September 17, 2008

Keeping Hold of Your Vision—the Making of Hounddog

I've been working with Deborah Kampmeier and the folks distributing the film Hounddog for the last couple of months reaching out to women and sexual assault organizations.

Check out this piece I put together for the Women's Media Center on Hounddog:

One of the dirty secrets of the film business is that it takes women directors a long time to get their films made. The Women, which opened recently, took Diane English 14 years to bring to the screen; other examples include Tamara Jenkins award-winning The Savages and Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss, which took 10 years each. Writer/director Deborah Kampmeier joins this illustrious club with her own decade long trek to see her film Hounddog starring Dakota Fanning finally released in theatres.

Hounddog, a small film with a budget under $4 million, doesn't seem controversial on the surface. But it seemed to raise a storm at every turn. Why? (Full disclosure—I am a consultant helping on the release of the film.)

Read full story here: Keeping Hold of Your Vision—the Making of Hounddog