Goin' South, Heading West & Empire State of Mind

It’s been a long, strange trip but we are reaching the “end of the beginning” as Sir Winston Churchill once said. Tonight is our last screening in our South and West Tour. We will be at the Salina Arts Center in Salina Kansas. As we wrap up this Tour, we are gratified that people are “getting” our film in screenings across America.

During the past year, FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN has screened across America in places such as: Atlanta GA, Charlotte NC, Greensboro NC, Wilmington DE, Kansas City MO, Buffalo NY, Rochester NY, Trenton NJ, Portland OR, Washington DC, Liberty MO, Philadelphia PA, Montgomery AL, Jackson MS, Dallas TX, Waco TX, Tucson AZ, Albuquerque NM and Salina KS. Our film has also been profiled in the Washington Post, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, amongst other newspapers; on Al Jazeera, Current TV, Christian Broadcasting Network News and local TV news shows; and on a good number of radio programs like the Mark Davis Show, the Michael Eric Dyson Show, the Bob Grant Show and other great radio programs.

Given the odds against a small, independent film like ours (without an advertising budget) that deals with both Politics and Race at the same time, we are very happy with the Audience response to our film and the discussions it has generated. We’ll let you know soon about our most recent “Partridge-Family”-style Tour of the South & West for FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN. This “little film that could” has screened and engaged Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Liberals, Conservatives, OWS/99 Percenters, Liberty Caucus and Tea Party supporters and even a few Anarchists along the way. Additionally, we have been fortunate enough to draw many folks from across the economic and demographic spectrums to see our film in movie theaters, college campuses, art spaces and community centers. In a few cases, we didn’t even have to be there for a Q&A – folks just wanted to screen the film and have their own discussions. Pretty cool and moving stuff for some first-time filmmakers.

But… we need to do more and this is where we tell you about our “Big Idea” and humbly ask for your help: Our next step to get our film out into the World and before audiences in this Election Year is to screen in New York City. Yes, the Big Apple. To accomplish this, we have started a Kickstarter Campaign to raise the $19,000 necessary for FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN to get a One-Week Theatrical Run in Manhattan and the New York Times and other Media coverage that would come with it. This may seem like a large number, but it’s the number required to do it and do right.

We have gotten farther than many artists, but it’s time for us to ask for and accept monetary help. We have been blessed to have had many people along our screening journey help promote us via word-of-mouth and social media, suggest venues, contact media on our behalf, give us media contacts, and purchase our pre-release DVDs. However, as a self-produced independent film… we have pretty much hit our financial wall. As artistic entrepreneurs, we are hoping that there are enough folks who will appreciate the value of our film and its impact on starting conversations within communities about our current Two-Party System.  

Kickstarter is a Crowd-funding/Fund-raising site that allows the average person to support the arts personally and effectively. The projects on Kickstarter must meet or exceed their funding goal in order to accept any money. If we do not meet our goal, your funds will be returned to you. This guarantees that we will have the funds necessary to complete our Big Idea project and fulfill our rewards obligations - and you know your donation will be part of something specific - a One-Week Theatrical Run in New York City. Quite honestly, we and our little film cannot do this without your help and in these tough economic times - what better way would there be to create some Election Year discussion of Urban Two-Party Politics – than for FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN to screen in New York City this Fall?

We have until Aug 4th to raise $19,000 so, please consider giving soon. Donations as small as one dollar will help. If you feel comfortable, please consider forwarding our Kickstarter link (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/970394007/fear-of-a-black-republican?ref=live) or this information to anyone you know who may be interested in supporting us.

Thank you for following our cinematic adventures and your support of our endeavors.

Best Regards & Good Luck,

Tamara & Kevin

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