Until I get our red carpet photos to post here, just a quick blurb to thank everyone who came out last night to our premiere! It was a real treat seeing the film projected in such quality, with so many friends and people who worked on the film over the last 2 years. The reaction was tremendous — everyone seemed blown away by the scale of suppression tactics, as well as how clearly we broke them down. Everybody seemed pumped to get involved this year, and to share the film with others.
Our only glitch was suitably ironic: right when the film ends and goes into the closing credits, the DVD started sputtering, the first time through the whole film. So it murdered the credits for the one time most of those people named would be present, and detracted from our ironic theme song "The Underdog," by Spoon.
This is all the more ironic because this was a closing song I never thought we would get. But Britt Daniel of Spoon, bless his soul, let us use the song for cheap. What a dream; THANK YOU for believing in us and supporting us, since Spoon makes so much friggin’ dough licensing their songs to car commercials an Hollywood movies.
But my first order of business today was to actually fight to be able to license another song for the film, one which is far less known or in-demand: "It’s All Right to Cry" from "Free to Be…You and Me," the children’s folk album from the 70’s. Besides being a touchstone for my generation, the singer, Rosey Grier is many ways the exact opposite of Ken Blackwell.
As I wrote to the song’s publisher:
"They are close in age, African-American, outspoken Christians, and accomplished football players. (Blackwell was a star player at Xavier, and often mentions it in his stump speech) But Rosey Grier’s individualism not only led him to record a song for little boys, but author a book on needlepoint for men, as well as work for RFK during his 1968 campaign.
In Rosey Grier, I find one who followed his heart, as opposed to Ken Blackwell, who followed his greed and ambition. Thus I can think of no one better qualified to sing Ken Blackwell’s swan song."
In case it doesn’t make the film, enjoy Rosey’s sage advice nonetheless.
Rosey Grier and Ken Blackwell: Separated at Birth?
