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Interview with Kwyn Bader conducted by Blair Smith
- BS
- Kwyn, give us a synopsis of Loving Jezebel? It's a
very provocative title. (See Loving Jezebel
review)
- KB
- Well, Loving Jezebel is the story of a young man who spends his whole
life loving other peoples' girlfriends. From the time he is a little boy
in kindergarten until he falls in love with another man's wife. I was
definitely venturing into dangerous territory while injecting a little
humor into the story.
- BS
- Is this a biography?
- KB
- Everyone wants to know that when they see the film. It's a work of
fiction but there are some unfortunate parallels. I guess the mischief
I got into in my life gave me a lot of material. At the time that I did
it, it was almost therapy.
- BS
- Well hopefully not too many old girlfriends will call when they read
this interview. How did you get started with this project? I understand
this is a Starz production in association with BET.
- KB
-
Yes, well I wrote this script a long time ago before I even thought
of making a movie and I hooked up with a great producer named David
Lancaster in Los Angeles. He took it to Starz and they liked the script
a lot and were willing to put up the funding for it. As an independent
filmmaker, this was an incredible opportunity. I was fortunate in
knowing that the money was in place during production and shooting.
- BS
- That's very different from a lot of other independent filmmakers
trying to complete projects.
- KB
- Yeah, in the middle of editing I did not have to send someone out to
raise $20,000.
- BS
- No running up the credit cards or anything?
- KB
- I was lucky that everything was always up and running.
- BS
- The film has recently hit a number of different venues
including New York. Tell us about that.
- KB
- Well, we hit the Acapulco Film Festival and I had literally finished
production the week before. It was great because I felt like I was
back in the real world again. Then we just did the Urbanworld Festival
which is important because without these festivals, it may take a long
time before audiences see your film. With events like Urbanworld, you
can see their reactions right away. It also shows studio executives
that we can grab an audience and it encourages distributors to jump on
board.
- BS
- How do you feel audiences have reacted to the film?
- KB
- It's been great and what I like is that audiences react in a
personal way. People say, "I remember guys like that or women like
that." You can't beat that type of response.
- BS
- Well, I definitely saw something myself that I could identify with.
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