April 24, 2008

Falling for Grace: A Lesson in Perseverance

Since I started writing this site several months ago I have been contacted by a variety of women filmmakers who are in different stages of their films. While each woman's story is different, one thing they have in common is the difficulties each faces, how isolated they feel, and how hard it is to get a movie directed by a woman and/or about a woman to see the light of day.

No one said making movies was an easy business, but it seems that its gotten even harder, especially for women, and it's even more important that women directors and writers get support because we are in danger of being stuck in a world of film that is seen only from the male directors and male writers perspectives and we can't allow this to happen.

So, I decided that this site will be a place for women creatives to have their voices heard.

One of these women is Fay Ann Lee, the co-writer, producer, director and star of Falling for Grace an adorable romantic comedy that debuted several years ago at the Tribeca Film Festival to sold out audiences. Fay was hoping that Tribeca would set her up with a distributor but no distributor came calling. The variations of no she heard included, the lack of stars (even though B.D. Wong and Margaret Cho are in it), and the fact because the film stars an Asian woman that mainstream audiences won't accept it. Can Hollywood really believe that people are that narrowminded? People are longing to see good films, its just that the only things available in their communities are the same old, same old, big Hollywood pieces of crap. And, Hollywood has no desire to even try and figure out how to market movies to women.

Lee refused to give up and has been self-distributing the film herself. This past weekend the film played in Phoenix at the main art house and outgrossed another film that was playing on two screens to her one! They are running for another week in Phoenix (so if you know anyone there send them to the Camelview.)

If anyone is interested in helping Fay get a distribution deal, I will get you in touch with Fay.

You can check out the trailer here: Falling for Grace
Website: http://www.fallingforgrace.com/