Seed & Spark: Princess of the 22 Clark Bus

The idea for THE DREAMERS came to me over time. I saw it in the periphery of my vision as I woke up at 4 a.m. to go work the opening shift at my day job. I felt it pulling at the hem of my secondhand cargo jacket as I biked the heinous Chicago streets from one six-hour shift to another. I heard it in the stories and anecdotes of my fellow artists and friends as they struggled just like I did. It got to the point where I felt like I was being haunted.

Photo Credit Kelsey Jorissen Photography
Photo Credit Kelsey Jorissen Photography

 

I’m thirteen years old and staring open-mouthed at the ending credits. Immediately I hit the stop button, eject the DVD, and reinsert it into the player. Again. I have to see Princess Mononoke speak her mind, stick up for the sprits, and save the forest again. Then a third time. And then six more times. And then twice more for my friends who hadn’t seen it yet. No shame. I was completely blindsided by the power and grace of this story. The princess of the wolves was incredible, and not only was she a fucking badass… she was a she.

As a 20-something female operating in a big city far far away from the confines of her small town where everyone goes to the Polar Bear Diner for breakfast on Sundays, there came a day when I realized I had to stop waiting for permission. In 2011 I graduated from DePaul’s Acting Program with a solid education, a hefty repertoire of monologues for 20-something females, and a whole hell of a lot of anxiety. That first summer out of college was a cluster fuck. I got mugged on the CTA, I lost friends, I had to put my cat to sleep, I watched fellow artists give up, I had my heart broken into a million pieces, and I got rejection after rejection from talent agencies. Never had I felt so alone and lost.

My solace was going to the movies. It always had been. Much to my dismay that whole first year out of school I didn’t see a single movie in theaters that made me want to go right back, watch it again, and then show my friends. So you mean that the token female character clad in a cat suit is supposed to pass as an excuse for me to connect with a film? Well maybe if she was given more than a poor excuse for one-liners and a sensibly tight mid shot of her perfect 24-inch waist and 36-inch bust I would have paid attention. I’m sorry. I missed the memo on black lycra-wearing women are better seen and not heard. The stories were without spirit. The characters weren’t saving any forests anytime soon. At the end of the day I felt stigmatized. Where was the epic and sweeping storytelling that made me pursue this career path in the first place? What type of women were these filmmakers catering to? Certainly not the intelligent and capable females I knew. There are single women, there are married women, there are homosexual women, there are women who love dead lifting, there are women who love whiskey, there are women who are mothers, and there are women who really enjoy pirates. However there is one group we all fall under. The fact is that we all have a valid opinion.

Beauty shot of main character, Kara, in THE DREAMERS. Set up took two hours …
Beauty shot of main character, Kara, in THE DREAMERS. Set up took two hours …

The idea for THE DREAMERS came to me over time. I saw it in the periphery of my vision as I woke up at 4 a.m. to go work the opening shift at my day job. I felt it pulling at the hem of my secondhand cargo jacket as I biked the heinous Chicago streets from one six-hour shift to another. I heard it in the stories and anecdotes of my fellow artists and friends as they struggled just like I did. It got to the point where I felt like I was being haunted. The creative spirit world was calling to me wake the fuck up and just make it happen. Come on Princess of the 22 Clark Bus. Get with it. Hear our cry.

So I answered. At the beginning of 2013 I took a step away from answering casting calls, and Facebook posts, from text messages, and booking myself straight through the day from sunrise to sundown. Instead I turned on some Beyonce, made myself a big ass cup of French roast coffee, and sat down to write the first season of THE DREAMERS. Three months later I held in my hands the story of one female artist and her five friends as they try to navigate the unbalanced world of post-graduation. Over the course of the process of writing the first season I realized this series was a way to bring much-needed exposure to other artists working in Chicago. The heart beat of this show is that of the hundreds of actors, singers, theatre companies, installations artists, photographers, and musicians that inhabit the streets of the Second City. Why not expose the musical talent of my friends who turn pop music into Latin-fusion? Why not feature the hilariously talented ladies of Awkward Pause Theatre Company? Why not create a show that brings other artists into the limelight alongside these fictional characters? Initially I was shocked at how quick the universe was to respond. But when you are a young struggling artist writing a show about young struggling artists, it’s not that hard to find a group of young struggling artists who want nothing more than to create that story with you.

Filming the final scene for the pilot episode of The Dreamers.
Filming the final scene for the pilot episode of THE DREAMERS.

