Indie filmmaker in New Haven for 'Fly Away' screening
Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at 07:13PM By Joe Meyers
Posted: April 19,2011
With her first film, "Fly Away," Janet Grillo has drawn on her own experiences raising an autistic son to produce a drama that all parents should relate to.
Although Grillo digs into the specific concerns of a single mother of an autistic teen, the story deals with the eventual separation that must take place between any parent and child.
The movie begins an exclusive area engagement Friday, April 22, at the Bow Tie Criterion in New Haven. Grillo will speak after the 7 p.m. show Friday.
"I like to think that my movie is a story of parenting. Period. I think it deals with a nexus point in all parenting -- when your kid's needs eclipse what you can offer them," Grillo said during a recent phone interview from her Los Angeles home.
"The context is autism ... and I was compelled to tell this story, because it is my story ... but every parent feels anxiety about who their kid is," she added.
In "Fly Away," veteran movie and TV actress Beth Broderick plays Jeanne, who is struggling to make a living at home while caring for her teen daughter Mandy (Ashley Rickards of "One Tree Hill").
During the course of the film, Jeanne begins to wonder if she is up to being a full-time caregiver for her daughter and what will happen to Mandy when her mother is no longer around.
Grillo worked as a movie executive for many years and believes that "the films that impact us the most as viewers and filmmakers grow out of the psyches and the souls of the people who are making them.
"I didn't set out to make a (political) point, but we are in a crisis (regarding autism) with a 53 percent increase in diagnosis. And those (children) are aging fast," Grillo said.
With the numbers of autistic children spiking and the funding for special education programs being axed because of the financial crisis, the filmmaker believes we are in the middle of a "perfect storm" scenario with disastrous implications for the parents of special needs children.
As is the case with so many other indie films, it was not easy for Grillo to raise the money for "Fly Away," but once the production was set up, she was able to attract top professional talent.
"We made the movie for $170,000 and shot it in 14 days," the filmmaker said, adding that she raised the money personally by selling shares in the production and soliciting donations as well.
"There are a lot of challenges when you make a movie like this, but there are dividends as well -- starting with the fact that people come to the project for all of the right reasons. Every step along the way it was remarkable to be surrounded by so much generosity and dedication," she said.
While it has never been easy to put an independent film together, these days the new technologies have given writer-directors new ways to distribute their films.
"Fly Away" debuted at the recent South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, and then opened in New York and Los Angeles last weekend. The New Haven engagement is part of a limited art house release before the DVD comes out.
The Wesleyan University graduate worked on all sorts of films when she was an executive at New Line -- from "Pump Up the Volume" to "Spanking the Monkey" -- but she said that good storytelling will connect with an audience, whether it is in a theater or at home on DVD.
"You can't make a living working only on films that cost $170,000 -- whether you are an actor or a technician -- but do they all have to cost $100 million? The problem with big-budget films is that they have to appeal to so many people. The less money you spend, the more risks you can take," Grillo said.
The Bow Tie Criterion Cinema is at 86 Temple St., New Haven. Filmmaker will do a Q&A after the 7 p.m. show Friday, April 22. $11. 203-498-2500. www.bowtiecinemas.com.
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