Two adventurous women in love are desperate to have their own biological child. They take a chance on an experimental scientific process and make sperm from their own stem cells. Pregnant with humour and unexpected twists, their journey tailspins out of control when their families discover there is no father.
Megan, Angela and I were all really excited about doing an interview with Bunchfamily.ca last week. In doing so, I think we all found out a little more about each other and what was going on in our heads during the filming of The Baby Formula. Thanks Bunch!!!
Bunch reports on the crazy and creative things that families from allover the place are doing together and throws insanely fun family dance parties, rock shows, and artist salons for parents and kids in Toronto and soon Vancouver and Montreal, too. Check out the new family fun at www.bunchfamily.ca
Great closing night party at Inside Out! TBF took the Audience Award … AND the Jury Award for Best Performance was shared by both our stars. Congrats Angela and Megan! You deserved it. Thank to the amazing audience who voted for us, and thanks to Inside Out Jury: Chris Chin, Gwen Haworth and Malcolm Ingram for recognizing the talent of our gals!
Baby Formula is a GEM and completely hilarious!! People all round me were killing themselves laughing. You have an original story-telling style and your cast brilliantly balanced the comedic and very moving family scenes. Bravo!!
I’m totally elated after last night’s screening at Inside Out. The hometown audience at our Toronto premiere was electric. They didn’t stop laughing (unless they were crying). It was a perfect night. Thanks so much to Scott Ferguson, Jason St-Laurent and the Inside Out Board. Your support is so appreciated. You put on one hellova festival!
Thanks also to filmmaker Christine Chew for taking these photos. (Her hilarious short “Falling for Caroline” drew huge laughs at the fest.) Mostly, thanks to my gorgeous partner, Cheryl who happily had her birthday consumed by Baby Formula things.
Can’t wait to fly to Calgary on Thursday where TBF is the opening night film at the Fairytales Film Festival!!
“I wanted to take a moment to congratulate you on your fabulous, incredibly creative film. I love the mix of the politics, science, lesbian life, and family. Well done! Brava! All of us at the Out! For Reel Film Series are excited about showing The Baby Formula as our showcase feature for May. Northampton is going to love it.” Jaime Michael, Out! For Reel.
There’s so much going on, I don’t know where to start. Aside from trips to Nashville Film Festival (where TBF won best LGBT Film) and Miami LGBT FF (where we swam in the ocean),
Paul and I are crazy busy working with the awesome publicity and advertising teams at Maple Pictures on our Toronto release – June 19th! (We’ll be playing at the AMC at Yonge & Dundas.)
It’s no coincidence that just happens to be the beginning of pride week, and Pride Toronto will be Co-Presenting our screenings that week. Our official Pride Event is a “Meet the Cast” Party at Slacks on Sat June 20th. Absolut is sponsoring the event (yes free vodka), and anyone can join us with a movie ticket stub from a Baby Formula screening.
What an amazing festival! Unbelievably well organized and attended by a whopping 30,000 enthusiastic people. The Koreans are great hosts and my trip was made even better by my own personal translater, Hye Mee, who showed me the town including the market at Insadong where one could buy a snack of caterpillers, if so inclined. Jin-Young, the guest coordinator went above and beyond the call of duty. She even picked me up at the airport at 3AM. The festival director, Lee Haye-kyoung has created a thriving festival with a celebratory atmosphere. At one party for Asian Women in Film, she started dancing around the room and got all the directors up to join her. And this may sound repetitive, but guess what? The Baby Formula had sold out screenings, and the audiences loved it. They really did. The Q & A sessions afterwards were moderated by programmer extraoridinaire, Jay Sohn. The festival screened my prequel short film Succubus last year, and many of the audience members remembered it.
Opening Night! And what a night it was. The WIFF audience was one of our best ever! Right up there with Mannheim-Heidelberg and Rotterdam.
It was fantastic to see the work of our star, Angela Vint; producer, Steve Adams; and writer, Richard Beattie so appreciated in Vancouver where they all live.
I can’t wait to be re-united with Angela, Steve & Richard (the western faction of The Baby Formula team) this week in Vancouver. We have the honour of being the opening night film at the Women in Film Festival.
We’re screening at the Vancity Wed Mar 4th at 7PM and Sat Mar 7, 12:30PM
Rosemary with Gordon Pinsent right after winning her Actra Award
During The Baby Formula shoot there were many memorable moments, but I will never forget this one: After shooting a particularly emotional monologue with Rosemary Dunsmore, I called ‘cut’ and looked around the room. Our first AD, Pierre Oulette was standing just off camera to provide an eye line for Rosemary to play to. Tears were streaming down his face. My eyes tracked around the room, surveying the rest of our small crew. The camera assistants, PA’s, electrics and yes – even the grips were all wiping away tears. That was as powerful a performance as I’ve seen on all my years on set.
Rosemary brought to life Wanda, the right wing, religious, homophobic mother of Athena brilliantly. I have watched film festival audiences wince at Wanda’s frustrating behaviour, cringe at her irritating ways, laugh at her points of view, and before you know it Rosemary finesses Wanda into a character who is worthy of empathy and whose growth warms their hearts.
Last night Rosemary Dunsmore was chosen by her peers to be the recipient of the Toronto Actra Award for Outstanding Female Performer for her work in TBF. I am so grateful that the Actra jury saw fit to recognize her talent, and also the talent of TBF’s second nominee, the gracious Megan Fahlenbock. Thanks to the nominating jury members: Kelsey Matheson, Alan Powell, Marcia Bennett, John Boylan, Kelly Fanson. Thanks to the final jury members: Jayne Eastwood, Maria Del Mar, Miriam Laurence, Andrew David Long and Aaron Poole. Thanks also to Cayle Chernin for facilitating the whole process, and to Actra staff members: Eda Zimler, Tasso Lakas, Clare Johnston, and Karen Ritson.
Making this film would not have been possible without the generosity of the entire stellar cast through the Actra TIP program. Thanks, especially, to all of you.
Berlin was great! After Natasha, Paul and I plastered the town with TBF posters,
the word was out and the stage was set. We had great turnouts to our market screenings, and Natasha sold rights to Cinemien (www.cinemien.nl) in Benelux. We also got offers for several other major territories. More news on that soon!
It was great to hang out with the Canadians: Ron Mann, Brigitte Hubmann, Scott Ferguson, Jason St-Laurent, Charlie Boudreau, Joan Schafer… We also met John Greyson, who’s latest film Fig Trees was in Panorama. What a sweet guy. And partied at the Canadian Embassy in Potsdamer Platz. Nice Place!
Now it’s on to Vancouver where TBF is the opening night film of the Women in Film Festival. And then off to Korea in April for the International Women’s Film Festival in Seoul (IWFFIS)
Did anyone see today’s playback? Guess who’s In the Director’s Chair section?
Your movie ticket stub from any screening of The Baby Formula on June 19th or 20th, will get you into our "Meet the Cast" Party at Slacks, 562 Church St, starting at 9:30.
This is an official event of Pride Toronto who is a Co-Presenter of the first week of screenings.
Vodka courtesy of Vodka Ice!
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CHIC DANCE – Friday April 17th!
Tickets are almost sold out for the hugely popular Chic Dance at the Palais Royale. It's a women's only event for the lesbian community, and there will be a give away of Baby Formula tank tops. See you there!
http://www.ticketweb.ca/snl/EventListings.action?orgId=16904
Paul and I are crazy busy working with the awesome publicity and advertising teams at Maple Pictures on our Toronto release – June 19th! (We’ll be playing at the AMC at Yonge & Dundas.)
