OTL PRESS NIGHT SCHEDULED

January 29, 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Filmmakers David Bettencourt and G. Wayne Miller invite you to a press screening of ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place, a feature-length documentary movie about the tuberculosis epidemic in America in the 1900s and globally today that will be nationally broadcast on PBS.

The press night will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10, at the Cable Car Cinema, 204 South Main Street, Providence, R.I. Bettencourt, Miller and members of the cast and crew will be on hand to answer questions.

ON THE LAKE will have its world premiere on Feb. 13 at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, R.I., and will be broadcast on Rhode Island PBS (WSBE-channel 36) at 8 p.m. on March 25 (and other dates). The film has just been accepted for national distribution by NETA (National Educational Telecommunications Association).

ON THE LAKE had three successful test screenings last fall: in Pittsburgh, at Harvard College, and at state-run Zambarano Hospital in Pascoag, R.I., where much of the film is set. Zambarano opened in 1905 as a tuberculosis sanatorium.

Production of ON THE LAKE began in late 2007 at Zambarano, and later took filmmakers to Colorado, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Maryland and New York. The final version has images and reports from overseas. Globally, tuberculosis is the number-two infectious disease killer, after HIV/AIDS.

Even before its release, ON THE LAKE has garnered honors. The film is a member of the Geneva, Switzerland-based worldwide Stop TB Partnership (www.stoptb.org), run by an executive committee that includes members of the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The film had also been endorsed by the globe’s most prominent fight-TB advocate, Harvard’s Dr. Paul Farmer, subject of Pulitzer prize-winning author Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains. Farmer said:

“Tuberculosis -- one of humankind's oldest documented illnesses -- has been placed, by some, in the category of 'emerging infectious diseases.' The truth is, TB has never gone away. It has been and remains one of the world's leading infectious killers… I applaud the efforts of Eagle Peak Media and their film 'On The Lake' to tell the human story of the tuberculosis epidemic.”

ON THE LAKE is the first production from Eagle Peak Media, a multi-media company founded in May by Bettencourt, the award-winning director of YOU MUST BE THIS TALL: The Story of Rocky Point Park, and Miller, Providence Journal staff writer and author of seven books. More Eagle Peak documentaries are in pre-production.

ANOTHE PRE-RELEASE HONOR

With ON THE LAKE already accepted as an educational partner in the Geneva, Switzerland-based Stop TB Partnership, the world's leading fight-TB advocacy group, we have just been accepted as a partner with the United States advocacy group Stop TB USA. We thank the American group for bringing us on board.

Both the international and U.S. organizations are devoted to eliminating TB through treatment and research, and the public education and awareness required to support the End TB effort. Their recognition of us is in appreciation of the outreach/education role the film will play, beginning in February.

-- Wayne

EMOTIONAL FINAL TEST SCREENING

Following successful test screenings in October in Pittsburgh and last month at Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass., we showed the movie Wednesday, Dec. 3, for the last time before the Feb. 13 world premiere at the place where it all began: Zambarano Hospital in Pascoag, R.I. We went into production a year ago at this distant place on Wallum Lake, and we have been many places since then as the movie grew from a look at a Rhode Island institution to include a national and global look at tuberculosis today. More than 100 staff, patients and former patients came this afternoon to the auditorium -- the very same place that appears in the film several times, albeit in historical context of a half century and more ago.

We thanked everyone for their extraordinary cooperation in helping bring this together, and we recognized several former patients and residents who are in the movie -- and who made the trip to Wallum Lake today. And that list includes Emily Martineau and Sheila O'Brien, both of Harrisville, R.I., and the four people pictured in the photo below, none of whom had seen each other in years, left to right: John Lynes, of Pascoag; Drew Greene, of North Carolina; Barbara Parkos, of Newport; and Russ Denham, who summers in the Ocean State winters in Florida. There were tears and memories galore... we have touched many lives as we've been blessed by so many stories shared and now preserved forever...



And our special guest was the extraordinary Frank Beazley, who has been a patient at Zam for almost 42 years. With a round of applause and profound appreciation for this incredible man, we wished Frank an early 80th birthday (it's on Dec. 13)! That's Frank, in the photo below, wearing his Christmas hat:



Thanks, folks, and happy holidays!

