Monday, October 19, 2009

Before the Memories Fade: Dr. Dorothy Height

I'm typing this entry with a big smile because on Thursday October 8th, I interviewed Dr. Dorothy Height for the film. Dr. Height! If you guys don't know who she is, you need to read up on her quickly. Dr. Height is a 97 year young wealth of knowledge on women's rights and civil rights. Dr. Height is respected world wide and has many honorary doctorates from universities here in the states. She took over the leadership of the National Counsel for Negro Women after Mary McLeod Bethune. That is history people and it was a honor to get her perspective on the movement!!

What I decided to focus on in our conversation was a little known effort in the movement started by Dr. Height and Polly Cowan in the Spring of 1964. It was called "Wednesdays in Mississippi." The idea was to send interracial and interfaith teams of northern women to Mississippi on Tuesday and return on Thursday, having spent all day Wednesday talking with and reaching out to the women of the south. Dr. Height said that black women from the north would meet with black women of the south, while the white women from the north would meet with white women of the south. The northern women would all meet up later and discuss ways in which thy could help their fellow sisters.

We did discuss many other movement related subjects, but I'm going to let you hear about them in the movie.

It was a great interview, and Dr. Height was, as I expected, strong, smart, and delightful.

For more on Dr. Dorothy Height go to: http://www.ncnw.org/ and please web search her name and learn more.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Before the Memories Fade: Fox Artists

Today I met with and signed a very talented and young husband and wife team of sketch artists to work on the documentary. Justin and Lauren Fox of Lexington, Kentucky, have impressed me with their diffrent styles of rendering images. I will be incorporating several of their pieces in the film. I believe their sketches will add a different element to the film's look.

Both Justin and Lauren will be designing the promotional poster for the film. I gave them a concept but I'm going to let them do their magic. I can't wait to see the result. Their ability is a reminder that it's not the size of the company but the talent in it.

For more information on Justin and Lauren go to: http://www.foxartists.com/