Regret
New Orleans, Louisiana | Film Short
Drama, LGBTQ
Mamzelle, a middle-aged farmer in a rural community, made the decision to come out as a teenager. Instead of fleeing to more supportive LGBTQ+ spaces, she has stayed in the hometown she loved. Now, as she cares for a friend's children, Mamzelle begins to realize what this choice has cost her.
Regret
New Orleans, Louisiana | Film Short
Drama, LGBTQ
1 Campaigns | Louisiana, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $12,001 for production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
130 supporters | followers
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Mamzelle, a middle-aged farmer in a rural community, made the decision to come out as a teenager. Instead of fleeing to more supportive LGBTQ+ spaces, she has stayed in the hometown she loved. Now, as she cares for a friend's children, Mamzelle begins to realize what this choice has cost her.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
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In 'Regret," a middle-aged woman, Mamzelle, can look back on her life with pride. She is a successful self-made farmer--thriving even as Big Ag drives more and more of her small-town colleagues off their land--and an enthusiastic contributor to the social well-being of her neighbors. As an out lesbian, Mamzelle is alienated from many of her neighbors, but she continues to care for her fellow townsfolk, many of whom are worse-off, refusing to exploit those who sell their produce or even their farmland to her. Morever, she tries to offer employment to those who are struggling. Though Mamzelle has a loving and stable, if long-distance, relationship, even that is challenged when a young woman whom Mamzelle has known since her childhood turns to her old friend for help. Mamzelle is then forced to reckon with what her life path has meant, what she has acheived, and what she has sacrificed.
"Regret" examines the lives of under-represented people and small-town communities in non-stereotypical ways. In rural America, farmers often must compete with industrial agriculture to maintain their livelihoods; people of color and LBGTQ+ suffer from prejudice but stay and love their communities; and motherhood is complicated by unrecognized burdens and joys.
Bringing the stories of Kate Chopin to life in film has been a rewarding and challenging experience. Our previous projects have been featured in film festivals such as the New Orleans Film Festival, Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival, and Women Over Fifty Film Festival. Our script "Desiree's Baby" was a finalist for the #createlouisiana narrative film grant in 2017. "Regret," our fourth project in the series, promises to be our most ambitious. Set in Cajun country, the film will explore our rural communities, the economic difficulties they face, and the tensions between members of different classes, races, and identities.
Chopin's nineteenth-century stories examined the ways that gender, social status, race, and cultural identity defined an individual's freedom, intensified and echoed in the limitations imposed by society. We have sought to stay true to these difficult issues in our films, even as we underscore their contemporary relevance, whether portraying through metaphor the sexual coming of age for a young woman in "Ripe Figs"--
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--or the deadly consequences of the choices a woman makes to survive in a world hostile to her independence, as in "Dr. Chevalier's Lie."
The world was often a harsh place for women and people of color in Chopin's time. But in writing about those issues, sometimes subtly and often against the grain of contemporary beliefs, Chopin also helped to ameliorate those attitudes, heralding many of the transformations in notions of gender and race that we take for granted a hundred years later. But we still have a long way to go. In our modern adaptation of "Regret," we examine how prejudice continues to create limits--and impose suffering. We also hope that our films will continue to make the changes encouraged by Chopin's perceptive tales.
Our company, Ripe Figs, has already produced several adaptations of Chopin's remarkable stories, including "A Respectable Woman," "Ripe Figs," and "Dr. Chevalier's Lie." We are pleased that "Ripe Figs" and "Dr. Chevalier's Lie" can now be seen in film festivals all over the country.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
CAST&CREW
Costs $5,000
Camera! Sound! Props! There's so much work behind the scenes, and we need these pros on our team.
Locations
Costs $3,000
Portraying a the challenges of Cajun communities mean really being there - there's no cheating it.
Insurance
Costs $2,000
We have to protect our people, and the equipment they are generous enough to bring to our project!
Food
Costs $2,000
Our crew will be working their tails off - Rule#1 in low-budget filmmaking: feed them well.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Dr. Barbara Ewell, consultant/producer. Having written one of the first critical studies of Kate Chopin, Dr. Ewell has continued to write and teach about Chopin and other Louisiana women writers. A professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans for over three decades, she helped to found its women's studies program as well as the Sarah Isom Center at the University of Mississippi. She has written and edited books and essays on Southern local color, women writers, New Orleans spaces, and feminist pedagogy.
Rachel Grissom, director/writer. Having written and/or directed almost a dozen short films, as well as a feature, Ms. Grissom is a graduate of Emerson College's MFA program in creative writing. She has also worked below the line as a production sound mixer on over 60 film and television projects.
