ROOST PARTY AT ALLIUM APRIL 11TH, 3-5PM

Hey All!

Hope you can make it to THE ROOST PARTY at Allium in Great Barrington, MA tomorrow from 3-5pm! $25 for one free special cocktail, appetizers provided by Allium and a chance to bid on some very awesome Silent Auction items - INCLUDING All Access Industry Passes to the Tribeca Film Festival (no longer available through the fest itself), A tasting and wine pairing on a Vanderbilt estate, and all sorts of goodies from local Berkshires businesses. Just see below!

We look forward to seeing you and thanks so much to the generous companies that are lending a hand!

xo, Anna

Jack Fish Films, The New England Epicurean Society and Allium, present a special Cocktail Party Fundraiser for ROOST, the debut feature from writer/director Anna Kerrigan.

ROOST will be filmed in Stockbridge and throughout the Berkshires this coming May. Many individuals and Berkshires-based companies have already been extremely gracious towards our production and we would love to further strengthen our relationship with the local community!

We've raised close to our modest shooting budget and we are looking to close the gap. We hope that you can help!

THE LOCATION:

Allium, 42/44 Railroad Street, Great Barrington

WHEN:

SUNDAY, APRIL 11TH, 3pm-5pm

THE EVENT:

$25 donation at the door includes a free cocktail (after the first it'll be a cash bar) and appetizers, graciously provided by Allium. We encourage you to stay for dinner as well!

There will also be a SILENT AUCTION, with prizes including but are not limited to:

- ALL ACCESS Industry Passes to the Tribeca Film Festival (valued at $550 each)

(Note: These passes are no longer available to purchase through the Tribeca Film Festival but are exclusively available through our auction)

-Tasting & Wine Pairing This summer with The New England Epicurean Society ($250 value)

- A featured speaking role for a woman between the ages of 40 and 60!

And products from:

-Harney and Sons Tea Company

-Blue Q

-Rubiner’s Cheesemongers

-Himala Salt

-Storey Publishing

-Little Gates Wine Merchants

-Karen Lee Studios

-Berkshire Mountain Distillers

-Kate Carty Ltd

To RSVP please send an email to jackfishfilms@gmail.com with ROOST PARTY RSVP in the subject line. You can also call Anna at 917-488-8312.

For more information about the film, or to make a donation if you cannot attend, please go to www.jackfishfilms.com

TWO FUNDRAISERS IN APRIL

We are super psyched to announce two upcoming fundraisers, one in New York and one in the Berkshires. There will be no shortage of cocktail consumption in April!

new york:

THE APRIL 9TH PARTY
The LAST NYC Fundraiser for Roost
When: Friday, April 9th, 2010, 9pm onward
Where: 25 Murray st, apt 2K b/w church and broadway nyc
$20 suggested donation; open bar

great barrington, massachusetts:

THE ROOST PARTY
presented by Jack Fish Films, Allium and The New England Epicurean Society
When: Sunday, April 11th, 2010, 3-5pm
Where: Allium, 42/44 Railroad St, Great Barrington
$25 at the door includes one free cocktail, appetizers (courtesy of Allium)
There will also be a silent auction!

Casting Call for ROOST in Lenox, MA

We're doing some local casting in Lenox, MA for additional roles in ROOST! all details are below:

Roost will be Anna Kerrigan’s first feature film. An edgy update on the Chekhovian tradition of a week in the country gone awry, Roost is a witty, dramedy that explores themes of family, intimacy, class and sexual politics. This low budget, digital film will be shot on location in New York City and Stockbridge, Massachusetts in May of 2010. Though we have cast our leads, we are looking to cast two of the supporting roles with local Berkshires talent.

GREG, white male, between 30-40 years old, athletic/slim/average build; physical guy (think carpenter, musician, mechanics); likes to have a good time, bold and charismatic Alpha male

JOHN PAUL, white male, between 30-40; athletic/slim/average build; physical guy; the Beta male

TILDA, white female, 50-70; fun, classy, diva

POLICE OFFICER, white male, 45-55

We will be shooting with Greg and John Paul for two days in May. Exact dates are TBD. Tilda and the Police Officers will be one day shoots.

