Great to See: In-depth interview with Tom Roche, a force at work behind so many good scenes

You probably don't know the name Tom Roche, but I bet you've seen and admired this work. Tom has edited a ton of great video and film over the years, from early R.E.M. music video to Spinal Tap's recent Unwigged and Unplugged, and now Harry Shearer's New Orleans documentary The Big Uneasy.

Quite the range you might say, not to mention Tom's own documentary feature Alley Pat, the Music is Recorded, which won the audience prize at the 2010 Atlanta Film Festival.

So what has Tom Roche got to do with Dare Not Walk Alone? Well, without Tom the film would probably not be out there today, on DVD, in regional theaters, for rent at NetFlix and digital download from Amazon and BestBuy. Tom did not direct Dare Not Walk Alone and he didn't exactly edit it, what Tom did is make it possible for Jeremy Dean to take the film to the next level.

Here's what happened. Tom went to see an early cut of Dare Not Walk Alone at an indie film festival in Atlanta. He was so moved by the screening that he perusased his boss at Atlanta's Crawford Communications to give Jeremy access to the kind of high-end editing and sound sweetening equipment most indie filmmakers can only dream about (because they sure can't afford to buy or rent it).

Then Tom and Crawford donated untold hours to help Jeremy remix the movie, not once, but twice, to include the footage of the housefire that destroyed a setting central to the film's story. All of us at Dare Not Walk Alone are forever grateful to Tom for his efforts on the film's behalf. And we are delighted to see him get some of the long overdue recognition he deserves for his tireless work on behalf of telling important stories. Check out the in-depth interview at Creative Loafing.

Jeremy Dean Interview: On Dare Not Walk Alone and independent film making

Just published in The Independent, which describes itself as "obsessed with independent film since 1978," a substantial interview with Jeremy Dean, producer and director of Dare Not Walk Alone.

What's Up With DareNotWalkAlone.com?

A couple of days ago an issue cropped up with the official web site for Dare Not Walk Alone. We have a fix in the works and normal service should be returned over the weekend.

In the meantime there is lots of info about the movie here on the blog. And if you are looking for the trailer click here.
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Powerful Civil Rights Film Now On DVD

Here is the latest press release about the DVD. Please pass it on to any reporters or journalists you happen to know. You can send them this short link: http://is.gd/70Pc

Thanks!

POWERFUL CIVIL RIGHTS FILM NOW ON DVD

Brooklyn, New York, November 11, 2008 -- Dare Not Walk Alone, a feature-length documentary about little-known events in America's civil rights struggle, is now available on DVD at Walmart and other stores. The film clearly illustrates what President-elect Obama has called "the gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time." While documenting Dr. King's heroic campaign to end segregation, the film also paints a disturbing portrait of lingering inequality, some 40 years later, in one community where that campaign was waged.

The Dare Not Walk Alone trailer can be seen at the film's web site: http://darenotwalkalone.com.

Created by Brooklyn-based artist and director, Jeremy Dean, Dare Not Walk Alone has been hailed by critics as "a powerhouse of a picture" and "important filmmaking." However, making the film was an uphill battle according to executive producer Stephen Cobb.

"The director insisted the film go beyond documenting the bravery and brilliance of Dr. King's victorious strategy of non-violence to explore the aftermath of that victory," said Cobb. "But a lot of people thought this approach was too radical for a mainstream audience."

Yet this is one small budget independent documentary that beat the odds and achieved DVD distribution through major stores like Walmart, Target, FYE, Movies Unlimited, and Amazon.com. The film's distributor is Indican Pictures.

"When Indican told us Walmart ordered DVDs," says Dean, "We were thrilled, but also stunned. That's almost impossible when you're an indie project with no star backing."

Although the DVD is not on the shelves in every Walmart yet, the retail giant is shipping from Walmart.com, according to Cobb.

"Our hats are off to both Walmart and Indican," said Cobb. "We're delighted with Indican because they have moved us closer to our goal of giving everyone in America a chance to see this film."

The DVD features interviews with Ambassador Andrew Young and the late James Brock, owner of the motel in St. Augustine, Florida, where Dr. King was arrested. There is also an interview with Dean who is currently on a campus tour, most recently appearing at Notre Dame University's WorldView Film Series.

