* SYNOPSIS     

Mary Glucksman
Filmmaker Magazine, IN FOCUS

EXIST

Esther Bell mixes actors and activists in exist, a "super-low-budget" DV feature about young Philadelphia squatters in the anti-globalization movement. The film unfolds as a mystery about a missing 17-year-old who may have come to harm at the hands of the police. "This is not a protest film ­ it's not propagandistic," says Bell, who launched exist after following the story of 500 kids arrested for demonstrating at the 2000 Republican National Convention. "I wondered, At what point do you leave your middle-class existence and decide to put yourself in danger for the sake of people halfway across the world? The film is an intimate portrayal of two kids from different backgrounds who are trying to live by their political ideals and the obstacles that stop them."

Although Bell had a script before starting exist, she rewrote it with her actors, newcomers chosen for their activist backgrounds. The film was made by a collective that, for all its guerrilla credentials, also included members like d.p. Tracey Goodwin, a former a.c. for Martin Scorsese. Producer Isen Robbins, who got involved in post after seeing Bell's raw footage, calls exist a remarkable hybrid. "So often their agendas overwhelm the attempts of political filmmakers to deliver a stong, clear message within the framework of narrative film," he says. "With exist the story leads the agenda."

Bell shot exist off and on for six months while winding up a 25-festival tour of Godass, her first feature, which recently premiered on Showtime. The new film should be ready for festivals this fall. Bell's next feature is Flaming Heterosexual Female, a "depraved satire" about a woman obsessed with proving the biological impossibility of monogamy, set to star Fairuza Balk.
Contact: Esther Bell, esther@estherbell.com or www.estherbell.com

www.filmmakermagazine.com/summer2002/columns/in_focus.html

Making Movies Matter
By Ed Halter (Shout Magazine)

Transplanted Southerner Esther Bell knows that the key to success in no-budget indie filmmaking is throwing good parties, and lots of them. For the Williamsburg director's first digital feature, the semi-autobiographical punk rock tale Godass, there were parties at every juncture: production wrap party, NY Underground Film Festival closing night premiere party, a party when Godass was bought by Showtime, a party when it showed on Sundance Channel ­ you get the idea.

Bell is just wrapping up her second DV feature, exist, so expect more parties. But given the film's subject matter, the parties might get just a little bit rowdier. Set in a squatter community of young activists and anarchists, exist "is my attempt to humanize the anti-globalization movement," says Bell. "It asks what price we're willing to have others pay for our own existence." Exist was shot in Philadelphia and cast with real activists and squatters. "Some of the activists were also actors, though," Bell adds. "I'm calling them actorvists ."

A key scene won't be appearing in the final version, however. Bell had originally planned to shoot the film's climax at the Washington, DC protests against the IMF this past fall, but the summit was cancelled due to the events of September 11. Asked if she worried that people won't want a film about protest in the subsequent neo-patriotic era, Bell replies that her film's message is even more relevant now. "Whether we acknowledge it or not, American corporations are re-colonizing the world in the name of free trade.

The American values we hold here ­ like labor laws, child welfare, etc ­ aren't being brought to these other countries. They're misrepresenting us and what America stands for. So in a way, these activist kids are holding on to American values much more than our own corporations."

Bell will be taking on American values of a different sort with her next project, an erotic comedy called Flaming Heterosexual Female, shooting with lead Fairuza Balk this spring.