What Are The Chances (Part 3 of 3) or Apocalypse... Now?

Portland, Oregon is an interesting town to say the least.  Coming from the East Coast, people tend to think of the Northwest as wet, picturesque, caffeinated, fairly “granola,” and very sleepy.  The Portland I arrived to was all of the above except for “very sleepy.”  Occupy Portland, which a few days earlier had just had more than enough interaction with local law enforcement.  The Occupy Portland folks made the ones in NYC and Philly look like Brownie Scouts and pikers.  In reading the AP Wire reports in my local papers, it seemed as if the city had the feel of the 1969 Doors concert in Miami.  All it needed was a Jim Morrison to get it really going. (For the record, I’m a huge Doors fan).  Unfortunately for our movie and me, Occupy Portland decided to have their full-scale riot on the same day as our West Coast/Northwest/College Premiere at Portland State University.  I would hear so many helicopters this day that I felt like I was in APOCALYPSE NOW and wanted to help Martin Sheen start looking for Marlon Brando.

Portland State University however, was a small oasis in downtown Portland.  A State-funded University, it is part traditional college, part commuter school, part urban office complex.  Thirty-thousand students attend PSU and the school has its own chapter of the College Republicans, led by a charismatic and energetic young woman named Julia Rabadi.  Julia is President of the PSU College Republicans and she put this screening together after one of her members, Isaiah Taylor, found out about our film from the original piece I wrote for Big Hollywood.  It took about six months to put this Screening together mainly due to PSU’s summer break.  But nonetheless, these great young students were affording us the chance to not only make our first “College” Screening happen, but also our Northwest and West Coast Premiere.  

These PSU College Republicans really busted their butts to make this happen, draw a crowd and pull it off.  Their campus community and the surrounding City aren’t really known for open-mindedness towards Republicans, Conservatives and other “non-Progressives.”  As a matter of fact, when I was interviewed by Cecil Prescod of KBOO (a very “Progressive/Pro-Occupy Portland” radio station), Cecil informed me that President George H. W. Bush called the city, “the Beirut of the Northwest.”  I did have high hopes given that we were lucky enough to be interviewed by three different talk show hosts on three different radio stations (including Victoria Taft on KPAM and Dave Bourne on KXL) and had a 4-Star Review in the African American newspaper THE SKANNER. 

We wanted a great and diverse crowd.  Having our film play in an academic setting in a completely different part of the country (2,877 miles from Trenton), I couldn’t wait to start the film for the PSU audience.  I had thought a good omen came about when I first arrived at PSU, put my bags on the ground and was promptly asked by a young man to sign his petition “against millionaires and billionaires.”  I told him that I didn’t live in Portland, but would be happy to talk to him more after our Premiere and handed him one of our FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN postcards.  He was stunned, in a good way.  I think this had to do with my telling him that Cornel West and Mitt Romney were in the same film, as I mentioned our cast.  Still speechless, he put the postcard on his clipboard and ventured off.  Twenty minutes later, I would meet a PSU College Republican named… “Michael Steele.”  Yes, his real name.

One note on the College Republicans and PSU.  From the get-go, the PSU College Republicans wanted to open this Screening up to the greater Portland community and they even tried to partner with other on-campus groups to do all this.  On my travels around the campus, it was very heartening to see our FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN posters in the windows of so many of other student organizations, particularly the various minority student groups.  Hope for the future, I thought.  Fortunately for me, Julia gave me a list of the different Academic Departments which I should visit before the Screening.  I dropped by the History, Political Science Departments and had a nice, quick meeting with Dr. E. Kofi Agorsah, Chair of the Black Studies Department.  He took some of our movie postcards to give to his upcoming class of students and said he would encourage them to attend our Screening that night.  Thank you, Sir!

The only personally negative moment of the whole trip came when I went to lunch at an interesting vegetarian/locally-grown food café at the PSU Student Union called FOOD FOR THOUGHT.  I’ve been trying to eat more healthfully for a while now and thought that I should give FOOD FOR THOUGHT a shot.  So I went to the counter and ordered my food and chatted with their Manager who, it turns out, has some New Jersey connections.  Having had such a nice conversation, I figured what the heck – I’ll ask if I could put some postcards on the counter for our Screening.  The Manager said “yes,” and I put about 20 FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN postcards next to the register.  The place was jumping with customers.  Given Portland’s image and what I heard about the lack of tolerance that the PSU College Republicans had been subjected to, I considered this little moment a positive achievement.   Well, it wasn’t even five minutes before one of their customers (a White, brown-haired hippie-chick with a hemp messenger bag and a bad attitude) went up to the counter (WITHOUT BUYING ANYTHING) and slid all of our postcards into her hemp bag.  Then ran off.  God knows what else was in that hemp bag with all of our poor, little postcards.  I was standing about ten feet away from her, on the other side of the counter, when this happened and I couldn’t catch up to her.  She must have ran track in high school or ran drugs for the Latin Kings or something.  I have no idea how she even knew our postcards were on the counter as she just zipped in, swiped them and left.  Wow.  At least my lunch was good.

