DISTAFF WINNERS

Annette Bening and Jodie Foster team up in Nyad,  a surprisingly good movie about a true-life event that almost everyone in America has probably forgotten.

They won’t forget it now. Bening is all but guaranteed an Oscar nomination for her lead performance in the feature film and it would not surprise if Ms. Foster got one as well.

There is a bias alert here: I have been a fan of Ms. Bening’s for about thirty years, going back to her roles in Grifters, The American President, and, of course, in Bugsy wherein… to my dismay… her co-star, Warren Beatty, effectively took “her off the market” for us would-be suitors.         

My awareness of Ms. Foster goes back even farther. It was just over 50 years ago that as a child actress she worked for me in an episode of Daniel Boone, stealing every scene she was in while on camera, while (at about age 7 years) reminding every actor in her scenes of their respective lines during rehearsals. Should have guessed then that she would wind up being a fine director as well as a terrific actress.

Nyad, the biographical movie about the award-winning swimmer Diana Nyad, came as a surprise to me. I cannot readily explain just why the name Florence Chadwick, who swam the English Channel in 1950, is imbedded in my consciousness while the name Diana Nyad… who, at twice Ms. Chadwick’s age, swam in open waters nearly five times as far (from Cuba to the Florida Keys)… didn’t register with me at all.

I was 13 years old and a half world away when the English channel was traversed by the 30-year-old Ms. Chadwick, and only up the street, living on my warm Florida Island when in 2013, the 64-year-old Ms. Nyad pulled off her truly remarkable feat, practically under my nose. And yet I watched the movie of this event as if it were fiction.

Who knew? Is it just me? The folks I watched the film with didn’t know how it would all end either. It doesn’t matter. It is a good job of picture making that I am sure you are bound to enjoy.

While writing of women of accomplishment and bias alerts, let me inform you of a new award-winning feature documentary, Show HER the Money. Did you know that 98% of all venture capital investments in the United States go to men… leaving but 2% for their female CEO counterparts? Well, you will (know) once you have seen this feature length documentary. It is good stuff, emotionally satisfying, informative, and it has been collecting awards at film festivals all over the US.

I saw the 89-minute documentary at the Ft. Lauderdale Film Festival, and it is not only good, but (full disclosure as well as bias alert) it was co-produced by my wife, Emmy Award winning actress, Sharon Gless, and features her best friend, super entrepreneur, Dawn Lafreeda.

There is no national distributor yet for the film so you will have to be on the lookout as to just where and when you will be able to see it. I am assured Show HER the Money will be readily available soon. Watch this space.

 

Barney Rosenzweig