As I've toured here and there screening our little film, We Pedal Uphill at museums and schools and independent theatres, I've developed a somewhat wry refrain when asked by enthusiastic audience members how the film can be seen more widely. I usually meet their gaze and suggest (rather dryly) "You could pick up the phone and call a theatre owner and ask him or her to screen the film." This usually gets a laugh.
Little did I know, I was actually giving out some useful advice.
With a film of this size that has screened at less than a dozen venues nationwide, it is generally the case that screenings don't just fall into our lap. Most of our screenings have been the result of Cassidy's hard and careful work. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for example, screened the film in October of last year -- the result of weeks of arduous planning, negotiating and arranging to meet the specific needs of that much sought-after venue.
I was curious to ask the folks in Boothbay Harbor how they had discovered the film and had made a mental note to do so at the screening. Before the screening there was a small reception in my honor and I got to meet most of the audience of devoted supporters of this beautiful little movie theatre.
Over a glass of cider, one woman casually mentioned that she had been so disappointed to have missed the film when it played at the Portland Museum of Art that she'd picked up the phone and called Robert Devine, President of Friends of the Harbor Theatre, to request they screen my film.
Wow! I suddenly realized I was standing sharing refreshments with the one person who was ultimately responsible for them having known about us. How cool is that? I wanted to thank her before the screening but she was too shy; that is the only reason I'm not mentioning her by name here.
But the point is: In at least one small town, it only took one person to open a door to a venue for a little film that nobody had ever heard of. I think that's pretty neat.