Urbanworld’s Best Feature Documentary of 2014 is a ‘Lucky’ Win for Laura Checkoway

Lucky Torres stars in "LUCKY" directed by Laura Checkoway.When the 18^th Annual Urbanworld Film Festival, presented by BET Networks with founding sponsor HBO, announced the 2014 festival winners this week, I was glad to find out that “Lucky” directed by Laura Checkoway won an award for Best Feature Documentary.

Having recently sat in a packed theater watching “Lucky” amidst a bunch of strangers, I must say it is one of the most unforgettable films to come out of Urbanworld this year. Forget what you know about wearing your heart on your sleeve. This movie is about a woman who, after growing up in foster homes, wears her pain on her face and body.

The documentary serves up a clear reminder of the fact that regardless of our surroundings, we know very little about what the person next to us is going through. Life is a struggle – for some more-so than others, so it helps to keep that in mind when facing people or circumstances that make us uncomfortable. Chances are that many of us know nothing about what it’s like to live on the streets. Some of us are unfamiliar with the experiences of child abuse, rape or gang life. We do, however, know what it’s like to experience struggle, at least in one capacity or another.

(l-r): Fantasy with her children, director Laura Checkoway and Lucky's fiancé at the 2014 Urbanworld Film Festival.Checkoway, a career journalist who spent five years and her own money making “Lucky,” does a great job making this heart wrenching story relatable to the average viewer who may not know someone like Waleska Torres Ruiz – a Hispanic runaway from the Bronx, NY whose parents died when she was a child. A well-known figure in New York’s LGBT community, Ruiz was nicknamed Lucky after having survived being hit by a yellow cab when she was thirteen.

I honestly didn’t know what I was expecting when going in to watch this film but it certainly made me more aware of the hardships that children of the foster care system face when our country’s social services fail them. The long-term effects that these failures have on one person’s life have a trickle effect on those around him or her and that extends outward to our nation’s communities.

Despite not having any formal film training, Checkoway forged ahead, learning about the process as she embarked on what has become her first feature length documentary. Lucky for us, she came out of the corner swinging with a bold movie that could easily make some viewers want to look away and run back to their secure (and convenient) bubbles. No matter how hard you try, however, you can’t bear to turn from such an intimate view of one woman whose days are filled with the kind of uncertainties that most of us hope to never have to encounter. That’s just the thing about movies; when you’re in the theater and the lights go down, all you’re left with are the images on the screen.

Lucky Torres with her son in the documentary "LUCKY, directed by Laura Checkoway.Checkoway forces viewers to look beyond Lucky’s tattoos, stylish outfits and ever-changing hairstyles to understand the inner turmoil of the person underneath all that armor; a homeless mother who wants to provide a sense of stability for her son while working on her own personal growth, including self-love.

It’s raw and sometimes even wicked, but it’s real. This is somebody’s life and I wouldn’t be surprised that if, by watching it, you take a closer look at your own – particularly the areas that you take for granted, because I know they exist. We all have them.

“Lucky” is one of those movies that have you thinking “this person has it worse….so what’s MY excuse???” and you would be right. If there is one thing to learn from this movie, it’s to live out loud while remaining conscious of what, if anything, you want to leave behind. My congratulations go out to Laura Checkoway (and Lucky Torres) for winning Best Feature Documentary at the Urbanworld Film Festival 2014!

Comedy 'Breakthrough Weekend' Offers a Guide to Happiness #IndieFilm

(l-r): Damien Bosco as Sal and Sean Bempong as Yevgeny filming a scene in BREAKTHROUGH WEEKEND.A private investigator named Sal takes an apprentice named Yevgeny under his wing while helping clients resolve their issues in the comedy “Breakthrough Weekend” directed by Brooklyn filmmaker Sujewa Ekanayake. Sal’s personalized approach is somewhat like a caretaker and much different from how I generally perceive private investigators to behave when working with clients. It is a method that seems to work for him and might even be recession-proof, given his ability to command a seven figure income for these services.

