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There’s a good interview with Pamela T. Boll, director of “Who Does She Think She Is?” at Salon.

A choice quote:

“… In the arts, there’s no guarantee for success. Even if you’re working at Wal-Mart, if you show up, you get paid. In the studio, you don’t. It’s very risky business. You have to create your own life and have a very strong understanding about what your have to offer. There will be a lot of people telling you that you’re just fooling around. Society just doesn’t consider an artist’s work as “work” — just like motherhood isn’t often acknowledged as being real work.”

Scott Macaulay of Filmmaker magazine has written a bit about film marketing that’s worth a read. His thoughts apply to all largish creative endeavors, not just films. Here are a few excerpts from his current Editor’s Note:

“We are all telling you that you must define your audience, aggregate them, get their email addresses, build a marketing plan and conform to a new orthodoxy that believes that it’s up to the filmmaker to drive the new model that will see a film arrive to audiences’ home screens, desktops and cell phones.

As the Labs progressed throughout the week, I found myself resisting a ‘one size fits all’ pattern of advice, urging each filmmaker to discover what might make their film stand-out in the marketplace and hone a strategy that was unique to them. There was one film, a beautifully executed, small relationship drama, that probably shouldn’t be hyping themselves through endless email blasts; the film will get into a great festival and audiences should feel like they’ve discovered it on their own… On the other hand, there was a powerful social-issue film that needs to target and reach out to audiences who will debate the movie’s topical concerns after the credits roll. Each of these filmmakers shouldn’t try to shoehorn their film into some new conventional wisdom. In other words, nobody knows anything – except, if he or she is very lucky, the filmmaker…”

You can read the whole thing here.

… as strange and beautiful as it is.

Incidentally, the image is divided into nine parts. According to Michael Schnieder “Nine is the final number having a specific identity… The ancient Greeks called nine ‘the horizon,’ as it lies at the edge of the shore before the boundless ocean of numbers that repeat in endless cycles the principals of the first nine digits.”

Ooh! There’s a new film out that I can hardly wait to see. It’s called Who Does She Think She Is? and it’s about work/life balance told through the stories of five women artists. I just spent the last half hour browsing the film’s site & blog and came away feeling inspired but also struck as the filmmakers’ experience – early rejections from big festivals followed by exhilarating success with independent screenings – reminds me of my own with Sister Bee. I think there’s pent up demand for this type of filmmaking – films by and about women made for broad audiences – that just isn’t being met.

Thanks to Alyson Stanfield and her wonderful ArtBizBlog for the heads up.

Thanks to Deanna Wood, author of the wonderful painting blog Artist, Emerging, for tipping me off on a cool Science News article about archaeological honeybees.

A group of scientists have dug up a 3000 year old apiary in northern Israel. It’s the oldest one found to date. The photo accompanying the article is beautiful. It’s hard for me to make out exactly what’s going on but the repetitive ovoid shapes remind me of honeycomb found in the wild.

Here’s a funny quote:

“Many scholars assume that ancient Israelis made honey from fruits such as figs and dates. Nowhere does the Bible mention beekeeping as a way to produce honey.”

Huh?

A new project (whether it be a film or a painting) always begins with an image popping into mind. Most images pop and dissolve. But some stick around (patient and persistent ghosts) until I take the time to explore.

About a year ago I started seeing an image of a girl on a horse. It’s recurred often enough and feels charged enough to be the seed of a new film. I’m hesitant to dive into a new film project ’til I’ve wrapped up the initial marketing push for SISTER BEE. But feel ready to begin a quiet exploration of where this image could lead.

My first inquiry brought me to Diane Kennedy, of Equine Assisted Growth and Learning in Boulder. Diane works with people and horses in a therapeutic setting. She’s started a beautiful project that connects mothers of teenage girls with wild mustangs. I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Diane back in February and our conversation opened a whole new world of inquiry. It’s two months later and I’m still reading about wild mustangs, thinking about girls and horses and letting things settle until I feel clear about what the next step will be.

What’s next for SISTER BEE? Great question. And one that’s come up a few times since SISTER BEE premiered in November.

Yes! SISTER BEE will screen again. I loved producing the Boulder premiere (with the musicians, the beekeepers, the film, friends, the warmth etc…) and look forward to creating a similar experience for viewers in Northern Colorado, Denver Metro and in Maine before honey season 2007 kicks in. Stay tuned for more info.

I’m exploring other options too (TV, catalog distribution, that sort of thing). No news yet, but I’ll keep you posted as things come up. In the meantime… feel free to contact me with your ideas. I’d love to hear where you live and your thoughts on seeing SISTER BEE.  Would you like to see it in a theater?  Buy a DVD?  Share it with kids?  Friends?  Let me know.

Andy and I arrived at the IFP Market on Sunday, the 17th, just in time for orientation. (Many thanks to my cousin Carol and her husband John for dropping us at the front door.) Registration and orientation took place in the Puck Building, an elegant, historic structure with an ethereal ballroom on Lafayette St.

The first thing we encountered was a phalanx of filmmakers handing out postcards on the glass steps in front of the Puck. This was a great intro. to the Market as a big part of the experience is the handing out and receiving of postcards. More on postcards later…

First registration. Pretty straightforward with one notable exception and that’s that the energy in the room was intense! Not a bad kind of intense, just surprising. I expected something more easy going (it being a Sunday and all). But this was Manhattan. And not just anywhere Manhattan, but Orientation Day at the IFP Market, a gathering of ambitious film-types from all around the world here for the sole purpose of promoting the heck out of their films. Yikes! The energy was contagious. After about a half an hour of standing around slack-jawed I felt ready to dive in.

I work in two media – film and painting. As I continue to process the info. I got at the IFP Market while promoting SISTER BEE and preparing for Open Studios I’m asking myself “why the heck do I work this way? Why film AND painting? Why not either/or?” This is a question that I feel like I’m always in the process of answering.

Here’s the answer that seems right today.

The impulse or curiosity that drives me to create a film is the same impulse or curiosity that drives the creation of a painting. Right now my questions revolve around the differences (or connections) between humans and animals. What’s a human quality and what’s an animal quality? What’s wild and what’s domestic? (I know this seems straightforward but once you start spending time with social animals like bees it gets harder and harder to answer.)

Working in two media feels like I’m asking the same question of two listeners each with a unique response. A film responds with language, others’ voices, movement and rhythm. Because it’s a medium whose perception requires the passage of time it inevitably tells a story. A painting responds differently. It has physical presence. It provides a more physical, less intellectual response than a film does. I deliberately refrain from using words in my paintings so people won’t have to use the language-processing parts of their brains to take them in. Paintings and the process of painting seem closer to the animal side of human experience. Films are more uniquely human.

P.S. More details on the IFP Market coming soon…

So what is the IFP Market anyway? Great question. According to the Filmmaker’s Guide published by IFP it’s “an event for individual artists themselves to present their work to the industry… Supplemented by numerous panels, workshops and social events, the IFP Market is more than just a venue to screen your film and pitch your script. It is a five-day networking opportunity…”

This is a great description. Even so, I didn’t truly get the Market until I went. It’s a big experience – “a mad dash of a market” as my friend Abby describes it – consisting of screenings, scheduled meetings, a conference and a promising string of social events. I went to promote SISTER BEE. My husband (and SISTER BEE’s Co-Producer) Andy joined me. We had a blast. I’ll outline the details in my next few posts.