Featured Filmmaker: Jocelyn Towne

FEATURED FILMMAKER: JOCELYN TOWNE
Jocelyn was born and raised in Los Angeles, attended Crossroads School for the Arts & Sciences and got her B.A. in Comparative Literature from UC Berkeley. She also studied dance at the Alvin Ailey School in New York. She got her first production assistant job at 17 on Jon Amiel’s film, “Copycat,” and continued to work as a p.a. for various indie films and commercials. Graduating after three years from UC Berkeley, she moved back to Los Angeles and attended the Meisner based Baron/Brown conservatory for two years. Having been a p.a. and wanting to get more experience on the set, Jocelyn worked for five months as a stand-in on Almost Famous, an incredible learning experience watching and participating in Cameron Crowe’s rehearsals with his actors and watching the amazing John Toll at work. In 2001, Jocelyn got a job as a reader for Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. She helped them to find “Little Miss Sunshine.” In 2004 she joined the Antaeus Academy Company, a classical theatre group based in North Hollywood. As an actor she has had the pleasure of working with some of Los Angeles’ most talented theatre directors, and also several wonderful film/television directors, including Joel Zwick on “Elvis Has Left the Building,” Barbara Kopple on “Havoc” and Bob Odenkirk on an HBO pilot, “Derek & Simon.” She recently completed work in two films, now both in post-production, “The Loop,” starring Rachel Nichols, and “The Selling.” VIEW IMDB

 

CURRENT PROJECT

I am I (Jocelyn Towne, Writer/Director)

I AM I is the story of a young woman, Rachael, who meets the father she never knew, Gene, at her mother’s funeral. She discovers that her father is completely delusional and believes her to be her dead mother. After Rachael visits Gene in an assisted living home, she learns that he suffers from a disease called Korsakov’s Syndrome, a form of retrograde amnesia and that her mother had placed him in this facility for treatment a year earlier. He does not remember anything past the age of thirty-three, and believes that he is still a young man. Unable to convince him of who she really is, Rachael decides to go along with her father’s delusions by pretending to be her mother and discovers that under this guise, she and Gene can have “normal” conversations. Before long, Rachael is visiting Gene everyday, finding new ways to bring elements from his past into their present relationship. What began as a search for understanding has become romantic and joyful, but it can’t go on forever. As Rachael pieces together the past and plays out memories for Gene, her need to be seen by her father, for who she truly is, grows strong.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I started writing “I Am I” over four years ago. As a child I often listened to the soundtrack from “The Man of La Mancha,” I loved Don Quixote’s songs, his certainty of self, his declaration to “dream the impossible dream.” I think I related him to my father, who is a dreamer himself, someone who interprets events with child-like wonder, conveniently forgetting things just to enjoy rediscovering them. “I Am I” is ultimately a story about love, love for one’s family, when it is put to the test of untold mysteries suddenly revealed. How the past can portray the present and the truth of who we really are when we see through the eyes of those we love and who love us – even when it is through the prism of delusions. http://www.IamIthefilm.com

 

JOIN US NEXT MONTH FOR REEL LADIES PRODUCERS CORNER MEETUP WITH JOCELYN & THE PRODUCERS OF I AM I!

Jocelyn will be discussing the film,  crowd funding, and the very successful Kickstarter Campaign they had. VIEW HERE