In June 2020, during the NY PAUSE order, we spoke with small business owners in Bay Ridge who were in the process of reopening. We heard stories of hope, creativity, and radical generosity. There has been so much loss due to the pandemic. These positive stories should be shared!
In June 2020, during the NY PAUSE order, we spoke with small business owners in Bay Ridge who were in the process of reopening. We heard stories of hope, creativity, and radical generosity. There has been so much loss due to the pandemic. These positive stories should be shared!
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Story
Mission Statement
Hope begets hope. Generosity begets generosity. The more we believe there is good in this world, the more we put good into the world. The stories we discovered on the streets of Bay Ridge, with these inspiring small business owners, do just this.About The Project
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
- Theodore Roosevelt
When the pandemic took over in March of 2020, I had several projects in process that all came to a screeching stop. I had to stop and homeschool my children until the schools were ready to take over with remote learning. It took me a few months to realize this wasn’t just postponement... I masked up and made the best of it as a mom.
All this placed me in a very dry creative moment in June 2020.
I needed to create something!
I was listening to the Film Betties podcast and learned about Agnes Varda’s film “Deguerreotypes,” in which Varda turned her camera on the business owners on the street where she lived in Paris. At the time I was living in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. We were going through the worst that covid had to offer. Sirens all day long. Washing our groceries. Watching neighbors go to the hospital and not return. We had also been dealing with the "NY on PAUSE" mandate and all non-essential businesses that had closed were in the phased process of reopening.
Inspired by Varda, I wondered what the small business owners in my neighborhood would say about their struggle to stay afloat. I asked a friend of mine, cinematographer Steven Carmona, who at the time also lived in Bay Ridge, to walk around the neighborhood with me and interview shop owners about their struggles.
What stories might we find?
The number of small business owners willing to speak with us was surprising. Even more surprising was the myriad of ways that each of these businesses had survived. What came out of this project was a clear sense of hope, community, perseverance, and passion.
These stories, any stories of hope, are so important as we navigate the murkey waters of 2022 and beyond. It's so easy to get discouraged by everything that's happening in the world. But as a wise man once said:“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other – not in pity or patronizingly, but as human beings who have learnt how to turn our common suffering into hope for the future.”
– Nelson Mandela
This project started with just me and my friend, walking the streets talking to our neighbors. But now we've locked the cut and we're working with a composer, a colorist, and a motion graphics artist. Once we're done with this phase, we'll move into the sound mix and when that is finished, we'll submit to film festivals!
Our hope is to have a live premiere in NYC where we can celebrate these small businesses and their owners, have a healthy festival run, and then work with some VOD platforms to make this time capsule and hope-fillled short documentary available for the general public to enjoy! We'd love to finish this film with professional polish to do the stories and brave small business owners we discovered justice.
To do this, we need to raise $2750.
The funds will go towards score, sound mix, color, and festival fees.
Please join us as we celebrate the strength found in the community of Bay Ridge, Brooklyn -- strength that's reflected in communities all around the world.
- Gillian Fritzsche
Incentives
$5
Social Media Shout Out
Every little bit helps. Thank you for saying YES to sharing hopeful uplifting stories from the pandemic. To show our gratitude, the director will create a personal digital postcard and shout out your donation on her social media channels.
$20
Small Business Support
Thank you for saying yes to positive stories, and for taking it a step further to help independent film professionals get paid. In addition to a personal digital postcard and shout out of your donation on social media channels, we would LOVE to share a link to *YOUR* small business or *ANY* small business you would like to highlight. Just let us know!
$100
Inner Circle
Our sincerest gratitude, a personalized social media shout out, highlighting a small business of your choice, *PLUS* join us for an early virtual screening of the short film before it premieres!
$500
Associate Producer
Wow. You really want to see this get finished! If you donate at this level, we will share our sincerest gratitude with a personalized social media shout out, by highlighting a small business of your choice, an invite to join us for an early virtual screening of the short film before it premieres, *AND* you will recieve an Associate Producer credit on the film.
Claimed: 0 of 4
$1,000
Executive Producer
We are floored that you'd consider donating at this level. Thank you for believing in us and these stories of hope and resiliance. If you donate at this level, we will share our sincerest gratitude with a personalized social media shout out, highlight a small business of your choice, invite you to join us for an early virtual screening of the short film before it premieres, *AND* you will recieve an Executive Producer credit on the film! Welcome to Hollywood!
Claimed: 1 of 3
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Wishlist
Use the WishList to pledge cash and loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an incentive directly.
