The Milk of hope... fund raiser on the way

Well, no one said independent filmmaking was a walk in the park. I hope my blog does not persuade you to abandon your dreams and artistic ambitions.

Back in October Alci Medina (Cinematographer, best friend and regular collaborator) and I met with a publicist friend. Alci insisted that this lady was the right person to help us with our fund raising efforts, and a person who had experience with such events.  We met with her and we had a productive meeting.  She liked the project, and since she had already seen screeners of my previous short films such as "Hispaniola", "The Woman from Columbus Circle" and "Pinchos y Rolos",  she knew there was care and quality in my and Alci's work.

However, a week or so after our meeting, she convinced us to not even attempt at throwing a fund raiser during the holiday season. November was out of the question, according to her, because it was too soon. She was partly right.  Unfortunately, a lot of the promises never came to fruition.  After emails and calls that would go answer for days at a time, we were finally informed, after we waited many weeks, that her family life had gotten complicated and that she was sorry, but she could not do the event and was in fact taking a break from doing PR work.  It was fine with me and I understood, but I wished she had told us this sooner as we now realized that it was next to impossible to do the fund raiser at the end of January like we would've liked. I think she's a beautiful person, but I think she should had been more upfront with us. In fact she told us she would help us spread out the word when we do the fund raiser.  I appreciated the gesture.

Alex Guerero

Because of my past experiences, I already was implementing a plan B for the venue and the date of the fund raiser.  Well, this illustrate perfectly the road blocks and shit that you encounter as a producer when getting an independent film, be it a feature or short off the ground.

For the fund raiser, both Alci and I agree that we should have some kind of art work or poster that would illustrate the film, and perhaps give a copy of the poster along with a DVD of my short film Hispaniola to the first fifty people who would show up for the fund raiser.  The idea is that for $20 you would get free drinks and hors-d'oeuvres for two hours, watch the interview shot in the DR with the real subject of my short film, Sonia Marmolejos, and perhaps also see "Hispaniola". Basically you would walk away with a poster and a DVD if you show up early. Not to mention that you can dance your ass off and get tipsy for a good cause.

So, with the help of Alex Guerrero, a friend who I met through the producer of the documentary I'm cutting and directing (The Faces Behind Madame Alexander's Dolls), I hired a relative of an actress friend of mine who happened to have a six month old baby who she happened to be breast feeding.  Her name is Barby Florentino and she was wonderful, the only problem was that her baby was too light skinned to have that contrast we were after. But we decided to shoot the pictures anyway in hopes that at least it would serve as a dry run for the real poster. We decided that we would get a black baby and take the picture with the same actress.

Barby Florentino and her baby girl.

The task of locating a black baby, be it Latino or not, proved more daunting that we thought, specially if you're paying very little.  We asked around but either the babies were too big, in some cases nearly a year old or the were still in the bellies of their mothers.  So after a few days a light bulb turned on in my head:  Why not have the picture taken in the Dominican Republic by a photographer.  That way, my aunt Elizabeth Ovalle who would be doing the casting for the short would be able to get a Dominican lactating mother and a Haitian baby for the picture.  Right now we're in the process of doing that and hopefully next week we'll have the photo session and give Alex Guerrero the materials so he could start doing his thing. Kudos to Rider Urena, who owns the painting studio where we shot the pictures. Thank you Barby Florentino for being such a trooper and posing without any problem for the picture we need.

Relaxing after the photo shoot. Left to right

Rider Urena, Barby Florentito and Alex Guerreo.

My own mom made a trip to little haiti in Santo Domingo, but it turns out that because the Dominican government is stepping up it's deportation of undocumented haitians, many undocumented mothers and their babies and in hiding at the moment. The reason for the the Dominican government to be doing this is they say to stop the spread of cholera to the D.R. There are 150 confirmed cases in the Dominican Republic as of this writing.

To make matters worse, the feature documentary I'm currently working on has been taking longer than anticipated, due in no small part to the fact that the executive producer added last minute interviews and also because I had to wear many hats other than director/editor.  Because of this I still have to finish editing the interview I shot back in July 2010 with Sonia. It's crucial that this interview be ready not only for the fund raiser in NYC but also for Juan Basanta (DR producer) so he can pitch it to a couple of potential government individuals or institutions who may want to back something like this.

I'll post the picture of the Haitian baby breast feeing from Dominican mother Until next time... and thanks for reading.

P.S. I mean to upload this post more than a week ago. I'm happy to report we got the pictures back from the D.R. and they look fantastic. We'll post those at the end of the week. Thanks for following our blogg. We also got a place and a date for the fundraiser. Will send out invites tomorrow.

FV.

                                                    
                                                

The Milk of Hope / El Seno de la Esperanza

No words needed.

