by Ali Liebert
Does this happen to you too? You sit down to write and a wave of anxiety washes over you and suddenly have to do your laundry?
<10 minutes later>
Well, the laundry is in and now I write.
This update comes to you from sunny Los Angeles where I am happily camping out for the next couple of months with a few of my Bomb Girls pals. Much to the chagrin of said housemates, I recently picked up a copy of Dolly Parton’s book, Dream More. Now to be honest, I have always loved Dolly. I love her singing – both the sassy uptempo beats and her heartfelt ballads, her hair and her use of hairspray and her enthusiasm for living life to the fullest. I also admire her work ethic, or what I observe to be, her work ethic.
After reading this book, I have to tell you, I am an even BIGGER Dolly fan than I was before. My assumptions about her work ethic were correct. She earned it. She worked her tail feathers off. Growing up in a small town and struggling to make it in zee show biz myself, I feel a connection to Dolly, like maybe we would be friends if we met. We’d call each other brassy broads and I’d like that very much. As a sidebar, it’s important to point out that I am in no way comparing my cozy childhood in Duncan BC to Dolly’s humble beginnings in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in East Tennessee. Although, I have recently driven through the Smoky Mountains and they are gorgeous! I even broke into Dollywood, but that is a story for another time.
So why Dolly? Why on the Sociable blog am I prattling to y’all about Dolly?
Well, when reading it, I was deeply inspired to…wait for it…wait for it…DREAM MORE. It made me reflect on how Sociable Films was formed and how as partners, friends, family members of sorts, we have constantly encouraged each other to pursue our dreams, both collective and personal. We help each other light that fire in our bellies – you know the one – that persistent feeling that propels us to do things that scare us. Like write a blog post (Me). Or start a production company (Us). Or write and direct your first short (Jane Hancock). Or create and star in your own web-series (The True Heroines gang). Or write your life as a Broadway musical (Dolly). Dolly really goes for it, huh?
So here we are on February 22nd, 2013 and my partners Nick Carella and Michelle Ouellet are hard at work in Vancouver hustling for our company in the deep dark land of post production on two of our projects, ‘Afterparty’ & ‘The True Heroines’. I want to take a quick second here on the interweb to congratulate Nick & Michelle for being super hero producers on Jane Hancock’s Crazy8s film, ‘When I Saw You’. Crazy8s is an incredible local film competition where the filmmakers go through an extremely intense process to have their scripts selected. From pitching and meeting with juries, to working with story editors and directing mentors, congrats to all those who helped Jane’s vision become a reality.
This Saturday (tomorrow night) the film, along with the other 5 winners of this year’s Crazy8s competition will be screening at a Gala at the Centre for the Performing Arts. If you live in Vancouver, please go and support emerging local filmmakers! (PS there’s a party after)
Details and tickets at Crazy8s.cc.
We also have some very exciting news on the True Heroines front.
We are presenting an EPIC live show & special screening of the web series at the lovely Rio Theatre in just a few weeks. Do not miss this evening! I’m serious. You will be mad at yourself. And I will also be mad at you. As an added bonus for those who care, I will be performing in the show as well, reprising my role as weirdo neighbour, Ethel Worthington.
When: Tuesday, March 12th, 2013- 6:30pm
Where: The Rio Theatre, 1660 E. Broadway
What: The official red carpet, live show & web-series season one- advance screening.
For all other info visit the True Heroines facebook page here.
And now, I will check on my laundry and wish you, dear reader, an excellent and creative day as you dream your ass off and call a friend and inspire them to do the same.
SOCIABLE FILMS 
This is great. I just now stumbled upon this blog and I can already tell I am going to love it. …and I now have a new book to add to my ‘to read’ list. (Although speaking of reading and being inspired, I just today finished a book called Tattoos on the Heart and if anyone out there is looking for an inspiring book, please choose this one, so good.) Anyway, so I have been working as a PA here in LA for coming up on almost a year now, and I have been super lucky with meeting people and finding work, but you know how the industry is, and sometimes it is hard. I hadn’t been able to work on a movie in almost a month and a half and I was about 30 minutes away from driving off into the mountains to try to drown my sorrows in nature for what seemed like looming failure, when I received a phone call to come in and PA for the rest of the month on a movie. It seems (and this is not the first time it has happened to me) that right as I am ready to quit, when I think that I am just a failure and maybe not everything is always supposed to work out, the tide changes and I am encouraged again that no, I can do this! I guess it’s that if your dreams are easily accomplished you aren’t dreaming big enough. So I guess maybe I am doing it right after all. Anyway (again), not even sure if you, Ali, will ever see this, but just wanted to say thank you for being you. Thank you for this blog, for reminding us to dream. Thank you for bringing the character Betty to life, showing how strong, independent women lead the way before us. Just….thanks. 🙂
Hey Amy!!! Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. Your kind words made our (Me, Nick & Ali) day!!