WHITE STORK IS COMING
In 2012, White Stork Enterprises insures that baby-hungry couples will bear 'perfect' offspring for a mere $100,000. By offering successful embryo fertilization through digital chip technology, ‘Stork’ advertises that they can remove potential disease and negative personality traits from the embroyo's genetic code for $5000 per item. Too good to be true? A con game? Well, a chip-like microfluidic device does exist (developed in Tokyo) that increases the probability of successful in-vitro fertilization from 29% (eggs in a petri dish…), up to 88%. And genetic engineers are close to identifying the codes for various diseases. But after hearing the couples (and doctor's) real-life stories, it's sad to think that many delightful human pecularities might disappear, when perfect people walk the earth.
-
A Film by Zola Azevedo, Cynthia Duval, Stephen Rubin, Mike Saliba, and Rick SchmidtDirector
-
A Film by Zola Azevedo, Cynthia Duval, Stephen Rubin, Mike Saliba, and Rick SchmidtWriter
-
Stephen "Jules" Rubin & Rick SchmidtProducer
-
Cynthia Duval, Roberto Codato, Mike Saliba, Stephen Rubin, Amy Johnson, Will Arute, Angela Damron, Zola Azevedo, Aron Kalaii, Jennifer Miller, Carrie Ronneau, and Lisa FriedlandKey Cast
-
Project Type:Feature
-
Runtime:1 hour 16 minutes
-
Completion Date:February 7, 2020
-
Production Budget:2,500 USD
-
Country of Origin:United States
-
Country of Filming:United States
-
Aspect Ratio:16:9
-
Film Color:Color
-
First-time Filmmaker:No
-
Student Project:No
Rick Schmidt is an American low/no-budget feature filmmaker/author, born in Chicago, Illinois March 4, 1944. Rick's feature filmmaking career began in 1973 when he co-directed "A Man, a Woman, and a Killer" with his then-roommate Wayne Wang (Chan is Missing, Joy Luck Club, etc.). ‘Killer’ won the ‘Director’s Choice’ award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival in 1975, and secured Schmidt a $10,000 AFI production grant for his second feature, Showboat 1988-The Remake. Since that time, Schmidt has produced over twenty-five original feature-length works.
Rick’s books ‘Feature Filmmaking at Used-Car Prices’, ‘Extreme DV’ (Penguin/Random House Books), and 'The Miracle of Morgan's Cake, Production Secrets of a $15,000 IMPROV Sundance Feature," have been considered ‘bibles’ by experts in the field. His filmmaking guides, revised/updated since the late 1980s, were based on the knowledge he derived from the field, from features Schmidt wrote/improvised, directed, shot, edited and produced. Schmidt received a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005, bestowed on Schmidt by Rome International Film Festival, presented by writer/director Kevin Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNM6ZFJZpis
Like most all of my previous features, WHITE STORK IS COMING was a collaborative affair. I consider it futile to try and script real-life stories like are presented within the framework of this movie. So you've got real people telling it like it is, cut between improv fiction scenes that are also favoring non-actors delivering their real-life observations around a central theme. For over 40 years I've been mining the real-life aspects of filmmaking, trying to offer the special information that only 'normal' people can share. 'The more real and truthful the better' has been my mantra.
My first feature, A MAN, A WOMAN, AND A KILLER (co-directed with Wayne Wang) was, for the most part, misunderstood when it screened at Rotterdam in 1977. With the movie centered on the real lives of the actors, certain scenes that celebrated the works and concepts from Jean-luc Godard were incorporated in the film because the main character, Dick, 'saw life as a foreign film, in which he was the star.' So it was, like several subsequent movies I've been fortunate to make, a comment on the media of the time and how those stories affect the decisions we make in daily life. Making several "films within films," (including SHOWBOAT 1988-THE REMAKE and EMERALD CITIES, both of which screened at Rotterdam Intl.), seem to have continued to baffle critics and occasionally audiences as well. Here's a hint: all these movies reflect off other movies. They talk movie talk. Sometimes they try to undermine the damage done by overly violent American flicks (A MAN, A WOMAN…is about violence, not incorporating violence to sell tickets. So the audience can't depend of my movies for escapism. Through some concentrated editing I try to put audiences in the shoes of others, trying to crack open the kind of intolerance and racism that still plagues the US.
Class systems have been somewhat dismantled in America, but look for the Obama backlash that's brewing. WHITE STORK is a pretty good example of entrepreneurs taking advantage of human frailities for big paydays. Do we really need more births in the world, much less ‘perfect' children? I doubt it, unless the country needs to breed more troops for future foreign wars. Look for a future connection between rampant artificial birthing, genetics, and future military actions. Not a pretty picture.