Finally, the Screening at the Portland State University Multi-Cultural Center came. 

The Screening itself went great and was quite fun to be a part of and observe.  The College Republicans put out a great light refreshment and food table for everyone with lemonade, ice water and many healthy and usual “college” snacks.  Excellent job, PSU Food Services!  One funny thing I’d like to share is that in addition to the fifty or so people who came to the Screening, there were many foreign  students for whom English is not the first or second language who showed up and gorged on the free food.  While they may not have understood our film, it was neat to see that college students haven’t changed.  Free food is free food.  I remember those days well.  ; )

Technically, the Multi-Cultural Center’s screening space was very good for a wide and open conference room.  It had carpeting on the floor, a good projector on the ceiling and nice P.A. speakers in the back.  Watching the audience from the back, I could tell that they were “getting” the film and were as so many other audiences – fully engaged.  All except the one hard-core “I’m a Conservative, not a Republican” type who I guess has some kind of attention deficit issue and who kept checking his e-mail from the second row.  It finally got annoying enough about twenty minutes in, that I went up to him and asked him to do it somewhere else or consider leaving.  It is rude to do that during a movie anywhere, whether I am the filmmaker or another audience member.  He put away his I-Phone and I got thanked by several audience members as I moved to the back of the room.  Later on, he came to the very back of the room to turn on his laptop and work on it.  Weird.  Thankfully, there was a nice moment occurred just before this when a young, White female student’s jaw dropped and she blurted loudly (by accident) “Is that true?” when she found out that the Ku Klux Klan was co-opted by the Democratic Party in 1868.  I’m pretty sure that she was convinced it was the Republicans who did this.  Like so many.  Truth can be painful…

The Q&A produced some cool and moving moments like the young, White Ron Paul guy connecting with an older, female African American “99%-er” (her button said she was one of them) over the issue of whether the Republican Party should have special messages for separate demographic  groups.  She conversed with him during the Q&A from the front row about the Republican Party just showing up in her community, whether she agrees with their positions or values or not.  I think they ended up in some type of agreement on this and with the young guy saying that he wanted to bring the “Liberty” message to the urban areas.  This civil exchange of views was worth this 2,877 mile trip alone.  

I did get some good, tough questions on Michael Steele’s time as Chairman, the Southern Dixiecrats (had to correct the history presented on this by the questioner), the Media, social issues campaigning, getting our film made and “out there” into the World and how both Parties do not always know or care to know where/how they are rallying their troops.  I even got to sing a few bars of Garth Brooks, “Friends in Low Places” when I told the audience about a 2004 Bush rally in New Jersey where the organizers played Country music the most of the time we were there.   Fortunately, no one threw tomatoes at me. 

One African American lady did catch me by surprise when she spoke of how much racism existed in Portland and especially Oregon.  She said that “Oregon is the South of the Northwest.”  The “99%-er” agreed with her wholeheartedly.  I said that the state is well-known for being “Progressive.”  From these ladies, I got the sense that there are probably two Portlands and two Oregons.  Just like there is in most parts of Urban America.  One of them actually used the “n-word” in describing her treatment at times.  Obviously, I’m not knowledgeable enough about Oregon to comment, but that was a first for a FOABR Screening. 

The night ended with a number of folks wanting my e-mail address, many thank-you's for making the film and really getting these issues out there, lots of handshakes and plenty of smiles and encouragement.  It wasn’t a great crowd for selling DVDS since hardly anyone outside of downtown Portland could make the Screening.  This was because many of the streets and some of the major bridges were shut down because of the Occupy Portland riot.  I heard too many helicopters and police/ambulance sirens to expect a packed house.  But, a few of the African American supporters of Occupy Portland did show up and went out of their way to tell me they were happy that our film was “straight-up” and didn’t “Democrat-bash” the whole time.  They said they were definitely not expecting a movie or night like this night.  I wasn’t either.  Hopefully, we’ll make it back to Portland with FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN someday.

I’ll close with something from the heart, more than from the head.  Given all the challenges facing our even making this film and now getting it out there into the World, Occupy Portland and their riot wasn’t the biggest challenge we faced.  But, having “gotten through” to another very diverse audience (age, ethnicity, political affiliation) in an academic setting, this Screening is amongst our proudest.  Hope was renewed yet again, especially in partnering with the PSU College Republicans and seeing their outreach pay off against the odds.

