The world premiere was simply magical. It truly was a dream seeing so many people connected with the film come together to celebrate deaf entertainers. It was worth the wait to have it in Hollywood and was the perfect fit. I'm still putting together photos, stories and our glowing reviews while at the Laemmle Sunset 5 this week. I decided to be there all week to personally greet every audience and be available for questions after each screening. Folks are driving down from as far away as Arizona to see us at the Laemmle Sunset 5 and celebrate the first open captioned commercial film in American history.

Here is some of our fan mail. Re-posted with permission.

Sent: Fri, Mar 19, 2010 3:38 pm
Subject: The Premiere Was AWESOME!!

Hi Hilari,

I met you at an event featuring documentary film editors a few months ago. We were sitting next to each other and chatted, exchanged cards, etc.. Well I joined your mailing list and I went to the premiere of See What I'm Saying last night and HOLY COW, was I blown away. I studied Hearing and Deafness in college as my minor, worked at a Deaf/Blind center, and took ASL so obviously I enjoyed the film. What I really want to point out is that I brought my boyfriend along with me who has never even met a Deaf person before, and knows next to nothing about Deaf Culture. Not only did I enjoy the film, but HE was also completely blown away by it. I kept looking at him and he was laughing at the high parts and was so invested in the lows. He said the most interesting part for him was when Robert DeMayo was walking down the busy street and you could hear what the world sounded like from his perspective. We talked well into the night about many aspects of the film and what both of us learned, but he kept coming back to the point about beginning to see the world through the eyes of your four incredible main characters. I have to agree, the stories were so well developed. It's easy to make a great film like Avatar when you have a $50 million budget. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you weren't given millions of dollars and support from a major studio, and yet you produced a wonderful, quality film product that is accessible (physically and cross-culturally) to so many if people just buy the ticket. I've been encouraging many of my friends to go see the film, both those who have experience with Deaf culture and those who don't. I am just so glad that someone (YOU!) took such a huge chance in making this movie because even aside from the intriguing subject matter, it is simply this-- A GREAT FILM.

Thank you (and I really mean it-- Thank You),

Crystal

-- Crystal Riportella-Crose

It is now 11:43PM. I have been up since 5:30AM. Here is a short sample of my day today: working on emailing hundreds of schools and organizations about our world premiere, attending a photo shoot this afternoon for Venice Magazine in the park, fielding booking requests from around the world, talking to Amsterdam about their screening of SEE WHAT I'M SAYING last Friday, talking with several distributors about potential deals, booking flights for our deaf entertainers to attend the premiere, talking with Powder and deaf sign language performers from out of town to coordinate rehearsals for premiere, getting deaf motocross rider Ashley Fiolek's new book KICKING UP DIRT in the mail from our partner Harper Collins, proof-reading our fantastic program that our event coordinator Alex Kalognomos wrote for the premiere (I LOVE ALEX - HE IS THE BEST), following up on theaters who are playing our trailer in movie theaters (HOW AWESOME IS THAT?), thanking Marc Bovee from Universal Studios on a daily basis for opening up doors for us right and left, thanking my kick-ass team Sheila Dvorak and Nathan Crocker for cramming into my small studio and doing the work of a major studio, wishing Brian Cole, Renee Ross and Barbara Cohen a happy birthday, sending my sister a quick email about another Hilari with my spelling finding me on Facebook, feeling southern and cooked some black eyed peas and collard greens for lunch, getting our CD sampler ready for the premiere, lining up volunteers for our run at the Laemmle and in NYC, finding a place to stay for a month in NYC in April, writing my boot camp instructor Bernardo to see if his new company Fit Food can be a sponsor of our VIP reception, talking with our post house to coordinate putting the music video onto our DVD for screenings (THANK YOU, MATT RADECKI, GOD OF KNOWLEDGE OF ALL THINGS TECHNICAL), following up for more VIP's to RSVP (no word from a very silent Marlee Matlin yet, which is odd since her Twitter is all about making noise for captions), watching our music video hit 4,600 views the first week it is up, feeling elated that the first female director just won an Oscar last night, and trying to figure out what to wear for the premiere. And I still feel guilty that I didn't hit the gym today.

Tomorrow I go to look at projectors, have an interview with Venice Magazine, have a technical run through at the Egyptian, see if my friend Paul Lucas is back from Australia buzzing through Los Angeles, seeing if NAD can come on board as a community partner and following up with Harper Collins about our book.

Let me know what you want to hear about and I will be happy to blog about it in my next entry. Until then, I'm going to bed.

I finally have a quiet moment at home to upload photos and reflect back on the incredible experience this past weekend in Bremerton. It was actually a nice break to hop on a plane and escape the madness of preparing for the world premiere. I was dropped off at the airport by my new assistant (don't I feel fancy - it's usually me doing the driving) and was met in Bremerton by my hosts, Maryl and Bryan. We met the Captionfish guys, Chris Sano, Brendan Gramer and Greg Millam for dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant. These guys have a great thing going; with a background from Microsoft, Google and Amazon they set up the first Fandango for deaf people with listings of open captioned films.

On Friday, I taught three workshops at Olympic College - Improv/Theater Games, Behind the Scenes of See What I'm Saying, and introduction to directing/producing. These students were so hungry for a creative outlet. We had a ton of fun at each workshop, especially the improv group. I was impressed by the eagerness of all of the students to jump in and try new things.

Maryl and Bryan took me to a local seafood restaurant on the water where we met some of their friends. I learned new regional signs for Bremerton, oyster and clam, as well as some local history about Bremerton being a Navy town. The mountains are stunning, and I was lucky that it was clear and sunny for most of my stay.

Saturday - the day of the big screening was filled with so many wonderful moments. I met two gifted students - Andrea and Delaney - who traveled by ferry with their parents to interview me about what it was like to work with deaf entertainers. Their project is for the history project competition, and they were extremely prepared and exceptionally bright. I tried to give my perspective as a hearing director who had the great privilege of working in the Deaf community and steer them towards some resources. I saw a woman slip in to watch. She sat and watched most of the 30 minute interview before introducing herself. It was Mayor Patty Lent, the Honorable Mayor of Bremerton. I couldn't believe it. She was so incredibly gracious, and pinned an official Bremerton pin to my shirt. It was a great moment.

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