After the earthquake that devastated Haiti almost a year ago today I find myself in the planning stages of a film that will be a tribute to an incredible Dominican woman who helped in a very simple, humble and beautiful way many of the children victims of this unimaginable tragedy.  The moment I read her story in the Dominican media earlier this year the more I thought that her story should take cinematic form.  It was one of those real life stories that just stayed with me and didn't want to leave my head.

I gathered as much research over the internet as possible on this woman, because I wasn't going to be happy until I dramatized her story the best way I knew how, first on paper, as a script based on the real life events and then as a film.  Her name is Sonia Marmolejos and she became a national hero in the Dominican Republic when after the earthquake hit our neighbor Haiti, she breast fed many Haitian babies whose mothers were either dead or injured in other hospitals.  Many of these babies were in bad shape themselves. Sonia was at the Dario Contreras Trauma Center in Santo Domingo with her four year old daughter who had an operation for polio when the earthquake hit. A few days later she breast fed the first Haitian baby, his name was Orlando Diego, that's all she remembers. He had a nasty head injury, basically a sunken skull and needed to be operated on and was crying uncontrollably when she stepped in to breast feed him. Having a two month old baby of her own back in the town of Enriquillo in Barahaona province she was full of milk.  Her labor of love continued for many days, helping many babies get back on their feet.  After learning what happened, the president of the Dominican Republic, Mr. Leonel Fernandez sent for her. When asked if she wanted anything for doing such a beautiful and unselfish thing for these babies, she said she only wanted medical help for her own child who had been stricken with a form of polio.  The government gave Sonia a brand new house for her, her husband and her five kids. She also got a monthly stipend from the port authority and on December 23 of this year, her child will finally get the surgery that will allow her to walk again.  Last but not least she got the highest civilian honor from the government "La Orden del Merito Duarte, Sanchez y Mella".  She got this award at a ceremony attended by presidents Bill Clinton, Rene Preval of Haiti and Fernandez of the Dominican Republic.

Sonia's beautiful smile.

There is much more about this story of how this 28 year old mother of five, hundreds of miles away from home helped the little victims in such an incredible way.  I wrote the script based on the news reports I had read and titled it "The Milk of Hope" in the English version and the Spanish version "El Seno de la Esperanza".  The short script caught the attention of HBO and the New York Latino International Film Festival and was I was invited to pitch it to an audience at an HBO panel held during the festival this past summer called The Art of the Short.  I had been pitching it to my own colleagues, friends and family for a couple of months so when the time came the pitch flowed naturally.  The script and pitch got high marks from the HBO executive Gregg Rhem, who was moderating the panel. This was very encouraging and I pledge to myself that I would come back to next years festival with a finished film.

Freddy Vargas, sets up a shot in between takes

Right before the festival my friend in Santo Domingo, the director and  producer Juan Basanta had read the script and liked it. He suggested that I should go and interview the real Sonia Marmolejos and get the story from horse's mouth.  This way, I would be able to enhance the script and tell her story more accurately. He also suggested that I might be able to use the footage from the interview to start the film, sort of the way that is in my script, but with the real person.  My original script is book ended by an interview with Sonia Marmolejos on national TV.  I had planned to meet with Sonia in the near future, but I thought the idea was excellent and wasted no time, so Alci Medina (my best friend and Cinematographer of my last short and producer and collaborator in many other projects since we both attended St. John's Unversity) and I got on a plane a few weeks later (this is before the HBO panel) and went to Santo Domingo where we me Basanta and so within two days after we got there, armed with a small crew we drove seven hours to Enriquillo, Barahona to shoot the interview with Sonia.  The interview went great and Sonia proved to be kind, humble, and supportive of the idea of making the film.

We're planning a fund raiser to be held at the end of January and are approaching the right people in the D.R. in order to make this short film a reality.    More to come....

Incredible blue water and sky in Enriquillo, Barahona.

Cows on the side of road on our way back to the capital from lush Enriquillo.

This shot of Balneario Los Patos ended up in the cut of the interview.

Balneario Los Patos in Barahona D.R.

Turquoise blue waters of Enriquillo.

Outside a pulperia in Enriquillo.

Enriquillo street. This shot ended up in the interview.

Enriquillo street.

Panoramic shot of Enriquillo, Barahona. This is in the cut.

A shot Basanta took with his flip camera.

Little boy in abandoned Cock Fighting ring.

From Basanta's flip camera.

Aunt Elizabeth applying make up to Sonia.

Sonia breastfed her baby without us asking her and kept shooting the interview.

Sonia getting her make up done for the interview.

Setting up landscape shot of Enriquillo, Barahona with Alci Medina (left).  5D Cannon.

Alci Medina doing his thing.     

A shot from the 5D, during interview. Alci Medina, cinematographer.

Juan Basanta self portrait.

During the filming of the interview with Sonia Marmolejos.