02.22.10 08:46 AM
Be Good to Eddie Lee was one of Cal State Northridge film major Kaileigh Martins favorite books to read to her charges as a high school student working with special needs kids.
Film student Kaileigh Martin (center) with actors Gabriel Douglas and Anna Margaret on the set of 'Be Good to Eddie Lee.'
The popular childrens book by Virginia Fleming, published by Putnam Juvenile, is the story of a young girl who discovers a new capacity for friendship when she spends time with a neighbor boy who has Down Syndrome. The story is a simple yet honest portrayal of the attitudes children adopt when it comes to tolerating peers who are different.
So when Martin was asked to come up with a subject for her senior film project, she knew exactly the story she wanted to tell.
I wanted to tell something personal, something I know, she said. It is a story that has stuck with me for more than 10 years. Ive always been interested in childrens programming, and the concerns of special needs kids are often left out of the mainstream media. Eddie Lee was a story that embodied everything that I care about.
Cinema and television arts professor Nate Thomas, who heads CSUNs film program, said he believes that this is the first time that a Northridge film student has managed to gain the movie rights for a popular book, childrens or otherwise, from a major publisher.
From left, actors Lou Wegner, Anna Margaret and Gabriel Douglas on the set of 'Be Good to Eddie Lee.'
Shooting a film is a task in itself, he said. But then you add on procuring movie rights for a popular book, were talking about a bunch of legal stuff, copyrights and everything. The job just gets much more complicated. And while we go over this stuff in class, its not something film students usually want to take on. But Kaileigh did. This was the story she wanted to tell and she was determined to do it.
Martin, 30, of Studio City, said Eddie Lee was a story that needs to be told on film. So, I reached out to the author.
Fleming didnt have an agent, so Martin contacted the publishing company and asked their representatives to pass on a note to Fleming, and she was kind enough to give me the rights to her book.
Once she got the film rights, Martin said everything else seemed to fall into place. She found two of her actors, including an actress who has already been tapped by Disney as an up-and-coming star, while volunteering for a weekend basketball league for children with Down Syndrome. Panavision loaned her two 35mm cameras when officials there learned the subject of her project. Neighbors in an exclusive Pasadena cul-de-sac waived their fees and allowed her to use their homes as a backdrop for the film. Martin also was named a Hollywood Foreign Press Fellow and received some money from the association to help finance her film.
Its like this film had to be made, she said.
When Martin graduated from high school more than 10 years ago, she thought her desire to make a difference in peoples lives meant she should pursue a career in medicine. But after a couple of years as a pre-med student at Southwest Missouri State University, she realized she wasnt suited for a career in medicine and decided to head west and live life.
She became a licensed optician and, with a partner, opened a successful business in Toluca Lake. She and her partner donate a large part of their time each year volunteering with a non-profit agency that provides free eye care and eye wear to needy people around the world.
Martin, who graduates this spring, said she loves her job, but was still looking for a way to make a difference. She found the answer in her scrapbook.
Shortly after she came to Los Angeles, she had clipped an article from a local newspaper about a Northridge film professor, Nate Thomas as it turned out, who had made a movie, East of Hope Street, that told the story of people whose lives dont usually attract the interest of Hollywood.
It was totally inspiring, she said. When I pulled the article out of my scrapbook, I knew that is what I wanted to do. She enrolled at Northridge two years ago.
I checked out USC and UCLA, but CSUN was my first choice, she said. I like that they give you the freedom to make your own film as an undergraduate. Youre not just learning theory in a classroom. They actually put a camera in your hands and have you make a film, which is a lot harder than it looks.
Martin is finalizing her film and said she hopes that it will be selected for CSUNs annual Senior Film Showcase, which takes place later this spring. Working on Eddie Lee has convinced Martin that she has found what she wants to do with the rest of her life.
I remember when I got my first pair of glasses when I was six and saw trees for the first time with them on, she said. I never knew before that trees had these beautiful leaves on them. Thats what I want to doopen up a whole new world to someone with my filmmaking.
There are people in our world whom we tend to ignore or take for granted that the assumptions weve made about them are true, Martin said. I want to tell the stories of people who are ignored, people who make us uncomfortable because they threaten the assumptions weve made about them. And I hope I can tell their stories with respect and in such a way that people will want to come and see them.
http://blogs.csun.edu/news/2010/02/22/eddie-lee/