While watching the movie, I started wondering if this guy Sal is actually private investigator -- or is he a therapist or a gangster? It's like "Iyanla Fix My Life," except the characters and discoveries in “Breakthrough Weekend” are interesting enough – and in some cases bizarre enough -- that I wanted to know how the story was going to play out. Between cheating, dream manifestations, incest and wizardry, Yevgeny searches for the keys to improving his life, in pursuit of becoming happier and less depressed. This protege seems to find some insight on how to be happy while working on cases with Sal; perhaps it's the realization that there are way more messed up people in the world than we would think.

The overall vibe I get from this movie is a message that no matter how much you think you suck at life, there are many other people living in more undesirable circumstances. Although we’re not the only ones who are fucked up, the good news is that at least we know we have a problem, whereas many other folks don't even realize that they are screwed up themselves. Now, THAT’S depressing! The fortunate thing is the power is in each person’s hands to change his or her own situation, no matter how low one’s happiness level falls or how high it rises.

So tell me…

What's YOUR happiness level?

COMING JUNE 2014:

The U.S. Theatrical Premiere of Breakthrough Weekend is playing June 12^th during the inaugural Breakthrough Festival NYC at Anthology Archives (32 Second Avenue, New York, NY 10003), launching this movie’s 1-week run that concludes on June 18^th! Contact Wild Diner Media for showtimes and more details.

Why Make Movies? - My 2014 A-to-Z Challenge Reflections

2014 A-to-Z Reflections Badge Designed by Jeremy Hawkins.FADE IN – THE OPENING SCENE

Being my 4^th year doing the Blogging from A-to-Z challenge, I chose a theme for this year – Why Make Movies? – to find a purpose for pursuing a filmmaking career and approaching all that comes with the job.

My preparation for posting in April included making a list of topics for each letter of the alphabet, and interviewing film directors based in various towns across the country. When the challenge began, I knew the topics that would be the central focus for most of the month, except for a few remaining letters including K, U, X, Y and Z – all five of which I wrote at the last minute by coming up with a topic, word or theory that was related to my other A-to-Z posts in one way or another. Between transcribing, arranging and editing hours of interviews, and working on the next moves for my short film, completing this year’s A-to-Z Challenge was tougher than I expected or experienced before -- even in 2013, when I did the challenge despite not having internet access.

On the set of the short film "Silhouettes" directed by Akil DuPont, who is featured in my 2014 A-to-Z Challenge posts.THE LOVE SCENE

The major benefit of doing the A-to-Z Challenge that I experienced, like in previous years, was my building an editorial calendar and sticking to it. I also received a boost in social media interactions and blog followers, which may be a plus to many participants but having a following – no matter the size – means little to me if it doesn’t result in engagement of one’s content.

Although I did get several re-tweets throughout the challenge, I believe that my social media activity – particularly tweeting links to my blog posts – did not bring me much in terms of comments. Thank goodness for readers such as Angela Brown at Pursuit of Publishness, Herman Turnip at Terrible Analogies and Maurice Mitchell at Film Sketchr and The Geek Twins who stop by my blog regularly to discuss their take on movies, careers, life and many other topics in between.

It was also nice to have responses from LuAnn Braley (one of Ayjay’s wHooligans) at Back Porchervations, Jolie Du Pre at Precious Monsters, Andi Roo at The World 4 Realz, C. Lee McKenzie, Tara Tyler at Tara Tyler Talks, #teamDamytanti members Sam Geary at WriterlySam and Vidya Sury at Going A-Musing, and my co-hosts MJ Joachim, Damyanti at Amlokiblogs, Tina Downey at Life is Good, Pam Margolis at Unconventional Librarian, Jeremy Hawkins at Being Retro, Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out and Wrote by Rote and the Ninja Captain himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh; there was a surge of excitement whenever I saw their comments on my blog posts.

Among my favorite A-to-Z Challenge posts this year are Letter A because of the perspectives people shared, about winning awards, in their comments. Surprisingly, my Letter I post became one the ones I loved because those who commented on it really opened up and shared their stories about being "In Too Deep."

