My Face on the Silver Screen

Betsy West, Julie Cohen, and a cast of a dozen or so producers and techies and shleppers came to our backyard last spring, masked and socially distant, to film me telling my version of what happened on January 8, 2011.

They offered me makeup (I shouldn't have turned it down) and hair styling suggestions (I went with Little Cuter's idea) but that took up almost no time.  Mostly, they worked on the lighting and the sound and although nothing but my face fills the screen I know that they were conscious of the foliage behind me.  

They let me talk and they asked pointed questions and they requested that I use Christina-Taylor's name instead of a little girl, a friend, a neighbor.  She was the hook for so much of the story at the time, after all.

The process was fun and surprising and interesting and informative and special.  These women sat with RBG and now they were sitting in my backyard.  This is a movie that will play on CNN and will open in movie theatres next Wednesday, July 13th.  And I am in it, telling the story of that day, of CTG and me counting the number of legislators, one of whom she was about to meet.

Last night, there was a special, invitees only, premier of the movie.  Taos Bubbe went with me; she held my hand during the sad part.  But it's not a sad movie at all.  It's triumphant, as is Gabby herself, a 1% survivor who makes progress every day, who founded Friends of Aphasia here in Tucson, who jokes and loves and never looks back.  

It's worth the price of admission.