What might your fairy tale look like?
German 2b classes were asked to come up with their ideas ...
If you have some time check out one of the skits (click here), the Swarthmore German pogram may be producing more budding filmmakers.
Alumnae News
"Soirée" - a new $40K blockbuster from German grad Kristin Levine?
Kristin Levine ('97) (formerly Walker) holds down a part-time day job as a German high school teacher in Washington D.C. while pursuing her screen-writing and directing career. In March, her first feature film, Soirée, co-written and directed with her graduate school friend Matt McNevin, opened at selected theaters in Washington D.C. She graduated from Swarthmore with a German major and from American University with an M.F.A. in film and electronic media, where she also taught screenwriting for three years.
Soirée is not the first successful screenplay Kristin wrote. Her screenplay, Moundville, a story based on her grandfather's boyhood life in Alabama, was a finalist at Slamdance and is currently a semi-finalist in the prestigious Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting competition.
The way Kristin tells the Soirée story, its production was made possible by a mixture of personal sacrifice, hard work, chance encounters with generous and talented individuals, and some lucky breaks. The two Milbert brothers, who ended up producing the film, had invested in digital equipment for another venture that had just fallen through, when an email from Kristin's advisor at AU alerted them to Soirée. Similarly, Paul Huang, who became the film's third producer, owns a movie theater in Maryland. He not only helped finance the transfer from digital to 35 mm stock, but also booked Soirée for three weeks in March. Any monetary gains by the film's fall showings (in D.C. on September 23, in Virginia in October, and at the NY International Film and Video Festival in November) would therefore go to the producers' generous advances, Kristin pointed out. The main reason why Soirée's budget ended up being only $40.000 is its "one location" plot. And it helped that this location was graciously provided by Kristin's parents, who, I was told, might still be living behind car-tinted windows (for adequately lighting the interior) as I write this.
The Soirée-party began shooting at the Walker's family home in June 2002, but had to be interrupted until late August, after the lead actor was brutally attacked by local teenagers on his way home from the shoot. While he eventually recovered from his broken jaw, Kristin emphasized how crucial the other actors' flexible work schedules were for the possibility of continuing the shoot, and how lucky they were in creating and maintaining a true sense of community on the set. In the fall/winter of 2002, editing commenced at the Milberts' house, and as luck would have it, Paul Leavitt, a Juliard-trained film-composer in need of a demo-reel for his USC film school portfolio, joined the group to compose the score in the post-production phase. How volatile the film business is became frighteningly real for Kristin and Matt, when Soirée's scheduled premiere coincided with the beginning of the war on Iraq, so that the local press was largely absent. Nevertheless, attendance at the D.C. and Maryland theaters was impressive for this Indie featuring locally known dinner theater actors, and its showing at fall festivals will surely earn the film more nationwide and much deserved attention.
After all the spring excitement, this summer Kristin and her husband Adam, who built up the German program at their high school, participated in a teacher exchange and took twenty-three high school students to Austria for a one-credit course. The students benefited from a two-week family stay and toured the countryside. Visiting Vienna, Kristin was particularly excited about recognizing many of the landmarks and cultural features she had encountered and discussed in her Swarthmore senior seminar "Wien und Berlin."Kristin Levine and her co-director Matt McNevin will come to campus in early December to introduce Soirée to the Swarthmore community. Over coffee and dessert, Kristin will also talk to German minors and majors about the possibilities and rewards of using German in a post-college career.
Sunka Simon, Asst. Prof., of German and Co-Coordinator of FMST, August 29, 2003 - based on an interview with the director on Saturday, August 23.