Zoe Kravitz, Jai Courtney, Miles Teller, Ben Lamb and Shailene Woodley in Divergent. Now Playing! in theaters near you!THE HORROR SCENE

I am disappointed in the low volume of comments that my 2014 A-to-Z Challenge posts received after all of the work that I put into them – spending up to 5 hours or so on many of the pieces written – not counting the endless hours interviewing filmmakers to round out certain points about the topics I covered on my blog. Still, as I write this, there are a few A to Z posts of mine with ZERO comments.

I’ve noticed this lack of comments on other participating blogs that I visited too, which makes it all the more difficult for me to tolerate having blogs on the list that are not only 4 or more letters behind but haven’t even had the courtesy to post a notice, or announcement, or brief mention of why they aren’t keeping up with the rest of us. As a result, I decided to invent another of my A-to-Z Challenge Hacks, and started visiting blogs that were active on Twitter, rather than visiting blogs on the list. That way, I knew that the five daily blogs that I set out to visit would be up to date on their A-to-Z Blogging. In a sense, the #atozchallenge hashtag became my “list” and that is where I chose to find participating blogs worth visiting, for me, at least.

I was also surprised to learn that my blog traffic in April was much lower compared to most other months of the year during my regular blogging activities. More people visited The Madlab Post last summer, and at the beginning of this year, than during the 2014 A-to-Z Challenge in April – a troubling discovery, given that I was out of town doing post-production on my movie during one of those most high-trafficked months last year. So, how is it that I get a lot of traffic when I’m not even blogging regularly due to being miles away in another part of the country, but I get little visitors when I blog every day as a participant in a blogathon with over TWO THOUSAND participants?! That’s enough to make me want to carefully reconsider whether the A-to-Z Challenge is right for my blog or not.

I was also annoyed when visiting blogs that were jumping the gun – doing letters, and in some cases, the entire alphabet -- early before we even get to the end of April, let alone the end of the challenge. Also, I didn’t like to see people writing about their A-to-Z experience prematurely before reaching Letter Z, a move that sorta takes away from the whole point of doing Reflections posts in May. The reflections post provides a great opportunity to cover one’s lessons learned and more; I also believe that unless you completed the challenge, then you haven’t truly “survived” the challenge in terms of making it to the end of the alphabet.

Production still from the Documentary "TEN9EIGHT: SHOOT FOR THE MOON," directed by Mary Mazzio, who is featured in my 2014 A-to-Z Challenge posts.THE ACTION SCENE

My A-to-Z Challenge Hacks invention from 2013 came in handy this year, particularly that of posting the body of the post sans images, to make the daily challenge deadlines by 11:59pm and then going in to add images to those posts sometime after midnight, or later the next morning.

Sometimes, I also chose to skip photos altogether, which made it easier to get something up quickly when time was of the essence. This no-photo approach worked for my shorter posts such as the one about Opportunistic Observations but I would likely not have done it for my longer posts such as the one about Making Money. I’m also glad that my posts varied in length because I had a feeling that they all would be long but started noticing that some of my topics didn’t require me to post much about them. Of course, that all depended on the style of my posts.

One of things I’ve learned is the importance of scheduling posts beforehand. It was very difficult for me to try to do everything this year between co-hosting duties and my A-to-Z blogging responsibilities. I am almost certain that if I had my posts already scheduled, formatted and ready to go, the automation would have freed up more of my time to visit blogs, respond to comments on my own blog, attend more #AZchat events and be more active within the A-to-Z community on Twitter. Going forward, I plan to most likely write and schedule my posts at least one month prior to the start of next year’s A-to-Z challenge, so that it can give me some breathing room for other A-to-Z activities.

FADE OUT – THE CLOSING SCENE AND SEQUEL POTENTIAL

I would do the A-to-Z Challenge again, if only to test out my theory about pre-scheduling posts in advance to free up more time for visiting blogs and promotion.

That said -- having had the same experience of not receiving many comments during April in previous years, even after I increased my visits to other participating blogs, I am less likely to continue doing the challenge if there is little to no significant return on my efforts. Knowing that the challenge is what you make it, I will have to experiment with possible ways of increasing my comments and traffic during the month of April.