About Dare Not Walk Alone

Featuring rare archival footage, the film also contains recent interviews with participants in the campaign to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The project began in 2003 when director Dean was still in his twenties. After post-production work at Atlanta-based Crawford Communications, the final cut debuted in 2007 and was quickly signed for distribution by Indican Pictures. Theatrical screenings in New York, Los Angeles, and Portland garnered praise from critics:

"Powerful slice of roiling American history."
Los Angeles Times

"Has great potential to do real good in the world."
Boxoffice.com

"Minutely attuned to disparities of class and race...a triumph of outrage and empathy."
Willamette Week

"Deserves to be seen"
New York Times

"Packs a punch."
Village Voice

Contact:
Jeremy Dean, writer and director
Stephen Cobb, executive producer
email: info@dnwa.info

Release is now on the wire and showing up:
MarketWatch,

Racism in the Raw: Obama campaigners run into reality

With so much going on in the presidential primaries this story did not get much notice: Racism alarms Obama backers - Washington Post. The central fact of the story, that folks doing grass roots campaigning for Senator Barack Obama have encountered overt racism, will come as a surprise to some people, but not to others.

Try making a movie about race in America today and you learn a lot about how people really feel. You find that there's a fair amount of racial prejudice just beneath the surface. Scratch the surface, for example, just by bringing up the subject, and you can get you an earful. So you have to expect the same to be true for a black person taking a run at the presidency. While some white folks are clearly quite happy to vote for a black president, for others it may just be too much, and that's a sad reflection on our country.

When Dare Not Walk Alone played in Los Angeles last month, here's what the Film Journal critic said: "The racial politics of the current presidential election make this film all the more significant." So, does this make Dare Not Walk Alone a political film?

That's a hard question to answer because politics, like beauty, can be in the eye of the beholder. The film does not preach. There is no narrator making statements. This is not a Michael Moore style documentary. Jeremy Dean lets the events and the people involved speak for themselves. (As Variety noted "Dean's ability to explore history through such a local nexus creates a uniquely intimate document.")

But that doesn't mean some of what is said in the film is not controversial. When a black US congresswoman compares parts of St. John's County, one of the wealthiest counties in Florida, home to the nation's 'oldest city' and The Players Championship, with Haiti, you can bet that riled some white politicians in the county. But then a former politician [white] describes the deplorable lack of proper sanitation. And the camera captures some scenes that are not staged and not very pretty. In the end, most people are going to get the idea that things are far from rosy and the filmmaker is not just making this up.

Is life like that for all African Americans? No. Do all white people think black people complain too much? No. Do all black people think white people can't be trusted? No. Will carrying an Obama sign while white teach you something about race in America? Probably, it pretty much depends where you are carrying it.
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So Long LA and Thanks for all the Reviews

We want to send out a big THANK YOU to all the DNWA supporters in the Greater Los Angeles area who came out to see the film. Thanks to you, will look set to open in several more cities [details will be posted here on the blog].

The Los Angeles engagement showed that DNWA, made on the kind of budget that doesn't even register on Hollywood's radar, can hold its own in the heart of commercial movie country AND come away with some solid reviews. Very few independent documentaries get this many reviews from major publications.

In fact, the film is currently scoring 100% on the review roundup web site known as Rotten Tomatoes, with 5 positive to 0 negative. And we're talking big name reviewers here, like the Los Angeles Times and Variety. In a few days we will post some of the comments from these reviews, comments that should help the film gain even more "buzz" in the next engagement.

Not that we all agree with all of the reviewers. Many of them don't seem to 'get' the way the second half of the movie works. One could say "it doesn't work for them" but bear in mind most reviewers watch the film on DVD, not in a cinema where you can feel and hear the audience reaction to the film. In our experience a lot of people who see the film in theaters 'get' the material, even though it can be jarring, even disturbing. If you want to check out the reviews, you will find links to them at Rotten Tomatoes.

Meet the Filmmaker: Dare Not Walk Alone's Jeremy Dean

At the 7:45PM showings of Dare Not Walk Alone this coming Friday and Saturday at the Laemmle Grande 4-Plex in Los Angeles, filmgoers will have a chance to meet the filmmaker, Jeremy Dean.
And 'filmmaker' aptly describes Jeremy Dean, who not only wrote and directed Dare Not Walk Alone, he also has producer, editor, and cinematographer credits on the film.

Hope you can be there! Click here for tickets.

Civil Rights Movie "Right on Time" and "Coming to a Theater Near You"

As the dialog about race in America spreads from the campaign trail to the Sunday talk shows, from blogs to bars and coffee shops, there is one movie ideally placed to serve as the centerpiece of that dialog: Dare Not Walk Alone.

This is a documentary that doesn't shy away from hard-to-watch images of past intolerance or present inequality, yet manages to find signs of hope in both the past and present.

