See What I’m Saying
After this year’s Academy Awards, you might think that everything’s been done. A woman finally won best director, the lady from Speed won a best actress nod and the phrase “uber bingo” was used in an acceptance speech. That’s why we’re excited about the upcoming documentary “See What I’m Saying,” which breaks new ground for the deaf community. Directed and produced by filmmaker Hilari Scarl, the film not only follows four deaf/hard of hearing performers–a subset of the entertainment community that mainstream audiences know little about–but every print of the film is open captioned making it available to all audiences, including those who don’t know sign language. Unlike most films, where deaf audiences are limited to only a handful of options if they want to catch a captioned screening, all showings of SWIS will be accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing.
This heartfelt documentary follows four entertainers in the deaf community as they attempt to cross over to mainstream audiences during a single year: CJ Jones, an internationally celebrated comic in the deaf world, but virtually unknown to hearing audiences fights to cross over to the mainstream by producing the first international sign language theatre festival in Los Angeles; Bob Hiltermann, a drummer in the world’s only deaf rock band, Beethoven’s Nightmare, produces the largest show in the band’s 30 year history; Robert DeMayo, a brilliant actor who teaches at Juilliard, struggles to survive when he becomes homeless; and TL Forsberg, a hard-of-hearing singer finds herself caught between the hearing and deaf communities when she attracts a major producer to record her first CD “Not Deaf Enough.”
The world premier is being held at Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater on March 18th.
Tickets are available here.
The film opens in Los Angeles March 19-April 1st. Tickets are available at www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com
The film premiers in New York City on April 9th – April 22nd at the Village East Cinema.
Tickets are available here.
For more information and screenings, visit www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com
On a steel horse (or train) I ride…
A few days ago we caught you up on all the goings on with Bon Jovi. And there’s more!
New Jersey Transit Commuters – be on the look out for the poster below on your trains through out the month of November. Take a photo of the barcode on the bottom left with your barcode enabled smart phone, sit back and enjoy some great content on the Bon Jovi mobile website. It will make your commute fly by.
Then take a photo of the poster and email it to YourItList@HarperCollins.com and we’ll send the first 10 people a free copy of Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful.
Bon Jovi, it’s their life
Bon Jovi, America’s favorite band, has a busy fall coming up.
Their new single, “We Weren’t Born to Follow” is currently playing on every station. Their new studio album The Circle drops on November 10th, they just announced today a tour in early 2010 (including the first concert at the new Meadowlands in May), Showtime will air a behind-the-scenes documentary about the band on October 24th and on top of all of that the band has a book coming out November 3rd - Bon Jovi: When We Were Beautiful – which celebrates their 25th anniversary with never-before-seen photos and stories from Jon, Richie, David and Tico.
The book is available now to pre-order and you can get an exclusive, early SNEAK PEEK INSIDE THE BOOK before it goes on sale.
Check back with YourItList.com as we will be releasing more information about the book and the band over the next few weeks.
“It’s foolish not to look that way now …”
Grey Gardens
I know I’m last to the garden party. Only this past weekend did I finally watch the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens, ‘starring’ Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Little Edie. I admit, even in my Interview magazine laden childhood, I never was really influenced by the film – which seems odd – how the film seemingly skipped over my adolescent fascinations with artists, musicians and writers (Andy Warhol most notably – how he must have loved this film).
Grey Gardens is the name of the mansion where the Beale’s reside. With no income, the massive house has gone into disarray and the girls live in seclusion while their bitterness, disillusionment and missed dreams have worn them into the ultimate bickering side-show. All beautifully captured on film. In the years since, the documentary – and especially Little Edie – has inspired a Broadway musical, the recent HBO film, a Rufus Wainwright song … and countless fashion designers (for the trapped-in-a-time-capsule aspect of Little Edie’s fashion alone, this film is worth watching).
In an article published by The Harvard Crimson in 1976, the filmmakers are quoted as saying that Grey Gardens is not a documentary, but “a non-fiction film”. Which I completely agree with. A typical documentary, you’d learn more of a story; the how’s and why’s of a particular situation. That’s not the case with Grey Gardens. In Grey Gardens, you’re shown a quick view into an incredibly bizarre real existence.
But, like most reality, I just didn’t like it. Is that OK to say? Maybe it’s because I’m expected to love it. But maybe because it need subtitles. While I caught lines like “It’s foolish not to look that way now” (Big Edie remarking on modeling shot of Little Edie, 15 years ago…) – oh how I long for the lines I missed.
Today, we’re a bit obsessed with reality – not our own – but the realty of others. Television is dominated by this trend and one imagines that Grey Gardens might be the original reality program. If the Edie’s were around today, there’s little doubt in my head we’d be watching them on E!, following in the footsteps of Anna Nicole … truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
