During the first couple of days of my Boston visit, I had twice missed chances to visit with Penny’s old college friend Jeni, with whom I stayed Wednesday night. You’ll recall that I missed the second leg of my plane flight from Louisville via Chicago to Boston and spent the night in Chicago, instead of visiting with Jeni and Jaden and staying with her Tuesday night. Wednesday afternoon I hung back and talked with Linda and ended up arriving at Jeni’s two hours late (right after Jaden had gone to bed). I got to visit with Jeni that night and with Jeni, Jaden, and nanny Mercedes the next morning, but then Jeni had to go to work at Children’s Hospital (one of two places in Boston where she works as a doctor, and where she’s also a child abuse specialist) and I had to go to the first conference.
Probably this past winter we had received a card/announcement from Jeni, announcing Jaden’s arrival. Jeni, a single doctor who is roughly my age, it turns out, finalized an adoption application a little more than a year ago, and then was told the NEXT MORNING that they had an adoption placement in mind for her. Three weeks later – after the 18-year-old birth mother, had wavered, Jeni got a call and arrived at the labor and delivery. Weeks later Jaden (Janie having gotten a bunch of clothes, toys, crib, etc. from a friend whose kid was now about four) was at her Brookline condo for good.)We hoped to connect again, and – it turns out – Jeni invited me to the opening night movie screening of the Roxbury Film Festival, Boston’s annual African American-oriented film festival (which featured a Question and Answer session with the filmmaker). I missed Jeni’s call, but later we agreed to go (me missing the tail end of the focus group training and Chuck Tilly’s memorial event) to the final night showing of “Steam,” an independent movie with Ruby Dee, a grand old lady of cinema, who I’d seen an ‘Sounder” and (with her husband, the late Ossie Davis) in “Do the Right Thing” (both of them had been active in civil rights causes too) and, more recently, her Academy Award-winning turn as Denzel Washington’s character’s mother in “American Gangster.” Ruby Dee was to stay afterwards also for Q&A. Eventually I was to meet Jeni and her mother, who came to visit soon after I left Jeni’s house, for a snack beforehand and then stay for Q&A.
A few things changed, which eventually put me in a pizza place up near the Northeastern University campus (and near Fenway Park, where – on the TV in the pizza place – the Red Sox were playing the As, who I’d missed while I was in Oakland), down the street from the Museum of Fine Arts, where “Steam” was to play in the museum auditorium. (Jeni and I passed the Harvard public health school, on the Northeastern campus, where she’d gotten a master’s degree). It turns out that Ally Sheedy, Brat Pack regular who played the Goth character from the early 1980s classic “The Breakfast Club” (with the classic Simple Minds theme song “Don’t You (Forget About Me):) which Vincent has even seen, and – further back – 25 years ago this summer – from “War Games,” with Matthew Broderick (she’s probably in “St. Elmo’s Fire” also). And Sheedy (darling of my friend Gary) and the filmmaker, Kyle Schickner, would be at the Q&A also. I got to meet Jeni’s mother, with whom she has a complex relationship and whom Penny has visited in Amherst, MA, with Jeni, and Jeni’s boyfriend, Charles, and another friend of Jeni.
We got back with just a few minutes to go. The film festival was obviously a big deal. The movie had sold out soon after I got a ticket (on the way to pizza) and it had brought out – among other people – a slice of Boston’s black middle class. As it turned out, many people who were there were Ruby Dee fans, and many were also fans of Ally Sheedy (an Anglo actress), and – by the time we left – quite a few were also fans of the filmmaker.
Unbeknownst to us, all three of these folks were sitting in the second row. The film rolled. It is an independent film, and the production quality was good, but not quite as good as a regular movie you’d seen in an AMC theater. (I liked the music – including two Joan Osborne songs I like – but it turns out the filmmaker had to be very selective about music, because he couldn’t afford to pay fees for most of the more expensive songs he wanted.) Also, the top three actors were good. But I thought some of the actors playing more minor roles were a little slapstick/caricature-ish at times. (More on this in a moment.)
The movie (spoiler alert) revolves around three women – an African American woman around 80 years old whose husband had died a year earlier, an Anglo white woman in her early 40s with a boy and an obnoxious ex-husband, and a white Catholic woman with an obnoxious father who’s a first-year college student. They meet in the steam room of a local sauna, where they go particularly when things aren’t going well. All three go through some adventures during the course of the movie. It turns out this is only the fifth time this movie has screened, and it was not rated, so let’s just say there were a couple of scenes where I felt a little uncomfortable sitting next to Jeni’s mother. There were also some single mom with son and obnoxious ex-husband scenes that struck a little close to home, given our family situation. I thought both Ruby Dee and Ally Sheedy were great, although the actress (Reshma Shetty) who played a friend of the college student occasionally stole the show with her magnetic energy.