I just wish I could get those darn helicopters and The Doors’ “The End” out of my head…

What Are The Chances? (Or “My Hometown”) – Part 2 of 3

November 12^th 2011 will be a day that we’ll never ever forget.  For the best of reasons.  Our New Jersey and Hometown Premiere in Trenton NJ with Michael Steele was everything we hoped for and 10X better.But, before I get to the “Day-of,” I’d like to briefly touch on the wonderful week we had BEFORE the screening.  We were very blessed to have some great coverage in our city’s two daily newspapers, the Trentonian and The Times, and the Princeton Packet and in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County Courier Times.  Given the state of newspapers in the U.S. and their lack of staffing, getting such coverage for a “hometown” story isn’t easy or likely.  We will always hold these publications in high esteem for helping us get the word out locally.  Especially for an event in Trenton, when crime is on the rise and it gets tougher and tougher to draw people from the suburbs.

Finally, the Day of Judgment arrived and we had a lot of running around to do to get ready.  This special night would include a Kick-Off Reception at the New Jersey State Museum itself.  We’d never done something like this before.  When we helped found and run the Trenton Film Festival, we had a great Events Producer and she ran the Show. 

Well this time, we were very fortunate to have our good friend Murph manage this for us.  We had to make some runs to Party City, Sam’s Club and a few other places to get all the party wares.  Also, we had a number of good friends, neighbors, family and crew members give us a hand with the Reception and the Screening.  One of our Aunts even made over 150 cookies for us and “Aunt Fern” made a good bunch as well.  Our focus was on the setting up the Museum reception first as the Screening Auditorium still had a Native American Indians performance going on when we arrived.  (In case you are near Trenton, there is a very moving 9/11 exhibit there).  Our Producer, Tammy, Murph and Company got to work decorating and setting-up.  Balloons, bunting, table favors, Martinelli’s and food.  They also set up all the cool political campaign signs we collected over the years at the Museum Walkway.

The Reception was a great sight to see.  The space was decorated in Red, White and Blue and the place was packed.  We had some of our local politicians there, some of the Filipina Sisters from Villa Victoria Academy were there (and they got to meet Michael Steele) and there was a nice turnout by our fellow Trentonians, some Black Republicans from around the state and many people we had never met before. 

Just walking around the room, it felt like that Wedding Scene in GOOD FELLAS.  It was dizzyingly wonderful and at the speed of light.  We tried to say “hello” to as many people as possible.  Fortunately, two good friends made their way around the room and took a lot of pictures to capture the night.

Well, I now know what it is like at a “Movie Premiere” with a Star.  When Michael Steele entered the room, it was as if George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Denzel Washington and Frank Sinatra showed up at the same time.  All eyes turned his way.  It was gratifying to see so many people wanting to meet him.  (Especially the folks we knew from the “other side of the aisle.”)  Michael was gracious and warm with everyone, taking pictures and chatting with as many people as possible.  I wish we could have taken pictures of all the people taking pictures with Michael Steele.  Plenty of smiles all around.

Finally, it was time to walk the hundred feet or so to the Auditorium and finally screening our film.

Entering the “Big Room” even after Jamaal and I had set it up hours earlier, felt a lot different ten minutes before the PLAY button would be hit on the DVD player.  As nervous as I was up until this point, I was even more nervous now.  Fortunately, Michael pleasantly rejected my several offers to let him speak before the film.  We were better off just getting the movie started.   After Tammy’s Welcome and Introduction, I was happy to welcome and pay tribute to John Harmon (our Moderator for the Q&A) who is President & CEO of the New Jersey African American Chamber of Commerce and Zachary Chester (now Councilman for Trenton’s West Ward).  Both of these gentlemen were key in helping us get our film off the ground in ways they did not know until they saw the film this night.  BTW, both men are Democrats whom we have known for years.  Yes, we can all get along and help each other to succeed.

I finally got to also thank before our “hometown” crowd, our three integral Crew Members:  Jeff Metzner, Cinematographer; Jamaal Green, Camera and Assistant Editor; and Rob Fowler, Final Cut Pro Consultant and Assistant Editor.  Without all three of them and their contributions, our film would not be as it is today.   I still feel bad about dragging Jeff and Jamaal to New Orleans in August, but I know they had a good time.

As the Credits came up and Michael Steele’s RNC Chairman Election Speech played, I had a moment behind the stage to think about this entire journey and what would happen during the Q&A.  It has been special and thankfully, the rest of the night would be too.  After we pulled the table and chairs out for the Q&A, Tammy, Michael Steele and I spent at least an hour answering questions and hearing reactions to our film.  I’ll just say that we are very happy with how the audience took to the film and that Michael Steele rocked the house.  About halfway through, he took over the Q&A as some many of the questions were directed towards him (we were VERY happy about this).  The questions were thorough, challenging and well thought-out.  I learned a lot from the Q&A myself.  It was a great give-and-take with the audience and he had so much fun that he stayed well past his departure time.  Well past.  Michael is, as one Facebook friend (and hard-core Dem) said… “a Class Act.”

