Saving Lincoln free screenings!

[ninabeth13]

Hello friends, my new movie is about to come out! SAVING LINCOLN is the story of President Lincoln and his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon, set in actual Civil War photographs.

Here is the trailer:
http://www.savinglincoln.com/trailer.html

The movie will have its world premiere on February 11 at the Abraham Lincoln Association Symposium at the ALPLM. The screening is free and open to the public. It starts at 3 pm and there will be a Q & A afterwards with the director and cast members.

On February 12, there will be a free screening at the Hill Center at the Old Navy Hospital in DC.

If you are in or near Springfield or DC, please join us for one of the free screenings!

We are opening in 16 cities on February 15! Showtimes: http://www.savinglincoln.com/screenings.html

Please see SAVING LINCOLN and tell us your thoughts! We can't wait to hear what serious Lincoln lovers think of the movie.

- Nina Litvak, writer, SAVING LINCOLN

[Jim Page]

(02-08-2013 06:23 PM)ninabeth13 Wrote:  On February 12, there will be a free screening at the Hill Center at the Old Navy Hospital in DC.

For those, like me, who tried to Google Map that location, it's the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20003.

Looking up Old Navy Hospital showed me the locations of a dozen clothing stores!

The screening is from 7pm to 9pm.

--Jim

[ninabeth13]

Whoops! I'm sorry... I am so embarrassed! I meant Old Naval Hospital. I hope you can make it to the screening.

[Jim Page]

(02-08-2013 07:56 PM)ninabeth13 Wrote:  I meant Old Naval Hospital. I hope you can make it to the screening.

Hi! Easy mistake to make and certainly no harm done! I'm going to try to make the screening. I'm impressed with the photographic aspect of the film and once I recognized Creed in the trailer . . .

Best of luck with everything!

--Jim

[MaddieM]

(02-08-2013 06:23 PM)ninabeth13 Wrote:  Hello friends, my new movie is about to come out! SAVING LINCOLN is the story of President Lincoln and his bodyguard Ward Hill Lamon, set in actual Civil War photographs.

Here is the trailer:
http://www.savinglincoln.com/trailer.html

The movie will have its world premiere on February 11 at the Abraham Lincoln Association Symposium at the ALPLM. The screening is free and open to the public. It starts at 3 pm and there will be a Q & A afterwards with the director and cast members.

On February 12, there will be a free screening at the Hill Center at the Old Navy Hospital in DC.

If you are in or near Springfield or DC, please join us for one of the free screenings!

We are opening in 16 cities on February 15! Showtimes: http://www.savinglincoln.com/screenings.html

Please see SAVING LINCOLN and tell us your thoughts! We can't wait to hear what serious Lincoln lovers think of the movie.

- Nina Litvak, writer, SAVING LINCOLN

I really like the look of your film.... it's beautifully shot and I love the style of it... I live in the UK, so not sure if it will come over here, or when. Perhaps I'll get to see it on DVD.

[ninabeth13]

Happy Lincoln's birthday! I am excited to report that the film I wrote "Saving Lincoln" got a standing ovation from 200 Lincoln experts at the ALPLM screening yesterday! "Saving Lincoln" opens in select cities on February 15. I hope you will see it.

[RJNorton]

Congratulations, Nina! Any news on possible additional cities where the movie can be seen?

[L Verge]

To get a standing ovation at that venue is a good tribute to your project. Congratulations.

[RJNorton]

(02-12-2013 04:57 PM)ninabeth13 Wrote:  Happy Lincoln's birthday! I am excited to report that the film I wrote "Saving Lincoln" got a standing ovation from 200 Lincoln experts at the ALPLM screening yesterday! "Saving Lincoln" opens in select cities on February 15. I hope you will see it.

Nina and Salvadore, your movie is now in the theaters! All of us wish both of you success. I know this has been a labor of love for you. You can be very proud of what you both have done. As Laurie said, it is quite something to receive a standing ovation at the museum. Kudos to both of you!

[LincolnMan]

Any showings in the Detroit area?

[Liz Rosenthal]

I would like to again applaud Salvador and Nina for their fine film, Saving Lincoln. My husband and I had such a nice time seeing it last night at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan, and we wish the filmmakers much success with it.

[BettyO]

How about us here down south?! Will it be showing in the Richmond area anytime soon?

