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).