Season’s Greetings 2018 — Film Family News and More

I’ve been trying to find a way to write to all of you who have been a part of my various film and photo projects over the past few years. As we’ve worked together creating, producing, supporting and promoting some exciting content, we have become what I like to call a “film family”. Having recently completed my second short documentary film and started a third, my film families are growing. Many of you begin to know (or know about) one another and I wanted to create a way to keep us all in touch.

A few of our very large and all-in Detroit film family at the premiere of “Uncle Frank’s House: An American Dream”. The film premiered to a sold-out crowd at the Bel Air Luxury Cinema on Oct. 17, and was followed by very fun (and filling) after-party catered by the Two-Way Inn, Detroit’s oldest bar.

A handful of our massive Norwalk, Connecticut film family celebrating the wrap of the first shoot for The Sexy Six: A Lifelong Friendship in July.

Now, I don’t want to clutter your in-boxes with yet another newsletter!

So, I hope from time to time a quick email or message from me with a link to one of these posts will compel you to click and catch up. And I look forward to hearing back from you with news about what you’re up to that I can share with our growing and extended film family.

2018 has indeed been an exciting year!

Early in the year, while I was in the final phases of post-production of “Uncle Frank’s House”, working with the incredibly dedicated John Greasy to get our sound right, I was approached to create and produce a series of short videos about my neighborhood here in San Francisco.

At roughly the same time, my wonderful cousin Donna Aitoro Williams paid me a visit to talk about a documentary project that had been kicking around our extended family for the past few years. It was Cousin Donna, as well as Cousin Roe, Cousin Jeff, Cousin Holly and my sisters, Patti and Sheila, who pretty much collectively said that 2018 was the year we had to start filming the story about our moms and their remarkable eight decades of friendship.

The four surviving members of “the Sexy Six”, and three of the 19 adult children during filming in Norwalk, CT this summer. Our moms are so close we’ve always called them our “aunts” and refer to us kids as our “cousins”.

Working on three projects simultaneously for most of the year was not without its challenges. And in the middle of them, my wife, Viki Forrest (who many of you also know as the Executive Producer behind my short docs), and I decided to move. Granted, it was just down one flight of stairs into another apartment, but having once moved across the country, I can tell you there is very little difference between moving nearly 3,000 miles or a handful of feet!

It was mid-March when I woke up one morning coughing and sneezing and thinking what a lousy time it was to come down with a cold. We had less than a week to completely get ourselves out of one apartment and into the other. There was no opportunity to curl up in bed with hot tea, chicken soup and all the essentials needed to conquer what turned out not to be a cold — but a bout of environmental asthma brought on by living amid months of renovations. So, instead I got myself a Peets coffee and took a break to flip through some messages. And that’s when I heard for the first time the lyrics to John Greasy’s game-changing single “Detroit Life”.

Sample “Detroit Life” and the rest of the soundtrack from “Uncle Frank’s House: American Dream” by John Greasy. It’s available on Spotify, Amazon, iTunes and DistroKid.

Having a dedicated soundtrack produced specifically to fit your film and its vision was one of the most incredible experiences of my career!

Thanks to John, Viki, my associate editor Shawn Tamaribuchi-Keiser and story editor Donna Frassetto — this little team that could, did!

A handful of early awards we won for “Uncle Frank’s House: An American Dream”. See a complete list here.

In addition to several online screenings, “Uncle Frank’s House” had its official big screen world premiere as part of a fundraiser for Restore Northeast Detroit (NED) on October 17, 2018 at the Bel Air Luxury Cinema on 8 Mile Rd.

It was a privilege to get to work with some of the subjects in this film on an event and be part of their community.

Pat Bosch and Karen Washington from Restore NED made this night one I will never forget. The premiere was a sell out! Mary Aganowski and her wonderful family at the Two Way Inn pulled out all the stops to throw us a fabulous after-party. It was great to see Terence Barron at the premiere, too — we’re hoping to work together again in the future. We missed seeing our fifth voice, John Kwiatkowski, but we did stop by Honest John’s for brunch and glimpsed Dancing Terry still going strong across the street!

Thank you, Detroit for coming out on October 17 to support Restore NED, to see “Uncle Frank’s House: An American Dream” and to hear John Greasy perform “Detroit Life” live. It was a great night!

Thanks also to Johnnie Thomas at the Bel Air Luxury Cinema for all his help and patience in making our premiere come off without a hitch and Annette Stocks at the Detroit Public Library, Wilder Branch for organizing a free Sunday screening for the local kids who live near Uncle Frank’s house.

Having the movie seen by so many people who live and work right where we researched and filmed and getting the locals to come out and visit the Bel Air Cinema and the Two Way Inn (many had not been to either establishment) was a high point for all of us!

Big thanks to the sponsors of the October 17 fundraiser at the Bel Air Luxury Cinema. Music by John Greasy.

As if this year couldn’t get any more jam-packed with news, events and opportunities, there was a very special occasion on October 18.

My parents, Jeanne and Mike, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary. Jeanne and Mike are no strangers to the spotlight. As many of you know, they were the subject of my first short documentary in 2015, “Jeanne and Mike: Original Art”.

October 2018 (left) and October 1958 (right).

To celebrate we had a family party at my parents’ favorite restaurant Pasquale’s Osteria. We filmed a little B-roll of the party that may end up in “Sexy Six”.

I also used the week in Norwalk to film the second segment of “Sexy Six”. Unfortunately, we missed Aunt Ida in this session since she was in Florida, but the plan is to film two more segments of the film in winter and spring of 2019.

Jeanne, Helen and Phyllis — three of the Sexy Six in Norwalk, CT, October 2018.

Two side projects you might enjoy if you’re an Instagrammer are accounts set up for The Sexy Six Movie and another one about my mom and her amazing career trajectory as “the most photographed child in America” in the 1930s to her work in my films many decades later. If you are looking for a regular dose of terrific old family photos, smiles and good humor, follow these accounts!

My grandfather, Charlie Rogowski, was our family’s original documentarian. He photographed and filmed my mother at every turn. He’d want you to follow JeannieKDee on Instagram for sure!

2018 has certainly been generous to me — and I thank you for reading about it. Now it’s time to get into the holiday spirit as I embark on creating a holiday video for the Faces of Divisadero/Lower Haight project, preparing some DVDs for the film family members who don’t watch YouTube and sending out our Christmas cards.

While I was supposed to be relaxing in Oaxaca, Mexico over the Thanksgiving holiday, the street photography scene was vibrant and exciting. And I got my annual Christmas card shot, taken with an iPhone.

At the end of the month I’ll be drafting my film production schedule and business plan for 2019.

A big part of that exercise will be trying to raise a round of regular funding through the Patreon program. If you are interested in finding out more about what lies ahead — and how you can be a bigger part of that experience — please visit my Patreon page here.

Thank you to everyone who has worked with me and supported my projects throughout the past year. I could not have achieved all I did without your friendship and encouragement.

That’s me! Guess the year.

I wish you a fun, relaxing and reflective holiday season. I look forward to keeping in touch in 2019!

Kathy

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All photos and videos are property of Kathy Drasky. Please do not share without giving proper credit and a link back. Thanks!