Watching a movie with a majority black (even middle class audience) was an experience (although it may have partly been the type of people attracted to the film festival, the youngish crowd, etc.). I said the character actors came off occasionally as cartoon-ish, but it was hard to separate this judgment in the abstract without paying attention to the fact that the audience was very involved in the movie. People laughed and occasionally jeered at scenes – so much so that it’s hard to know if the scenes and performances would seem slapstick if one was watching them alone. Still, this made it all more fun
Afterwards, the organizers brought three chairs up and eventually the filmmaker, Ruby Dee, and – lastly – Ally Sheedy made their way up. Ruby Dee got a standing ovation. (I mentioned she and then also the filmmaker were slated for the Q&A – but then Ally Sheedy apparently volunteered and asked if she could join them.) Organizers read and gave Ruby Dee a proclamation from the Boston City Council establishing the day Ruby Dee Day in Boston. Most of the early questions went to her, and she gave articulate if occasionally disjointed responses. Ally Sheedy only responded to a couple of questions, saying later that she thought it was appropriate to let the light shine on her co-star.
But eventually, the real star of the Q&A was the filmmaker, who easily charmed the audience. He said he decided he wanted to be in movies when he saw Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee perform in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” He said he wrote the “Steam” script 15 years ago partly for Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis (who has subsequently died). When he shopped the script around, movie companies told him to eliminate Ruby Dee’s character and to beef up some of the less G-rated scenes. He said he was OK with the second suggestion, but definitely not with the first suggestion. So finally – after nearly 15 years – he self-produced the movie. I’ve read recently in the paper about the difficulties around this. With fewer and fewer independent theaters, more and more mainstream movies being produced and distributed by the big distributors, big distributors buying up the art house film distributors (like Miramax) (and apparently making them more mainstream), and conventional movie marketing campaigns becoming more and more expensive, it’s tougher for genuinely independent films. There are a few changes that benefit independent films, like established venues that feature independent films (like the Sundance Film Festival) and the possibility of relatively inexpensive if clever Internet-based marketing campaigns. But, still, it’s tough. The filmmaker said that the people who make independent films – like him – may be pretty good at filmmaking but they often turn out not to be very good at business and marketing.
The filmmaker said he purposely included a number of African Americans in the film (including the college freshwoman’s roommate) and showcased romances among people whom movies don’t usually show in romances. He said the next venture he’s working on is a black version of Robin Hood. He was careful to say – I’m not black, and I’m not in my 80s (an so on), but I talked with people and I tried to figure out what it might be like …. On the other hand, at some point, he said something about – It’s tough for African American filmmakers . . . like . . . me – and then he stopped himself. But, at that point, this interesting man had the audience in his hands – and – as he stopped himself – the audience cheered.
The three of them stayed way later they were supposed to for Q&A. Towards the end, Jeni’s mother – a little younger than Ruby Dee – but still an African American woman in her 70s or 80s – asked a question.
Afterwards, the three of them still hung out and chatted with folks on stage. I got to shake Ally Sheedy’s hands and tell her I found some of her later scenes the most striking of the movie. I also told her she could have talked a little more. She was OK with the light shining on Ruby Dee, said Sheedy, who said she was coming from New York City (though it also shown on the filmmaker). I took some more pictures, and I thought of going back to get an autograph – perhaps for Gary? – but ended up busying myself with trying to find my cell phone which (for not the first or second time) I had left behind under our seats.
We got back with just a few minutes to go. The film festival was obviously a big deal. The movie had sold out soon after I got a ticket (on the way to pizza) and it had brought out – among other people – a slice of Boston’s black middle class. As it turned out, many people who were there were Ruby Dee fans, and many were also fans of Ally Sheedy (an Anglo actress), and – by the time we left – quite a few were also fans of the filmmaker.
Unbeknownst to us, all three of these folks were sitting in the second row. The film rolled. It is an independent film, and the production quality was good, but not quite as good as a regular movie you’d seen in an AMC theater. (I liked the music – including two Joan Osborne songs I like – but it turns out the filmmaker had to be very selective about music, because he couldn’t afford to pay fees for most of the more expensive songs he wanted.) Also, the top three actors were good. But I thought some of the actors playing more minor roles were a little slapstick/caricature-ish at times. (More on this in a moment.)
