Documentary

At the beginning of the pandemic and before her ALS diagnosis, Cai Emmons burst into my life because of our common educations (we were both graduates of Yale — she graduated summa cum laude — and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in Filmmaking where she won a Student Academy Award) and our love or Oregon where she lives presently and I grew up. We had only met via a computer screen but we spend hours making the most of quarantine meetings. Several months in, she wrote to tell me that something was up with her voice and that she did not want to continue our zoom meetings because she was self-conscious. I was, admittedly, a bit hurt and confused. Not too long after she sent me an email about her bulbar onset diagnosis and I was gobsmacked. For about a year I watched her navigate this diagnosis in the most unusual way — selling two new novels she had written and writing and eloquent and potent blog of her experiences and musings. It was clear as she lost her physical voice, her inner-voice became stronger, distilled, more powerful. She was transforming in ways that felt impossible to articulate but, perhaps, could be visualized. It was an insane and scary idea to even ask to make a film WITH this woman, in the most intimate of ways, including her husband, Paul Calandrino, her son and her closest friends without ever having met her in person.  And yet, Cai embraced the idea and sprang into action, getting everyone on board, and I scrambled for funds to begin. With equipment packed in my car, I drove from my apartment in New York City to her home in Eugene, Oregon and we spend 23 days filming what has been the highlight of my career. I cannot imagine a time when Cai was not my friend. I have promised Cai that I will see the filming through to the end of her life. What is the film about? It is first and foremost a love story about a woman who makes an active choice to love while she adapts to the challenges that confront her, including death. ALS is certainly the story’s antagonist, but NOT the star of the film.

 

It is a grassroots efforts to gather the resources to make this film. I started a GoFundMe campaign to start filming immediately and people have been generous. You can read about it here. I am beginning to approach foundations for grants and donations, as this film is intended to be a theatrical release feature-length documentary. Editing and post-production finishing is a time-consuming and costly process. We have just hired a friend and former colleague of Cai’s, the Emmy Award winning editor Tom Haneke. Tom was also the editor on the Academy Award winning documentaries American Dream, From Mao to Mozart: Isaac Stern in China and He Makes Me Feel like Dancing.  Anyone who would like to be involved in gathering resources or making introductions to make this film widely available, please do not hesitate to contact me at OjedaFilms@gmail.com.