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Feminist Passion Fuels Tribecans' Film
Together for a routine meeting one recent morning, the partners discuss DVD cover design and flight bookings, trailer music and copyrights, Web content and theater agreements. Sometimes they talk like this: “The theater wants to show the film on a Thursday night, which is great because it’s the opening and once there’s press generated from that I think we’ll break even or do better in Milwaukee…” And sometimes like this: “Your kids are going to Emma’s, my kids are working on having play dates or coming back here. I just told them, ‘I’ll be in and out, in and out and around…’” And so it is that the point of “What’s Your Point, Honey?” hits close to home for two ambitious filmmakers who also happen to be mothers of P.S. 234 5th graders. (Their film company is named for the dismissal time at the school.) The film focuses on seven bright and promising young college women selected by CosmoGirl! in cooperation with the White House Project, a group devoted to getting women elected into office. In a surprisingly entertaining way, the movie questions, through these students’ eyes, the heights of achievement—and the barriers—that await tomorrow’s women leaders. The filmmakers’ own daughters, twins Raquel and Samantha Sewell and Mikayla Toffler, conduct interviews on the street and in Washington Market Park, infusing innocence, wisdom and charm into the topic of gender equality. It is a contemporary film about feminism that never uses the word. And its coincidence with the election, whatever Hillary Clinton’s fortunes, is timely. “We wanted to show the women’s movement from the voices of the future,” says Sewell, 44, whose first film, “Mad Hot Ballroom,” was the second-highest-grossing documentary in 2005. “So rather than look back—because no younger generation cares about the older generation—let them tell the story.” Sewell, a former marketing executive, was a stay-at-home mom with no film experience when she hit upon the idea of “Mad Hot,” a documentary about competing elementary school ballroom dancers that underscores the importance of the arts in education. For her next project Sewell was harboring thoughts of a feminist theme when she met Toffler, 48, at NYC Elite, where their children took lessons. As it turned out, Toffler, a former partner in a successful music video and commercial production company, had a similar idea.
Their half-million-dollar budget spent (the investments of family and friends), the daunting tasks of distribution and publicity still lie ahead. “We wake up at 4 a.m. with anxiety attacks,” says Sewell. “I’m up all the time,” adds Toffler. “Now it’s the money and the launch and the this and the that. It’s constant.” Despite disappointing rejections from the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festivals, and no distributor but themselves, they have booked the film in several cities and anticipate a New York opening in July. Meanwhile, there’s a Web “store” with t-shirts and download tie-ins of all sorts for sale. And Sewell expects to publish a book, “She’s Out There! The Next Generation of Presidential Candidates.” It will be some time before the reviews come in, but no matter. They are still glowing from the reaction of one 12-year-old Michigan boy after a screening. “He said he didn’t hate it,” Sewell recalls with a laugh. “I hugged him and I was like, ‘You’re awesome!’” See www.whatsyourpointhoney.com for information on upcoming screenings.
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