Twitter and the new era

I know this blog is a space that normally discusses our film but over the last seven days I have been completely consumed by the events in Iran and today I felt compelled not to be limited to 140 characters…while I understand as those on twitter retweeted thousands of times, “140 characters is a novel when your being shot at” I am lucky to not have bullets, passing, grazing or hitting me…so today I wanted more that 140 character to explain my feelings about the events of the past seven days.

To be quite honest I was not aware that an election was happening in Iran, I was too busy with ENTRE NOS, too busy traveling and too busy writing my next film to follow the elections of Iran. I woke up seven days ago and while I laid in bed I checked my facebook page from my iPhone (as I do almost every morning) and read an update that said, “I feel the way I did on Nov 2 2004..heartbroken, depressed and shocked..” I was curious and wondered what might have happened in the world that made this person feel this way.

By now I have been informed of world events via twitter or facebook many times, Tim Russert’s death, the plane going down off of Brazil..that when I read the update I knew something had to have happened in the world. Soon enough I began to understand the magnitude of the situation in Iran. After hours and hours of research I soon realized the most reliable information was what was being said on twitter. I did some work and was soon able to secure my “sources” on twitter. The information I was gathering was mind boggling and I passed on what I knew to my people via my updates on twitter and facebook. I couldn’t stop reading the updates on twitter…when they asked me to change my location to Terhan so the Iranian government would be confused I did so, when they asked me to hack government websites I passed on the request to people that could do it…when they asked me not to retweet their names because they were in danger I started to reweet “ from Iran”. I did what I could do while being on the other side of the world, with a computer and access to information.

My boyfriend asked me why was I so obsessed with what was happening, I had never shown any interest in the political situation in Iran…not more than the basic understanding of the history and the current situation…so why now?

It is hard to put into words why I’m being kept up at night, why I’m dreaming about the people that I know by there user names…why I get a knot in my stomach if I don’t see updates from these people for a long period of time..but now after watching the most horrific video of a young woman dying on the streets of Terhan, after watching the blood gurgle up from her mouth and covering her entire face, after looking into her eyes seconds before she took her last breath…after absorbing the fact that I just witnessed a young woman die before my eyes.. I can say that I have been engaged because all I can do is bare witness for my brothers and sisters. I am not Persian, I am not Muslim but I feel connected to these people, I feel they are fighting their own battle but they are also fighting mine. Mine because I and we are now connected with the world in a way we never were before, boundaries do not exist and everything has the power to be personal. No longer can we deny that what we do on one side of the world doesn’t affect someone else when we can speak with those that are being affected.

It’s amazing to me how twitter is responsible for this new era we are entering. I never would have thought twitter would have the power to effect change but it does and it has. We are now a part of this moment of change because we have become the messengers of the truth.

I want peace for Iran but I also understand that there comes a time when the people will demand peace by any means necessary and it seems that time has come in Iran.

Paola

Newport loved us!

We are very happy to announce that ENTRE NOS won the AUDIENCE Award at the Newport International Film Festival!!!! We were thrilled with the news and as always very humbled by the award.

Congrats to all that worked on film....stay tuned to find out were we will be next!

The plane is falling!

Yesterday on my flight from Bogota I thought I was going to die. Now I know I have a tendency to be over dramatic (hence why I am an actress) but I promise you I really did think my life was going to end on that flight. So, what happened you ask?…well all was going fine, a smooth flight…I was reading a really good script about two misfits and how they find love and then all of a sudden the plane drops and when I say drop, I mean DROPS, the lady behind me starts screaming and crying to God, I grab my arm rest and repeat over and over to myself, “everything is going to fine, everything is going to be fine…” but all does not feel fine, the plane is shaking violently up, down left, right, the sounds of everything crashing about inside of the plane only add to the chaos, and then we DROP again, this time even more than the first time! The woman is now screeching at the top of her lungs and the plane is shaking much worse than before. My heart is racing a mile a minute and then I have the thought that is not my life, this cannot be happening to me at this moment, not like this, not now. I begin to have this weird outer body experience. I don’t see myself sitting in the plane instead I really truly try to make myself believe that this is not my life, not at this moment. The plane continues to shake violently and all I can say is, “no, no no, no, no” and just as suddenly as the thrashing came it stops. I open my eyes ( I didn’t even realize they were closed) and I look straight ahead. I couldn’t bare to look at anyone, contact with someone would have forced me to acknowledge that this was in fact my life and I was thousands of miles above the ocean and I still had two hours left of my flight. There was an eerie silence on the plane. The captain never came over the PA system to explain what happened, instead he ordered the flight attendant to sit down until further notice and then sent someone from his crew to inspect the cabin. The man walked slowly around the entire plane and didn’t say a word to anyone. Once in a while the plane would experience turbulence but nothing like that initial scare. I have traveled all around the world and don’t have a fear of flying but whenever we encounter turbulence I can easily shake it off. I continue reading my book, watching my movie, or writing…but this shook me my core. When the plane made the slightest movement my heart would leap out of my chest and I couldn’t concentrate on anything. It was complete torture….nothing short of torture The only thing that was able to calm me was my camera. I pulled out my digital camera and looked at pictures of my lover and partner in crime in everything and his image soothed me. His smile calmed me, our memories comforted me…it was that camera and those pictures that allowed me to survive that terrible flight without having a panic attack.