Eventually, the final end of the night would come and all would safely get home.  We wouldn’t be able to celebrate for too long as I had to leave for Portland, Oregon in a few days, but we did make sure to enjoy ourselves.  A night like this doesn’t come for every Filmmaker and this one is very happy it did in a little City by the Delaware River called Trenton.

Oh and the Trentonian had one last write-up on our night with Michael Steele.

Next up:  What Are The Chances (Part 3 of 3) or Apocalypse... Now?

What Are The Chances (Part 1 of 3)

The past four weeks have been an incredible journey for our film and for us.  As I write this, I am at 37,000 feet in a jet airplane over Northern California.  Hopefully, we land in San Francisco in one piece.   The Beastie Boys classic, LICENSE TO ILL, is cranking on my Kelly green I-pod. 

During the last few weeks, we have screened FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN in Buffalo NY, Rochester NY, our hometown of Trenton NJ with Michael Steele  and just last night at Portland State University in Portland OR.  These screenings in these cities could not have been more different, yet similar.   Most important in the bigger scheme of things, we've kept the ball moving and are building some momentum.

After a beautiful late fall drive to northwestern New York State, we finally arrived in a cold, raw Buffalo. In Buffalo, we found a city that was mainly indifferent to itself and to our film.  It was incredibly hard to gain any Media traction in Buffalo, which was surprising since it has a good-sized African American population.  We did well gaining interest and coverage in Buffalo’s main Black newspaper, The Challenger.  Unfortunately for them and us, their printing press broke down on the day of its issue (which had a 4-Star Review of our film).  Alright, it was some bad luck.  What can you do, right?

Buffalo gave us our first share of White hard-core Liberals who couldn’t wait for the Q&A to come, for the chance to have a good argument.  When the lights came up though, they were rather muted, with very few questions and no nasty comments.   Except one woman, who came in late and was very disappointed that our film wasn’t more like a Michael Moore film (apparently, she is a big fan).  And a man who wanted to know why I don’t start a third Party.  We don’t consider that an option for us.  We want our Republican Party to do better.  Soon.   All in all, the Republicans, Conservatives, Democrats, Independents and Liberals really liked the film.  Even if they weren’t sure that they would when they bought their ticket at our screening space, The Squeaky Wheel.

The Q&As were lengthy and informative both ways (as we want it to be).  We also learned that our film plays well for the intoxicated.  At one of our Buffalo screenings, we had a few guys show up who were definitely “three sheets to the wind.”   However, they were highly intelligent and still “got” the film.  Even though they had “beer goggles,” they enjoyed what they saw and got a lot from it. 

A big, tough lesson was learned in Buffalo:  If we don’t know someone in a place or have a “built-in” audience where we are screening, the going will not be easy at all.  At our level, we don’t have the budget or firepower to make the Media and their Viewers/Listeners/Readers take notice and hear/receive our message – then come out to see our film. 

In Rochester, we had a much different experience.  We had a great ally in Chaplain Ayesha Kreutz and a “built-in” audience - the Frederick Douglass Foundation of New York.  We also got a little bit more Media interest.  It took some work and extra personal appeals, but because we had some peeps in Rochester (unlike Buffalo), we got the big newspaper (the Chronicle & Democrat) to give us at least a mention and also scored a short radio interview with the big Conservative talk show host in town, Bob Lonsberry. 

As a result, the Rochester Screening went much better for the FOABR team.  The screening went great, the Q&A was excellent and we sold a higher than normal number of DVDs at the end. Also, we got a few invites to come back to Rochester in 2012.  If these invites come through, we are there.

Post-Buffalo, we got a nice review in the student newspaper, the UB SPECTRUM.  And we made the effort to go speak with the Occupation Buffalo folks (they are following us on Twitter).  We stopped by their encampment, at a traffic circle with a monument honoring President William McKinley (who was assassinated in Buffalo in 1901), across from Buffalo City Hall.  We wanted to get a sense where some of these “Occupation Wall Street” peeps are coming from.  We agreed to disagree on most points and were glad to offer some historical perspective to them on where things are today versus the year 1968.  1968 and the events that occurred during it can teach the OWS folks a lot on what they DON’T want their movement to become in the future.  IMHO. 

