Tag: Anna Martemucci

Entertainment, Interview, Movies and TV

Filmmaker Anna Martemucci discusses ‘The Genderton Project’

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Desperately wanting to act from the time she was very young, filmmaker Anna Martemucci has been quietly making a name for herself in the entertainment world by doing things her own way. Whether it’s through her fictional writing, acting in short videos or producing and directing feature length films like “Breakup At A Wedding” and “Hollidaysburg”, Martemucci’s drive to succeed and ability to express herself creatively has paid dividends.

Martemucci’s new vision, “The Genderton Project” is a cross-dressing comedy series that explores gender roles, sexuality, and sexual politics through a kaleidoscope of three intertwining story lines and eras. Uniquely interesting is the fact that in “The Genderton Project”, men’s roles will be played by women and the women’s roles will be played by men. To that end, Martemucci and her partners at Periods. Films have launched an Indigogo campaign where fans and film lovers can go to help fund the project and choose from a multitude of “gifts” as a thank-you for supporting the cause.

In addition to using the money raised for production costs, Martemucci plans to donate 2% of the total funds to the Human Rights Campaign.

I recently caught up with Martemucci to find out more about “The Genderton Project” and how film fans can support this creative, new endeavor!

Genderton

How did this idea for The Genderton Project begin?

The whole thing started because my partners, Philip and Victor Quinaz and I (Periods. Films) fell in love with Drew Droege after watching his Chloe Sevigny videos. We were obsessively quoting his videos for a year or so and then once we moved to LA, Victor decided to email him. We met, fell in love and figured we should make something together. Rather than making a baby, “The Genderton Project” was born!

How would you describe the stories/episodes?

We like to say that it’s a little like Portlandia meets The Hours. It’s ridiculous comedy plus extremely curated cinematic images. The thing that always pops into my head is the idea of “what if we made a ridiculous comedy that looks like Todd Haynes’s Mildred Pierce on HBO?” That might be kind of an obscure reference but that’s what I envision for one of the vignettes. Where Drew Droege plays an devoted 1960’s housewife dying from loneliness.

What can you tell me about the cast and your characters?

I can tell you that we are using some of our most favorite performers from the NY and LA comedy scenes. We’ve amassed quite a pool of talent over the years. In addition to our star Drew, we’ve brought on John Milhiser (SNL), Mary Grill (Breakup at a Wedding, Veep, The Mindy Project), Jonny Lisecki (Gayby), Cass Bugge (Key & Peele, The Brink), Jenn Schatz (30 Rock), Matt Hobby (Hart of Dixie, Mom), Beth Crosby (Jessica & Hunter), Philip Quinaz (Breakup at a Wedding, Hollidaysburg, The Chair), Shira Weitz (Brunch on Sundays) and Mel Shimkovitz (Transparent).

You’ve had quite a bit of success with your films “Hollidaysburg”, “Breakup At A Wedding” and “Periods”. What made you decide to go the Indigogo route for “The Genderton Project”?

It might be hard to believe but there is a huge gulf between artistic and financial success. So we don’t have an income to show for the artistic success we’ve been lucky enough to forge!  I have a day job and am hoping to make rent this month. And though this is a project we’ve believed in from the beginning; artistically, we’ve shopped it around with tons of enthusiasm and Hollywood was well, interested, but we most definitely heard the words “too gay” come out of more than one person’s mouth. Rather than that unfortunate statement, we like to think of the project as something that’s just a little too groundbreaking for what Hollywood is currently churning out.  The executives and producers who dole out money for projects are very single-minded about making their money back. That’s why we decided to take it to the Internet and to the PEOPLE!  We felt this was the kind of project that should exist, NOW and not whether or not executives at film and TV companies were ready to put money behind it. The people doling out Hollywood dollars, (God love ’em) have been very wrong before.

How can people help with funding and what are some of the perks supporters can receive?

You can help by contributing to the project and becoming a backer! Join us! Just visit here.

We have a lot of tantalizing perks, like a naked picture of Drew Droege (where we’ll mail you a beautiful female nude with Drew’s head superimposed on her neck). And on the more expensive side are workshops with our filmmaking gang, a custom oil painting by me and even a walk-on role on “The Genderton Project”!

Genderton2What are you plans for “The Genderton Project” once it’s successfully funded? Do you see it as a more long ranged project?

Our plan is to start production very soon after we’re funded and plan to debut the finished project this summer. The project might go to film festivals, it might act as a TV pilot/ proof of concept for a series or it could end up as a stand-alone piece. We’ve designed it and wrote it with all of those possibilities in mind.

Why do you think people should support “The Genderton Project” in this campaign?

Gender roles and how they define how we live our lives and interact with one another is a hot-button issue right now, and one that’s consumed me for a long time. I’ve been fascinated with the way that being female has defined my life choices and the way that I’m perceived. I’m also obsessed by the idea of maleness and how different or the same my life would be if I was born a male.

