Catholic school bans Ellen Page and Julianne Moore romance shoot

[trotsky]

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/22/catholic-school-bans-ellen-page-and-julianne-moore-romance-shoot

A Catholic boys’ school has reversed its permission to allow civil rights drama Freeheld, starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page as a lesbian couple, to shoot on location in New York State.

Salesian high school in New Rochelle, New York, had been expected to double for a town hall in Ocean County, New Jersey, where Moore’s dying police detective and her car mechanic partner (Page) apply for a domestic partnership so that pension funds can be passed on, post-mortem. But after initially approving a shoot and allowing still photographs to be taken, the school informed the film-makers that it had changed its mind. “They turned us down because of the subject matter,” producer Michael Shamberg told the Hollywood Reporter, citing the fact that the school had previously allowed music video and commercial shoots.

...

Another producer, Kelly Bush, told the Hollywood Reporter: “Freeheld captures the inequality and bigotry that one couple faced while coping with cancer and the end of life. That our film was denied access to a location because of the subject matter – a same-sex couple fighting for their legal rights – illustrates just how important it is that this story be told.”

[rug]

1. And?

[Goblinmonger]

6. "Who are we to judge. "

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Just look at you. Wow.

[Smarmie Doofus]

2. Too bad. My son went to summer camp there.

Correct me if I'm wrong.... Salesian is a diocesan HS? i.e. run by the diocese.

The NYC Diocese is traditionally more backward than the church as whole. Which is saying a LOT.

Certainly more backward than the public utterances of the current pope.

Anyway... I want my summer camp $$$ back. Who do I see?

[trotsky]

3. No clue.

But there was a (somewhat) happy ending:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/julianne-moore-ellen-pages-lesbian-742670

With time running out on the independently financed production, Mayor Paul Rosenberg of nearby Rye Brook stepped in and allowed Freeheld producers to use his town's city hall for the scene.

"The mayor personally came to the set and greeted us and introduced his teenage daughters to Julianne," says Shamberg. "Clearly, there are a lot of different attitudes in the area."

With time we can overcome the bigotry of these institutions. But clearly they're going to be fighting us every step of the way. After all, they're convinced god is on their side.

[Cartoonist]

4. I don't understand why they asked them for permission in the first place.

That they are surprised by the about face shows naivete on their part.

[Act_of_Reparation]

5. Money

Producers want to keep from going over budget, and if this school is anything like the one I went to, it will do just about anything for a dollar.

[Cartoonist]

7. Did you go to a Catholic school?

I can't speak of the artistic vision of the film-makers. Did they want that particular school? I'm sure the market rate for location is similar at many institutions. If I'm making a film about a gay couple, I don't even ask a Catholic church for permission.

[Act_of_Reparation]

10. Indeed.

I can't speak authoritatively to either party's motivations; these are just educated guesses.

But...

When filmmakers shoot off-set, they typically send out location scouts to find ideal places to shoot. The scouts usually come back with a couple of options, which they submit to the producer(s) for review. The producer(s) try to strike a happy middle ground between the director's artistic vision and the studio's pocketbook.

If I had to guess, I would say the producers approached the school with an offer that, in the scheme of location-filming, was probably very low. But the school wouldn't have known that. It would have seemed to them a lot of money for absolutely no work whatsoever.

Now, if I were a producer, offering up the details of the script wouldn't be in my best interest. Why tell the school about the lesbian characters and risk losing a great deal on a location? It's not like the location is well-known to anyone outside that immediate community, and, let's fact it, this movie isn't exactly a summer blockbuster. They figure no one's going to know.

And the school, having zero experience with this kind of thing, probably didn't think to ask right off the bat. All they saw was a pile of money coming their way. That the movie would be about lesbians was a thought that might not have immediately crossed their minds.

[rug]

8. That's in a nutshell.

Sounds like they didn't tell them what it was about in the first place.