No matter what... being able to say that we have met with some of OWS folks bodes well in interviews, conversations, etc. in helping to explain to those on the "other side" that we are open-minded and non-partisan filmmakers.  The fact that we are who we are and don’t try to pretend to be something we aren’t is very effective.  As long as the “word of mouth” on our film keeps building… 2012 should be a very good year for FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN.  Cross your fingers…


Next: Parts #2 (Trenton and Michael Steele) and #3 (Portland, the College Republicans and the November 17th Riots).

Some Great News, Some Awesome News and Some Not Good At All News

Today’s blog/update was originally intended to highlight some great news about our upcoming screenings in Buffalo NY on Wednesday October 26^th, Thursday October 27^th and Friday October 28^th.  Then late Friday, we got the word from the West Coast that we will make our Pacific Premiere at Portland State University in Portland, OR on Thursday, November 17^th.  Both of these screening events took a lot of work, hope, persistence and guts.  Particularly our Portland State screening, which we’ll write about soon.  Instead, events of this morning will have to take precedence over our great news. 

Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain appeared on two of the major news networks this morning.  Watching Mr. Cain on Fox News Sunday and This Week on ABC this morning was inspiring.  He did a great job in the Chris Wallace interview and in the Christiane Amanpour interview, handled the detailed, “ginsu-knife” (my phrase) questions on her note cards very well.  We can all be proud of this man and what he represents for the Republican Party.  Not just diversity, but competency, integrity, honesty, gutsiness and leadership.  In late 2006, we were in the Atlanta area to follow and shoot the campaign of Catherine Davis for the U.S. Congress seat in the 4^th District.  Many, many people would ask… “Have you ever heard of Herman Cain?” or whether we were going to interview him for the film.  Unfortunately, we had to say “no” at the time because we hadn’t heard of him yet and our Atlanta story was centered around Catherine.  However, it was obvious that Herman Cain was someone to learn more about and follow since that time.  All we can say is that Mr. Cain was a legend in the Atlanta area and this legend was told to us by both Black people and White people.  It didn’t matter, he was going to be an important player in the Party someday.  Little did we know back in 2006!

Waking up to hear about another Presidential Candidate, Governor Rick Perry, and his hunting trips on a ranch with a rock painted with the word N*****head on it was deflating as heck.  Obviously, someone held onto this story for a long time and waited for the right moment to leak or push it to the Washington Post in order to nail Perry bad.  It is easy to suspect who might want to do this and why they would do this.  Politics can be a dirty, dirty business if people want it to be.  It can also be an inspiring, uplifting business if the player(s) involved do the right thing.  No matter if or when the rock in question was there, Perry should have been removed the rock as soon as he learned of it and made sure it was gone for good.  The bottom of a creek bed was probably the best place for this Rock of Prejudice.  Now, we are all probably in for a week of the media going crazy with this and for so-called (read irrelevant) leaders making sure we know where they stand on the issue.  But, outside of probably putting a fatal torpedo or two into Perry’s 2012 Presidential chances… what will the Rock of Prejudice really mean two weeks from now?  Unfortunately, not much.

But another man, this one from Atlanta (not Texas) will be inching ever closer to the nomination of his Party for President of the United States.  Whether he makes it there or not, won’t likely be up to him.  It will be up to the army of researchers, reporters, bloggers and media-types on both sides of the aisle.  Will they try to bring him down with old report cards?  Will they try to make him look like the Ebonics-spouting fool they play him for on Saturday Night Live? (Funny, the same cast member played Michael Steele too… hmmm.)  Let’s hope not… because whether Herman Cain wins or loses his Party’s nomination – we’ll all be the losers in the end if people other than the Voters decide.


NOTE:  Herman Cain Photo by Gage Skidmore at CPAC 2011; Governor Rick Perry Photo Courtesy of Rick Perry.org

HAND-WRINGING ABOUT HOLLYWOOD VS. SUPPORTING CONSERVATIVE FILMMAKERS

Something has been bugging me in the past few months as we got closer, then past the 10th Anniversary of September 11th, 2001.  What has been bugging me was reading a number of on-line articles on some Conservative websites concerning Hollywood’s and the Media’s treatment of the September 11^th attacks in the years since they occurred.  

In particular, there have been some interesting and provocative articles about the historical treatment of the attacks and the movies created so far.  Previous to my reading these articles, I read another article questioning the quality of “Conservative” films and why/if they should be supported by the Conservative community.  As if most artists on our side of the aisle shouldn’t be supported… without a lot of deep thought and question.

While I definitely respect all these points of view, I have to question why many of us are questioning Hollywood instead of questioning ourselves.  And what we should be questioning ourselves on is why so many of us are complaining so much about Hollywood’s output and at the same time, not supporting the burgeoning artists, musicians, writers and filmmakers in our own community?  For full disclosure (if you don't know anything about me and my documentary film):  yes, we are Conservative, yes, we are registered Republicans and yes, we are filmmakers trying to get my art out to the greater world. 

