Update on Dark Romance Indie
“Small of Her Back”
Starring Nicole Beharie
The last time the Nicole Beharie starrer Small of Her Back was profiled on the site, Tambay had written about the film being in post production back in November at the old site; when writer/director Russell Sharman was trying to raise funds through Kickstarter.
Well, Nicole Beharie fans, the film was indeed funded, exceeding the requested amount of $10,000 by $808. The sound mix and final touches were finished in May. In his latest kick starter update posted on June 30th, director Sharman says, “Hello all of you wonderful SMALL OF HER BACK supporters! It’s been a while, but don’t worry, we’ve been busy. As a matter of fact, just yesterday I picked up the final, color-corrected, sound-mixed version of the film! We had a lot of help getting it here… a couple of outstanding editors in California, Miguel and Alana Aguilar, an amazing sound designer in New York, Garry Rindfuss, and all of the technical know-how of our colorist Bill Harrison and the wonderful people at Evolve Post in Santa Monica.
Everyone worked for far less than they were worth, all because they believe in this project. But of course, we couldn’t have even paid the fraction of their rates if it weren’t for your generosity so many months ago. We absolutely would not be here if it weren’t for each and every one of you. THANK YOU!
Now, over the summer, I’ll be updating the website and sending out the film to festivals. We are all hoping to share the finished product with you and the world in early 2012. And of course, I will keep you posted every step of the way.”
In Small of Her Back, Beharie plays Piper, a young bi-polar woman who never leaves her apartment. She starts an online relationship with a woman named Molly. A man who claims to be John, Molly’s brother (played by Christopher Domig), shows up at Piper’s door late one night to try to talk her out of doing something she’s been threatening. Piper is skeptic but lets him in; this is sort of a dark psychological drama tinged with sexual tension. I read the script a few months ago, and there’s a lot of word play with intriguing climactic revelations and very interesting character study.
The film is the film adaptation to Russell Sharman’s 2008 stage play by the same name.
In a reply to an e-mail I sent the film’s director back in June of this year about film festival submissions, Sharman says, “We’ve only submitted to one (festival) so far, and won’t hear back until late fall. The rest have deadlines throughout the fall for the 2012 season. So we’ll be plugging away at those submissions for the next few months. As soon as we hear some good news, I’ll be sure to let you know.”
I believe the festival he’s referring to is Sundace; in a previous e-mail exchange, Sharman said he was submitting the film to the festival in the summer. “Our hope is for a premier at Sundance in January (2012). I will definitely keep you and everyone who has supported the film up to date once we start hearing back from festivals. In the meantime, everyone who has seen the rough cuts of the film have been VERY impressed. So…so far so good!—Russell”
We should hear back soon enough, since it’s already the middle of August and time flies! We may see Nicole in four films this winter through the spring: Steve Mcqueen‘s Shame , My Last Day Without You, Small of Her Back and T.D. Jakes’On the Seventh Day. Let’s not forget Matthew Cherry‘s feature film directorial debut The Last Fall.
Here’s the first trailer.
Small of Her Back from Russell Sharman on Vimeo.