Women of the World: It hasn’t quite sunk in as yet. Two weeks ago we had the world premier of Beauty In Truth in London. The event turned into so much more than a screening. The hunger to see Alice and our film was evident in two sold out screenings. 1,800 people roared, clapped and [...]
You may have noticed that I’ve been a little quiet on the blog front recently. As you’ve probably guessed, running the crowd-funding campaign was an all-encompassing experience – for 90 exhilarating, exhausting, inspiring days, IndieGoGo took over my life. Thanks to the generosity of over 300 donors from around the world, we managed to exceed [...]
We’re now over a month into our crowd-funding campaign – aiming to raise $50,000 in 90 days on IndieGoGo - and it has been an emotional rollercoaster. We have raised over $15,000 so far. Every donation truly makes my heart sing, and every encouraging comment spurs us on towards the finish line. Do check out the IndieGoGo [...]
Witches fly on brooms across wide open skies. Women filmmakers fly over fences – wooden ones, concrete ones, barbed wire ones, and monolithic, unshakeable ones. We sometimes knock ourselves out trying to break down these fences, but then we pick ourselves up and like the wise witches we ride up and above, buoyed by our [...]
In the few weeks since returning to London from filming in the US, we’ve really hit the ground running. The long hours and excitement of shooting have been replaced by a new challenge: crowdfunding. After over two decades of working in film, I’m no stranger to the challenge of raising money to finance projects, particularly [...]
Making this film has been an extraordinary journey so far. Giving me opportunities to meet some amazing and inspiring women, all of who deserve films in their own right. Jewelle Gomez is one such woman. I have known Jewelle for many years but rarely have had an opportunity to talk to her in depth. I [...]
It took two years to chase down Mr. Danny Glover for an interview, so finally when the call came; we had 24 hours to organize the crew and equipment. It would have been impossible if we were not already in the Bay Area but as luck would have it here we were/are on the right side [...]
Steven Spielberg & Pratibha Parmar – June 6th 2011(Photo by Shaheen Haq) Alice Walker’s story would of course not be complete without exploring a significant chapter in her life, namely The Color Purple Movie by Steven Spielberg. From what Alice Walker has written in her book The Same River Twice, and what have I read [...]
Photo Credit (c) Shaheen Haq Finished. A month long epic journey of filming in Mexico, Los Angeles and New York. I had started with high ambitions to blog regularly during our trip but it was clearly unrealistic once we hit a couple of roadblocks. Namely an urgent need to find a replacement DOP for our LA [...]
Monday June 6th, our last days’ shoot in Los Angeles started out with a fascinating interview with Steven Spielberg at Dreamworks (more on that next time) and ended with the most charming of interviews with Grammy and Tony nominated singer songwriter, Brenda Russell Brenda is part of the amazing trio of Allee Willis and Stephen [...]
Pre-production is inevitably always hectic. I love it when everything falls into place especially after you have spent painstaking hours sending endless emails and making umpteen phone calls to get all your lovely, dancing ducks in a row. Well that’s NOT what happened while prepping for our shoot in Los Angeles as one of our [...]
Greeted by the Sun “ I wrote the story myself. It’s all about a girl who lost her reputation but never missed it.” Mae West Our five-day shoot in Mexico is sadly over. Its’ been a good one. The crew is on its way back to Los Angeles with our 20 silver and black boxes [...]
Yes I admit it. I am an ‘insane optimist’ albeit one who has had to rewire her brain to embrace the ‘half glass full’ mantra J. I recently heard this phrase spoken by Ted Hope, a US based producer of more than a few dozen award-winning films. He used it to describe many of us [...]
Remember ? by Alice Walker I am the woman: Dark, repaired, healed Listening to you. I would give to the human race only hope. I am the woman offering two flowers whose roots are twin Justice and Hope Hope and Justice Let us begin. (c) Alice Walker “Each friend represents a world in us, a [...]