But, for the life of us, we have never understood monetarily and spiritually supporting artists, studios and media companies while simultaneously berating them for what they offer us.  Particularly, people who can't stand George Clooney and Matt Damon - but still go see their films, buy their DVDs, etc.  Why the heck do people on my side of the aisle do this?  If someone delivers crummy pizza that smells weird, tastes worse and gets me sick – would you still call the same pizza place every time?  No.  So, why do the same when making entertainment or artistic purchase choices?

In film, you don’t get to shoot on 35 mm with “big-name” actors, with the best script material, with the best D.P.’s and with someone else’s budget unless you have a track record and make money. To become a great artist, to become a great filmmaker… you need time to develop and hone your craft.  You need to be able to make a living as an artist to justify being one and to gain that 24/7 time needed to create and edit better and better material.  Having an audience makes that happen.  But, when you are starting out as an artist, you need to build an audience before you can grow one and then convert one.  Not all “Conservative” films or shows will be great and not all will be good.  But, all should be supported by the people most pre-disposed to enjoy the material… fellow Conservatives.  But it seems to me, that the expectations are placed too high when the art comes from “one of their own.”

It is like being the guy or gal who struggles to make it in their own hometown.  The hometown crowd is much tougher on you and their expectations of success are so high that the bar they have set for just saying, “You know, it’s alright” is almost impossible to leap over.  Are “Conservative” audiences really saying that until you start winning Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, Grammys and Liberals – you haven’t achieved that much?  It seems like it is for both new artists as well as some of the more established ones.  How many Conservatives do you know of who announced their political orientation at the start of their careers?   Did any of them get to make a second or third album, movie, etc.? 

This also can hold true for established artists.  We paid money to see AMERICAN CAROL in a theater.  ATLAS SHRUGGED, too.  They weren’t films that met the unbelievably high expectations of their audiences.  But so what, they were not bad films.  Hello?  Pick any Rob Schneider film or just try to watch the glacial, yet beautiful THE AMERICAN.  AMERICAN CAROL and ATLAS SHRUGGED were films trying to do a helluva lot with a limited budget and the expectations that come with being the first “Conservative” films in their genres.  Almost no film could have met the expectations those two had to deal with.

How do you expect to see more artists, musicians, filmmakers, etc. who think like you do… if you aren’t willing to support the ones you already have?  Can you really expect those who are successful and established to risk all in making the brave decision to “come out of the closet” politically?  God bless Gary Sinise, Patricia Heaton, Jon Voight, Angie Harmon and the other stars who have come out, gotten involved and led from the front.  They are an inspiration.

If you don’t support Conservative artists’ material, especially when they are putting their livelihoods, careers and more on the line… then don’t pine for “better” films, shows, etc.  And don’t condemn them for not outnumbering the artists you can’t stand or agree with.  Because at the end of the day, you’re part of Hollywood too… with you time and hard-earned dinero.

Kansas City, Here We Come!

Today, we are just over two weeks out from our first screening at a film festival.  We are fortunate to have been invited to screen our film at the Kansas City Urban Film Festival (KCUFF) in Kansas City, MO.  This growing festival (in its 3rd year) takes pride in showing films made “by any means necessary.”  Given our history in making our film on our own dime and time, its sounds like the perfect place for us.  KCUFF… here we come!  

After our series of small screenings in the last month or so, it feels good to be able to get our film to another part of the country and to get more feedback.  We are incredibly happy with the response to our little documentary epic so far.

Not too many have people seen our film yet, but those that have seen FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN have been moved by what they have seen and experienced.  When about 90% or better of the audience stays after your film for your Q&A (and all the audiences have been made up of various demographics and political persuasions), you know you probably have something special.  And we do.  The questions and discussions have been tough and have ranged from the film itself to current events to personal testimonies backing up much of what we show on-screen.  And those are just the things that are said in public.  Privately, the conversations we have had with some members of the audience have been quite moving and inspirational.

For example, after one of our Wilmington screenings, we met a White Republican City Council candidate who busted his @## campaigning in the Black community (on his own, without Party support – he was  first-timer).  He lost by only 300 votes in a City of 70,000 people.  Just imagine what he could have done if he had some real Party support!  In Greensboro NC, we met a large man who otherwise could be the twin brother of NFL All-Pro Wide Receiver & “Dancing With The Stars” Winner, Hines Ward.  After the movie, I asked him if he liked it.  He promptly told me that he didn’t, primarily because we didn’t interview… RON PAUL???  Where’d that come from?  Wow.  Well, I explained that we never even got in physical proximity to Ron Paul (let alone, I’m not sure Congressman Paul would have much to say on the subject of our film anyway).  We did have an interesting discussion about the two-party system and the media with this man.  Not sure if he ended up a fan of the movie or of us, but we gave him a copy of our movie poster anyway.

