Leaving it All on Film: An Interview with
Director Michelle Ferrell
By Russell NoheltyPhotos by Sofia Silva
Transgenderism is a tough and controversial topic in our society. Luckily, there are people like Michelle Farrell who are willing to turn the camera on themselves to tell a hard story.
Michelle was born Joe O’Ferrell, but after years of living a secret life he decided to come out to his friends, family, colleagues, and eventually everyone around him. The most amazing part of his journey is that he captured it all on camera. Using the resources of his highly regarded production company, O’Ferrell Productions (Now Absolutely Independent Pictures) and with the help of all those he has helped in the business, he created a film about his journey, Unraveling Michelle.
I personally have known Michelle since before her transformation. I worked with an actress in a film he shot, Holler Creek Canyon, and met Joe at the premiere. He was boisterous and fun. I would never have known he was suffering from a secret life he longed to life. Luckily, Michelle allowed me to sit down with her at a recent screening of her film to discuss everything. In an exceptionally candid interview, she opened up to her past, her future, and her life.
Russell Nohelty: Why don’t you give some background of your introduction into the business first.
Michelle Ferrell: Well, I’m guessing 7 years I wanted to shoot a movie in recovery from drug and
alcohol addiction. One month clean I said
I’m shooting a movie. Two years later we had a company, We Make it Work productions and Take 7, and we had our movie in the can. We had 350 people in the movie and a separate crew of 42, and it was welcome to the movie business, well we had bought some gear I bought my partners out. They found out it was a lot of work and I just kept doing it. I just kept doing whatever I could point a camera at. Then I started shooting people’s pictures because I had all this gear. I really wasn’t the best at how to point those lights for a while, I was fighting with it and you don’t like your work and you’re trying to get it. But there was no mentor and there was no school to tell me what a key light was or about the different fields or about cool and warm [color balance]. It was any way you can figure it out yourself. Then, it just all took off and we’ve done some music videos they’re on tv internationally. I’ve done a bunch of things BET, NBC, FOX, you know, just anywhere, anyway you can get the bills paid. ...More
An Interview with Director Christian Oh
of the D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival
By Adam Wagner
When I set out to write a feature on the D.C. Asian Pacific American Film Festival, I figured I’d be conducting an interview with festival Director Christian Oh. And I did. But only after Oh had me attend a Planning Committee meeting and encouraged me to first talk to several more of the dedicated volunteer staff who help make this event one of the faster growing festivals in the D.C. area.
Now in its eighth year, the DCAPA Film Festival runs from September 27 – October 6 and takes over at least eight venues in the D.C. area (a complete list of venues and festival schedule can be found at http://www.apafilm.org/festival_placeholder.html). This year’s festival showcases more than 60 films directed by and/or starring Asian Americans and features an opening night screening of Finishing the Game, followed by a Q&A session with the film’s director, Justin Lin, who also made The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, among other films.
After talking with several DCAPA Film staff members, including Henry Ahn, Programming Committee member and coordinator of the Scion/DCAPA Film 2007 Trailer Contest; Wyman Lee, Director of Programming; and Suevon Lee, Co-chair of Public Relations and Marketing, I got a sense of just how dedicated this staff is to making this year’s event bigger and better than anything that’s come before. And if they have a theme, it’s to make this year’s festival more accessible to both the experienced and inexperienced filmmaker.
For starters, there’s the Trailer Contest. Now in its second year, the contest challenged anyone with a camera to make a 60-second trailer advertising the 8th Annual Festival. Prize money included $250 for third place, $500 for second and $1,000 for the grand prize. Submitted films were judged by a special jury of filmmakers (Eric Byler, Michael Kang and Julia Kwan) and narrowed down to three finalists. Visitors to the DCAPA Film website (http://www.apafilm.org/contest.php) could then watch the three finalists’ films and vote for their favorite one to win the grand prize.
Trailer Contest Coordinator Henry Ahn was hoping this year’s contest would bring even more new voices into the world of filmmaking. “Our main focus last year was, basically, filmmakers, but this year we wanted to open it up to anyone with a camera who wanted to participate. We kind of encouraged people who hadn’t tried anything before this to try and come out and give it a shot.” ...More
Reel Affirmations Gives Voice to the LGBT Community
By Andrea Sherrel EllisMargaret Murray’s official journey with Reel Affirmations began at a cocktail party. Over drinks and conversation she made her case to become the Executive Director of One in Ten, the nonprofit arts organization that produces the Reel Affirmations film festival.
One might imagine it to be an easy sell given that Ms. Murray’s entire career has been in the arts. Prior to arriving in DC, she served as the Executive Director for the Tampa International Gay and Lesbian Film Festival. She also has extensive experience in the music industry where she worked as a music buyer, and booked bands out of NY and Amsterdam for the Knitting Factory.
Given her extensive background in the arts and her amiable personality it is no surprise that Ms. Murray has, in just a little over a year, become an integral part of the DC Film community.
Reel Affirmations has been a premiere film festival in Washington, DC since 1991. Under the programming direction of Joe Bilancio, the chosen films showcase and honor the varied aspects of the LGBT community. This year promises to be no different.
Reel Affirmations 17 is intent on bringing together the LGBT community for a shared cinema experience. As Ms. Murray explains, “many film festivals often separate the B from the G, the L from the T, and so on.” And if you visit the Reel Affirmations website you can search for films by theme – men, women, transgender, foreign, etc. – if that’s what you want. Yet, Reel Affirmations 17 has made a concerted effort to program films with characters in major roles that represent the diversity of the LGBT community. ...More