The Alchemist

Good news! Yesterday I auditioned for a spokesperson role for a fun series of Las Vegas commercials. Today I got a callback for Monday! Rock!

Hot on the heels of the premier, the first review of First They Came For… has been posted and the reviewer liked what he saw!

The film is well-constructed, sharply edited and engaging, though its short running time begs for more development. But for what it’s attempting to be, a terse statement on not only the US government, but on its people as well, it is eerily and frighteningly effective.

Yup! We’d love to make it a feature, too, Joe! Thanks!

Breaking news: Foxxy Madonna vs. The Black Death just won 3rd place in the Really Big Short Film Festival. Congratulations to everyone involved!

Sadly, I couldn’t be there for the premier (it was back in Indiana), but I’ve heard the premier was extremely well accepted! And now that we’ve premiered the film, it’s off to fulfill its original purpose to show at Pangea Day! We’re all hoping for a nice acceptance there as well when they announce the winners on May 10.

In the mean time, we have now made First They Came For… available for you to watch - right here and now. It’s only 5 minutes, so please check it out and let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

Niemoller-based short film premieres at Cinephile

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – February 4, 2008 –The new, powerful, human-rights inspired film by Kate Chaplin will make its big premiere at Cinephile’s 2008 Indiana Festival of Independent Film.

Inspired by the poem by Reverend Martin Niemoller of the same name, First They Came for… is set in a not so distant future where a nondescript regime takes away innocent people while one man struggles between standing up for what’s right and saving himself.

With the help of her award-winning crew and impeccable cast, Kate Chaplin brought the Niemoller poem to life. “It was an ambitious task,” admits writer/director Kate Chaplin, “trying to create a visual story based on the historic poem, but the final film is a powerful display of the importance of human rights.”

Chaplin’s main drive to make this film a reality was to share it with students. “I found in my research that many educators use this poem when talking about human rights, whether it was under the lesson plan of civil rights, woman’s rights, or Holocaust remembrance.” Chaplin was a visual learner in school and wanted to take on the task of taking a powerful message and translate it to the screen so that another generation could perhaps learn visually from its powerful message that indifference is not the answer.

First They Came for…will premiere at the 3rd annual Indiana Festival of Independent Film sponsored by Cinephile Film Arts, Saturday, February 16. Event begins at 3:00pm at the historic Buskirk-Chumley Theater in Bloomington, Indiana. www.cinephilefilmarts.org

ABOUT THE FILM MAKER: Named a “Naptown notable resident” by Indy.com as well as one of the “most talented writers around today” by the Writer’s Page, Kate Chaplin is an award-winning author and filmmaker whose projects have appeared on MTV, local television, film festivals, in print and online. She is the author of The Belief Test and the writer/director of short films such as LOSS and First They Came for… She is the President of the Indy Writers’ Group and a proud mother of two beautiful girls. Kate proudly resides in Indianapolis, Indiana.

For more information about First They Came for, future Karmic Courage Productions, or to schedule an interview, contact Kate Chaplin at 317-833-8861 or karmiccourage@yahoo.com.

First they came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist
Then they came for the Jews and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t Jewish
Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant
Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me
-Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

First they came for the Jews and I didn’t stand up because I wasn’t Jewish
Then they came for the gays and I didn’t stand up because I wasn’t gay
Then they came for the Muslims and I didn’t stand up because I wasn’t Muslim
Then they came for me and by that time there was no one left to stand up for me
-Kate Chaplin, 2007

New festival news from some of my films making the rounds!

Both Foxxy Madonna vs The Black Death and First They Came For… have been accepted to these festivals:

Indiana Festival of Independent Film & Video Feb. 16th at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, Bloomington, IN.

The Really Big Short Film Festival Feb. 23rd at the IMAX in the Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis, IN.

Meanwhile, Dependence has been accepted to:

Lake Michigan Film Competition (LMFC) at the East Lansing Film Festival (ELFF) Mar. 12 - 20 in East Lansing, MI

And, finally, the venerable Star Trek Vs. Batman that we all know and love will also be screened at the The Really Big Short Film Festival. (For those keeping score, that’s 3 films that I’ll have at that festival - so I’ll have a lot of screen time on the IMAX! I sure wish I could make it!)

That’s it for now… but more to come for sure!