Subject: Stone Butch Blues: The Movie From: iac@blythe.org (Intl Action Center) Date: Sat, 15 Jan 94 00:33:40 EST AGAINST THE TIDE PRODUCTIONS 160 West 97th St #14g New York, NY 10025 (212) 222-7706 Fax: (212) 633-2889 e-mail: iac@blythe.org Winter 1994 Against the Tide Productions (ATP) is a start-up independent production company that has recently optioned the film rights to Leslie Feinberg's novel STONE BUTCH BLUES (Firebrand Books publisher). Feinberg is currently adapting the novel to a screenplay for ATP for projected production in late summer or early fall of 1994. WHAT IS STONE BUTCH BLUES? STONE BUTCH BLUES is a provocative and powerful story that explores the subject of transgender through the eyes of Jess Goldberg - a differently gendered person. Man or woman? That is the question that haunts our protagonist she as begins her quest for identity and belonging in a world that has yet to define what she is. STONE BUTCH BLUES (the movie) will take the audience on a roller-coaster ride with Jess: coming out in the bars and factories in a blue-collar town of the '60s; her transformation when she decides to pass as a man when left without work or a community in the early '70's; and finally to New York where she begins to discover herself, a community and a direction. WHY WILL A FILM OF STONE BUTCH BLUES BE FINANCIALLY SUCCESSFUL? STONE BUTCH BLUES (the novel) was published by a small, feminist press, was released without mass publicity and distributed primarily to women's and lesbian bookstores. Despite these factors the book has maintained sales at a mass market rate for almost a year. STONE BUTCH BLUES is the number-one seller in numerous women's and lesbian bookstores around the country and is earning its living in the mainstream bookstores as well. The film is certain to capture the huge lesbian and gay movie-going audience. However, that is only a small segment of the audience we can count on. The public has spoken on gender bending. They want to see it. It's hot and everyone knows it. Gender bending is the theme of the '90s. The entire population is a receptive audience to transgender in film. Mass audiences demographically pulled "Paris Is Burning" and "The Crying Game" out of the art houses and into the Cineplex Odeons. The financially successful ventures have been the ones where audiences could really see and be mesmerized by the real thing. Even so, no dramatic vehicle has explored the inner life of transgender. "The Crying Game" came the closest. However, viewers were allowed to see Jaye Davidson "the actress" but never got inside the character to see the world through her eyes. Just calling something "transgender" doesn't necessarily translate into box office success. Other films like "The Ballad of Little Jo" and "Orlando" were not met with the same enthusiasm. We think the reason is that audiences are riveted by seeing the real thing and they know it when they see it. STONE BUTCH BLUES, its content and its actors will be the real thing. Jess Goldberg gives the audience a character they can relate to: a blue-collar working class kid struggling to make a living, fighting for respect. For the price of a movie ticket the audience takes a trip through transgender without paying dues. It's too hot for a '90s audience to pass up. The enormous success of the book (at $10.95 per copy) has demonstrated that this format is what the public is hungry for. Against The Tide Productions can deliver what movie audiences are asking for and what they have demonstrated they are willing to pay to see: we will bring them STONE BUTCH BLUES. INVESTMENT For information on ATP's investment package, Individuals and/or corporations can contact producers Jelayne Miles and/or Chaka DeLeon at: (212) 222-7706 or to receive a prospectus by mail write to: Against The Tide Productions, 160 West 97th Street, #14G, New York, N.Y. 10025. Please include a telephone number with your request. -30- +----------------------------------------------------------------+ + 212-675-9690 NY TRANSFER NEWS COLLECTIVE 212-675-9663 + + Since 1985: Information for the Rest of Us + + e-mail: nyt@blythe.org info: info@blythe.org +