$5
Social Media Shout Out
Every little bit helps. Thank you for saying YES to sharing hopeful uplifting stories from the pandemic. To show our gratitude, the director will create a personal digital postcard and shout out your donation on her social media channels.
$20
Small Business Support
Thank you for saying yes to positive stories, and for taking it a step further to help independent film professionals get paid. In addition to a personal digital postcard and shout out of your donation on social media channels, we would LOVE to share a link to *YOUR* small business or *ANY* small business you would like to highlight. Just let us know!
$100
Inner Circle
Our sincerest gratitude, a personalized social media shout out, highlighting a small business of your choice, *PLUS* join us for an early virtual screening of the short film before it premieres!
$500
Associate Producer
Wow. You really want to see this get finished! If you donate at this level, we will share our sincerest gratitude with a personalized social media shout out, by highlighting a small business of your choice, an invite to join us for an early virtual screening of the short film before it premieres, *AND* you will recieve an Associate Producer credit on the film.
Claimed: 0 of 4
$1,000
Executive Producer
We are floored that you'd consider donating at this level. Thank you for believing in us and these stories of hope and resiliance. If you donate at this level, we will share our sincerest gratitude with a personalized social media shout out, highlight a small business of your choice, invite you to join us for an early virtual screening of the short film before it premieres, *AND* you will recieve an Executive Producer credit on the film! Welcome to Hollywood!
Claimed: 1 of 3
- Updates
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Current Team
About This Team
Gillian Fritzsche -- Director, Producer
Gillian Fritzsche is an NYC-based director, producer, and screenwriter with 15+ years of experience in narrative films, documentaries, and theatre across Canada and the US. She is known for producing the award-winning feature “The Rock ’n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher,” starring Marshall Bell which played at 19 festivals, winning seven jury and audience awards. Recent credits include producing and co-directing the comedy series “Bronx ‘ish” streaming on YouTube and airing on BronxNet. Additional directing credits include the short drama “Sonny,” which premiered at the LA Women’s Film Festival, was nominated for Best Screenplay at The Attic Film Fest, and is currently streaming on Roku; the short comedy “Jerry & Diane,” which premiered at the Big Apple Film Festival; as well as multiple short films for “The Sonnet Project” a series from NY Shakespeare Exchange dedicated to interpreting Shakespeare’s sonnets into films.
In the documentary space, Gillian’s projects include producing and directing a 12-episode doc-series called “LSL Life” for the national non-profit Hearing First, a series about families of children with hearing loss and story consulting on several documentaries including the feature documentary “Holy Frit” which premiered at Slamdance in 2021, winning the Audience Award for Best Documentary.
Gillian resides in Northern New Jersey, just across the river from NYC, with her husband, two children, and a cat, where she continues a lifelong side quest for the best Americano, and enjoys kickboxing and hiking.
Steven Carmona -- Director of Photography, Producer
Steven Carmona is a Director of Photography born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. As a student of the down and dirty gorilla filmmaking movement of the 90's, Steve has a love for gritty personal storytelling and smaller crews. Steve has experience shooting on most camera systems including Arri, RED, Canon, Sony, Varicam and 16mm film. As a DP of corporate, documentary and narrative, he's done work on commercials, feature films, high end corporate documentary and television but has a special place in his heart for small stories based in the real world with a little bit of style. His clients include Converse, Verizon, Bloomberg, Rotten Tomatoes, Syfi, Freeform TV, ESPN, MSG, Donna Karen and many more. He resides in South Brooklyn with his wife Amanda.
Ryan Fritzsche -- Editor, Graphics
Ryan started editing with 2 VCRs in high school, and hasn’t been able to quit since. If he would ever get around to updating his reel, you could see dozens of major brands, famous faces from Iggy Pop to Brie Larson, and a bevy of narrative & documentary films, including Oscar-nominee, "The Garden". For Breve Films, he produced "Sonny" and produced & edited "Jerry & Diane". Under his former shingle, Tandem Arts, he also cut and produced the indie feature "The Rock ‘n’ Roll Dreams of Duncan Christopher". His latest editing credit is "Holy Frit", a feature documentary about a talented artist who’s in way over his head on one of the largest commissions in history.
Sravani Kallepalli -- Composer
Music has been a part of Sravani’s life since the ripe age of 0. She grew up with music all around her and has been playing the piano since age 6. At age 13, she found her love of film soundtracks and how they can make an audience feel. She began composing in college and now has several short films under her belt including the short film, “An Ember Within Ashes.” She has also created score for corporate clients such as Her Studio x Her Skin New York and CAP Productions.
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