Our Movie's Big Year & What We Learned...

We have learned a lot in this past year of trying and struggling to get our documentary film, FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN out into the world and before audiences.  We have had some great Screenings in different parts of the country and even had former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele graciously give us a hand at our New Jersey Premiere (in our hometown) and our Washington D.C. Premiere (Michael's hometown).  Michael was awesome as expected and we had another 90+ minute Q&A discussion after the film.  Very inspiring to say the least!

This past June, we had an amazing Philadelphia Premiere with Philly’s #1 Conservative Talk Show Host, Chris Stigall, serving as our Q&A Moderator and Deputy Chairman of the Pennsylvania Republican Party, Renee Amoore, serving as our Special Q&A Panelist.  Both Renee and Chris were outstanding and made the whole event one we (and the Audience) won't ever forget.

Renee Amoore, Deputy Chairman of PA GOP Makes A Great Point

Director Kevin Williams, an Audience Member, WPHT's Chris Stigall
and Renee Amoore After the Philly Premiere Q&A

That the event went so well… was a HUGE relief after my Alma mater, La Salle University, DENIED us a rental of the on-campus theater to screen FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN.  What they were afraid of?  A race riot?  Thousands of well-dressed Republicans clogging the streets of the Gernantown Section?  An actual unbiased discussion about Politics, Race and Urban Areas?

Redacted Email which we received from La Salle University denying our rental application.  Disappointing.

We still do not have a reason why La Salle denied us after repeated requests for an explanation. Needless to say, screening our film across the street from Bill Cosby’s Temple University was a much better choice in the end.

Most recently, Tamara (our film’s Producer and my lovely wife) and I completed a nearly four-week South and West Screening Tour of the United States.  Having traveled with our kids in a mini-van (without a DVD player) and seeing the South, Midwest and Southwest as we screened FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN for audiences, we have been constantly reminded of the goodness, decency and intelligence that exists here in America.  We felt this trip would be a great challenge and opportunity to see if our little film and our work as filmmakers could play with audiences not as familiar with the material or storylines.  Particularly in the Southwest, Latinos are way more numerous than African Americans.  Even so, the many issues in our film are practically interchangeable and we’ve received requests to make a sequel called FEAR OF A LATINO REPUBLICAN.  We’ve also received other requests for sequels about Jewish Republicans, Asian Republicans, Irish Republicans and others along the way.

Dallas' Inwood Theatre, home of our
TEXAS PREMIERE on July 26/27, 2012

Inside of The Inwood Theatre (Landmark Cinemas)

We traveled from the wilds of Trenton NJ (where our current Mayor is currently under FBI investigation) to Charlotte NC, Montgomery AL, Jackson MS, Dallas TX, Waco TX, Tucson AZ, Albuquerque NM and Salina KS.  In each city, we were greeted by enthusiastic audiences made up of folks from across the political, racial and economic spectrums.  Something that we found consistently before and after each screening is that there are a lot of people searching for a new political identity in our current Two-Party political system.  And these people come in all sizes, shapes and colors. 

That being said, each city was quite different.  In Montgomery AL, we got more Republican turnout than Democrat and for the first time, had a good number of GOP officials (local and State) in attendance.  In Jackson MS, we screened at a Historically Black College and University called Jackson State University and had a moving and thoughtful academic discussion with Professors, Faculty, Students and the local community.  In Dallas TX, thanks to Talk Show Host Mark Davis, we received the ONLY pre-Texas Premiere coverage of the film (unless you count the Dallas Morning News’ Film Critic ripping us on the newspaper’s blog for being White Filmmakers).  

In Waco, where we had an older African American couple (who traveled over an hour to see our film) cry in the back row because as Conservatives – they related so much to our film’s story.  In Tucson AZ, there were White Liberals filing complaints about what we didn’t include in our film (but should have, in the version THEY wanted us to make).  In Albuquerque NM, we had a “spirited” post-Q&A discussion with a different older African American couple about the Auto Bailout, NAFTA, Bill Clinton not really being a Democrat (as opposed to President Obama), “dark-skinned” political candidates versus “light-skinned” candidates and its apparent importance, as well as their charge that our film was a “recruiting tool” for the Republican Party.  Finally in Salina KS, where we had a tough crowd of hard-core, mainly White Democrats come out of our film amazed that it was as informative, moving and balanced as it was.  We learned a lot from screening our film in so many places and before so many different audiences.

 
We also found out that when it comes to Media, be prepared for unforeseen opportunities.  Opportunities can come from Media sources that you would never expect to be interested in your subject matter.  This occurred previously when I was interviewed on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s THE BRODY FILES (expected); then later the same day - I was on a Panel about our film on Al Jazeera English’s INSIDE STORY (unexpected).  While on our Screening Tour, we caught the eye of one of cable news’ most interesting shows… THE WAR ROOM WITH JENNIFER GRANHOLM on Current TV (Al Gore’s Network).  I kid you not, dear readers.   

Governor Jennifer Granholm is the former Democratic Governor of Michigan and I am pretty sure she will not be voting for Mitt Romney this fall.  But, she and her Staff were very interested in our film – especially after seeing it.  Well, on Friday night July 6^th, I was interviewed by the Governor about FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN and several clips from it were shown to their viewers during the piece.   Admittedly, I am not a regular viewer of Current TV, but I had seen this Show before and while Governor Granholm has a focused point-of-view – she was completely professional, kind and positive about our film and our message with it.  From her Producers we worked with via e-mail/phone calls to the Production Staff talking in my ear while I sat in a satellite studio in Tucson while they were in San Francisco to the Governor herself , it was a great experience.  I would encourage any other Republicans or Conservatives to go on her Show and put forth their thoughts and beliefs.  MSNBC on steroids, this Show was not!

This Current TV interview was by far the biggest TV Media piece we have ever done and was a good momentum builder for what we hope to achieve in the coming months before the Presidential Election.  We are working to bring get to FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN to New York City (Manhattan) for a Screening/Q&A and really get our film out into the world.  As far as we know, no independent film that positively portrays Republicans (without propaganda), let alone Black Republicans has ever screened in New York City.  As NYC is the home of American independent film and especially documentary, FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN would be the first independent film to do so.  

We do realize that even though we are “Mom and Pop Shop” kind of filmmakers, our film could attract some controversy.  Having no idea if Reverend Sharpton will show up with a bullhorn to protest us or if some group will picket the theatre, we go into this with open eyes and full hearts.  We feel pretty confident that not all the Big Media can or will ignore us.  If we get to New York City, maybe our little film can help get a real, honest discussion on Race and Politics going this fall instead of just the “race-baiting” junk that will likely go on. 

Tamara, our Producer, and I are Republicans ourselves and as much as some of our Friends on the Left don’t want to admit it – our Party is not racist and never has been.  Unfortunately, our own GOP has let the other Party get away with the “racist” charge for decades and Urban America and African Americans specifically have been the collateral damage resulting from this.  We think it is time to reset the clock on the whole discussion and that the best way we can do that is to keep screening our film and to now do it in New York City. 

As independent filmmakers, we can assure you that any help in bringing FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN to the Media Capital called New York City will be greatly appreciated.  Please consider purchasing a Pre-Release DVD or Movie Poster from our website, www.fearofablackrepublican.com, to help us make it all happen.  If we are able to achieve our goal, we hope to make you proud.

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.

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...