Dr. Artemis Preeshl, actor/producer. Dr. Preeshl directs, acts, and produces with Ripe Figs, LLC. She directed "Inacheve" which had its Asian premiere in 2018 in Pakistan. She also directed "Ripe Figs" which had its English premiere at the Women Over Fifty Film Festival in England, and "Dr. Chevalier's Lie" which premiered at Vero Beach Wine & Film Festival in 2018. She is a Fulbrighter, as which she wrote and directed Pancha Ratna in India, which made its U.S. debut at Hollywood DIY Festival. She taught Acting for the Camera and Voiceover in the U.S., South America, and India. She is a International Acting Fellow at Shakespeare's Globe. Rutledge will publish her second book Reframing Acting for the Digital Age on film acting in 2019. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, local board, and the Alliance of Women Directors.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
In 'Regret," a middle-aged woman, Mamzelle, can look back on her life with pride. She is a successful self-made farmer--thriving even as Big Ag drives more and more of her small-town colleagues off their land--and an enthusiastic contributor to the social well-being of her neighbors. As an out lesbian, Mamzelle is alienated from many of her neighbors, but she continues to care for her fellow townsfolk, many of whom are worse-off, refusing to exploit those who sell their produce or even their farmland to her. Morever, she tries to offer employment to those who are struggling. Though Mamzelle has a loving and stable, if long-distance, relationship, even that is challenged when a young woman whom Mamzelle has known since her childhood turns to her old friend for help. Mamzelle is then forced to reckon with what her life path has meant, what she has acheived, and what she has sacrificed.
"Regret" examines the lives of under-represented people and small-town communities in non-stereotypical ways. In rural America, farmers often must compete with industrial agriculture to maintain their livelihoods; people of color and LBGTQ+ suffer from prejudice but stay and love their communities; and motherhood is complicated by unrecognized burdens and joys.
Bringing the stories of Kate Chopin to life in film has been a rewarding and challenging experience. Our previous projects have been featured in film festivals such as the New Orleans Film Festival, Vero Beach Wine and Film Festival, and Women Over Fifty Film Festival. Our script "Desiree's Baby" was a finalist for the #createlouisiana narrative film grant in 2017. "Regret," our fourth project in the series, promises to be our most ambitious. Set in Cajun country, the film will explore our rural communities, the economic difficulties they face, and the tensions between members of different classes, races, and identities.
Chopin's nineteenth-century stories examined the ways that gender, social status, race, and cultural identity defined an individual's freedom, intensified and echoed in the limitations imposed by society. We have sought to stay true to these difficult issues in our films, even as we underscore their contemporary relevance, whether portraying through metaphor the sexual coming of age for a young woman in "Ripe Figs"--
--or the deadly consequences of the choices a woman makes to survive in a world hostile to her independence, as in "Dr. Chevalier's Lie."
The world was often a harsh place for women and people of color in Chopin's time. But in writing about those issues, sometimes subtly and often against the grain of contemporary beliefs, Chopin also helped to ameliorate those attitudes, heralding many of the transformations in notions of gender and race that we take for granted a hundred years later. But we still have a long way to go. In our modern adaptation of "Regret," we examine how prejudice continues to create limits--and impose suffering. We also hope that our films will continue to make the changes encouraged by Chopin's perceptive tales.
Our company, Ripe Figs, has already produced several adaptations of Chopin's remarkable stories, including "A Respectable Woman," "Ripe Figs," and "Dr. Chevalier's Lie." We are pleased that "Ripe Figs" and "Dr. Chevalier's Lie" can now be seen in film festivals all over the country.
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
CAST&CREW
Costs $5,000
Camera! Sound! Props! There's so much work behind the scenes, and we need these pros on our team.
Locations
Costs $3,000
Portraying a the challenges of Cajun communities mean really being there - there's no cheating it.
Insurance
Costs $2,000
We have to protect our people, and the equipment they are generous enough to bring to our project!
Food
Costs $2,000
Our crew will be working their tails off - Rule#1 in low-budget filmmaking: feed them well.
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Dr. Barbara Ewell, consultant/producer. Having written one of the first critical studies of Kate Chopin, Dr. Ewell has continued to write and teach about Chopin and other Louisiana women writers. A professor of English at Loyola University New Orleans for over three decades, she helped to found its women's studies program as well as the Sarah Isom Center at the University of Mississippi. She has written and edited books and essays on Southern local color, women writers, New Orleans spaces, and feminist pedagogy.
Rachel Grissom, director/writer. Having written and/or directed almost a dozen short films, as well as a feature, Ms. Grissom is a graduate of Emerson College's MFA program in creative writing. She has also worked below the line as a production sound mixer on over 60 film and television projects.
Dr. Artemis Preeshl, actor/producer. Dr. Preeshl directs, acts, and produces with Ripe Figs, LLC. She directed "Inacheve" which had its Asian premiere in 2018 in Pakistan. She also directed "Ripe Figs" which had its English premiere at the Women Over Fifty Film Festival in England, and "Dr. Chevalier's Lie" which premiered at Vero Beach Wine & Film Festival in 2018. She is a Fulbrighter, as which she wrote and directed Pancha Ratna in India, which made its U.S. debut at Hollywood DIY Festival. She taught Acting for the Camera and Voiceover in the U.S., South America, and India. She is a International Acting Fellow at Shakespeare's Globe. Rutledge will publish her second book Reframing Acting for the Digital Age on film acting in 2019. She is a member of SAG/AFTRA, local board, and the Alliance of Women Directors.