Indiefest winner I Wish I Were Stephanie V will have its North American premiere at the New York City International Film Festival next week, screening in Times Square on August 22.
It’s been a turbulent journey for the film, which follows three girls, their immigrant families and their budding romances, in the lead up to a university tennis championship.
The story is told by Helen (played by Chloe Traicos, who also wrote the screenplay), a 21-year old virgin being raised by her crazy matchmaking Greek grandmother, and produced by Laura Sivis.
The film has received several positive responses since its premiere at WIFT’s World of Women Film Festival, and it also received a Best Film nomination at DigiSPAA 2010 before winning the Best Feature Film award at IndieFest in June 2011.
It was almost not to be – a whole batch of hard disk drives failed simultaneously during the post-production process. “We almost lost the whole film,” Sivis says via email.
And after using all of its tiny $35,000 budget, they discovered that, due to a change in guidelines, the film was no longer eligible for government post-production funding.
It was at this point that Australian companies Optical & Graphic and Frame Set and Match stepped in to help. Optical & Graphic will also lend their expertise again this month in preparation for the New York premiere.
“The film will screen to a G-rated audience, so we’re going to have to redo some of the dialogue and replace a few shots with less confrontational ones, as there may be children in the audience,” Sivis says.
The film’s post-production won’t be complete until the filmmakers find the money for a full final sound mix, including separate tracks for dialogue and for music and effects, for distributor delivery.
I Wish I Were Stephanie V – Trailer from Laura Sivis on Vimeo.