What Clint Eastwood Did Last Night...

As a Filmmaker who happens to be Republican, I want to share a few thoughts about Clint Eastwood's speaking at the Republican National Convention last night.  Clint is an artist and if you don't know, one who changed the Hollywood system when he became one of the first Actors to become a Director with PLAY MISTY FOR ME (1971).  Working in the film industry myself, I feel a great kinship with Clint as a fellow filmmaker and as someone who is politically active on a local level.  And like millions of other Americans, I was very curious and being a Republican and a Filmmaker - very pumped to hear what he would say about this current Election.

Needless to say, Clint exceeded my expectations in ways I didn't consider before I turned on my TV last night.  I expected him a take on his now infamous Super Bowl Car Commercial from this past February.  Wrong!  Clint would just trot out, give an enhanced Oscar speech with a few great lines punched up with a Dirty Harry reference or mention that being the Mayor of Carmel, CA was more Executive experience than our President had. Wrong!  I thought he would take back his "It's Halftime" line from said Super Bowl commercial and say something like "Now this here in Tampa... this is Halftime" in his great, gravelly voice.  Wrong!  Finally, I thought "well, he has TROUBLE WITH THE CURVE coming out next month and won't do anything to hurt his movie or his chances for one last Best Actor Nomination (lots of buzz on this).  Wrong Again!

What Clint did last night was nothing less than extraordinary and a great, self-less sacrifice for his Country and his fellow Americans.  By taking the stage last night and employing the empty-chair prop, Clint did what no other Republican or Mitt Romney could ever do... make it okay to make fun of the President and humanize him for his decisions, his choice of focus and most importantly, his choice of who he represents.  Clint humanized the President and brought him down from the self-created (and self-restricting) lofty heights of the "untouchable" to the human level of "touchable."  In my opinion, the President's Media and Campaign Guard have built an artificial castle wall around the President to his detriment.  If President Obama and his Party play it smart and humble, we may find that Clint's empty chair may help Obama 2012 because of such humanization.  However, that isn't likely and I think Clint probably took this possibility into account before last night.

Clint knew well before he flew to Tampa, got into a car and arrived at the Convention that he was going to get drilled for what he was about to say and do.  He knew that the National and International Media would try to take out him, his persona, his incredible record as a filmmaker and his beliefs in right and wrong.  He also knew that his chances of being invited to the Academy Awards one last time as a Nominee would be done as soon as the lights came up.

Clint also spoke out on behalf the thousands of us in the film and entertainment industry who cannot speak because we must fear loss of jobs, loss of opportunity or if you are an independent filmmaker... any consideration of your talent before your political or religious beliefs.  Yes, Clint is an A-Lister quite familiar with success and having every actor in Hollywood wanting to work for him.  His position in the film industry is safe (for now), but that could change as he tries to make his last few films.  Clint, like any artist, is always looking for the next great story and inspiration and hoping he can try and make a masterpiece better than his last one.  After an almost 60-year career, Clint still needs to get financing from someone and that number of someones might be shrinking right now.  As a film-lover and fan of Clint's directing style, I hope he doesn't face retribution for last night's empty chair moment.  This man of good humor and grace has too much to offer us.

If you have not seen the great film GRAN TORINO (2008), you should.   Like this weekend.  For you will see Clint at his best as an Actor/Director and you will see what I feel was the inspiration for Clint's trying to help his Country turns things around last night.  At the end of GRAN TORINO, an older self-made gentleman named Walt Kowalski sacrifices himself in order to save his neighborhood and the good, defenseless people living in it.  These folks didn't look like or talk like Walt.  They may not have shared all his beliefs.  But what Walt does at the end of the film (I won't tell you what he does), gives these good people a chance to change their destiny and be the best that they can be.  That is what one Clint Eastwood bravely did last night.  He told the American People that they are the best and he gave them a chance to be the best that they can be.  Hopefully, like Walt's Hmong immigrant neighbors in GRAN TORINO, we will make the most of it.

Kevin Williams
Director/Co-Producer,
FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN
www.fearofablackrepublican.com

No major news or blogging to be done tonight.  We are working hard as heck on our upcoming screening schedule and getting our film before more audiences.  We now have our own projection and sound system, so aren't dependent on solely using movie theaters anymore.  This should give us a lot more flexibility and access to more and different types of venues.

In the meantime, we busted our tails to get our newest movie trailer done.  This new FEAR OF A BLACK REPUBLICAN 2012 Election Trailer trailer includes Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Edward W. Brooke, Christine Todd Whitman, John McCain, Michelle Malkin, Grover Norquist, Barack Obama.  Please check it out and go to www.fearofablackrepublican.com for more information.  Enjoy:

BTW, Congratulations to Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum for the performances this evening.  The rest of the way should be quite interesting.  Hopefully, urban issues and Urban Republicans and Black Republicans will play a real part in the discussion at some point.

Best to All,

THE TEAM

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).