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Author:
Judith James
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Judith is the editor-in-chief of TRACTION and a film, stage and television producer who is in a film partnership with Richard Dreyfuss at Dreyfuss/James Productions and a theater partnership with Camille Cosby.
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Judith James is a film, stage and television producer who is in a film partnership with Richard Dreyfuss at Dreyfuss/James Productions.
Originally a New York theatrical producer of 11 award winning plays, her first television production was the Emmy winning "IN HER OWN WORDS" for KCET and American Playhouse and the Mark Taper Forum .
Her film credits include an executive producer of QUIZ SHOW, a producer of MR. HOLLAND?S OPUS, producer of TRIGGER HAPPY starring Dreyfuss, Jeff Goldblum, Gabriel Byrne and Ellen Barkin, and movies for HBO, TNT, ABC and CBS. In addition she has served as consulting producer on Mr. Dreyfuss? films.
In a theatrical partnership with Camille Cosby, Judith also produced the Broadway play of HAVING OUR SAY; The Delany Sisters? First 100 Years by Emily Mann, subsequent tours and the movie version, directed by Lynne Littman, for CBS, starring Ruby Dee and Diahann Carroll. HAVING OUR SAY received the coveted Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.
In January 2006, she wrapped principal photography on the thriller, THE FOREST, which she produced in India in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is by writer/director Ashvin Kumar, an Academy Award nominee for a short film last year.
She is presently developing a Broadway musical on Pearl Bailey RAW PEARL with Bill and Camille Cosby and, with Viva Productions, readying the independent film, DAYS OF FEAR to star Woody Harrelson to shoot in South Africa.
In January 2005, Ms. James was instrumental in securing and constructing for WOMEN IN FILM an alliance with General Motors under which GM has supported a myriad of WIF programs and events for 3 years ending 2007.
She is the editor-in-chief of TRACTION.
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THE EDITOR'S BLOGSept.11, 2008. WOMEN WOMEN WOMEN as in the movie opening Friday, tomorrow, Sept 12th. It hasn't had the marketing that SEX IN THE CITY had which focused on opening weekend girlfriend events, but it's the same imperative. We can't walk to our movies anymore depending on them being there. We have to out-boy the boys and run because the opening weekend is now counted as a measure of success. And it's certainly timely.
August 15th. You may have seen responses to Peter Bart's unthinking column on the Women of Power issue of Variety. We're featuring Dr. Martha Lauzen's letter-to-the-editor here because...well, she quite literally wrote the book. And it can be noted that according to our 'analytics', EVERYONE who reads TRACTIOn has gone to the statistics section to check Martha's reports. I checked because I don't want to shove these issues down unwilling throats, but I do think we have to be vigilante, reasoned and constant.
July 25th. DIY Days, an open-source discovery and distribution Film Festival is in LA July 26 and San Francisco August 17th. We'll do an article soon on the revolution going on to put 'things' back into the filmmakers hands. In the meantime, check these DIY DAYS out. www.fromheretoawesome.com.
July 14th. SELF-INJURY film gets attention at the MEANINGFUL MEDIA LA event July 20th (In events on Forum page). Raises money for self-injury outreach and focus plus help to Christina Beck's excellent screenplay on same. Amy Brennerman hosts.
July 10th. POLL in the Forum under To The Editor - does it take women to recognize women's talent? (log-in)
July 10th. POLL in the Forum under To The Editor - does it take women to recognize women's talent? (log-in)
JULY 1, 2008 - Getting a lot of response to the Greening article. (BTW - more response via the phone, via my company email and the site function 'letter to the editor" which goes to a gmail account. None of which, sadly, go on the site.)
It would be great if you'd use the forum. We're entering the latest info by hand.
Anyway there is news of a 'test' production in NY that has a carbon neutral goal from pre to post. Hope to have an interview with the producer soon. And there are location managers and set painters work hard to source materials like paint and yes, water, that will change us one step at a time.
June 19, 2008: Help me out here. TRACTIOn is getting more and more readers and you're staying on the site and looking at a lot of pages - particularly The Forum where readership is high. But no comments. No further info or points to be made by readers. How come?
I've been online researching. Got to tell you even the film websites with high numbers in replies or topics-posted are primarily full of comments like "wow" or 'way to go!" No significant interaction.
I've seen long posts or debates on sites that are confrontational - posing a controversial theory about something. They prompt replies like "are you crazy? The best way to tackle that problem isn't what you say, it's...." and those are more often men's voices. They could really be called 'opinions'.
Is it something about our chosen field - the entertainment business? That it doesn't give us time? Or is it the internet habits of women (the studies done by Pew etc only say that women use social-networking sites, many are niche, and sites for comparative shopping and religious sites.) But they draw that conclusion from how many people have come to the site, not by the users having done something on the site.
While I'm on it, I have to say the myspace and facebook sites that gather under film/movies categories are most often presenting-credential-sites and have the "wow' or 'way to go" as comments. Maybe the point is that even when the LA Times says they get 'a lot of mail' , a "lot" is 50 comments, and usual is 10. Nothing like the 450 we imagine and then maybe only the ones that get printed have depth.
Is our expectation fed by the wonder of the internet and not by the evidence?
J
JUNE 4, 2008: HOW COME THE FRIDAY BOX OFFICE ESTIMATES (BOXOFFICEMOJO) ON SEX AND THE CITY PUT IT SECOND AT $39M AND BY MONDAY IT CAME OUT FIRST AT $57M? JUNE 4, 2008: HOW COME THE FRIDAY BOX OFFICE ESTIMATES (BOXOFFICEMOJO) ON SEX AND THE CITY PUT IT SECOND AT $39M AND BY MONDAY IT CAME OUT FIRST AT $57M? THESE ESTIMATES AND THE WAY THE ESTIMATORS ARRIVE AT THEM HAVE BECOME ALARMINGLY ACCURATE SO HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT THE PREDICTORS MIS-JUDGED THIS ONE SO COMPLETELY? WERE THE INDICATORS THERE AND MIS-READ? IS THERE SOME INSTITUTIONALIZED, AUTOMATIC DISCOUNTING OF WOMEN FILM FANS ON THE EXIT POLLS OR IN FOCUS GROUPS? HAVE THE ESTIMATES BEEN THIS INACCURATE ON OTHER MOVIES? (DOES ANYONE KNOW? RESEARCH TO BE DONE.) ARE THE SYSTEMS ACCURATE WITH REGARDS CERTAIN BLOCK-BUSTER INDICATORS AND NOT OTHERS. COULDN'T 'THEY' READ 'US' (WHICH IS WHAT I MEAN BY 'INSTITUTIONALIZED'.)
COMMENTS AND INFORMATION WELCOME VIA THE FORUM.
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