After much reflection I was pleasantly surprised with my response to my near death experience. In that moment when I truly thought it was the end I didn’t wish I had done something different with my life, I didn’t have a regret that I wish I could change, I didn’t happily accept that the end was coming…instead I thought NOOOOOO, not now. I am happy. I love the life I live, I love the person I am with. I love what I do and I still have so much more to do.

So while I would NEVER want to experience that fear again, I am happy it happened. That dreadful moment confirmed for me that I am on the correct path, doing what I am meant to do and trying to contribute to the world and make is a better place and in the end that is the only thing that matters…. When the end does come…I can only hope it won’t be on a plane but instead in my finca in Colombia when I am 104 years old.

The motherland...QUE VIVA COLOMBIA

I have been in Colombia now for 5 days and it has been wonderful. I came down to Colombia with the purpose to get information about how distribution works here. My personal dream as well as Gloria's is to have ENTRE NOS on the big screen in Colombia. My entire life I have remained connected to my country, sometime to the estreme, (not becoming a US citezen until only a year ago, some might see as extreme, I always saw it as proof of my love for Colombia) and this is the ultimate bridge back to my people. To be able to come home with a film that means the world to me would be the perfect conclusion to an otherwise perfect journey.

On Friday night, after a week of non-stop work, my best friend in Colombia and I went out to party. While I was exhausted I told myself it would be a sin to come to Colombia work so hard and not go out at least once. So we went to this little place in La Candelaria (the histori colonial part of Bogota)called EL CANDELARIO and as soon as I walked in my hips couldn't stop moving, my feet couldn't stop dancing and of course as any good Colombian the drinking began early and ended late. The best part of the party was the live Cumbia music. The lead singer was an old man of about 80 years old who had the voice of God. The passion with which he sang, the enregy with which he danced kept the party going until 3am. That is the beauty of Colombia...young people paying homage to our elder while he sang our traditional music...it was beyond beautiful.

And now today I am out in La Vega..about and hour and half outside of Bogota..in the most beautiful finca surrounded by huge mountains, a beautiful river and the smell of arepas at every turn. It's the first time I have truly relaxed in over a month and it is perfect that I am doing so here...at home...in Colombia.

Gloria and I both lost our voices but we won sooo many other things!

Last night was a beautiful night...we were awarded the honorable mention for the NY competition...amazing amazing night!

We still have two more screenings to go so there is still a lot that can happen but I wanted to drop a quick line letting everyone know how HAPPY we are!

Here is a link to the official awards page and another link just to show you how happy we were when we heard the news!!!!

http://tinyurl.com/djj8yb

and

http://www.tribecafilm.com/photos/Awards_Night_Party.html


Much love to everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Take 2

It's just hours before our second screening at 4:45 and I can't believe so much has happened! The film has been embraced by so many at the festival and outside. I want to take a moment and thank the students from local high schools that came to see a private screening of entre nos last Monday... In particular THANK YOU to Lisa Lucas and Mallory Jacobs at Tribeca for having the vision and taking the chance of bringing our work to a young audience. While we have seen the film with a primarily adult audience it was a blast watching it with these young eyes as they laughed and cringed (openly) at moments that pleasantly surprised us. Our young actors Sebastian and Laura had a lot to share about their experiences to their group peers.

posters, parties and larry david

The Vanity Fair party was amazing!!! As soon as we walked into the room, who was to my right but my all time favorite LARRY DAVID. The to the left, Bono, Rick Ruben, Kayne West, Spike Lee, Julie Taymor...the list goes on and on. It was a really amazing place to be.

Gloria, Joe, Michael and I drank good wine ate really good food and enjoyed the surreal moment of being in that room.

Since then we have gone to 2 parties and one movie premiere. I have moved on to only drinking water. I started off strong at VF but realized I have to be able to maintain until Saturday where I will LET LOOSE with the auguardiente!

The buzz on the film seems to be pretty good right now. All the filmmakers know about the film, we have really amazing distributors RSVP'd for our premiere and we have been on a few critics/bloggers must see list... so all in all we couldn't be in a better place.

2 more days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1