Hi all!
We're chugging along. We had a very exciting week last week. We got a call from the lead singer of the band that sings the last song in the film. For those of you who have seen it, you know who that is. For the rest of you, we will reveal that information soon.
Let me just paint the picture. I'm 71/2 months pregnant, packing boxes because my family's moving, and I realize that I haven't heard my cell phone ring in a while. I turn it on and check my messages and there's one from one of the biggest rock stars in America! Holy crap!!!! Needless to say, I jumped up and down for about 20 minutes, despite Peter's pleas to calm down. And let me just say, this man is exceedingly down to earth, compationate and kind. I'm glad I was a fan of his and I will always be! Oh yeah, and he is letting us use his song! For free!!!! As Don says, gratis is our new favorite word! Anyway, what a thrill! Oh, and this person is also friends with two of the people we are trying to get to narrate. Do you think it was a coincedence that just three days after this phone call we got an email with one of the narrators assistants email and phone number to set up an appointment? I don't!
Anyway, I'm really hoping that the next blog has some very good news on the narrator front! Keep your fingers crossed!!
Monday, May 07, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Duke Lacrosse
I watched this great piece on 60 minutes the other night about the Duke Lacrosse case. The paralells with this and the Bakersfield cases are amazing. I'm really glad that justice won out in this case. Check it out if you didn't get a chance to see it.
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Rebellion and Conformity
That's actually the name of a course at UC Berkeley (of course it is!) Don't you wish they had that class when you went to college? Well, Don, John and I went to speak today to the Rebellion and Conformity class today about John's ordeal and our documentary. They seemed like a very cool group of students. They seemed interested and engaged in what we had to say. It was a great way to spend an hour and a half. They started watching the film and are going to continue to watch it during their next class. We'll be interested to hear what they think about the documentary.
Invites for the fundraiser are out. Still, no word on the narrator. Send us your good vibes! I did have a positive dream last night... that's something right?
Invites for the fundraiser are out. Still, no word on the narrator. Send us your good vibes! I did have a positive dream last night... that's something right?
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Compensation
Hi. I thought I would pass along some relevant articles that I find. The interesting thing about the following AP article is the similarites to John Stoll and the others in our film. John did get compensation from the state (he was the only person in our film to get this kind of compensation.) Some of the others won civil suits and others got nothing. Regardless, there is an amazing commonality among the wrongly convicted that I've met. They are not bitter! Can you imagine? I'd like to think that I'd be that way too...
Check it out...
Georgia set to pay back wrongly imprisoned manThe Associated Press - ATLANTA
A man wrongly imprisoned nearly 25 years for rape is set to get a $1.2 million payback from the state.
On Monday, the Georgia House will consider paying Robert Clark that much in restitution for his time in prison for a 1981 attack before DNA evidence cleared his name two years ago.
The resolution, by Rep. Larry O'Neal, a Republican from Warner Robins, says the Atlanta man's imprisonment "occurred through no fault or negligence on the part of Mr. Clark, and it is only fitting and proper that he be compensated for his loss."
The state Claims Advisory Board, the first panel to hear requests for restitution from the state, heard Clark's case last month and recommended that the Legislature pay him.
Secretary of State Karen Handel, the board's chairwoman, said she was moved by Clark's demeanor when he made his case.
"What I am so struck about you is that you sit there and you're smiling. You are amazing _ really," she said before the board's vote.
After the vote, she hugged Clark and held his hand as she spoke privately with him.
"She was very touched that this man, who should probably be bitter to the world, was not," Handel spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas said Friday.
The board left the amount of restitution up to the Legislature. The $1.2 million is based on the income Clark lost while imprisoned, personal injury, injury to his reputation and other damages.
Clark, now 46, had no prior felony convictions. He was the 197th person nationally and the sixth in Georgia to be cleared by DNA evidence of a criminal conviction, according to The Innocence Project, a New York-based group that works to overturn wrongful convictions.
