Catherine’s multiple award winning film, De Puta Madre A Love Story, receives a Special Mention at I Filmmaker International Film Festival in Marbella, Spain! Awards on her birthday. So…. you know what to get her.
Official online premiere of De Puta Madre A Love Story
Monday November 16th on nsi-canada.ca
Catherine Black takes home the award for Best Lead Actress at the 2014 Madrid International Film Festival!!!
So beyond honoured that my Big baby, De Puta Madre A Love Story is official selection at 2014 The Madrid International Film Festival, AND that I was nominated for ‘Best Leading Actress In A Short Film, ‘Best Short Film’ and ‘Best Story’! I just found out from my very good friend, Layne Coleman, who’s film, The Shape Of Rex, was also nominated. Layne saw my nominations before I saw the email from Madrid IFF. I love that that was how I found out, and that my very good friend will be with me for this very special event. Can’t wait to see all the other films….in MADRID!
What made my job almost easy as a director and actor on the set of De Puta Madre A Love Story, for starters, was having an amazing cinematographer; “Bradley Stonesifer”. Bradley became an extension of my own mind, while also adding invaluable wisdom and a sharp artistic eye. On top of a detailed shot list created over 3 days with Bradley, we photo-boarded the entire movie on location which became much more illuminating than my story board sketches. I had two staged readings with anonymous audiences and was lucky enough to have extensive rehearsals with my other actor, Pierluca Arancio, over the better part of a year. Some rehearsals were filmed for my reference. I probably taped myself performing the entire movie in one shot at least 10 times over with prerecorded audio of Pierluca’s dialog. I later went over these videos with a fine tooth comb. This all allowed me to not only be so prepared as an actor that it became second nature, but also to be 100% confident, deep in my bones, of what I wanted to see from both myself and Pierluca, as well as from each shot. On the day, we all just did what was planned. The preparation gave me all the freedom I needed on set.
Still photo on the set of my 1st movie as a filmmaker, De Puta Madre A Love Story!! Massive gratitude to my amazing crew, Meher Mount & Meher Baba for the gift of filming on sacred land along with all the love and generosity. Our footage is beyond my wildest dreams. This is happiness. Photo by Jason Paul Bennett
Help us help a Universal spiritual center and make a beautiful film! Consider it a Kharmic donation. Please check out my movie on IndieGoGo
Here I am overlooking the beautiful Ojai Valley on the north, the Pacific Ocean and Channel Islands to southwest, and the Topa Topa Bluffs in the Los Padres National Forest to the northeast at De Puta Madre’s filming location; Meher Mount. Meher Mount is a 173-acre universal spiritual center dedicated to Avatar Meher Baba. I am beyond honored that I have this opportunity and I know our movie will be so much more powerful and go on to touch even more people. I am also grateful that I can help Meher Mount in return, by filming there and bringing awareness to Meher Baba’s message in celebrating Divine Love and Oneness, service, and for loving God through nature.
Finally ate a real breakfast of hash browns, eggs and salsa! I was so deprived of nutrients this made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. Guzzled our watery coffee, and hit the road by 10am! I even bought myself a trashy pink Harley t-shirt in Casper. The old Oregon Trail is long and beautiful, even at 70 mph, I just can’t imagine it by foot. My cozy road trip in our VW SUV felt as if we would never make it to Yellowstone, let alone California. Traveling for years on foot and wagon, in a state of perpetual expansion, must have just been the most strikingly helpless buildup of excitement. In some ways, I long for such an experience, to travel through the unknown to the other side. No one in this day of knowing will ever truly know what that is like.
Today was the day. We stopped for so many adventures. Boysen State park is where my next vacation must be. That reservoir was gorgeous. I wanted to just pull over and set up camp forever. Wyoming felt like home. The terrain, the sky, the people, the way the cattle are raised and the fact that there is no cell phone reception in the entire state. I fell madly in love with Wyoming. Before ever setting foot on American soil, as a child, my first love was of “Americana”. I dreamed of the smell of Wyoming, of cowboys, open range, endless sunsets, freedom and motorcycles, and here it was. Had a mad feet dip dash in “The Worlds Largest Mineral Hot Spring”. My feet were vibrating for the next 48 hours. Our second meal that day was in Thermopolis – Whiskey, Steak, rainbow trout and vegetables! First vegetables since Canada, best steak of my life AND I managed to have it all without a trace of cheese thrown on top. You know you are headed towards civilization when there is no cheese on top of everything, vegetables and good coffee. Stopped again in Cody, the birth place of Jackson Pollock; a cool bustling town, and bought camping gear. We rolled into Yellowstone just after 1am, saw 2 otter, and 3 deer before setting up our fancy complicated tent. Freezing, absolutely terrible sleep by 4am.
What I did not know that morning I took off from Fergus to LA, was that my inner world would never be the same again. Everything that had been in the shadows would come into the light and there could be no more hiding. I don’t know if it was because I pushed myself to drive 12 to 14 hours a day. I don’t know if was the desolate roads to seemingly nowhere and the sheer vastness of the geography that expanded my mind. Or was it the cold hard reality that I would never go home again. Maybe it was simply the stars. Whatever it was, this was the beginning of a new life.
After researching the role of Ann Fosdick in The Donner Party I became fascinated with the first settlers who traveled West. Having left my own Country and home in Canada to chase sunshine and dreams, I decided to fully explore the route they took back in 1846. I drove 4 of my favorite paintings from my family farm in Fergus Ontario Canada, across the old Oregon Trail and down the coast. At every turn that caught my fancy, and every day at magic hour, I lugged my oils paintings, painted on 4’x 6′ slabs of ply wood, out of the van. Here is Red Dance in the Redwoods after sleeping in the car because I thought I could drive all night.