Producing and directing is problem solving on crack. It hit me that I had to speak louder in order to be heard. I had to be braver, smarter, faster, kinder, and most of all willing to fall flat on my face an infinite number of times if this show was ever going to get off the ground. As I look back on my process for the filming of the first episode I feel that being a female has worked to my advantage. People trust you. I cannot tell you how many meetings I have walked into donning my mental, emotional, and creative armor, ready to work any angle to get the yes I needed in order to make this web series a reality, only to be met with equal compromise and kindness. I am the only female on my crew, but they respect me and trust me because I send thank you notes. I make us breakfast at the beginning of a 12-hour shoot day. This show takes a village and I am only the sum of the dozen  dedicated crew and cast members. As a woman I know how to appreciate, how to communicate, and how to listen. We are expert collaborators, because we’re hardwired to be.

The tides are turning. I think of the glowing faces of female filmmakers like Lena Dunham, Jennifer Westfeldt, and Brit Marling. Their body of work is compelling, honest, and raw. Their films are not meant to reach only one demographic of people, nor are they meant to reach only one type of woman. These filmmakers are breaking walls, speaking their minds, but most importantly- telling stories worth telling. And that is what it comes down to, being brave enough to say it out loud. And guess what? We women are here to understand a good story when we see it just as much as men are. We are equally as capable to walk into theatre with a pair of eyes, a set of ears, and a heart absorb it all. On that fact alone we are worth quality storytelling.


 

Kelsey Jorissen
Kelsey Jorissen

Kelsey Jorissen hails from Cottage Grove, Minnesota. She has been making movies since the age of seven when she recreated Grease in her garage with a VHS camcorder. She graduated with a BFA in Acting from DePaul University’s Theatre School in 2011. After graduation she collaborated on a number of films projects with DePaul film students as well as finished her first feature film SanctuaryAlongside film she has worked as a professional stage actress. Alongside acting she works as a freelance photographer and runs her own small business at Kelsey Jorissen Photography. She aims to live a fulfilling life of adventure and mayhem with her beloved cat, Momo. So far so good.

Anne Flournoy on Her Comedy Series ‘The Louise Log’

The Louise Log: A Web Comedy Series
Guest post written by Anne Flournoy.
Back in the early 90’s when making an indie feature film was the standard NY indie filmmaker route to a career as a writer/director, I got bogged down for more than a decade in rewriting my second feature. Hey, my first one had been in competition at Sundance, how could this be so hard? Seventeen years later, I gave up, picked up a camcorder and started shooting something, anything. 
Six months later and less than a week away from my sixth attempt at a self-imposed deadline, the ‘something, anything’ subject matter, even with a heart-breaking Enrico Caruso soundtrack, was long and boring at 80 seconds. 
Anyone who knows anything about screenwriting will tell you to avoid voice-overs. It’s a last resort to be used sparingly and only by people who know what they’re doing. I’d heard Godard’s whispered voice-over in 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her and had been browbeating friends to use it for years. What a great device! No one is doing this! 
Up against my deadline, I was down to my last resort: over this long and boring 80-second video I’d whisper what Louise was thinking. 
Stealing wholesale from my 3-page free-writing scribbles, I started whispering into my Macbook. I called it The Louise Log. A month later, due to popular demand for more of actor Christine Cook, it was followed by The Louise Log #2. Today there are 34 episodes available at http://thelouiselog.com and we’re crowdfunding on Seed&Spark to shoot Season 3. After five long years under the radar, BuzzFeed recently compared the series favorably to Louie and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and it was a 2013 Finalist in the Shorty Awards. 
So what’s it about? As one of my kids summed it up, “Louise has issues.” Yes, she has a high-maintenance husband, and a lot of other very difficult characters in her life, but it’s her over-active inner voice that is her biggest problem. It’s also her salvation. 
And it turns out to be the core of the series. 
Louise and Raj in episode 13
When I was growing up, Bitch Flicks would have meant porn or something so redneck and gross that if I ever mentioned it, it would have been in a whisper to a friend. The gap between what I was raised to be (a young lady who was careful to keep her knees together when sitting in a dress) and the leather bomber jacket-wearing indie filmmaker I became, caused a certain tension. That tension is the essence of Louise’s inner voice.
Her eidetic image of what a real woman is is at the core of who Louise is, and it causes her a lot of problems. A ‘real woman’ is someone who could have lunch with the Queen of England and have, not only a grasp of which fork to use, but also a sense of self sufficiency to carry on in sort of a peer relationship with the Queen. Marlene Dietrich plays the role to a T. Louise, on the other hand, falls far short. Not that she doesn’t wear a good mask and appear to carry it off some of the time, but we know what she’s really going through–the self-criticism, the expectations, the dashed hopes, the paranoid rape fantasies. 
I flatter myself to think that Louise is a lot more neurotic than I am, but the truth is that her inner-thought loop is closer to home than I’d like to admit.
Watch “How To Take It Like A Girl: The Louise Log #4”

5 Reasons You Should Be Watching "The Lizzie Bennet Diaries"

Written by Lady T  

Are you watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries? You should really watch The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. This modern adaptation of Pride and Prejudice is charming, funny, moving, and a total trip down the rabbit hole once you devote just a few minutes of your time watching the first episode. Here is said first episode:


Isn’t it great?