We will be holding auditions on Saturday, March 13th at Shakespeare and Company in Lenox. Please submit resume and headshot (or snapshot) to jackfishfilms@gmail.com to sign up for a slot.

Winter Moonshine Party and Fundraiser a Smash Hit

Despite the intense blizzard we experienced here in New York City last Saturday the 19th, a ton of people showed up to our Winter Moonshine Party and Fundraiser in Tribeca. Sponsored by Catdaddy Moonshine, a great lil liquor straight from a small distillery in North Carolina, we drank Moonshine in a million ways, snacked and mingled and hung around the Xmas tree while the snow piled up outside. Thanks to all who came and supported the film! Beyond raising some dough, the real prize was the weather-shocked expressions of folks coming in from the cold: totally priceless.

ROOST CAST ANNOUNCED

We are super psyched to announce the leads in Roost:

Camden will be played by Amy Herzog.

Brett will be played by Austin Lysy.

Crane will be played by Sam Rosen.

Alice will be played by myself, Anna Kerrigan.

We had an amazing table read a few weeks ago and the vibe in the room was just great. We're all feeling confident about the script and our team.

Recap Part 2: Fundraising thus Far

After many informational/general meetings with various film folks, it seemed glaringly obvious that no one really knows where to get money. The elusive investor. Who is he? Or she? Where do they come from? What do they eat and how can I catch one.

So I got myself a fiscal sponsorship through Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts organizations through which donations can be tax deductible, drafted a nice letter, and sent it out to everyone I had ever known. And luckily, people started to give Roost money. And I am very grateful to those friends and family members who wrote those checks.

Thank you friends and family who wrote those checks.

However, the fundraising must continue.

Recap Part 1: Berkshire Madness and why I love Cathy Deely

Say what you want about my native California (I'm sure, for example, that you have a lot to say about my native Los Angeles - so do I) - but one thing California does not lack is natural beauty. Whether it be the old growth of Humboldt County, the beach along the Pacific Coast Highway, Death Valley or Lake Tahoe, you're always hours from some place majestic. But I left all that behind when I decided to Go Back East after graduating from Stanford in 2004.

And while New York City itself has never been anything but stimulating and awe-inspiring, I found the east coast nature scene a little lacking. That is until I made it to up to the Berkshires.

The Berkshires are located in the western parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and they're famous for hosting some of the nation's best summertime cultural and arts events/festivals/attractions (such as Tanglewood, Jacob's Pillow, Shakespeare and Company, and the Williamstown Theater Festival). In addition to these summer festivals, burgeoning communities of young artists are rising up in post-industrial Pittsfield, North Adams and other spots (North Adams is also home to one of my favorite museums of all time - Mass MOCA).

During the summer of 2006, I attended the Williamstown Theater Festival as a Directing Intern. And dude, to my pleasant surprise, the Berkshires also turned out to be ridiculously gorgeous!

The festival keeps you busy - I was writing up a storm, directing original pieces, and Assistant directing a rock musical (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, which recently finished up a run at the Public Theater in New York). Basically, I was spending a lot of time running from one dark room to another. Luckily for me, a new friend, Cathy Deely, had a place about an hour away from Williamstown in a town called Stockbridge. She invited a friend and I to drive over and join her for a weekend barbecue. We wrangled a car and took a minor road trip - complete with majorly beautific panoramas - to Cathy's place: Ingleside.

I don't know that I had ever been to a proper estate before - but this was definitely just that. With a long, perfectly manicured lawn reminiscent of the kind you'd find in English period dramas, the house itself was oozing with the personal history of Cathy's remarkable family (the house has been in her family for generations). Over barbecued chicken and diet Coke, I marveled at the beauty of this very special place. To misquote Gertrude Stein: There was definitely a there there.

Cathy had me over a few more times that summer. The more I was there, the more I could not stop thinking about Ingleside and the Berkshires. I began spinning plots and developing characters that could exist nowhere but Ingleside. As the story and characters grew clearer to me, I began writing and could not stop - and as the story grew more and more integrated with Cathy's home, I realized that this story would have to be a film and that this film would have to be filmed at Ingleside.

Thank God Cathy is a generous woman.

I approached her with a script for Roost and explained that for whatever reason, I had become obsessed with her home and would be honored to shoot my film there. And to my surprise, she said "Okay".