-- Wayne

GOOD SCREENING, GREAT WRITE-UP

A crowd of some 75 people braced cold rainy weather to attend the second test screening of ON THE LAKE last evening at Harvard College in Cambridge, an event organized by our outreach coordinator, Katherine Miller (kudos, Kate!). We had several members of cast and crew in attendance, along with special guests Barbara Parkos and Gale Perkins, former TB patients who are in the film. It was awesome to watch them watch the film for the first time. They, like the audience, were moved.

And in the next morning's Harvard Crimson, we got a very nice write-up, check it out.

Dave and I took questions after -- that's us at the front of Harvard Hall 201 -- and we enjoyed the discussion. Got some good tips, too, from that discussion and the questionnaires as we move in on a final cut.

Here's a sampling:

"Overall, really, really good!" A woman in the 25 to 36 year-old group.

"So emotional. So moving." A woman in the 65-plus group.

Needs "more emphasis on global aspect of TB, relation to HIV, MDR/XDR-TB." A woman in the 18 - 24 group.

"You need to focus a lot more on global TB." A man, in the 18-24 group.

Indeed, the last two respondents hit on the major area where the film needs work -- and Dave and I are aggressively moving on that.

Thanks to all who came, and for all the great input. Third and last screening is a private viewing before an audience of some 200 people on Dec. 3... if you feel compelled to attend, send an email through the link at Eagle Peak Media, our production company and maybe we can sneak you in... next big date after that is the Feb. 13th premiere.

-- Wayne

SECOND TEST SCREENING -- PUBLIC WELCOME!

November 5, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. _ The second of three scheduled test screenings of ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place, a documentary movie about the tuberculosis epidemic in America in the 1900s and globally today, will be held will be at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, at Harvard Hall, Harvard College.

Filmmakers David Bettencourt and G. Wayne Miller will speak at the showing of ON THE LAKE, which is scheduled for PBS broadcast in March 2009. This showing is free and open to the public. The movie will premiere at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, R.I., on Feb. 13.

ON THE LAKE is the first production from Eagle Peak Media, a multi-media company founded in May by Bettencourt, the award-winning director of YOU MUST BE THIS TALL: The Story of Rocky Point Park, and Miller, journalist and author of seven books. Two more Eagle Peak documentaries are in pre-production.

The first test screening of ON THE LAKE was held last month in Pittsburgh, before an audience of nearly 100 people. The final test screening will be before a private audience on Dec. 3.

While less of a public health issue in America today than in the early 1900s, when much of the film is set, it remains epidemic on the planet. Tuberculosis is the number-two infectious disease killer globally today, according to the World Health Organization, with nearly two million deaths and nine million new cases in 2006, the last year for which data is available. The only disease with a higher worldwide mortality is HIV/AIDS.

Audience reaction from the Pittsburgh screening suggests that the filmmakers have succeeded in bringing powerful emotion and personal stories to the screen.

''Our aim was not to produce a 'disease-of-the-week' movie, but rather a compelling narrative of real people,'' Miller said. ''Against this tragic backdrop, against the many deaths, we found love stories and stories of triumph.''

Harvard Hall is located at the main entrance to Harvard Yard, which is in the center of Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass.

For more information about the movie, visit the movie site.

OTL wide-screen showings set!

We are almost done the film. Lots of final editing and sound work, but we are almost there -- just in time for our first wide-screen showing, on October 16th at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health. Dave and I will present the film. The next showing will be on November 13th at Harvard College, in Cambridge, Mass., as part of Global Health Week. These showings are for students and faculty of the two schools. The official world premiere will be February 13th at the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket, Rhode Island.

-- Wayne

on the lake: CLOSING IN

Labor Day weekend approaches, time for a quick update on our next doc, ON THE LAKE: Life and Love in a Distant Place. Last evening at Ben’s studio, we recorded our major voice: narrator Yemi Sekoni, who wowed us back in March during auditions and did the same in the studio. Yemi has a wonderfully distinctive voice that we adore, and she is a class act work with. She put up well with Dave's, Ben's and my shenanigans, and at the end of almost 2 1/2 hours, we had a thing of beauty.

We are doing some last-minute shooting tonight dictated by our progress on the rough cut –– not so rough any more. The URI band on Tuesday recorded Lonnie and Ben’s original bid-band composition, and it's outstanding. Once we lay Yemi's voice in, they can get to work on the rest of the sound.

With more editing last week and more scheduled for next, we'll soon have picture lock. This is all very exciting, watching almost 11 months of hard work by so many people finally coming together. The emotions seen in the trailer are only amplified here, and the story line remains strong. Cross your fingers, we think we have something here…

–– Wayne