Let's Talk About... A list of Sundance Resources to Enhance Your Experience. PLUS: RIP David Lynch; Sharing my Favorite Anecdote About Him Ever from Actress Joy Nash.
Plus: New filmmaker grant opportunities; Indie film GOOD SIDE OF BAD now available on platforms & check out Ed Kalegi's book "It Was Great To Say Hello"
It seems like 2025 has only begun to start taking from us, so hopefully some of the content in this week’s Substack is a small way in which to give back.
Before the fires ripped through our neighborhoods and communities and left thousands of Angelenos homeless refugees in their own city ()including one of my best friends and her three children), I joked to my husband that January typically feels like the longest month of the year. I had no idea how true that adage would ring, as we’re only 17 days into the New Year, yet it feels like months have passed since I expressed my naive optimism on New Year’s Day to where things are now.
It might be business as usual for a lot of the country, but in Los Angeles we’re still reeling and I’m spending my days writing the two scripts I’m currently contracted to write, working for my clients, helping my community and my friends, trying to grow my business and my film slate and keeping my proverbial ish together.
(Pause for internal screaming.)
I find it very true that one of the best ways to help yourself is to help others and one thing I wanted to do was encourage people to help out those affected by the fires. To that end, I’m linking to all of the verified GoFundMe’s in case you have a little extra to spare. As we all know, there’s going to be some level of fuckery with the insurance companies that people have to navigate, and people need cash now. They can’t wait for FEMA or for the insurance companies to suss this out so please consider supporting some of the families on this list that are in need.
I saw a tip on social media recommending that you give smaller amounts to multiple GoFundMe’s instead of one large lump sum to one fundraiser. I thought that was a good idea and I wanted to pass that notion along.
BTW - I’m not doing any media pitching this week (and possibly next week as well) but I am checking on the reporters and writers I work with. Because it’s public “relations”, and many people I know lost everything or know someone who did, it’s important that I do the relations side of my work as well. This city is deeply, deeply hurting and I’ve had several absolutely inane requests come across my desk this week and I just… can’t. I can’t.
I saw one brand pitch the editor of a magazine a collection of spring wear after they acknowledged her house had just burned down in the first sentence. It was bonkers.
“Dear So and So, we’re deeply sorry you just lost everything and have been in a state of shock and trauma for the better part of ten days, but we need to get back to business as usual so please take a look at this line of spring bikinis for 2025 and consider us for any round-ups you may be working on.” Sincerely, Heartless and Tone Deaf
I’ll respond to new client inquiries right now (in fact, I’m onboarding some really great new films now) but this is far from business as usual right now and looks like it will be for sometime now.
One thing I’m urging you all to do right now is to support other indie films and filmmakers (shameless plug for mine in case you’ve been meaning to watch it).
We need to support independent creatives now more than ever as the film industry has just been kicked in the teeth AGAIN, so I’m giving a special shout out to the team behind GOOD SIDE OF BAD and one of my favorite radio personalities, Ed Kalegi, who just released a new book.
Check out Indie Film GOOD SIDE OF BAD
When a young photographer has a severe mental break, her siblings come together to help her heal. Based on the book, The Good Side of Bad. Directed by Alethea Root and written and produced by Alethea Root and Jules Bruff.
My film DARUMA came up on the festival circuit with this film and filmmaking team. (Not to mention, Jules and I discovered that we had first met each other YEARS ago when we both worked on a film together by Dave Barry and John Cleese!).
My heart breaks for them right now, as their much-anticipated launch date for the film was January 7, 2025. As we all know, that’s the night that Los Angeles caught on fire and any momentum this hard-working filmmaking team had was sidelined by the devastation the fires left in their wake.
Ironically, the film is all about mental health and that’s something that a lot of Angelenos are going to need to pay attention to in the coming months as we sift through the wreckage of the fires.
I’ve seen this female filmmaking team pound the pavement with their movie and put in the work, so I’m asking if at all possible, rent the film on one of the platforms it’s available on and leave a review. As you know, the importance of reviews is crucial to the success of a film so consider supporting this filmmaking team who did everything right in terms of their launch and could really benefit from the support of the indie filmmaking community right now.
Available on Amazon, iTunes and more.
Check Out the Book, It Was Great to Say Hello
Ed Kalegi is another independent creative whose plans got upended by the fire: he was supposed to have a splashy book launch in Brentwood this week but those plans had to be scaled back and I was unfortunately not able to make the event.
Ed happens to be a radio personality that I work with frequently: he was introduced to me by a film publicist I adore and I didn’t know he had written a book but we were chatting last week (before the fires) and he let me know about his new tome. I offered to promote his book and the event to my audience as a means to say thank you for all the support he has given me. Unfortunately, everything got derailed last week so I’m behind on promoting the book in my Substack, but you can still get a copy on Amazon.
The book features 24 of Ed’s most memorable conversations from his radio show including Carol Burnett, Dick Van Dyke, Chazz Palminteri, Norman Lear, Richard Lewis, Rosanna Arquette, and many more. Ed is delightful to say the least, and if you’d like to read about some real Hollywood legends, buy the book on Amazon here.
RIP David Lynch
In case you were worried that the fires hadn’t taken enough from Angelenos, it seems that they took something else from us as well: film legend David Lynch.
I’d seen an article where he had been mostly isolating over the last few years due to his severe emphysema brought on by years of smoking in an effort to avoid COVID. But as one article puts it, his death was brought about after being forced to relocate from the fires.
In a statement to Deadline, anonymous sources have revealed that his health took a turn for the worse after he was forced to evacuate from his home. Like I said, 2025 has taken so much from us already and the world truly lost a visionary in Lynch. His mark on cinema was indelible.
I’m sharing one of my favorite anecdotes about David from my good friend Joy Nash, who played Senorita Dido in the revival of Twin Peaks.
I remember having lunch with her shortly after she shot this iconic sequence and my jaw just dropped further and further to the ground as she recounted her story of how she came to be cast in the Twin Peaks revival, and what her experience working with Lynch was like.
Click to watch her bonkers and beautiful story. RIP Mr. Lynch, you absolute legend.
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Below the paywall for this week, I’ll share:
New grant opportunities for filmmakers
Sundance 2025 resources: tips and tricks for navigating the festival
PLUS links to events and parties in Park City
Next week we’re going to get into what to do when your platform of choice dies: RIP TikTok, 2025.