The movie (spoiler alert) revolves around three women – an African American woman around 80 years old whose husband had died a year earlier, an Anglo white woman in her early 40s with a boy and an obnoxious ex-husband, and a white Catholic woman with an obnoxious father who’s a first-year college student. They meet in the steam room of a local sauna, where they go particularly when things aren’t going well. All three go through some adventures during the course of the movie. It turns out this is only the fifth time this movie has screened, and it was not rated, so let’s just say there were a couple of scenes where I felt a little uncomfortable sitting next to Jeni’s mother. There were also some single mom with son and obnoxious ex-husband scenes that struck a little close to home, given our family situation. I thought both Ruby Dee and Ally Sheedy were great, although the actress (Reshma Shetty) who played a friend of the college student occasionally stole the show with her magnetic energy.
Watching a movie with a majority black (even middle class audience) was an experience (although it may have partly been the type of people attracted to the film festival, the youngish crowd, etc.). I said the character actors came off occasionally as cartoon-ish, but it was hard to separate this judgment in the abstract without paying attention to the fact that the audience was very involved in the movie. People laughed and occasionally jeered at scenes – so much so that it’s hard to know if the scenes and performances would seem slapstick if one was watching them alone. Still, this made it all more fun
Afterwards, the organizers brought three chairs up and eventually the filmmaker, Ruby Dee, and – lastly – Ally Sheedy made their way up. Ruby Dee got a standing ovation. (I mentioned she and then also the filmmaker were slated for the Q&A – but then Ally Sheedy apparently volunteered and asked if she could join them.) Organizers read and gave Ruby Dee a proclamation from the Boston City Council establishing the day Ruby Dee Day in Boston. Most of the early questions went to her, and she gave articulate if occasionally disjointed responses. Ally Sheedy only responded to a couple of questions, saying later that she thought it was appropriate to let the light shine on her co-star.
But eventually, the real star of the Q&A was the filmmaker, who easily charmed the audience. He said he decided he wanted to be in movies when he saw Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee perform in Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” He said he wrote the “Steam” script 15 years ago partly for Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis (who has subsequently died). When he shopped the script around, movie companies told him to eliminate Ruby Dee’s character and to beef up some of the less G-rated scenes. He said he was OK with the second suggestion, but definitely not with the first suggestion. So finally – after nearly 15 years – he self-produced the movie. I’ve read recently in the paper about the difficulties around this. With fewer and fewer independent theaters, more and more mainstream movies being produced and distributed by the big distributors, big distributors buying up the art house film distributors (like Miramax) (and apparently making them more mainstream), and conventional movie marketing campaigns becoming more and more expensive, it’s tougher for genuinely independent films. There are a few changes that benefit independent films, like established venues that feature independent films (like the Sundance Film Festival) and the possibility of relatively inexpensive if clever Internet-based marketing campaigns. But, still, it’s tough. The filmmaker said that the people who make independent films – like him – may be pretty good at filmmaking but they often turn out not to be very good at business and marketing.
The filmmaker said he purposely included a number of African Americans in the film (including the college freshwoman’s roommate) and showcased romances among people whom movies don’t usually show in romances. He said the next venture he’s working on is a black version of Robin Hood. He was careful to say – I’m not black, and I’m not in my 80s (an so on), but I talked with people and I tried to figure out what it might be like …. On the other hand, at some point, he said something about – It’s tough for African American filmmakers . . . like . . . me – and then he stopped himself. But, at that point, this interesting man had the audience in his hands – and – as he stopped himself – the audience cheered.
The three of them stayed way later they were supposed to for Q&A. Towards the end, Jeni’s mother – a little younger than Ruby Dee – but still an African American woman in her 70s or 80s – asked a question.
Afterwards, the three of them still hung out and chatted with folks on stage. I got to shake Ally Sheedy’s hands and tell her I found some of her later scenes the most striking of the movie. I also told her she could have talked a little more. She was OK with the light shining on Ruby Dee, said Sheedy, who said she was coming from New York City (though it also shown on the filmmaker). I took some more pictures, and I thought of going back to get an autograph – perhaps for Gary? – but ended up busying myself with trying to find my cell phone which (for not the first or second time) I had left behind under our seats.
I got to chat a little with Jeni, her mother, Charles, and their friend, and Charles gave me a ride back to my hotel, where Chinese take-out and not as late night as sometimes (along with an early rise) awaited me.
To see a featurette on “Steam,” click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26k7SBI1API
-- Perry
To see a featurette on “Steam,” click here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26k7SBI1API
-- Perry
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