Finish Post-Production for our film "LOVE & VODKA"

Hi, my name is Heidi Philipsen and I'm raising funds to complete my feature film solo directing debut, LOVE & VODKA.

"Love & Vodka " is a modern-day, fish-out-of-water tale about American Midwestern struggling screenwriter, Bobby Fox, who falls for a Ukrainian exchange-student and, in what is an uncharacteristic leap of faith into the unknown, travels to Ukraine to meet her parents and learn about her culture. The rest of the story unfolds as a mad-cap dash into culture clash where anything goes in the realm between love... and vodka, or what is often known in Ukraine as "horilka."

Our Ukrainian/Polish editor Yakiv, who is currently living in Vancouver, Canada, has been hard at work editing this beautifully-filmed-and-acted film with me and is prepared to color correct the film as well, but I've run out of funds, need money to sustain, and would like to raise enough to pay for finishing funds for Yakiv and our small post-production team and to make up costs left over from development and production.

Here's the cost breakdown:

WHAT IS "LOVE & VODKA"?

Love & Vodka is a movie that celebrates transatlantic love between America & Ukraine. We are a team with members based in Berlin, New York City, Detroit and Vancouver, Canada, who believe that films can be fun & sustainable and make an impact for GOOD. We aim to screen at film festivals and spread the word about our support for Ukraine, Ukrainian diaspora everywhere & women in film. Check out our IMDb page for info on our talent!

A BRIEF HISTORY

LOVE & VODKA's script was inspired by a true story that now High School teacher,RJ Fox , experienced over twenty years ago in 2001). A young, awkward, and hopeful screenwriter dreaming of his goals in Hollywood ran into a different destiny when he met a Ukrainian exchange student.

15 years later, Bobby published a memoir of his time in Ukraine and soon after that, he began writing a script to get his story onto celluloid. He put the word out, had a couple of bites, but then... nothing. The script waited... and waited...and waited... for destiny.

Destiny decided to intervene again and brought Bobby and one of his students at Huron High School's mom (me/Heidi/Director/Producer) together. After sending the script to me, I immediately fell in love with his story, the people he met in Ukraine, and knew this film needed to get made. As a Producer/Director, I had one request of Bobby...he had to be involved and help get it made...together. And so we got to work to bring the film to fruition under the umbrella of my production company Personae Entertainment Pictures. We had a script and a production schedule ready to start making the film in Ukraine.

But destiny wanted to add some more twist and turns. I moved to Berlin, Germany with my husband and children, continuing and then graduating with an MBA in Management from Eastern Michigan University via Zoom.

Meanwhile, Bobby endured his own hardship and went through a divorce. He shared with me that because of the divorce, he could no longer work on co-producing the film. I would be left alone to produce it myself. Then Covid-19 locked everything down.

Nevertheless, with a small, yet dynamic team of volunteer supporters, such as Kathryn McDermott, David Nacht, Kurt Mayry, Ariel Wan, Ephraim Birney, Maria Mikhailova, Anastasia Starova, and my family, I kept up with developing the film, making sure it was authentic to Ukraine and Ukrainian culture, language and people, adapting, updating and rewriting the script to be more relevant to the times, entering pitch competitions to hone our marketing craft and storyline, traveling to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian filmmakers and producers and - after finally finding a coproducer who planned on financing the film and planning for production in the summer of 2022 - the unimaginable happened:

Ukraine was attacked, the war began, and millions of lives were destroyed.

I'll be honest. We were crushed on so many levels. But honestly, at that moment in February/March of 2022, our film LOVE & VODKA was the last thing on our minds. What was? Protesting. Helping. Donating. Giving.

And we found our hearts pouring out for Ukraine and our Ukrainian friends and colleagues we had come to admire and love. So we protested in Berlin, helped find homes and German lessons for Ukrainian refugees in Germany, and delivered cartloads of non-perishable groceries and bottles of water to the volunteers working at Berlin's Main Train Station, who were there to help Ukrainians mothers, children and elderly arriving around the clock from all areas Ukraine with little more than the clothes on their backs.

All the while, slowly, but surely, I started to understand that this war was just as much about CULTURE and IDENTITY as it was about geopolitics; this then led me to believe that maybe making a film about LOVE and Ukrainian culture wasn't such an off-kilter idea or aim, after all.

Maybe, just maybe, as an artist activist who understands the power of STORYTELLING and the important of empowering differences in perspective - something I've been actively participating in via theater and film ever since I studied Semiotics & Contemporary Critical Theory at the University of Michigan - we could transform this film about love and Ukraine into a vehicle for HELP and HOPE.

