FIVE STARS, GREAT REVIEWS

The critics have spoken:

-- "Spell-binding," "heart-wrenching," "unforgettable," says WJAR-TV, NBC-10. NBC-10 gives it five stars.

-- "An intelligent, well-researched and heartfelt film that's consistently entertaining." The Providence Journal. Projo gives it four stars.

-- "An emotionally powerful true-life tale of friendship and love in tragic circumstances." WPRI-TV, CBS-12.

-- "David Bettencourt and G. Wayne Miller have achieved what every filmmaker wants: raising enough money to produce and complete a film, having people see it, moving them by it, and hopefully, inspiring a change in the lives of others." NewEnglandFilm.com

-- "Tugs gently on the heart strings." Motif Magazine.

-- "Absorbing," University of Rhode Island news office.

-- An authoritative feature story, with clips from the movie, in Harvard Magazine.

-- A complimentary piece in the Providence Phoenix.

Good press

We invited one reporter to our final, emotional test screening at Zambarano, and Ethan Shorey of The Valley Breeze wrote a fine story, published this week. Read it by following this link.

We completed our final shoot yesterday: Brown University's Dr. E. Jane Carter, who is senior consultant for Rhode Island's TB clinic and also a prominent practitioner and researcher in Kenya. In fact, she was just back from Africa when when we filmed her. She is a great doctor and great on-camera. Very little left to do now...

Happy holidays to all, and may the New Year bring many blessings!

-- Wayne

ANOTHER PRE-RELEASE HONOR

With ON THE LAKE already accepted as an educational partner in the Geneva, Switzerland-based Stop TB Partnership, the world's leading fight-TB advocacy group, we have just been accepted as a partner with the United States advocacy group Stop TB USA. We thank the American group for bringing us on board.

Both the international and U.S. organizations are devoted to eliminating TB through treatment and research, and the public education and awareness required to support the End TB effort. Their recognition of us is in appreciation of the outreach/education role the film will play, beginning in February.

-- Wayne

FINAL TEST SCREENING AN EMOTIONAL TIME

Following successful test screenings in October in Pittsburgh and last month at Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., we showed the movie Wednesday, Dec. 3, for the last time before the Feb. 13 world premiere at the place where it all began: Zambarano Hospital in Pascoag, R.I. We went into production a year ago at this distant place on Wallum Lake, and we have been many places since then as the movie grew from a look at a Rhode Island institution to include a national and global look at tuberculosis today. More than 100 staff, patients and former patients came this afternoon to the auditorium -- the very same place that appears in the film several times, albeit in historical context of a half century and more ago.

We thanked everyone for their extraordinary cooperation in helping bring this together, and we recognized several former patients and residents who are in the movie -- and who made the trip to Wallum Lake today. And that list includes Emily Martineau and Sheila O'Brien, both of Harrisville, R.I., and the four people pictured in the photo below, none of whom had seen each other in years, left to right: John Lynes, of Pascoag; Drew Greene, of North Carolina; Barbara Parkos, of Newport; and Russ Denham, who summers in the Ocean State winters in Florida. There were tears and memories galore... we have touched many lives as we've been blessed by so many stories shared and now preserved forever...



And our special guest was the extraordinary Frank Beazley, who has been a patient at Zam for almost 42 years. With a round of applause and profound appreciation for this incredible man, we wished Frank an early 80th birthday (it's on Dec. 13)! That's Frank, in the photo below, wearing his Christmas hat:



Thanks, folks, and happy holidays!

-- Wayne

GOOD SCREENING, GREAT WRITE-UP

A crowd of some 75 people braced cold rainy weather to attend the second test screening of ON THE LAKE last evening at Harvard College in Cambridge, an event organized by our outreach coordinator, Katherine Miller (kudos, Kate!). We had several members of cast and crew in attendance, along with special guests Barbara Parkos and Gale Perkins, former TB patients who are in the film. It was awesome to watch them watch the film for the first time. They, like the audience, were moved.

And in the next morning's Harvard Crimson, we got a very nice write-up, check it out.

Dave and I took questions after -- that's us at the front of Harvard Hall 201 -- and we enjoyed the discussion. Got some good tips, too, from that discussion and the questionnaires as we move in on a final cut.

Here's a sampling:

"Overall, really, really good!" A woman in the 25 to 36 year-old group.

"So emotional. So moving." A woman in the 65-plus group.

Needs "more emphasis on global aspect of TB, relation to HIV, MDR/XDR-TB." A woman in the 18 - 24 group.

"You need to focus a lot more on global TB." A man, in the 18-24 group.

Indeed, the last two respondents hit on the major area where the film needs work -- and Dave and I are aggressively moving on that.

Thanks to all who came, and for all the great input. Third and last screening is a private viewing before an audience of some 200 people on Dec. 3... if you feel compelled to attend, send an email through the link at Eagle Peak Media, our production company and maybe we can sneak you in... next big date after that is the Feb. 13th premiere.

-- Wayne

2nd TEST SCREENING -- FREE and ALL WELCOME!

November 5, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ The second of three scheduled test screenings of ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place, a documentary movie about the tuberculosis epidemic in America in the 1900s and globally today, will be held will be at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, at Harvard Hall, Harvard College.

Filmmakers David Bettencourt and G. Wayne Miller will speak at the showing of ON THE LAKE, which is scheduled for PBS broadcast in March 2009. This showing is free and open to the public. The movie will premiere at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, R.I., on Feb. 13.

ON THE LAKE is the first production from Eagle Peak Media, a multi-media company founded in May by Bettencourt, the award-winning director of YOU MUST BE THIS TALL: The Story of Rocky Point Park, and Miller, journalist and author of seven books. Two more Eagle Peak documentaries are in pre-production.

The first test screening of ON THE LAKE was held last month in Pittsburgh, before an audience of nearly 100 people. The final test screening will be before a private audience on Dec. 3.

While less of a public health issue in America today than in the early 1900s, when much of the film is set, it remains epidemic on the planet. Tuberculosis is the number-two infectious disease killer globally today, according to the World Health Organization, with nearly two million deaths and nine million new cases in 2006, the last year for which data is available. The only disease with a higher worldwide mortality is HIV/AIDS.

Audience reaction from the Pittsburgh screening suggests that the filmmakers have succeeded in bringing powerful emotion and personal stories to the screen.

''Our aim was not to produce a 'disease-of-the-week' movie, but rather a compelling narrative of real people,'' Miller said. ''Against this tragic backdrop, against the many deaths, we found love stories and stories of triumph.''

Harvard Hall is located at the main entrance to Harvard Yard, which is in the center of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass.

For more information about the movie, visit the movie site.

SECOND TEST SCREENING SET FOR CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

We will show ON THE LAKE for the second time publicly at 7:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 13, in Harvard Hall 201 at Harvard College. The hall, one of the college's finest old buildings, is right in Harvard Yard, near the Main Gate. The showing, part of Harvard's Global Health Week awareness program, is free and open to the public.

See earlier blogs for reports from the first test screening, in Pittsburgh on Oct. 16.

-- Wayne