SOME SAY SAPPHO: a FILM

SOME SAY SAPPHO: A project by Carol Muske-Dukes, Cecilia Woloch, Kate Gale, Sara Ballantine, Mischa Cantu, Terrence Scott, & Hannah Sanghee Park


 We are raising funds to make a film titled "Some Say Sappho" (echoing a poem fragment)- bringing the poetic silences and gaps among the brilliant fragments into visual imagery that will reflect her poetic thinking.

“Violet-haired, pure – with a smile like honey” -  Alcaeus.  Images of Sappho, a Greek lyric poet, born on Lesbos around 610 B.C. -  whose passionate lyric poems to and about women exist now only in fragments – have also been filtered through contemporary consciousness. 

 Who was Sappho? Sappho was a poet who wrote songs for choruses (sung at public events in ancient Greece)—OR she was a teacher (and lover) of young women – OR she was a prostitute – all of these possibilities have been examined by scholars,  with conflicting minimal evidence.

Is it possible to see her through the lens of the present – through feminist politics, lesbian-defined – or is Sappho only a name and a voice?

Do we have to know “who” she was at all – beyond this timeless lyrical voice?   “Our” filmic Sappho will answer that question – or will evade it  - but she will appear before you: playing her ancient cithara (a lyre, an ancestor of the guitar) under a full moon, singing of  “what she loves most on this earth” – or rapping  (& trying stand-up comedy)  in contemporary dress, in today’s  Los Angeles.

Money raised here will go directly towards the film's production and post production expenses. That means film equipment, cast & crew, production design, costume, makeup, and festival entry fees. 

 We are a group of poets, professors, students, actors -  all based in L.A.  The Team:

Carol Muske-Dukes
http://www.carolmuskedukes.com/

Cecilia Woloch
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/cecilia-woloch

Kate Gale
https://kategale.wordpress.com/

Sara Ballantine
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0050547/

Mischa Cantu
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mischa-cantu-b6299360

Terrence Scott
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottedits

We know that you’re besieged daily by requests for donations. But here’s a request to make Sappho’s poems accessible to a new audience – to “see” her and “hear” her on film. We will list anyone who donates in the credits (unless anonymity is preferred).
 
Donation levels:  for a $1,000 contribution, you will be eligible for a "walk on" part, if you are interested. 
A $5,000 contribution will generate a speaking part.  Higher levels of support will receive above title credit - and more.

For now,  Sappho is waiting for your call:   
“The moon has set, and the Pleiades. Midnight comes. I sleep alone.”