"Just rebuilding a life is so difficult," said Lisa George, spokeswoman for the Georgia Innocence Project. "It's gratifying to know that the Georgia House of Representatives is seeing the problem, listening to the need and responding."
George said the $1.2 million check may sound like a lot, but that when Clark's losses are considered it's really not.
Clark was a 21-year-old house painter when he was arrested. "If he'd just kept doing that from the day he was arrested to the day he got out of prison, his hard-dollar losses were over $1 million," she said.
Under the restitution plan, Clark will get monthly checks from the state over the next 15 years totaling about $80,000 per year. The checks will still be subject to federal taxes.
Last year, the Legislature agreed to pay $1 million over 20 years to Clarence Harrison, another Georgia man who was freed after a wrongful imprisonment.
O'Neal, who argued Clark's case before the claims board, invited him to attend the House vote Monday. George said Clark _ who told the claims board he's been "struggling a little bit on and off" since his release in December 2005 _ is now working a construction job, but is trying to get time off to attend.
She said Clark has received a couple of job promotions since starting work last year and hopes to become a crane operator.
"His attitude has been great," said George, who said Clark still stops by the Innocence Project office for visits. "He'll be covered in concrete dust from head to toe, as filthy as he can be, and smiling just like the day he walked out of prison."
___
Check it out...
Georgia set to pay back wrongly imprisoned manThe Associated Press - ATLANTA
A man wrongly imprisoned nearly 25 years for rape is set to get a $1.2 million payback from the state.
On Monday, the Georgia House will consider paying Robert Clark that much in restitution for his time in prison for a 1981 attack before DNA evidence cleared his name two years ago.
The resolution, by Rep. Larry O'Neal, a Republican from Warner Robins, says the Atlanta man's imprisonment "occurred through no fault or negligence on the part of Mr. Clark, and it is only fitting and proper that he be compensated for his loss."
The state Claims Advisory Board, the first panel to hear requests for restitution from the state, heard Clark's case last month and recommended that the Legislature pay him.
Secretary of State Karen Handel, the board's chairwoman, said she was moved by Clark's demeanor when he made his case.
"What I am so struck about you is that you sit there and you're smiling. You are amazing _ really," she said before the board's vote.
After the vote, she hugged Clark and held his hand as she spoke privately with him.
"She was very touched that this man, who should probably be bitter to the world, was not," Handel spokeswoman Vicki Gavalas said Friday.
The board left the amount of restitution up to the Legislature. The $1.2 million is based on the income Clark lost while imprisoned, personal injury, injury to his reputation and other damages.
Clark, now 46, had no prior felony convictions. He was the 197th person nationally and the sixth in Georgia to be cleared by DNA evidence of a criminal conviction, according to The Innocence Project, a New York-based group that works to overturn wrongful convictions.
"Just rebuilding a life is so difficult," said Lisa George, spokeswoman for the Georgia Innocence Project. "It's gratifying to know that the Georgia House of Representatives is seeing the problem, listening to the need and responding."
George said the $1.2 million check may sound like a lot, but that when Clark's losses are considered it's really not.
Clark was a 21-year-old house painter when he was arrested. "If he'd just kept doing that from the day he was arrested to the day he got out of prison, his hard-dollar losses were over $1 million," she said.
Under the restitution plan, Clark will get monthly checks from the state over the next 15 years totaling about $80,000 per year. The checks will still be subject to federal taxes.
Last year, the Legislature agreed to pay $1 million over 20 years to Clarence Harrison, another Georgia man who was freed after a wrongful imprisonment.
O'Neal, who argued Clark's case before the claims board, invited him to attend the House vote Monday. George said Clark _ who told the claims board he's been "struggling a little bit on and off" since his release in December 2005 _ is now working a construction job, but is trying to get time off to attend.
She said Clark has received a couple of job promotions since starting work last year and hopes to become a crane operator.
