The
Women in Film Foundation has given writer-producer Rosie Vargas
Goldberg the final push to complete her debut feature "Bloom."
The foundation chose "Bloom," formerly known as "Hopeless," as
one of nine projects nationwide to receive a Film Finishing Fund grant,
an undisclosed amount paid for by General Motors.
Vargas Goldberg said the grant will cover the final HD master, DigiBeta screening tapes and festival submissions.
"It certainly helps, " she said. " The Women in Film Foundation
thinks I'm doing something good. I guess I really am a filmmaker. "
The $120,000-$140,000 HD drama shot here last summer under the
banner of Vargas Goldberg's Whatever Films. It was her first foray into
filmmaking after several years as a stay-at-home mom in Lincoln Park.
"When I decided to write this story about women who had
touched my life, I surrounded myself with people who knew what they
were doing," Vargas Goldberg said.
" People were really willing to help, " she continued."
Everyone I asked helped as much as they could, giving me deals and
advice and pointing me in the right direction. I don't know how it
would be in another city."
Co-producer Diana Mucci-Beauchamp recruited Mexican commercial
director Julio D. De Los Santos to helm " Bloom, " his first feature
directing gig. Vargas Goldberg executive produced with her husband
Benjamin Goldberg.
DP was Vladimir Van Maule. Steve Panning cut at Chicago HD. Patrick Yacono did sound at Signal Hill.
Jessi Perez stars in " Bloom " as a woman who, in order to
regain custody of her children, must see a therapist (Mara Monserrat),
who herself is struggling with infertility and caring for her dying
mother, a Holocaust survivor (Greta DeBofsky).
The women help one another to overcome the obstacles in their
very different lives and find new fulfillment. " It's a women's story,
no doubt, " Vargas Goldberg said.
She's poised to begin submitting to festivals, including Chicago International and a number of Latino and Jewish fests.
Vargas Goldberg was co-producer of Mucci-Beauchamp's play "I'm
a Female&Seeking a Male," which had a successful run at the Theater
Building from January through May. " We were selling out by the end,"
Vargas Goldberg said.
Prop Thtr co-founder Stefan Brün directed the play for Mucci-Beauchamp's New Horizons Entertainment.
Vargas Goldberg is at work on three new screenplays: a
psychological thriller which will be much more marketable than
"Bloom;" a Mexican immigrant story; and an inner city coming of age
story.
She hopes to start preproduction by this fall on the thriller, which has the working title "Herman."
See www.bloomthemovie.com.