“Of course it’s great!” you say, “but I have very little time on my hands and I cannot devote my precious hours to such a complex project!”

Oh, but you can. Here are five reasons you should be watching The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. 

Agency for Women
The women in Pride and Prejudice don’t have many goals in life. They want to make comfortable marriages, and that’s it. This isn’t a criticism of Jane Austen – making a good marriage was literally a matter of life and death for women in Regency England – but a benefit of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ modern setting is the wider options available to Jane, Lizzie, and Charlotte. Jane pursues a career in fashion, Lizzie and Charlotte in communications, and Gigi Darcy in…whatever technological position she has at Pemberley Digital. (Don’t ask me for details; I’m so not the tech expert.) Even Charlotte’s subplot with Ricky “Mr.” Collins is related to work, not romance. Watching these smart and dynamic women pursue their goals and dreams is bound to put a smile on any feminist’s face.

Charlotte Lu, Lizzie Bennet, Lydia Bennet, and Jane Bennet

 

Jane Austen in-jokes
Any Jane Austen fan will be delighted at the constant in-jokes and references made in Lizzie’s video diaries. One great example: In one of the Q&A videos, Lydia shows Lizzie her fake I.D. with the name “Mary Crawford” – a treat for any fans of Mansfield Park. In another episode, Lizzie mentions how much she likes empire-waisted fashion. In yet another, we finally get a glimpse of Kitty Bennet: a cat that followed Lydia home from school and does everything Lydia wants. (Poor Kitty. She’s the Milhouse of Pride and Prejudice.) These meta references are sprinkled liberally in Lizzie’s videos, Lydia’s videos, and the occasional Twitter conversation between the different characters. Jane Austen geeks will find these references highly agreeable, and not vexing in the slightest. 

“Kitty” Bennet with Lydia and Cousin Mary

 

Ethnic diversity for the win!
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries isn’t just about white people. A fair amount of supporting characters – Charlotte and Maria Lu, Bing and Caroline Lee, and Fitz William – are people of color. Charlotte and Maria even had their own side story in the brief “Maria of the Lu” series sponsored by Collins & Collins. None of their characters are included as “token minorities,” either; they all have distinct personalities and are entertaining in different ways. Much like the world did not spin off of its axis when the creators of Elementary cast an Asian woman as Dr. Watson, the planets stayed in alignment when The Lizzie Bennet Diaries made Colonel Fitzwilliam gay and black.

Fitz William plays along with Lizzie

 

Lydia is Totes Adorbz
Lizzie’s irrepressible little sister, Lydia Bennet, is just as bubbly and energetic as ever, constantly interrupting Lizzie’s video diaries to make her own announcements to the viewers (and to call her sister a nerd). She’s bouncy, full of life, and seemingly shallow but also filled with love for her family, and her subplot with George Wickham takes an interesting turn. I don’t want to spoil too many details for new viewers, but let’s just say that modern-day Lydia Bennet is not the Kardashian-esque fame seeker I expected her to  be. There’s a lot of warmth in this version of Lydia. I would not have minded if The Lizzie Bennet Diaries had kept their version of Lydia closer to the one of the original text, where the character is irredeemably selfish and impulsively trusting (thus serving as a nice parallel to Elizabeth’s judgment), but I’m very pleased with this more sympathetic Lydia. Mary Kate Wiles is fantastic as poor, loud, naive Lydia.

  

It’s Almost Over!
Episode 100 of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries will air on March 28th – and it’s the last episode ever! You only have a few weeks to catch up! Do it! NOW! 



William Darcy and Lizzie can’t believe there are only a few episodes left! 
Here is a link for you to catch up on the whole series via every platform, from YouTube to Tumblr to Twitter: The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. You’re welcome.

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Lady T is an aspiring writer and comedian with two novels, a play, and a collection of comedy sketches in progress. She hopes to one day be published and finish one of her projects (not in that order). You can find more of her writing at The Funny Feminist, where she picks apart entertainment and reviews movies she hasn’t seen.