"His attitude has been great," said George, who said Clark still stops by the Innocence Project office for visits. "He'll be covered in concrete dust from head to toe, as filthy as he can be, and smiling just like the day he walked out of prison."
___
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Getting the Word Out
Hello all.
Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I wrote this really long blog after our screening last month and it got erased right away which annoyed me so I lost my enthusiasm to write after that. But don't worry, I'm back!!! Things have been going well. We've been tweaking away since the screening and now we're really trying to nail down the narration issue. If this can happen in the next 6 weeks or so we are going to try for a Toronto submission... everyone send their good Karma!
Yesterday we sent out our inaugural news letter. We got a ton of response from Witch Hunt fans. We also had a flurry of activity on our website. If you're not on our mailing list please let us know you're out there and we'll send you up to date information on the film and how you can take part of our grassroots effort to tell this important story! Here's our first newsletter for those of you who didn't get it!
Hello Friends.
This is the inaugural monthly "news letter" for our film An American Witch Hunt. Many of you have been following the progress of this movie for the last two years and now we are finally proud to report that we have a feature length cut of the documentary. Thanks to those of you in Northern California who came to the first screening of the film. The feedback was very positive and, more importantly, very useful. When you see the next cut of the film you will probably notice some of your ideas reflected in the changes we made. Since that screening we have been meeting with post production houses coast to coast trying to figure out the best way to put the final touches on both the audio and visuals of the film. Most of our efforts right now are going into finding the perfect narrator for the project. We hope to have an announcement on this soon. Also, we will be starting our fundraising drive any day now... so stay tuned for that.
We are trying to spread the word about this important documentary. If you want to be a part of our grassroots effort we'd love to have you. Please check out our website and write to us to let us know what you think. Let us know your ideas about how to get the word out. We want An American Witch Hunt to have buzz before anyone in the film world even knows much about it. Tell your friends and tell us about your friends so we can add them to our network which is 200 people strong, and growing! The injustice that happened to the wrongly accused in this film and their families needs to come to light. Please be a part of our team to make this happen.
See you soon in the theatres.
Thanks for your support!
Dana Nachman and Don Hardy
Sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I wrote this really long blog after our screening last month and it got erased right away which annoyed me so I lost my enthusiasm to write after that. But don't worry, I'm back!!! Things have been going well. We've been tweaking away since the screening and now we're really trying to nail down the narration issue. If this can happen in the next 6 weeks or so we are going to try for a Toronto submission... everyone send their good Karma!
Yesterday we sent out our inaugural news letter. We got a ton of response from Witch Hunt fans. We also had a flurry of activity on our website. If you're not on our mailing list please let us know you're out there and we'll send you up to date information on the film and how you can take part of our grassroots effort to tell this important story! Here's our first newsletter for those of you who didn't get it!
Hello Friends.
This is the inaugural monthly "news letter" for our film An American Witch Hunt. Many of you have been following the progress of this movie for the last two years and now we are finally proud to report that we have a feature length cut of the documentary. Thanks to those of you in Northern California who came to the first screening of the film. The feedback was very positive and, more importantly, very useful. When you see the next cut of the film you will probably notice some of your ideas reflected in the changes we made. Since that screening we have been meeting with post production houses coast to coast trying to figure out the best way to put the final touches on both the audio and visuals of the film. Most of our efforts right now are going into finding the perfect narrator for the project. We hope to have an announcement on this soon. Also, we will be starting our fundraising drive any day now... so stay tuned for that.
We are trying to spread the word about this important documentary. If you want to be a part of our grassroots effort we'd love to have you. Please check out our website and write to us to let us know what you think. Let us know your ideas about how to get the word out. We want An American Witch Hunt to have buzz before anyone in the film world even knows much about it. Tell your friends and tell us about your friends so we can add them to our network which is 200 people strong, and growing! The injustice that happened to the wrongly accused in this film and their families needs to come to light. Please be a part of our team to make this happen.
