Where to help with this project:
ONLY CHILD is a modern day mother/daughter noir with influences as diverse as PSYCHO, THREE WOMEN, NOW, VOYAGER, and MILDRED PIERCE. The locales are the typical haunts of noir: neglected roadside motels, sun faded diners, and homes that hide menace under a veneer of fancy decor. The characters are trapped in the past but trying to move away from it. Their identities are fluid and merge, making it harder for them to know themselves and each other.
WHY KICKSTARTER AND WHAT DO YOU GET OUT OF IT?
We need to raise $20,000 to start filming in April. We’ve raised the majority of our budget, but we’re not “there” just yet. Reaching our Kickstarter goal is crucial to our success.
We’ve tried to come up with creative incentives to offer you for helping us out, things that give you something besides a short lived warm fuzzy feeling. I've looked to my collaborators at Evelyn Avenue for help, and they've been generous enough to offer you something in return. The incentives of our campaign are a diverse sampling of the talented people who intersect at Evelyn Avenue Productions.
Of course, we'll be trying to make a really good film, as well.
WHO ELSE IS SUPPORTING THIS FILM?
Recently I was awarded the 2012 Film/Video grant by Creative Capital for theWoman's Picture Series and the work at Evelyn Avenue. 46 artists were chosen for this grant, out of over three thousand applicants. Creative Capital offers support and resources to its recipients and helps move projects like Woman's Picture toward completion and success.
HOW WILL YOUR DONATION BE USED?
Your donation will go toward helping us shoot the film in April. Your help now, combined with Creative Capital’s support, will give us the last boost we need to make this film possible, completing our budget goal. Thanks for your willingness to help make the film.
WHAT IS WOMAN'S PICTURE?
A year ago, we started a series called Woman’s Picture (read a review here), a related collection of stories inspired by the women’s films of the ‘30s, ‘40s, and ‘50s. The series is an homage to my childhood memories of my grandmothers and the films which remind me of them. I think of these cinematic portraits as an answer song, a way to recreate some of the stories I grew up hearing about the women in my family, their lives and the ways they were judged and viewed.
Part of what motivates me to do this series is my frustration with the way women are often depicted on screen. Hollywood and even many independent films seem to narrow down women characters in ways that contradict my own experience and the experience of most of the people I know. I want to see women characters who are as complex and inscrutable as the women I grew up around, and want to give the actresses I admire material to reflect that real life complexity on film.
The first feature film in the series (see trailer above) stars Ann Magnuson (as Miriam), Amy LaVere (pictured below as her character Loretta), and Calpernia Addams(as Ingrid). I was inspired by these actresses and wrote their parts explicitly for them. I love the women I work with and want to see them do something special on film. I try to write stories for them that provide them opportunities to do something unique, hopefully their best work, something people haven’t seen them do before maybe, something they haven’t tried to do themselves or been allowed to do.
Some of the related shorts in the Woman’s Picture series are featured on evelynavenue.com/videos/.
ONLY CHILD follows up with the character of Loretta. Along with Amy LaVere and Grace Zabriskie, ONLY CHILD features Angela Dee and Lindsey Roberts in principal roles.
WHY PERFUME?
When we started the Woman’s Picture series, I contacted my favorite perfumer, Zurich’s Andy Tauer (pictured above), about collaborating on a group of fragrances inspired by the characters in the films. Perfume was a big part of my childhood and plays a big role in the memories I have of the women in my family. Perfume is memory; like noir it merges past and present. Andy and I wanted to create scents that work with the films, enhancing the complexity of the characters even more. For this kickstarter campaign, Andy has created several exclusive items inspired by the stories of Loretta and her mother. Visit his blog.
Also, visit our blog evelynavenue.com, 'like' us on Facebook, and follow us onTwitter.
