is the place where I can express my thoughts, and it is actually about my history. Not the one I've created but about my creation. Where I am from. All of those N/A's on my registry papers.

On Saturday morning I woke up and dug into a large tub filled with negatives and photos. On top of the tub was a Converse sneaker box filled with mostly letters from my friend Gillian, concert ticket stubs from high school and college, and some random photos. The first thing my hand pulled from the box were a group of photos stuck together from age. The photos were from different years, different subjects - I had never put them in this order- but they were together for a reason. A polaroid of me at 7 months (clearly marked in my 8 year old cursive), a self portrait in a white sequin tank top and a pink tiara from college where I had added wings and the word "angel" across my head in white out, and a snapshot of me as tinkerbell in a flying accident, our friend Bryan and David at Barney's Beanery on Halloween after my car accident in 1999. I had eccentuated the bruises on my face and had band aids on my arms. One of my wings was broken.

So what was similar about the polaroid baby photo? There were no angels in the photo, unless you count children as angels, which according to my parents and friends of the family, I was the most good natured baby and well behaved child. That's not it though. It is the bruising around my face, as if I had been in an earlier flying accident. This was no accident though, no normal child bruising. A doctor could tell me what I already know. How far back do you remember? Some things leave permanent marks.

And so if there is any grey matter with SM, it is that his "practice" whether it served people well, was still the selling of babies, not to people who were necessary perfect parents - he wasn't in the business of determining that. Did I have opportunities created by my parents economic status? yes. Did I get to become who I am today because of it? no. I have gotten to where I am despite it.
This is going to be a very nasty road to dig up. I hope we - adoptees and birth parents separated- find it worth it all.

The Table: 1st Meeting

Hollywood Creative Directory

Suggestions:

1. Find a "mentor"
2. Go through NYU's back door by asking for a letter to interview NYU filmmakers for video archives
(more direct - email Lorie for contacts)
3. Shooting in other locations: using a college student (GA: Savannah, UGA, Circus)
4. Watching DOC films: Amoeba, Jerry's Video on Hilgard
5. Documentary suggestions: Barbara Cobble (Harlem County), Ken Burns (photography+Film), Richard Brash
6. Trailer examples: Apple Trailer - Documentary (on a wire), YouTube, MySpace
7. Celebrity adopting children - involvement, possible voiceover
8. Documentary.org
9. WIF Malibu Breakfasts: speak to Candice Bowen (VP Membership), referred by Robert Anicko

Meeting with Tien Nguyen

How lucky am I to get advice from a smart and talented woman who looks incredible just a few months after giving birth.? Today documentary filmmaker (The Story of Spirits) Tien Nyugen and I met to talk docshop. I believe my first words were "Hey, the last time we were together, you were puking in the bathroom from morning sickness" That's so charming of me! I can't wait to start interviewing people!
I so get what I need to do right now, and I've got lots of work to do. I am absolutely determined to secure funding - through online marketing and grants.
Here's my right now list of things to do:

1. Research NP's for sponsored funding
2. Research and buy a camera!
3. Listen and read online successful pitches
4. Watch every documentary on parents and children
5. Invest in a basic seminar

First 3 goals

• Shoot 2-3 footage/trailer
• Write the perfect pitch
• Align w/NPs

Thanks Tien!