SV is Official Selection at RIFF

by Suzanne StrohJanuary 23, 2014

Another laurel for SCOTCH VERDICT, chosen as an official selection at the Richmond International Film Festival running Feb 27-March 2. Founder Heather Waters has put together an interesting lineup of screenings and events all over town.

Photojournalist Elizabeth L Gilbert wonders what her subjects will make of their likenesses in print.

In documentaries, Matt Goldman’s THE LAST SAFARI looks promising, rolling into Richmond with half a dozen 2013 laurels. Journalist Elizabeth J. Gilbert returns to the African outback with her book of large format photography and tracks down her subjects to show them what their likenesses look like in print. Even in a world that is vanishing fast, the sight of a photograph is a first for many. These are priceless, transitory moments. Watch the trailer here. THE LAST SAFARI will screen at 4:45 pm at the Byrd Theater on Thursday, February 27. For tickets, visit the festival’s web site.

Can't wait to see this documentary at the Richmond Film Festival — Can’t wait to see this documentary at the Richmond Film Festival

Amy Gerber and I are very much looking forward to meeting the Russian film collective Gogol’s Wives, who have produced a documentary that has the Putin regime up in arms.

PUSSY VS PUTIN screens Saturday, March 1 at 6:30 pm. Amy’s animated feature THE REIGN OF ANASTASIA, set in medieval Russia, is in development just as uppity Russian women are in the news. Perfect timing.

More as my plans for the festival develop.

Amy Gerber's new film will be an animated feature set in medieval Russia. — Amy Gerber’s new film will be an animated feature set in medieval Russia.

Élisabeth de Gramont, Movies, This Family Business

Brave Hearts and Coronets

by Suzanne StrohSeptember 5, 2013October 27, 2013

"Fashionable Contrasts" by political cartoonist James Gillray — “Fashionable Contrasts” by political cartoonist James Gillray

I’m putting the finishing touches on a new story, “Patrimony.” Set in London and Chicago, it’s inspired by the efforts of Mary Macleod MP, Lord Lucas, Liza Campbell and others working for inheritance equality in Great Britain.

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS: greatest movie ever made?

They’ve set up shop here on Facebook to circulate a petition signed by 319 Britons as of July 31. It’s nice to see the names of a few friends on the list.

And the campaign has inspired people like author Kathryn Heyman to write to Entrenched Male Bastions That Matter in Publishing, like The London Review of Books, demanding gender equality. You can read her letter, and the dispiriting response, here. Apparently, finding women who can write is “complicated” at the LRB.

Leading journals have also been covering the issue, including this article in the Independent by Jane Merrick and Matthew Bell that gives a good overview.

Alec Guinness playing Ascoyne d'Ascoyne's uppity forebear in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS. Bears a striking resemblance to Lily de Gramont, don't you think? Hat not quite du bon ton. But we certainly catch the whiff of Legroux on the winds of change. — Alec Guinness playing Gascoyne d’Ascoyne’s uppity forebear in KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS.
Bears a striking resemblance to Lily de Gramont, don’t you think? Hat not quite *du bon ton*. But we certainly catch the whiff of Legroux on the winds of change.

The vote on whether to end gender discrimination that has been entangled with primogeniture for centuries will affect about a thousand women and their “family firms” in Great Britain. More will potentially be affected in Spain. In Pakistan, Madeeha Maqbool’s op/ed piece ran July 23 in the independent weekly’s Friday Times Blog.

If you’re wondering why anyone else would care about Equality for Women in the Peerage… well, you’ll see. “Blood flows in women’s veins too,” says Liza Campbell. “Patrimony” will be ready for publication October 15.

Books

Defying Gravity News

by Suzanne StrohJuly 28, 2013October 27, 2013

I just signed off on the printer’s proofs for “Quiet Enjoyment,” my short story about haute couture and courtroom fireworks on Antigua.

Cover art for Defying Gravity — Cover art for *Defying Gravity*

It will be published by Paycock Press in November in Defying Gravity, the sixth collection in the Grace & Gravity series of fiction by women writers living in the Washington, DC area and edited by poet Richard Peabody.

Peabody founded Paycock Press in 1976 to publish the international literary magazine, Gargoyle.

“Quiet Enjoyment’ is a comedy taken from Aurore, Book Four of Tabou, to be published in 2014. Books One, Two and Three are available for all eReaders from Publish Green.

Whether coaxing out or damping down my inner Hemingway, I’ve been working slowly but surely on a collection of short fiction, Daughter of Michigan and Other Stories. “Quiet Enjoyment” is not the only piece featuring characters from my novel cycle. “Turban Boy” traces the dark origins of Tiffin d’Aileron’s mysterious and complicated relationship with her grandmother, Valerie Drummond, the fictional Anglo-Irish Countess of Tiffin and Ross.

Many thanks to Richard, a longtime champion of women’s fiction and the DC literary scene, for encouraging me along the way.

images — Poet Richard Peabody edits *Gargoyle* and the Grace & Gravity fiction series.

Movies

Screenwriter’s Notebook

by Suzanne StrohJune 24, 2013October 27, 2013

My screenplay’s in the news. Or rather, its main theme is.

One of my favorite journalists, Sarah Lyall of The New York Times, published an interesting piece today on primogeniture in Britain. Here’s the link to her article, “Son and Heir? In Britain, Daughters Cry No Fair.”

She leads in with DOWNTON ABBEY, but she could just as well have led in with Tabou. If only my novel cycle were a hit TV series!

Primogeniture is the fusty old legal rule of sole male inheritance of titles, property and chattel in the paternal bloodline. Primogeniture is the reason Vita Sackville-West never inherited Knole. It’s the reason Lily de Gramont wasn’t a prince like her grandfather–or at least a duke, like all the other men in her family. And it’s the reason why I’d never be a controlling owner of my own family business in the UK, because I’m adopted.

Primogeniture: proof that consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

–After an epigram from Oscar Wilde

Well, It’s alive and well in England, but in Scotland, at least a portion of the estate must be left to all legitimate children born in wedlock.

And why care? Because the rot of primogeniture is at the core of my ghost story, SCOTCH VERDICT, nominated for best unproduced screenplay next month at the Madrid International Film Festival. It’s a very sexy Napoleonic mystery set in Bombay 1796 and Edinburgh 1811, based on a true trial story. With a shocking twist that will knock your socks off. If and when it’s produced, that is.

The award winner will be announced July 6^th. Come join me and my fellow screenwriters for a great evening of film and laurels and libations in Madrid.

Meanwhile, check out the poster by the talented British-born, Hollywood-based production designer, Robert de Vico, who’s creating the visual treatment. Talk about a thriving imagination! So lucky to have him on my team…

Ever wondered if Tabou might be the next DOWNTON ABBEY? If SCOTCH VERDICT is the next CRYING GAME?

Let’s find out. Next stop: Madrid.