In Charlotte, a great moment occurred when a middle-aged lady (who “came out” as a Black Republican a few years earlier) asked the White members of the audience if they had ever been called a “racist.”  Most sheepishly nodded their head, “yes.”  This same women then looked over to four White audience members who were sitting together (she didn’t know that they were members of our family) and promptly told them that they needed to “get over being called a racist” and to “stop being afraid and start coming into the community.”  That was moving, cool and awesome (and a little funny, too).

In Atlanta, we had several people trade in their GREEN LANTERN tickets to come see our film instead after they saw our movie poster in the lobby.  That was… you name the positive adjective.  Unfortunately, these nice folks hadn’t heard about FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN because their big, local newspaper – the Atlanta Journal-Constitution – refused to cover or review our film.  And this was after their Film Critic (who was VERY interested in seeing our film) asked me to get him a copy of our film RIGHT AWAY.  So, we Fed-Exed-Overnight a DVD Review Copy to him at a cost of $52.00).  Now before you call us naive, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the “New York Times of the South” and well, you do have to hope for the best.  Getting our film reviewed or having our World Premiere covered in that paper would be HUGE for a small film like ours.

Unfortunately, the film critic’s Assignments Editor who received our package - sat on the film and ignored our press release, our phone calls and our e-mails after Fed-Ex kindly delivered our DVD to her.  After I e-mailed the Critic to find out if he got the DVD, I received an e-mail telling me to contact his Assignments Editor.  Which I did by telephone and as she didn’t pick up, I left a message.  I didn’t get a call back, but I did get an e-mail from the Assignments Editor that she would try to watch our movie that very night and if it went well – she would meet with a few reporters in the next morning.  Oh, and I should feel free to call her and check in again.  So I did. Then, I did again. And again.  I wasn’t being a pest about it as I spread my phone calls out over the next week.  I even e-mailed the Critic again but heard nothing.  I’m sure he is a nice guy who was just stuck in as a bad a situation with this as we were.   My final phone calls to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution came from a busy truck stop in Northern Georgia as we drove down from New Jersey a few days before our Premiere.  

Long-story short… the Film Critic, who is a well-known and distinguished writer, probably never even got our film.   If the Assignments Editor wanted to hurt our film (and we don’t know if this was her intention or not), she did a good job -  as did others.  Because also we sent the press release, sent e-mails, sent postcards and made phone calls to several other Atlanta Journal-Constitution employees.  No where, no where did a mention of our film make it into their paper.  Even though about 25% of our film takes place in Atlanta and the surrounding area. 

Even without their coverage, we still got the small weekly papers to cover us and they did some nice pieces on us and our film.  We still had a great “World Premiere” Screening/Q&A for those who came, including some of the Atlanta folks who appear in our film.  The crowd would have been a lot larger if the local “newspaper of record” at least mentioned our Screening as a community event listing.  I’m just sayin’.  

Well, the next day (after our World Premiere) and after all our ignored requests – we left Atlanta for our next screening in Charlotte NC, but had to make a little detour first.  Our Co-Producer Tamara, wanted to stop by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution headquarters to get our DVD back from the Assignments Editor.  Now, that our Premiere was over – they surely wouldn’t need our DVD, right?  The nice security guard that Tamara spoke with kept trying to contact said Assignments Editor, but to no avail.  For whatever reason, she fortunately decided to get a Coke or something and happened by the Security Guard booth.  The guard called out to her, then introduced her to Tamara.  After pretending she barely heard of our film before, she promised to send our DVD back.  That was eight weeks ago and we are still waiting.  Go figure.

Even though our media coverage wasn’t the best, we did get to meet a lot of great people, exchange political views with Republicans and many, many Democrats.  And we did start building “word of mouth” on our film.  Having done all this on our own, our Southern Tour was worth it in spades.  There is no feeling like showing your film in a movie theater when the lights go down.  A wide-screen TV or computer screen can’t compete.  It is simply an amazing feeling you can’t duplicate anywhere else and we recommend to any other indie filmmakers out there to do it at least once.  Just for yourself as an artist.  However, don’t count on getting coverage from the bigger media outlets even if you work super-hard to get it.  Make sure you hit the smaller outlets, just do it at least 3-4 weeks out and have plenty of production stills (that gets you extra page space and “visually” helps sell your film).  Trust me, we can’t thank these smaller publications enough.