[Salvador Litvak]

Greetings from New York City! This has been a hectic week indeed, and I have been looking forward to a quiet moment when I could share an update with our friends here on LDS. It has been deeply moving to experience Saving Lincoln with audiences. At the Lincoln Presidential Library last Monday, I was told we'd be facing our toughest crowd; we played to several hundred Lincoln experts and enthusiasts in conjunction with the ALA Annual Symposium. Having seen the film a thousand times over the course of making it, I expected to make sure it was running correctly and then leave the room. I was pegged to my seat, however, as I experienced it through the eyes of those assembled. Suddenly, it was new again for me, and I openly wept for Mary as she lost Willie. Other moments hit me equally hard though I'd seen them so many times.

It was, of course, the mood of the room that made it fresh for me. When the film ended, and the audience spontaneously erupted into an extended standing ovation, I had one of the pinnacle moments of my life. Here were the people whose hearts I most wanted to touch, and their hearts were touched.

At the Los Angeles premiere on Wednesday, the connection with our audience grew and deepened. I was most gratified to hear from guests of our cast and crew, people who came unprepared and unschooled in Lincoln lore, that they were touched by Mr. Lincoln, and felt that they'd been transported to another time and place through our CineCollage style. Over and over, they described a new kind of film experience, in which their empathy for the characters combined with the actual historic locations to create something utterly authentic and original.

Friday we opened in numerous cities, and we heard reports that entire audiences had sat through every bit of the end credits at screenings in FL and AZ, as if they did not want the Saving Lincoln experience to end.

Everything has gone so amazingly well with our audiences. And yet, you've heard by now that some members of the mainstream media have not just critiqued our unique and stylized look, but actually thrashed it. One in particular, at the Village Voice, gave us a 0 out of 100. In other words, he says, Saving Lincoln has no intrinsic value whatsoever . Presumably, in this man's eyes, anyone who enjoys it is a fool. It's as if we lovingly restored a vintage roadster, and now stand accused of foisting a used car on the oh-so-naive people!

Alas, because of such reviews, whole segments of America will probably never see a film that might have touched them, and brought them into Mr. Lincoln's unique legacy.

On the other hand, Harold Holzer called it "brilliant and entirely factual." This morning he wrote that Saving Lincoln is a "brave, tough, and incisive film--and some of the scenes--Lincoln and McClellan posing at Antietam, the encounter in the contraband camp--I found particularly haunting."

Another comment that touched me came from Mark Goldish, the projectionist at NY's Quad Cinema, a theater renown for showing high quality art, foreign and Oscar nominated films. He said, "I am the most jaded filmgoer in America. I never watch whole films anymore. I get them up and running, and if they're really good I catch a few minutes here and there. But Saving Lincoln grabbed me. It's beautiful and moving and I loved it."

So what the heck is going on here? Am I deluded? Is the history community deluded? Or does Saving Lincoln simply not fit into one of the established boxes?

We dared to make an epic historical drama on a very limited budget by inventing a new cinematic language that moves people, and we are being mocked for it. If these critics are correct, then epic stories may only be told by studios with hundreds of millions of dollars to spend.

I take solace in the reception Matisse and Maimonides received when they shifted the paradigm in their fields. And I ask you, my friends, to support Saving Lincoln. Send a message that we the people know better than these critics what is or is not art, what is or is not entertaining, what is or is not moving.

See the film this week if it's playing near you, or sign up for our email list at SavingLincoln.com to hear the news as soon as it breaks: we are partnering with Tugg, an innovative form of distribution that will soon allow you to bring Saving Lincoln to major theater chains in your area. (see http://www.tugg.com/howtuggworks to learn how the model works).

Luckily, there are incisive critics out there, and I leave you with Gene Santoro's final words from his piece on HistoryNet.com: "Well-acted, charming and gripping, Saving Lincoln is a small, shining gem."

[L Verge]

Sal,

You pay attention to those that are experts in the field and ignore those people who feel that they always have to pull something down. I'm afraid that it's a trend in American society today to want to be rude and disrespectful. I find it is often the only way that such people can hide the fact that they really don't know what they are talking about!

I have not seen the film, but your new technique certainly sounds intriguing to me, a person who wants more and more people to see the rare photos as well as learn of the people of any era. Use my old school teacher technique: Tell yourself that you are reaching the members of society who really matter. If the other "students" prefer to ignore the lesson, that's their problem.

[Linda Anderson]

What a beautiful post, Salvador! I haven't seen "Saving Lincoln" yet but I am looking forward to watching it. It is a very difficult thing to put your heart and soul into a work only to watch it be criticized the way some reviewers have done. Please know that there are many people who applaud you and Nina for your vision and your courage.