A Place to Stand's Wide Release
A few days ago, Friday June 17th, A Place to Stand was released on iTunes for the world to see and buy. Over the coming weeks, it will also become available at 20 other digital outlets. As I've written before, it's strange and surreal to have something so personal get released into the ether for strangers to watch and judge and hopefully enjoy. It's a lot like letting the bird fly from the nest. We did what we could to nurture it, make it strong and healthy, and now it's up to the film to go out there and do what it's going to do. We have very little control on what happens next.
It's a bit scary and vulnerable, but it's mostly exciting. It would be an understatement to say that I have travel-fatigue from all the miles we've ran on this project, but I'm also very happy with how the film turned out and the extremely positive responses that we've received so far. I do hope that the film continues to connect with the populations who we made it for - the neglected, the abused, the convicted, and the suffering. Of course, I also hope it reaches a general audience like Jimmy's book did.
Making this film has been such an adventure, from the early days above, filming Jimmy at the Rio Grande acequias, to traveling all four corners of the US, conducting interviews at Disney World, spending time with the upper crust and the lower crust of American society - the famous, the criminal, the powerful, the poor. This adventure put us in contact with all of it and I grew tremendously from the experience. It wasn't easy - making A Place to Stand was the biggest challenge of my life so far - but the fruits have been beyond what I could have hoped for.
My prayer and wish is now that the film gives to others a fraction of what it gave to me.
(You can check out A Place to Stand here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/a-place-to-stand/id1109110672)