See you soon in the theatres.
Thanks for your support!
Dana Nachman and Don Hardy
Sunday, February 11, 2007
First Screening
We had our first screening yesterday at Santa Clara University. It was awesome to see it in a room with 40 people. We passed out response cards and got some GREAT feedback. Peter is going to put some of the comments up on our website. We are going to do some tweaking on the film after we compile the data from the response cards. Go Julie, she's in charge of this task. It seemed like people were pretty struck by the story. You can't really ask for anything more!
Friday, February 02, 2007
We're plowing ahead
We had a meeting with our market research consultant yesterday. We sound so sophisticated don't we! It's just that we have all these really talented friends that are providing their services for us for free. So, Julie... a PhD from Stanford is helping us prepare for our screening. After watching the movie and meeting with us, she is coming up with a questionnaire for the screening.
Speaking of the screening, it's creeping up on us. It's a week from tomorrow. We are holding it at a very relevant locale. It's at the moot court room at Santa Clara University. That's where the law students practice their court room skills. Anyway, Cookie hooked us up there. It's a very cool venue so we're excited about that.
So we've got a lot to do before next Saturday. Today Don received a new CD with four killer tracks of music on it. Joe outdid himself once again. This stuff is GOOD! Don's going to throw some of that music around. Meanwhile Bobee and I are going to work tomorrow at an undisclosed location on the graphics. We are going to start with the title page, and then work on the slates that are throughout the movie. Some of our photos shimmy quite a bit so we're going to see if Bobee can work some magic on them. We're really toying with the title page. If you have any good ideas send us a comment or two. Tonight I'm kinda into the whole red, white and blue theme because of the name change. You know we are now, "An American Witch Hunt" formerly "Witch Hunt."
Does this look cool?
An
American Witch Hunt
or
An
American
Witch Hunt naaaaah
hmmmm..... we'll just have to see.
And lastly, we received a gold mine today of photos from Victor Monge today. Thank the lord. He's one of the boys in the film who testified against John. We've been waiting for these photos for about a year so today is a great day.
That's what we have going on this weekend. Music. Graphics. Editing... (and Peter's going skiing.)
It's definitely all happening. And I think I can say that for the first time neither Don nor I is upset about the status of the film. Usually one of us has some major problem with it. Not this weekend. All's good in our world.
Peace out Friends!
--
www.luckyexitfilms.com
Speaking of the screening, it's creeping up on us. It's a week from tomorrow. We are holding it at a very relevant locale. It's at the moot court room at Santa Clara University. That's where the law students practice their court room skills. Anyway, Cookie hooked us up there. It's a very cool venue so we're excited about that.
So we've got a lot to do before next Saturday. Today Don received a new CD with four killer tracks of music on it. Joe outdid himself once again. This stuff is GOOD! Don's going to throw some of that music around. Meanwhile Bobee and I are going to work tomorrow at an undisclosed location on the graphics. We are going to start with the title page, and then work on the slates that are throughout the movie. Some of our photos shimmy quite a bit so we're going to see if Bobee can work some magic on them. We're really toying with the title page. If you have any good ideas send us a comment or two. Tonight I'm kinda into the whole red, white and blue theme because of the name change. You know we are now, "An American Witch Hunt" formerly "Witch Hunt."
Does this look cool?
An
American Witch Hunt
or
An
American
Witch Hunt naaaaah
hmmmm..... we'll just have to see.
And lastly, we received a gold mine today of photos from Victor Monge today. Thank the lord. He's one of the boys in the film who testified against John. We've been waiting for these photos for about a year so today is a great day.
That's what we have going on this weekend. Music. Graphics. Editing... (and Peter's going skiing.)
It's definitely all happening. And I think I can say that for the first time neither Don nor I is upset about the status of the film. Usually one of us has some major problem with it. Not this weekend. All's good in our world.
Peace out Friends!
--
www.luckyexitfilms.com
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