So we decided that, no matter what, we would get LOVE & VODKA made, and we would shoot the film in the summer of 2023. Due to the still-ongoing war in Ukraine, we had to think about how to create a movie set in Ukraine without actually being able to step foot into the country. Oh, and we also wanted to help the displaced Ukrainian refugees... somehow.

DESTINY & UKRAINIAN DIASPORA IN MICHIGAN

Destiny comes again and connects me to the Ukrainian community in southeast Michigan.

Not long thereafter, I reached out to the Ukrainian diaspora in Michigan in search of finding an authentic voice for the script and non-profit organizations focused on helping Ukrainians-in-need with whom to partner. I came across a NYTIMES article about a woman by the name of Amber, and how her and her family are navigating complicated connections with their homeland as they embrace a new national identity when the war broke out in her mother country, Ukraine.

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At the same time, as Destiny would have it, I was in Michigan in December (2022), helping my mother, and we needed to find a new home for an old bed, no longer needed (as our kids have grown up). I posted a picture on Facebook and - guess what!? - Amber saw my post! The next thing you know, we're loading up the children's bed together for a young Ukrainian refugee in need of one. And that's how I met Amber Galkin, who is, herself, Ukrainian by birth and a massive force in helping the Ukrainian community in Michigan.

It was a Miracle! It was Destiny! It was Fate! It was... people helping people in a time of need.

Amber helped connect me to the Ukrainian American Archives & Museum who assisted us in holding an reach out event to the local Ukrainian community to gain knowledge and understanding of their circumstances, gather support and offer future production and casting opportunities.

I'm so very grateful to Amber Galkin and American Ukrainian Archives & Museum Executive Director Olga Liskiwskyi for all of their help -- as well as all of the wonderful people who attended our event and shared their incredible stories with us!

My mom, Amber Galkin, me and American Ukrainian Archives & Museum Executive Director Olga Liskiwskyi

Meanwhile, Bobby put the word out to his Huron High School and southeastern Michigan artist's community for support and help. I also reconnected with Bruce Falcon who we met via Hell's Half Mile Film Festival in Bay City, Michigan for ideas. Bruce is an avid filmmaker and actor, himself, and after many discussions, he came up with a brilliant idea:

"Why don't you come to Bay City and check out our area for locations? I'm sure we can make it work!"

Proud Ukrainian-American & Bay City Film Enthusiast, Bruce Falcon

THE PRODUCTION

After raising both in-kind and a small amount of cash support via the film crowdfunding platform, Seed&Spark, I took a chance and proceeded to get ready to shoot LOVE & VODKA in what was planned to be 15 days.

And we held a LOCAL CASTING and CREW outreach -- with our sights specifically on making local Michigan opportunities for Ukrainian cast and crew.

We shot the microbudget-feature-with-a-big-heart between June 29th and July 11th, this past summer 2023 in Bay City and Grayling, Michigan. We had an amazing team of Ukrainian diaspora and Ukrainian-supporters who worked to make sure that we chose locations that could be altered to look and feel like the scenic Ukrainian countryside and Dacha ("summer cottage") interiors because, unfortunately, due to the war, we couldn't shoot in Ukraine.

Location scouting in Bay City, Michigan with Matt Jarjosa, Andriy Pereklita, Bruce Falcon, Maryna Sunko & Twyla-the-Dog!

CAST

Our Ukrainian cast, new to the United States and Michigan, did an amazing job and made sure that our production and storyline was true to Ukraine, Ukrainian customs and language. To be honest, though we were out in the countryside of Grayling, Michigan, we felt as if we were near the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine!

Actress Svitlana Kosolapova, Actor Zach Bradley, Margarita Volozina, Ludmila Andrusiak & Vitaliy Synedzhuk

CREW

Our crew was a mix of long-time professionals and recent Motion Picture Institute film grads -- as my film school alma mater, The Motion Picture Institute (in Troy, Michigan), generously stepped up to help connect me to crew and equipment.

Everyone did their best -- though our schedule was fast-paced and, at times, the language barrier created unforeseen complications - and finished our feature sooner than scheduled!

ABOUT ME

As someone who fell in love with her husband (of now twenty years) at a train station in the middle of the Black Forest, Germany, I was drawn to making this film because it’s a fun and adventurous take on romantic love and what it can do to build bridges across deep divides and far distances.

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But I'm also making LOVE & VODKA because my husband was once a refugee. I know what it's like to be a foreigner in a country where I did not grow up and do not have citizenship (Berlin, Germany), and aside from being an artist, I am an activist and mother who believes that movie-making is such more more than just making sure you achieve the financial bottom line.

I hope that you can help us out to raise enough funding to finish LOVE & VODKA so that we may proceed toward accomplishing our goals of screening at film festivals, raising awareness, and hopefully get distribution to share with the world.

Дякую!

Heidi & the Love & Vodka Team