The Mountain Top

Back in the 80’s Jac was part of a tax exempt film organization with the most appropriate name of Mountaintop Films. With that company Jac and his co producers raised a lot of money for many documentaries including his first big film, Krik? Krak!, a docudrama about Haiti that cost almost half a million dollars to make and it took 8 years of hard work and good fun, including some amazing and inspiring times in Haiti, Cuba, Hungary, France, Canada, to make that film.

Yes. Always a struggle.

Jac sharing the spot at Telluride with Almodovar, Les Blanc and others.

We’re in the last few days of our campaign to raise the funds for Seditiosa, we have 40% of 25,000, a total of 10,026. Always a struggle.

Beyond that, we’re now getting to the top of the mountain where we will put all of our efforts to make a fantastic film. One that might not go to the general public for a while; however our supporters will get it as soon as it is completed, they will also have the chance to see some of the material as we produce the film and they will have access to footage that ends in the cutting room floor. (The digital floor, of course)

They will also have what they signed for, a script, or a T-Shirt, or an autographed picture, or credits in the famous film. Their name next to the other associate producers and close to the big shots like Jac himself.

The general public will eventually get to see the film after it goes through the intricate process of distribution for a big film such as Seditiosa. If the film comes as extremely good as we’re planning and expecting it to be, then it might first go to festivals and have a limited theatrical release where it will impress people in ways that no other film will ever do. And I’m serious about that. It will be that unusual and impactful.

But for now, with the money we raised and the cash that is in its way to us from other contributors who are giving the funds directly to us through PayPal or a direct deposit to our bank, something between 3,000 to 5,000 in additional funds, we are getting to the point where we will close a deal for the locations… cash in hand.

We are opting to shoot the film in the area where we had Mila crucified in Dead But Dreaming, and we have good reasons.

The entire area is private property. It looks amazing and it has different areas with everything we need, flat areas, hills, eery mountains and more.

The location is a retreat for people interested in spiritual matters, where they got for meditation, or to have experiences with ayahuasca that supposedly transport you to different dimensions. Maybe Yahel should try that.

The owner of this expansive terrain is a good friend of Jac. They met in NY way back at a screening of Jac’s film on Haiti. At that time the friend was a teacher at a school in Jamaica, Queens, NY. He invited Jac to screen his film to his students. A big event. And for reasons that are kind of personal, Jac ended up living in the guy’s apartment in Brooklyn the entire summer of 1990.

They previously made a deal, way back in 2013, to shoot scenes for Dead But Dreaming in that property. One factor that made Jac very comfortable with the deal was that they could build a cross and know that it will remain there, untouched, the entire time of production until it was finally taken down after the shooting was completed.

Another feature that can seal the deal is that the location is the best place for the film because there are lodging facilities and some of the cast and crew can stay overnight. The people at the location can also provide catering for the entire cast and crew and most importantly, the entire place is pretty secure.

Other benefits are that the constructions in the area are unusual and with some decorations they might pass as ancient.

The location is excellent for the introductory scenes, where Yahel and her disciples are healing people, and more importantly, for the entire crucifixion sequences.

The location has other areas, one that can very well be the dungeon where the Crucified Three are scourged and suffer all sorts of indignities at the hands of their captors, and it can also be where the market and the temple are located.

And what is more important, having one area for the entire film will save money, shorten the time of production, and eliminate a lot of worries about separate locations, far from each other and complicated to reach and work in.

We have a pretty good idea of how the stalls in the market should look like, for example and what kind of ambience we can create, including having a few donkeys walking about, carrying market goods like straw, tremendous amounts of straw.

We can bring our team ahead of time to build the crosses, decorate the place, set up the areas for the different sequences and so on, just like a they do it in those huge Hollywood studios.

There are moments when Jac thinks, why don’t I propose to Miguel, that’s his friend’s name and no, he’s not our previous cinematographer, why don’t I propose to Miguel to turn his property into a movie studio?

Then he thinks. How hard would it be to actually make fake ancient walls out of plywood, cardboard and paper mache to create the ‘town’?… and his brain does not stop nor does the calculator built into his gray cells. CELLS, not HAIR. Grey Cells…. brain cells… right, you got it.

When will we know? Soon, very soon. Jac is contacting his friend to arrange a visit to the place, to make sure that they didn’t turn it into a modern populated neighborhood of suburbia.

We reached the magic number 10! And we have 7 days left of the campaign. We would love to reach our goal of 25,000 in during this week. We’re excited for where we are now, we would be more excited if we get more, so, we won’t stop pushing now. We’ll take this campaign as far as we can!