Hailed by critics as "brave filmmaking" and "a triumph of outrage and empathy" it opens next week in Los Angeles. (For show times and all the other info click here.) If enough people go see this movie in the first week it can secure openings in other cities across America and thus serve as tool by which to tear down the walls of suspicion and discomfort that too often separate Americans along racial lines.

At the beginning of the film we hear Dr. King, speaking in 1964, make what must have sounded at the time like a huge leap of faith: "I believe that the negroes of St. Augustine and their allies in the white community are determined to march the streets of the city until the walls of segregation come crumbling down."

Yet those brave souls, marching in a county where the KKK enjoyed open support, did indeed bring down the walls of segregation. Their determination to meet violence with non-violence, blacks arm-in-arm with whites, eventually forced the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. However, as the film documents, stark inequities remain, in the very place where people fought for equality forty years ago.

As one Orange County blogger pointed out, Dare Not Walk Alone is the film to see if you want to understand Where the Anger Comes From. It is also a film for those who want to understand how equality and justice can be best served by coming together and seeing eye-to-eye.

(And if enough people turn out to see the film in LA, the rest of America will get a chance to see it too.)

Florida's Formal Slavery Apology and the Power of Low Budget Movies

You might have missed it among all bad news about about the economy and the important coverage of the fortieth anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, but it deserves attention. The state of Florida recently offered a formal apology for slavery.

Apparently it was an emotional vote. The Miami Herald ran a picture showing Senator Tony Hill, who has been a strong supporter of Dare Not Walk Alone, being embraced by Senate President Ken Pruitt at the capitol in Tallahassee.

While Dare Not Walk Alone cannot claim credit for this apology, the film is directly responsible for a related bill now making its way through the Florida legislature. The Pardons/Restoration of Rights/Rosa Parks Act seeks a full pardon for "any person convicted of protesting or challenging a state law or local government ordinance the purpose of which was to maintain racial segregation of or racial discrimination against individuals." In other words, a pardon for the brave marchers and protestors of Saint Augustine featured in the film. The bill was introduced by Senator Hill after attending the first public screening of the film.

"The documentary was so moving that, as chairman of the Black Caucus of the State of Florida, I have filed a bill for the 2007 legislative session in the House and the Senate to have all records cleared for anyone who was arrested because of segregated laws. That is how compelling the film was to me."

Senator Hill was true to his word and the bill is moving forward. Who says movies can't make a difference!
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New Dare Not Walk Alone Trailer

[Update April 21: Over 1,500 people have watched the trailer on YouTube!]

P.S. For the geeks out there, here is code to embed the trailer from YouTube:
<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/s9lh4dGMHjo&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/s9lh4dGMHjo&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object>

Postscript: The Man on the Ground is Andrew Young

As far as we know, the man being kicked in the photograph in the last posting is former Mayor of Atlanta and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Andrew Young. He speaks about the experience in Dare Not Walk Alone, saying "The only time I was beaten up like that, as far as I can recall, was in Saint Augustine."

The Greatest Civil Rights Story Never Told

Perhaps the comment we hear most often after screening Dare Not Walk Alone can be paraphrased as: "I never knew that." There are variations, such as "I had no idea this happened" or "They don't teach you this in school." But they all add up to a simple fact: What happened in St. Johns County, Florida, in 1964 is probably the greatest civil rights story never told.

After all, the events of that particular year, in that particular place, caused the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to be passed. Those events alone did not create the act, but the act was stalled in congress and seriously in doubt until the brave protesters, black and white, demonstrated on the streets and beaches of Saint Augustine to show that--regardless of how much they were beaten and abused--they would not back down, nor would they fight back. This last fact perfectly illustrates the power and the genius of Dr. King's non-violent protest strategy. Basically it sent a message to congress that went something like this: The world will continue to see nightly images of black Americans being attacked by white Americans until you change the law.

Yet this chapter in the long march to liberate America from the evils of segregation does not show up on the timelines of civil rights history. You can check this out for yourself by visiting these links, the top 5 results from a Google search on these words: civil rights timeline.

1. Milestones in the modern civil rights movement
2. CNN Civil Rights Movement Timeline
3. Seattle Times MLK Timeline
4. Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement UC Irvine
5. PBS African American World Timeline

If you dig deeper, into the top ten results for this topic, you still find NO mention of Saint Augustine or even Florida. Considering that Dr. King was jailed in Saint Augustine and one of the the houses he stayed in was fired upon you would think it merited a mention, but no.

Indeed, when you read these time lines it is easy to get the idea that the passage of the first civil rights act came out of nowhere. But listen to President Johnson speaking on White House tapes about the protests in Saint Augustine, as documented in Dare Not Walk Alone:

"Our whole foreign policy and everything else could go to hell over this."

