From Beatrice Crouch - Vashon

Last week I attended a wonderful screening at Vashon Island. As soon as I arrived and I saw the theater with After The Storm next to Avatar just in a better time of the day, I knew it will be special. and it was...Beatrice Couch who helped organized it wrote that:

In late November Diane Bradford asked me to coordinate a promotional campaign and oversee the NW premiere of “After the Storm” on Vashon Island, WA on January 18, 2010 (MLK Day). After watching the movie, I was inspired along with and a small group of local Vashon artists to create a two week event called “From Vashon with Love: a Celebration of Films, Music and Art”.

As part of the grassroots promotion of “After the Storm” I held a private screening for 20 local artists, ranging from film-makers, musicians, artists and local promoters of the arts. From that meeting came a core group Vicki Dunakin, Richard Waits, Robyn Landis and myself that helped to create “From Vashon with Love: a Celebration of Films, Music and Art” (January 8 – 20, 2010).

With a recent break in of the Vashon Theater, Vicki Dunakin and some of the local film-makers created FilmAid as a means of helping the theater owner recover from the financial loss. Along with FilmAid we created a benefit “From Vashon with Love: a Celebration of Music” to send local musicians to Sundance. We were able to take Robyn Landis (the Grand prize winner of the 2009 John Lennon singer/song-writer award), Troll’s Cottage and Song and Legend to perform during the first weekend of the Sundance Film Festival at the “Crown on Main” in Park City, UT.

As part of the NW Premiere of “After the Storm”, it was Diane’s wish to include an educational piece to the screening of the movie. I have known James Cardo for many years he was the perfect choice, James Cardo is the assistant Dean and teaches at The Harbor School and has been leading a group of 8th grade students to New Orleans’ for the past three years in an effort to play a part in the recovery projects. The NW Premiere was used as a benefit to create a follow up mini-documentary and show how the power of community involvement with youth can be used as an experiential educational piece and showcase the value of volunteering. Nick Weisnet, Vicki Dunakin’s son will be filming the travel study trip that the 8th grade students from The Harbor School in May, 2010.

“After the Storm” is a magical movie that provides a model to create community cooperation combined with the creative arts to overcome most obstacles that life presents us. As Gerry McIntyre states in the movie “through Community and Love one can over come any disaster”! James Lecesne, Hilla Medalia, Gerry McIntyre and the cast of young performers all give us a shining example of how with love, determination and inspiration communities can bring hope into even the most hopeless of hearts.

Sincerely,
Beatrice Crouch
Heart of the Sound Events
www.fromvashonwithlove.org

Photos by Peter Ray and Rebecca Douglas