I’ve also been frustrated with the portrayal of both women and men in mainstream Hollywood storytelling, and the clichés that tend to dominate many of the narratives we consume on a mass level. Gender roles are strange little boxes that society puts us in. With this project, we’re seeking to upend the way we’ve always seen gender portrayed in cinematic works by creating a cinematic world in which gender means something else entirely, or rather, a world where it ceases to have any meaning. By swapping every character’s gender with that of the actor cast to portray them ,we are calling attention to the rigidity of gender roles in our mainstream stories, and how ridiculous gender stereotyping can be.  

We hope this technique will call attention to the sheer humanity of the characters within each storyline. After all, we’re all human and we all bleed red. Shouldn’t our stories at least attempt to reflect the complexity of the human spirit in the same way that life does? 

It’s going to be a worthwhile, wacky journey and hope people come with us for this wild ride! It won’t be boring, we can promise you that!

 

Interview, Movies and TV

Filmmaker Anna Martemucci Talks ‘Hollidaysburg’, New Projects

photo 1In the Starz original docu-series, “The Chair”, executive producer Chris Moore (“Project Greenlight” “Good Will Hunting”) gives two first-time filmmakers the opportunity to create their own feature-length film.

Both “rookie” directors are given the exact same script and budget as well as having the final say on all aspects of the film. It was a challenge that filmmaker Anna Martemucci was more than up for, and her finished film is an out of the park home run.

Told from a balanced perspective, “Hollidaysburg” is a beautifully shot, funny, coming of age story about a group of friends who come home for Thanksgiving break after their first semester at college.

In addition to “Hollidaysburg” Martemucci (along with husband Victor Quinaz), have already completed two other films: 2013’s “Breakup At A Wedding” and “Periods”, a collection of twelve short films put together in a Monty Python-esque fashion that was released last December.

I recently spoke with Martemucci about “Hollidaysburg”, her time on “The Chair” as well as some of her current and upcoming projects.

How did you become involved in “The Chair” docu-series?

Chris Moore had seen our first movie, “Breakup At a Wedding”. It was a film my husband, Victor directed and one that I co-wrote, produced and also acted in. I got to work with Victor side by side on the project, so it’s a movie that really means a lot to me. Chris hired us to do some work for him as writers on a web series that he was producing and it was on the set of the series that the idea of me doing “The Chair” began. 

What attracted you to the project and influenced the direction you wanted to go?

The thing that really attracted me to the project was the idea that I would be able to make a teen movie that was set in Pennsylvania. Those two elements sold me right away. It was then just a matter of me knowing what I could to bring to the project as a director. I tend to write from an autobiographical place so I really wanted to make it personal and specific. I knew that I would have to do a major overhaul on the script in order to make it my own, so that’s what I did!

How would you describe “Hollidaysburg”?

It’s a coming of age comedy that deals with sex from a feminine point of view. Even though our main character is a dude, I really wanted to offer something that I haven’t seen before in the genre and something that was a more balanced gender look at sexual coming of age. 

Did you look at your role on “The Chair” as a competition or was the plan always about creating a work of art?

From the beginning I looked at it as an opportunity to make a film. It’s very rare that someone will come to you and say, “I have the budget for you to do a film. Go do it!” There was so much to think about and I was given all of the control. I was completely focused on making the best movie possible within the crazy constraints of budget and time. I kept pushing the envelope to make sure that the movie I was making was something I believed in.

What were some of the challenges you faced making “Hollidaysburg”?

One of the biggest challenges was finding the right actors and getting Carnegie Mellon University to release our two female leads. They were two active students at the time of our shooting. Aside from those things, it was brutally cold and there were always periods where there was a lot of snow, and then times when there wasn’t any snow. We worried about continuity a lot. Keeping everyone warm was also a struggle, for sure! [laughs].

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Is “Hollidaysburg” reflective of the type of films you’d like to make?

One of the most beautiful things about the whole experience was coming into a directorial voice that I had been honing for a long time and then getting the chance to speak in that voice cinematically. Seeing the final product and getting to share it with people was huge for me. It was a major transformation for me as a writer who did a lot of things with her husband into becoming a director. Although I love to do comedy and drama and films that are somewhere in between, the voice of “Hollidaysburg” is very much consistent with my voice as a filmmaker.

What other projects are you currently working on?

It’s great to have partners who keep things moving. Victor, Phil Quinaz and I just finished another movie a few weeks ago that’s very exciting. We’ve also completed a film called “Periods”, which is the feature film version of our short film series. It’s a journey through time that God himself takes you on. Kind of in the vein of Monty Python’s “Meaning of Life” or “Mel Brooks’ History of The World Part 1”. It’s got a lot of “Hollidaysburg” actors in it plus great cameos from such recognizable guys as Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, and Willy Garson.

What excites you the most about the future?

I’m looking forward to making more movies and would also love to see “Hollidaysburg” reach a larger audience, which is something that we’re working on. I’m so proud of this film. I know that more opportunities will come my way. This was a huge experience for me and I’m just excited to keep making films with this voice of mine.

Hollidaysburg, Periods and Breakup At A Wedding
are all available on iTunes or at Amazon.com

The Chair is available now on DVD