THE RATING/REVIEW: If I were the late Roger Ebert, I would give the 5^th A-to-Z Challenge that took place April 2014 one thumb up. Considering that I did not get what I wanted out of doing the challenge, the benefits that resulted from participating in this blogathon still prevented my efforts from being made in vain. That’s good news in my book.

***SURPRISE 2014 A-to-Z Challenge GIVEAWAY***

To celebrate my surviving the 5^th Annual Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge, and tip my hat to the film directors and media producers who shared their time with me for my “Why Make Movies?” theme in April 2014, I am giving the following prizes to six (6) randomly selected people who (already) commented on my posts between April 1^st and May 5^th 2014 when I published my Monday Movie Meme on Talking Toys.

Each comment counts as one entry, which means those of you who commented on multiple #atozchallenge posts I wrote, have more than one chance to win a prize. In an attempt to spread the love fairly, I will give out one prize per winner. Once a prize is selected, subsequent winners must choose from the remaining available prizes up for grabs. I will announce one winner per week month in one of my blog posts and this person has 48 hours following the announcement, to tell me what prize he or she wants, in a comment or by contacting me.

Here are the Prizes Up for Grabs in my SURPRISE 2014 A-to-Z Challenge GIVEAWAY:

Short Films by Douglas Horn on the IndieFlix Dashboard.One-Month Gift Subscription to IndieFlix

(Streaming, like Netflix) 2 Avail.

The Indieflix package comes with unlimited access to thousands of movies from around the world including shorts and documentaries from film festivals such as Sundance, Cannes and South by Southwest (SXSW). Watch on your Xbox, PC, Mac, Smartphone,Tablet and even Roku. No commitments, cancel anytime. IndieFlix strives to be an add-on service, encouraging subscribers to keep their Netflix and Hulu, but add IndieFlix.

PIG Movie Poster. Directed by Henry Barrial. Produced by Mark Stolaroff.Mystery/Sci-Fi feature film “PIG”

(Streaming only) 2 Avail.

PIG synopsis: A man wakes up alone in the middle of the desert with a black hood on his head and his hands tied behind his back. At death's door, he is discovered by a woman living alone in the desert and is nursed back to health. Upon regaining consciousness, the man realizes he has amnesia, and has no idea who he is. His only clue, a piece of paper in his pocket with the name "Manny Elder" on it, sends him on a journey to Los Angeles to discover his past. But things and people are not what they seem and clues lead to something bigger and more unusual than the man could have ever imagined.

Tipsy Bartender: I’m Having a Girl Over

(Kindle E-Book) 2 Avail.

About the E-book: Skyy John, the internationally famous host of the Internet's top bartending show “Tipsy Bartender,”has compiled the perfect cocktail recipes for guys to entertain and impress the ladies. He uses recipes that properly mask the strong taste of alcohol, creating delicious drinks that go down smoothly with no after burn.

His cocktails are very easy to make, and the ingredients are cheap and super easy to find. This is the ultimate guide for making mojitos, margaritas, martinis, shots, daiquiris, ice cream floats, and more. This book is perfect for the ladies, ideal for those people new to drinking, and exactly what you are looking for if you do not like the strong taste of alcohol.

SHOUT OUTS to my Mighty Minion Bureau Assets Andrea MusicFan at Miss Andi's Musings and Twelve Steps to Cloud Nine - My Road to Happiness, Deniz Bevan at The Girdle of Melian, Sydney Aaliyah at Happiness, Passion, Love & Faith, Melody-Ann Kauffman aka Safireblade at MAJK INK (who featured 10...yes...TEN participating blogs in her A-Z posts), Dale Smurfwaite at Smurfin' the Web and SA Larsen at Writersally, who each helped me keep the A-to-Z Challenge laws in order!

Also, SHOUT OUTS to my 2014 A-to-Z Challenge Co-Hosts Heather M. Gardner at The Waiting is the Hardest Part and AJ Lauer at Naturally Sweet who helped keep the #AZchat active while providing other social media support!

Was April 2014 a productive month for YOU?

What are some of YOUR most favorite experiences or discoveries that occurred last month?