Some people will not be denied.
I have known Jenni Gold for about 20 years now. She and her husband Jeff Maynard have been fighting the good fight in Hollywood. They’re good people trying to make good films in a tough and unforgiving environment.
Jenni was struck with Muscular Dystrophy as a child, but she has never let that get in the way of her goals. She has continued to work harder and more passionately than most others that cross her path. Her love for film making started at a young age and she has followed its path unabated since.
She asked me to pen a script for her fifteen or so years ago that was an action film with a heroine in a wheel chair… you could think of it as an updated version of Ironside meets Bourne, except with a female protagonist and a hec of a lot more explosions. She found funding and directed the film Ready, Willing & Able, which won awards and was distributed all over the world.
She and her husband moved to California right afterwards and set up shop on the Universal Studios lot for over a decade, meeting and having lunch with some of the top filmmakers in the industry.
This year, Jenni thought it would be interesting to look at the history of disabilities in film. The result is a star-studded documentary called Cinemability. They found a backer who wanted to promote the film and get it into the Oscar race. They agreed. Shortly thereafter, however, the financing backed out and they were left committed to the Oscar race, but with no money to get anyone to see it.
Did Jenni give up? Nope. She decided to travel across the country and show the film one city at a time.
Tonight, she’ll be in the Tampa Bay area, where I live, and we’ll be seeing it at 7PM at:
Regal Park Place Stadium 16
7200 US Highway 19 N
Pinellas Park, FL 33781
Check out the trailer and more screening info at their website: http://www.cinemability.com.
No matter how hard I work, people like Jenni and Jeff make me feel like I’m standing still. Their continued focus, commitment and enthusiasm for film making is an inspiration to me.
I can’t wait to see them this evening, share a meal, catch up and then check out the screening of their film. If you’re in the area, I hope you would do the same.