It is clear that what the Florida protesters accomplished was both provocative and precipitous, crucial and critical. Equally clear from our research is the fact that their role has been lost to history, until now.

Jeremy Dean, who directed the film, is to be applauded for repeatedly making this point to the producers. It was Jeremy who kept saying "They don't teach this stuff in school." It was the producer, Richard Mergener, and the executive producers, Stephen and Chey Cobb, who decided to take this on faith, knowing that if Jeremy was right, the film would have considerable importance as an educational tool. But they also knew that if Jeremy was wrong, and everybody had already heard all about this, then the film's appeal would be considerably undermined. After all, being some twenty years older then Jeremy, they were in school when these events took place. They really didn't know what had been taught about civil rights since then. Thankfully, Jeremy was right!

Where Have We Been? DNWA project 8-point update

Please accept our apologies for the prolonged silence, but we have been busy. Here is what's been going on:

1. The 521 Family: Helen has just this week heard that she and Precious and Quinton can move into an apartment at Woodlawn Terrace. This is HUD-subsidized housing and so the rent will be affordable. Helen is very pleased that she will be able to move in before Christmas. This will be where the family lives until project 2 is completed.

2. The house at 521 that was burned out has now been gutted as part of the preparation for the next phase: rebuilding a new home. George Holman has done a terrific job clearing the fire damage and Don Davino of New Augustine Construction arranged for the necessary "cans" [local term for dumpsters or what the Brits call skips].

3. In the New Year we will convene a meeting of building professionals to plan the next steps (permitting, design, etc). Incidentally, it was the same, some say the one and only, Don Davino, who was responsible for a major renovation of Woodlawn Terrace a few years ago and they are very nice units.

4. Financial donations to aid the 521 Family continue to come in (over $1,000 so far). Your generosity continues to inspire hope that has spread much further than this one family. We will be reporting on this campaign in more detail soon and letting you know the goals for 2007 and the rebuild.

5. The film (yes, we have to remind ourselves sometimes that Dare Not Walk Alone is a film as well as a movement) has been selected by THINKFilm for "non-theatrical distribution." What does this mean? First of all, THINKFilm is a highly respected company in the film business, self-described as a "Controversial producer and distributor of edgy and artful features." Being approached by, and then signed to, THINKFilm is a major achievement for the film, its director, and its loyal supporters (so give yourself a hearty pat on the back). We should to point out that this does not mean any revenue for DNWA, yet. DNWA still continues to cost money, not earn money [one of the executive producers plans to publish an article about this soon--some folks seem to think movie out=money in, but there is a lot more to be said about it than that, most of it written in red ink).

6. The best news about the arrangement with THINKFilm is that it pretty much guarantees a broader distribution of the film and the [eventual] DVD. We think this is a very good thing. The term "non-theatrical distribution" means screenings at festivals, schools, colleges, and a whole range of other venues. It keeps alive the possibility that, if the film plays well in these screenings, there will be some form of theatrical release, i.e. in regular or art-house movie theaters. And this means we will still pester you to "motivate the base." In other words, we will tell you when and where the film is playing so you can get your friends and family to go see it.

7. Speaking of staying in touch, be sure to get the feed from this blog to be kept posted, and/or sign up for the mailing list by going here and completing the form. We promise not to spam you...besides we're too busy to even try!

8. The last point for this posting is something of an open secret. It is certainly both unusual and exciting. The director, Jeremy Dean, is currently working on a new cut of the film that will include the fire. He has received the support of THINKFilm in doing this, which is a brave step on their part. This means there are no screenings scheduled for the next few months, and no mention of the film on the THINKFilm web site. But you will be the first to know when the new release is ready to roll.

Thanks again for your continued support. We hope that you will continue to believe, as we do, that the spirit of unconditional love can indeed achieve the Beloved Community of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream.

Dare Not Walk Alone Makes Front Page

The front page of today's St. Augustine Record features the work that Dare Not Walk Alone is doing on the post-fire housing situation of the Helen Coley family. (If you are reading this after today, you can find the story here.)

We want to send out a big Thank You! to the Record for devoting space to this story, and to everyone who has responded so generously (when we get the next bank statement we will know who has deposited money in the Putnam State Bank account and thank them individually).

We are now building a list of folks who have volunteered tine, resources, etc. The next step after that will be organizing the re-build but that will take time.

From what we have seen so far, the people of this county have a big heart, and a whole lot of the special kind of love that it takes to bring a community together.