NY Opening at the Village Cinema Theater August 1st!

“America the Beautiful,” opens in New York next Friday August 1st at the Village Cinema Theater – 22 E. 12th St. in Manhattan. As we all know, NY is the most important market in the country for opening a film and I need your help.

I’m currently reading a movie marketing book and it states that in order for a message to stick with a consumer, they have to hear or see it 7 times. They call it repetitive advertising. By my calculation, that means I should mention our NY opening 6 more times in the body of this update. But I have mucho faith that you’ll remember the details without me doing that. So I’ll probably only do it one more time at the end.

The NY Premiere for “America the Beautiful,” last week was awesome. We had a full house and it was the first time showing the new cut of the film. It played very well.

So many people have come on board to help us get our message out. Much to my surprise, the media was very supportive in NY. There were a couple of hiccups. But overall, the media embraced the film. I have some links below.

People are starting to ask me, “why did you, a man, make this film in the first place?”

Well, the answer is this:

One day I was on the internet and ran across a story of a guy that murdered a model. He said he did it because she was really beautiful and wouldn’t date him. And if he couldn’t have her no one could. I was sitting there thinking, that’s really stupid to throw your life away over a beautiful woman.

That made me think to myself, have I ever done anything stupid over a beautiful woman. Immediately, I thought about the time I was about to go on a first date with this woman that was so beautiful, that everytime I made eye contact with her I became discombobulated. I knew that her favorite colors were red and black and her favorite car was a Jaguar. Well like a nut, for our first date I brought a used red and black Jaguar, so she could take her pick. When I really processed how crazy that was, I started thinking why are we so obsessed with beauty in the first place. That question was the inspiration for me to start my adventurous 5 year journey.

I’m glad that I did it. Considering the mental/emotional condition of young girls today, it’s very important to reinforce in them that they have to love themselves exactly the way that are and that we all have the power to recapture our self-esteems from the advertising/beauty industries.

Now back to the premiere!

As you may or may not know, Kirsten Haglund, the 2008 Miss America joined us at the NY premiere. She did 10 to 15 interviews with me and was very eloquent in explaining her personal story of dealing with an eating disorder. She was a ballerina as a young teen and when she saw the other dancers that were skinnier than her in conjunction with the images that she was being fed by the media, it ended in a “I’m not good enough” crescendo; an eating disorder.

Kirsten and I were given an award by ANAD for our work in raising the awareness of eating disorders. It was a very nice award. The neighbors dog chewed my digital camera or I would have inserted a picture of the award right here.

Director Darryl Roberts and Kirsten Haglund, 2008 Miss America.

Michael Beach, the star of the TV shows “ER and Third Watch,” as well as the movies “Waiting to Exhale and Soulfood,” flew in from Los Angeles to join us. Michael was our first executive producer.

Actor Michael Beach

“America the Beautiful,” is a film that deals with a historically women’s issue, but was 100% financed by men. I’ve always dreamed of the day when men would rally together in support of women. Well here we are. I’d like to thank Mr. Beach, Mr. Damore, Dr. Anderson, and the late Terence Wright for their vision and support.

On another note, I ran into a guy situation that wasn’t as supportive. I planned on using the Marilyn Manson song, “The Beautiful People,” under a montage of kids playing, having fun and being innocent. This was to illustrate that it’s the everyday things in life that makes one beautiful.

Well Marilyn’s management said we couldn’t use the song in the film because of the film’s subject matter. I was dazed and confused when I heard that. The film’s subject matter? We’re trying to uplift women by telling them that they’re beautiful whether or not they look like the images in magazines. How does that message run counter to the song “The Beautiful People?” After several minutes of pontification, a friend of mine figured it was simply about the money. I just wasn’t paying enough.

I’d never listened to a Marilyn Manson song until 5 years ago. It was after I saw him in an interview in the doc “Bowling for Columbine.” I remember thinking, wow, he seems pretty deep. Totally different from what I thought he’d be like. So I immediately started listening to his music and that’s when I discovered “The Beautiful People.” So I’m a little dissapointed that we can’t use the song, but I’ll trust that they had a good reason.

Marilyn, stay positive and we still love you! We found some great music to put in the place of the song. It’s a little rocky and it rocks!

NEWSFLASH – The Mancini estate allowed us to use the Pink Panther music. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

Okay. Back to New York. As it turns out. The media in NY was very kind to us. We’ve already gotten our first 4 star review. You can read it here:

4 star review

This feature article came out today in the NY Sun. Read it here:

NY Sun Article

Things got even better. I found out that one of the writers / editors at Glamour Magazine loved ATB and thought it was excellent. She even wrote a small article on the Glamour website that included a picture of Gerren. The article is already starting debate as evidenced by the comments at the bottom of the page. This is really cool. Read it here:

Glamour Magazine Mention

I also met a very fascinating woman on the streets of NY by accident. Her name is Sage Salzer. She’s the top plus sized model in the U.S. She was very happy that the film was coming to New York and she said she’d do whatever she could to help us get the word out. She’s a trailblazer and I’m sure that she has lots of connections. I must say, to be so accomplished, she was a very nice woman and I found her very inspirational. You can read her story here:

The awesome Sage Salzer

Time for another public service announcement. I’d like to thank everyone for making our August 1st opening a success. I’m doing a little projecting here!

The film opens Friday August 1st in NY at the:

Cinema Village Theater
22 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10003

Was that subtle or did it have the kick that most ads have?

We’re going to have a couple of more word of mouth screenings and I’d like to invite all of you to attend with one little caveat. After you see the film, spread the word and forward these emails to all of your friends in NY. Start a blog. Host an “America the Beautiful,” party. Hey, that’s not unreasonable, you did it for “Sex and the City.”

FUTURE WORD OF MOUTH SCREENINGS:

On July 29th at the Cinema Village Theater at 7pm, we’re going to have a word of mouth screening supported by various media organizations in NY. If you’d like to come to this screening, email me and I’ll leave a pass for you at the door. There will be a couple of special guest at this screening, so it should be fun. Remember after you see the film, we’d appreciate it if you spread the word to everyone and get them to come out opening weekend, starting August 1st to see the film. (Now this plug was smooth).

On July 30th, I’m considering hosting a doozy of a screening. Have you ever watched “The Actor’s Studio,” on Bravo? If all goes well, I will moderate a discussion with Gerren Taylor (the young model from “America the Beautiful”) and have a no-holds barred discussion about what really happened with her modeling career in NY. When I was shooting the film (Gerren was 12), her mother wouldn’t let her talk about some of things that were happening because she was a minor. Well Gerren is now 18 (had a birthday 2 weeks ago), and she wants to talk about it. You don’t want to miss this.

This event won’t be posted or advertised anywhere. You have to email me and let me know that you’d like to attend and I’ll send you a personal email of the exact time and location for the July 30th screening. Ladies and gentlemen this will be explosive. I ‘ve always wanted this information in the film but at this point, I’m just happy for the truth to be told!

Gerren Taylor

I’m busy this week trying to make as many people as possible aware of our August 1st opening in NY. Don’t forget to spread the word. If you have any ideas of ways that I should be promoting the film in NY, drop me an email. Have a beautiful day!

Darryl Roberts