How will we get to more movie theaters around the country?  We are working hard on that.  All we can say is that word is getting around.  Which is great because we’ve had to prove that there is a market for a film like ours.  The Kansas City Urban Film Festival will hopefully be a capstone for proving that there IS a market for our film like ours and also serve as a great kick-start for the future.  We are working hard sending postcards (200+), e-mails, press releases and this week, making phone calls in order to pack the 150-seat theatre (at the Screenland Crossroads) that we will be screening in.  Tickets will be available soon at http://www.screenland.com/crossroads#Coming

We are expecting a great Screening and Q&A in Kansas City.  If you can make it there, please join us.  If you can’t make it, hopefully you’ll get a chance to see our film in the future in a theater or on DVD.

Take care, be well and please go see an independent film as often as possible.

Slainte.

South of the Border?

Well, we are nearly ready to announce some upcoming screenings down South.  We are tentatively booked for Atlanta, GA for the night of Thursday, June 23rd.  But, we have to finalize the rental of the screening space.  Once that is set, we can lock in the other screenings/dates on our quick tour of I-85 between Atlanta and Richmond, VA.

With any luck we'll be able to do 4-5 screenings over six days, before heading for home.  We are really, really looking forward to this as we have not screened the film for an audience yet.  At least an audience not made up of crew, family, friends, etc.  The Q&As should be exciting and we will do our best to make them so.

To update, the film is making its way out into the world very slowly, but surely.  Up to now, everything has been word of mouth and whatever is posted on the internet by bloggers, etc.  We have been sending postcards to people who have given us their business cards over the years at CPAC, etc. and media we have come across.  Hopefully, these screenings will really help start the national buzz on the film.

We'll let you know when everything is finalized...

This Facebook/Twitter/Social Media Stuff Is Hard! Plus Some Other Stuff.

Sorry, as always, that we haven’t been blogging as much as you might expect.  Doing a blog is hard enough within the content of a website versus something like Blogger.  The Social Media stuff which is SO standard nowadays is even tougher.

We’ve been focusing a good bit of time on learning Twitter and Facebook.  It is funny, but we’ve heard two different schools on these two powerhouses.  More than a few have told us that Twitter is better to promote and get the “word out.”  Others say, at least that Oscar-nominated movie did, that Facebook is the way to go.

Admittedly, I’ve been avoiding Facebook.  It seems like an energy-suck that makes you less “real” to people than a blog does.  At least to me.  Plus, that Zuckerberg guy… I dunno.  I hope Newark really does get that $100,000,000.  Cory Booker is doing God’s work up there and I’m a fan.  Just wish he had a twin brother here for us in Trenton.  And that this twin brother would at least lean Republican.  I can dream, can’t I?

To update everyone, Tammy and I were on the “Tracey and Friends” Radio Show on an AM station in Youngstown, OH.  It went really well for us and Tracey was a great host.  We even got some callers from around the country via the internet and one was a self-proclaimed “progressive liberal.”   We got some great questions from everyone and learned a lot ourselves about live radio in this day and age.  During the commercial breaks, we could hear and speak with the Internet callers from around the country (South Carolina, Florida, etc.).  But unless you were listening on the internet, you would not be able to hear us or the other callers.  Very strange.  And something to be careful about in the future.  Thanks, Tracey!

Before this interview, I was on Midred Gaddis’ “Inside Detroit” show on an AM Station in Detroit.  This was the day after President Obama produced his long-form birth certificate.  Whew!  I was sweating about getting “birther” questions, but none came up.  The big question was whether I actually talked to any Black Republicans and whether they knew that their Party had a racist image.  Mildred kindly played the trailer for the audience to hear, which was cool to hear and I was happy that even without the associated video – the trailer works!  You can hear this short interview at our website, http://www.fearofablackrepublican.com/.

As for screenings, this is coming together at a slow pace.  We are hoping to announce some screenings soon, which will very likely start “Down South.”  How “Down South” we still have to determine, but wherever we screen first will be our World Premiere.  As long as we have enough lead time, we should be able to draw a crowd and hopefully some of FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN’s participants.  Will let you know as soon as we can.  We were hoping to announce something by now, but booking theatres without a distributor isn’t a cheap proposition.  But, we just can’t wait to screen before an audience.  That is the moment all filmmakers want.  We sure do.

I’ll close with a film recommendation.  DEFINITELY check out the documentary IT MIGHT GET LOUD, which is directed by Davis Guggenheim.  Guggenheim also directed WAITING FOR SUPERMAN.  In IT MIGHT GET LOUD, he gathers up Jimmy Page from Led Zeppelin, Jack White from The White Stripes and The Edge from U2 to talk about electric guitars and being a guitarist.  It is an excellent blend of three eras of electric guitar by some amazing musicians, using great archival footage, music and interviews.  The “summit scene” where all three guitarists get together on a sound stage are something to check out.  They just rolled the cameras and got out of Page, White and Edge’s way.  The DVD commentary is great also.

That is it for now...