Face 2 Face From Wolfe Video On May 14

Here is an observation, for what it is worth.   Have you noticed that sometimes the simplest of stories can be the most interesting; the most profound.   A screenwriter might labor for some period of time to put words on a page that in the end seem forced and contrived … it just doesn’t work.   How many movies have you sat through where you rolled your eyes and thought, “oh please.”

 

For award-winning filmmaker Katherine Brooks (Loving Annabelle, Waking Madison, plus television work that included The Osbournes, The Real World and Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica) the inspiration for her latest film, Face 2 Face, came while recovering from an admitted drug overdose and emergency surgery.   

 
Wolfe Video has selected May 14 as the DVD release date for Katherine Brooks’ feature-length documentary, Face 2 Face.

Bedridden and suffering from addiction issues, Brooks logged onto Facebook one day and noticed that she had close to 5,000 friends, but hadn’t had any physical contact with anyone is some time — she reported that no one came to visit her during her recovery.  But she had all of these “friends;” almost all of them were strangers.  A successful filmmaker, she nevertheless felt isolated, depressed and very much alone … a subject that she had written about in Waking Madison.   

As the story goes, in a moment of inspiration she posted to Facebook that the first 50 of her “friends” that responded to her invitation for her to come and spend a day with each of them in a “face 2 face” would make her list.   It took all of nine minutes for 50 responses … the story was cast.    

All she had to do was finance it (accomplished in less than two weeks after posting the idea to Kickstarter — over 800 backers and twice the estimated budget) and then get out of her bed and go visit the “friends” that she had never met.

On the surface, Face 2 Face may sound narcissistic and self-indulgent, but that’s not what ended up on the screen (sure, there are elements there, that comes naturally when it is a first person narrative).   Instead, Brooks got sober, got well, quit smoking and met some very interesting (and sometimes strange) “friends” on her countrywide crisscross journey of over 11,000 miles.   

There are some keen observations that seem so vary obvious … a hug; a simple conversation is far more valuable to the human spirit than all of the technology that we’ve managed to surround ourselves with (and in the process, isolate ourselves).

Face 2 Face may not be for everyone, but it does make for some interesting viewing … sort of a reality documentary (a chronicled road trip) that is always fascinating on two levels.  First, the people she meets (there are some strange rangers out there who are spending way too much of their time with social media), and secondly, for the changes — the healing — that takes place for the filmmaker herself as a result of her “unexpected” journey.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report