Films . The Jenny James Story . Details . Production Stills
The Jenny James Story
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This one got a lot of exposure. The idea came from an actual event I had witnessed at a crappy telemarketing job which consisted of calling unsuspecting companies, inquiring about their photocopying machines, then reciting a pre-written blurb about how you were the supply person for that same machine which, of course, you weren't. It was a scam, of course. A pregnant woman I worked with had a serious ethical problem with this and mentioned it constantly. She also didn't have health insurance, and her pregnancy and imminent labor had made her take the job to obtain health benefits. She subsequently had a psychiatric meltdown on the job, and began to think she could hear the consciences of the people she was defrauding. It was tragic, and also typically American that she would be obligated to trade in her ethical values to stave off financial ruin.
I wrote about two-thirds of the script and allowed the actors to improvise the rest. For the lead role, I cast my friend Artemis Greer who, to put it diplomatically, had hit some hard times and eagerly wanted the opportunity to act. Rounding out the cast were actual seasoned stage/screen actors. Artemis came to the project with no acting experience or technique to speak of, but did an amazing job regardless.
To finance this film, I worked in a really seedy porno theater. After many creepy and inane conversations with sociopaths, I'd amassed enough cash to shoot the film in four weekends with no DC permits for locations. The police only hassled us once, for acting 'suspiciously'. Around the time of the premiere, the lead actress was institutionalized, wound up in a rural Virginia half-way house, and is now rehabilitated, married and teaching English as a second language.
During the film's various LA appearances, it killed me to be asked repeatedly if I was Artemis' agent, or who her 'representation' was, because I had no idea where she was or if she was even alive. It could have launched an acting career for her. I didn't have the heart to say she had no fixed address or telephone number, and that my last conversation with her was a Thorazine-fueled ramble from a state mental facility several weeks prior.
At one point in the shoot, Artemis' life and that of her character began to collide, and she began to hear what she thought was a cat trapped in the wall of the dingy apartment we shot in. Thinking the cat was going to starve, she refused to continue until someone went to 7-11 to buy cat food. The shoot was held up for several hours as Artemis and a lighting technician pushed Little Friskies one-by-one through a gap between the wall and the floor. Needless to say, there was no cat trapped in the wall.
Another interesting anecdote about this film: prior to shooting, the lead actress asked if she should play the character "like Patricia Arquette". I don't remember what my answer was, but a year and a half later, the film was selected for the Los Angeles International Short Film Fest, and one of the three jurors was...Patricia Arquette. Furthermore, one of the judges (Sally Kirkland), thought my lead actress actually was Patricia Arquette and even asked me how I'd convinced her to be in the film. Sorry to name-drop, but I thought it was a pretty funny coincidence.
This film was chosen for over 20 film festivals and other appearances, both domestic and abroad.