Kudos to Melissa Silverstein (again!) for her wonderful WMC article today on FROZEN RIVER, which is now available to all on DVD. I’ve been so obsessed with “my SLUMDOG Brouhaha” that I haven’t given this topic sufficient attention, but just so you know, I love FROZEN RIVER which got one of only 3 “perfect scores” (5 points) from me last year & wound up #3 on my Ten Best List for 2008.
Melissa Leo came to Chicago to promote FROZEN RIVER in July. As haggard as she may look in FROZEN RIVER, she’s a very beautiful woman, & her face was absolutely luminous when we met f2f in her suite. She told me something wonderful that day which I send out now to all friends of women filmmakers with love (yes, today, on “Friday the Thirteenth”):
“When Courtney was trying to raise money for FROZEN RIVER, I would call her every three or four months and say: ‘We makin’ that movie?’ I come to find out three years later that I would often call, just like woman do, at that very moment when she was ready to give up, get a kindergarten teaching license, and forget about it. Certainly I have been given reasons to give up, but I won’t.”
Hooray to AMPAS for nominating Melissa Leo for a “Best Actress” Oscar! Hooray to AMPAS for nominating Courtney Hunt for a “Best Original Screenplay” Oscar!! And oh yes, hooray to AMPAS for nominating TROUBLE THE WATER for a “Best Doc” Oscar!!! That’s three cheers for AMPAS!!!
Note that I too have been given reasons to give up,
but I won’t J
