Joey has had a rough last week or so since we’ve been home. But the last couple of days have been much better and her sweet smile and energy is returning. She and her mama June are flying back to CTCA tomorrow for the next phase of chemo therapy. It will just be an overnight trip, so I’ll keep Indy here with me until they get back on Thursday evening.
Although we’ve not been home much this summer, it’s been important for me to try to keep being creative when I can through this all… whether it’s through this blog, writing songs, or filmmaking.
This past spring, I made a blog post about a movie that I was working on and shared a link to the kickstarter campaign that we had launched. In that first 30 days, not only did we reach our kickstarter goal, but we raised the money we hope for, and more. Thank you.
Upon our return from filming in Virginia in May, we converted the milkhouse at our farm into an editing studio and started on the long process of organizing all the film footage we’d shot and started assembling the story to see what we had.
While we were in Chicago, and even more so in Atlanta for the last few months for Joey’s surgery and treatment, I’ve done my best to keep working on and editing the film… during Indy’s naps… and after Joey and Indy’s bedtime. All the while, a small team of friends have also been working on the film here.
It’s been a lot of work, but a couple weeks ago we finished a great working edit that we submitted to Sundance Film Festival (along with the Nashville Film Festival and some others). We’ve also completed a website for the film and an early movie trailer for the film…
o say that I, and all of us who worked on this film are proud of it, is an understatement. Aaron and I had never written a film before…I’d never directed a film before…and most of us from Nashville that went to Virginia had never even been on a movie set before…let alone made a movie.
Sometimes, not knowing what you don’t know is a blessing.
We had an incredible cast of actors that I pray our little film is a blessing to, and that the world gets to see their talent the way that we have. And the crew we had worked tirelessly on this project… knowing like us, that we didn’t really have enough money, time or resources to pull it off. But together, we did.
So what’s the future of the film? Well, honestly… I have no idea. Aaron and I will start taking meetings and sharing it with film and music industry folks and see where it will lead us. Getting a movie into theaters so that the whole world can see it is nearly impossible for an independent film (most of them go straight to video, or less), but I’m a big dreamer, and Joey and I are living proof that amazing things can happen if you just believe and trust in His plan… things that you never dream of… that you never hoped for or ever even knew was possible.
So, on that note, feel free to share the trailer, website or story with others if you’d like. You never know where it will lead. I always believe that, in the end… the ‘work’ should do the work. Magic doesn’t happen because you plan it. It happens because you believe in it.
And I believe in the magic of telling a great story… like Josephine’s. One that’s hard at times, and rough and scary, and you don’t know what’s going to happen.
And even more so, I believe in the magic of living a great story… like ours. Even if it’s hard at times, and rough and scary, and you don’t know what’s going to happen.
Those are things that make a great story… great.
