DRAFT of Proposal
project – SEWING MACHINE & the Immigrant
short term – development strategy overview and seed funding
proposal – overview of scope short term and long term
synopsis
audience
distribution
budget and phases
synopsis – short term create a Sewing Machine & The Immigrant –
hook title and subtitle that focuses on Immigrant experience of my mother who could be your mothers/grandmothers/great-grandmothers great aunt and their relationship to sewing when they arrived -and as they grew in craft – think of sewing as a universal language and the sewing machine as the well women supported their families on and drank from – as an immigrant you didn’t need to speak english and you could make clothes for your kids, your neighbors, cottage industry or work in a factory – the Immigrant Experience was that you could barter with local stories food for sewing or other material good and you could also see local made good to the stores too – the immigrant experience for women was very limited – especially if you had children and families to support – their are many stories that my mother and other women have done that i hope to invite people from all walks of life to find a home to tell their stories too –
proposed in short term to create a video pilot to go along with a pitch of the exhibition around my mothers sewing machine and clothing and knitting and needle point and doll dresses as props with a slide show of her and her work
long term to create a traveling exhibit and book and one woman monologue musical theater of a woman (as my mother) sitting at her sewing machine facing the audience and talk to herself about what she think about in the course of a day and giving the audience that more was going on in the immigrant experience of my mother and all women – my mother worked making wedding dresses which are notoriously the most difficult that was before she had children afterwards she lived in brooklyn and when my sister and i were old enough she was offered many jobs in manhattan but refused as she wanted to be close to her children so she could be there when they cam home from school too – so she went to work in a shot eventually a sample making shop near kings highway where she made samples for oscar de la renta and ralph lauren she told us (note: approach both for funding) she also made clothes for her sisters and for her daughter and she loved not having enough material – she was a true artist and puzzler too
key phrases that represent my mothers
“if you want to know about america ask an immigrant
i go into my room and see all the fabric everywhere and get all excited – i see living ideas
when she saw my short docs excerpted from “Who’s Wearing Emperor’s New Clothes” she said
“You are going to get arrested!, my son”
she once said to her husband “you have never been young and we have never been old”
when i asked my mother how old she felt inside she said “Not Yet Born Yet”
when she was in florida for the winter and wound up a few months in rehab down there and we brought her home in march of that year
i filmed her responding to a question when she didn’t recognize where she was i asked her “where have you been”
she responded after thinking for a while “I have been in heaven!” i then asked her “what was it like?”
to which she said “feh feh” with a wave of her hand and then i asked her “what was it that she didn’t like
she said “its too strict!” with a face that you knew she didn’t like it – and then i asked her “what else didn’t she like”
to which she responded “They Don’t Know How To Cook Jewish”
my mother loved to surprise me – she would make me turkey sandwiches and it was always different
sometimes she would stand there and look at me when i took a bite into the sandwich and one time there was a pear, an orange, an apple
it was always different – she was know among the family for her tomato spaghetti sauce that she would cook for 24 hours with carrots and peas and meat balls and celery and seasoning and potatoes and – as a kid she always had fresh salad – i remember as a kid i would pick the feathers off the chickens and peel the carrots and potatoes – –
my favorite food was potato latkas with apple sauce and sour cream – that is just a taste of some of the things i can remember
the above would be included in the dialog or some other ways in the exhibit and in the musical theater/film too
AUDIENCE
immigrants and children and grand children and great grand children of immigrants
FUNDERS
Ralph Lauren
Oscar De La Renta
Donna karan
Leslie Wexner Foundation (major clothing seller owner of the limited, abercrobie & Fitch, victoria secret etc
other clothing manufacturers and retails
FIT
MET
MOMA
Jewish museum
museum of jewish heritage
holocaust museum of washington dc
Yad Vashem
Yivo
jewish organization and associations
american folk art museum
tenement museum
ny historical society
museum of city of ny
Cotton inc
foreign affairs and tourism offices of european countries
private funders
Sewing Machine & The Immigrant – dramatic monologue musical theater/film
PBS
shubert for profit and not for profit foundatiuon
Nederlander Organization
Jujamcyn,
private investors
film distribution HBO NetFlix Amazon
ARTE
BBC
Granda TV
to name a few