AMP: Artists' Meeting Place and Resource Collective

LA Ampers,
Below is a message from Tom Roche, associate producer of "Dare Not Walk Alone," a new documentary bringing light to the civil rights struggles in St. Augustine, Florida.

A trailer is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9lh4dGMHjo

Please spread the word about this tremendous project. It will run downtown for a week, beginning Friday.

Greetings,

I'm an Atlanta film editor needing just a little help. A film I edited recently is opening in Los Angeles this weekend for its first run... without a lot of press. It is a stark but hopeful documentary about the civil rights battle in St. Augustine Florida in 1964.

It is an exceptional doc. Period.

The film is "Dare Not Walk Alone." The Florida filmmaker Jeremy Dean has spent years on it, financed it with fish fry benefits and etc, as licensing this rare footage cost a mint. Even though I do music video and high-end National Geographic editing here in Atlanta, I was so moved by his determination and the unseen-for-decades footage he unearthed that I donated all my time and work for free.
The civil rights saga of Selma or Little Rock has been told, and re-told. And one does seem to see the same footage these days, over and over. But some heavy shit went down in St. Augustine, and history has, oddly, hidden this tale.

Andy Young was kicked and brutalized on the street during a march. (It's in the film.) Dr. Martin Luther King was thrown in the back of a Florida Highway Patrol car and they threw a German shepherd dog in there with him. (It's in the film.) A racist hotel manager, confronted with protesters in his pool, dumped in acid to flush them out. (It's in the film.) Amazingly Jeremy even found this hotelier for an interview: still alive, still unrepentant.

I could go on, it is an amazing work, very timely for 2008.

Plus, we've tried to break out of the rote "History Channel" mold, weaving current electronica and gospel in and out with St. Augustine then and now. The result is atmospheric and thought provoking. And yes, an excellent mix too.

The trailer is here... it does a good job of imparting our different approach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9lh4dGMHjo
We don't have any big PR budget, and we don't have much in the any of review quotes, other than this:

"It's the most gritty version of civil rights history I've ever seen. There's a sort of glamorous patina that sometimes gets cast over the legends of the movement, this one feels hot and painful and like reality" (Peter Miller, Co-producer, Ken Burn's Jazz)

and

"A POWERHOUSE OF A PICTURE" Minutely attuned to disparities of class and race...a triumph of outrage and empathy." (Aaron Mesh, Willamette Week, Portland alt-weekly)

"Dare Not Walk Alone" will play at the Laemmle's Grande 4-plex, downtown, 2 blocks from the 101, in the lower level of the Mariott Los Angeles Downtown. The usual biz considerations of how it plays in its first week will determine how it rolls out elsewhere, as you know. It runs THIS Friday Apr 25 to Thurs May 1.

If this doesn't sound like your cuppa tea, but you know someone who might be on this film's wavelength, please pass this email along. And thanks for your time and consideration.

Tom Roche Atlanta Georgia
Associate Producer, "Dare Not Walk Alone"
404 921 4476

website: http://www.darenotwalkalone.com/