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What's It All About?

Besties LUCILLE and OLIVIA are in a pickle. Lucille is a well-to-do, yet very-less-than-proper firebrand—she'll be leading suffragist marches any day now if she has her way. Olivia is an exquisitely well-mannered “Lady-with-a-capital-L”, and utterly enthralled with the idea of romantic love. Their personal heroine, the great SARAH BERNHARDT, is coming to New York on tour with her latest play, and is making a special visit to The Players in Gramercy Park. Women are not allowed entrance to the club– except The Divine Sarah, for this One Night Only™️. Lucille has an idea: borrow Olivia’s brother MARTIN’s clothes and sneak in, easy peasy. But Olivia isn’t so sure...what would her fiance, NIGEL, think? After some major convincing, the two ladies swagger into the club in Martin’s finest, hoping for a glimpse of the superstar. As the gates lower for them to enter this hazy new world, they get a glimpse of life as a man: cigars, brandy, dancing like no one is watching, you get it. Free for one night only from the stifling corsetry of their life, their futures seem more full of possibilities. A lot can change in one night– especially the very definition of “ladylike.” 

Why Us? Why Now?

In pre-COVID 2020, writer/director Taylor Coriell visited The Players in Gramercy for a filmmakers’ mixer– she had been there before as a guest and a performer, but had never heard the story of the “Sarah Bernhardt room”. Ms. Bernhardt (1844-1923) was a French-Jewish stage actress and one of the world’s first international superstars, taking centerstage in some of the most popular French plays and even a few of the theatre’s most coveted male roles in the late 19th and early 20th centuries... even Hamlet. “The Divine Sarah” ran her own company, made several worldwide theatrical tours, and was obsessed with the macabre– she famously slept in a coffin. 

In 1911, on a tour to the US, she was granted special permission by the members of The Players, a gentlemen-only club in NYC, for one night only to see the chambers of the club’s founder, the late Edwin Booth, the actor-brother of the very late John Wilkes Booth. Upon arrival, she boarded the elevator to his apartments on the top floor—and proceeded to get stuck there for about an hour. When the fire brigade arrived to release her, she was so angry, she stormed from the club, never to return. The club has affectionately called the elevator “The Sarah Bernhardt Room” ever since. The story was so funny, and also a fascinating time capsule of the period. Things for women were changing so much, and yet, as we can see now, not at all during the turn of the century.  

From there, the idea of two besties going on an adventure to meet their hero at her Taylor-Swift-level of megastardom seemed only natural– but what could two such women, constrained by the expectations of their gender at that time, take away from spending an evening breaking out of them? The social construct of gender assigns all the powerful traits of masculinity to the male sex– but what happens when those of the female sex take them on? And vice versa? And Taylor asked herself "How do I, as a cisgender woman, harness my inner masculinity in different spaces, and how does that change how others view me? How does it change how I view myself? What sort of innate power can we all find when we release ourselves from the rigid expectations of the gender binary?"

Diving into research of literature and history of the time, the striking parallels between 1911 and 2021 cannot escape notice. The Progressive Era that pushed its way through the US after the Reconstruction and the Gilded Age that followed saw the rise of populism, a disappearing middle class, and workers unionizing to fight back against massive corporations, and brought social justice marches as women and people of color fought tooth-and-nail for equality. 

By weaving a modern aesthetic into the audio-visual fabric of the film, and including folks of all cultural backgrounds, abilities, gender identities, and sizes into a conversation that they should have been in on 100+ years ago, Ladylike underlines the suffocating limitations of the social construct of gender and all its intersections with personal identities, and reminds audiences that we have come so far and yet still have a long way to go.

What Do We Need?

We recently shot two scenes from Ladylike as a proof-of-concept. We filmed at the historic Bartow-Pell Mansion in The Bronx in October 2021. Your contributions and follows, along with the proof-of-concept, will go towards securing the funds we need for the full production of the feature film.

Our cast and crew are over 70% women, GNC, and/or BIPOC. The pandemic hit artists very hard, particularly underrepresented creators. We are excited to continue to provide employment to over 40 individuals in a time of job uncertainty. 

Since Covid-19 still poses a threat to those working in person and the challenges of shooting these days are many, we will hire a Covid Compliance Officer, whose job it is to oversee safety on set, regarding health and well-being. The CCO helps us get everyone tested ahead of filming, and monitors symptoms throughout the shoot. On set, they help with cleaning, maintaining social distance, and reinforcing mask wearing. We take health and safety very seriously, so every crew member will wear masks, and in some cases, face shields. Cast will be masked when not acting, and social distance will be maintained as much as possible. Hiring a CCO for our proof-of-concept helped our team to feel as safe as possible. We will continue this practice with the feature film.

Here is a breakdown of how we will use the funds raised through Seed&Spark:

How Can You Help?

FOLLOW
Follow our campaign to stay up-to-date on all things Ladylike! It's 100% free! Plus Seed&Spark will reward us— the more followers we get, the more we unlock products, services, and festival fee waivers courtesy of Seed&Spark!

PLEDGE
To get our "greenlight", we have to collect 80% of our crowdfunding goal to keep our funds. No pledge is too small!

LOAN
Do you perhaps have a service or item you can donate or loan? Check out our wishlist and feel free to make a loan request or email us at [email protected]

TELL A FRIEND
Got a friend who loves buddy comedies? Period pieces? Discussions about gender roles and expression? Send them our link @ www.ladylikefilm.com

Social media more your style? We'll send a few sample posts/tweets in our next update!

What Do YOU Need?

The last year has been hard—we don't need to tell you why. This film has important social issues to discuss, and we are ready to have those conversations with you, your friends, and your family.

But, at the end of the day, Ladylike is a joyful, warm-hug-of-a-film about two best friends having a great adventure and being there for each other when it matters most.

Plus, any donation above $250 is tax-deductible! Ladylike is a fiscally sponsored project of Pitch Her Productions, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions in support of Ladylike are payable to PHP and are tax-deductible, less the value of any goods or services received, as allowed by law. If you would like to deduct the entire donation, decline the reward at checkout. 

Thank so much for catching up with us—we know you have a lot of choices when it comes to what projects you decide to support, and we're ever so grateful that you've considered Ladylike!