Emily Dickinson – Breathing Life into a Legacy

“She was not daily-bread. She was star-dust.” Martha Dickinson Bianchi on Emily Dickinson

The Belle of Amherst’s poetry lives on. It’s been almost 130 years since Emily Dickinson’s death, and yet her works are as popular as ever, with over 1,600 scholarly articles published about her poetry in the last 25 years.

Yet whilst her works are respected, beloved and heavily studied, Emily herself is the butt of the pop culture joke. In spite of her outstanding talent, Emily Dickinson is seen as (to quote Lisa Simpson) “crazy as a loon”. She has been reduced to a symbol of spinsterhood and reclusivity; a parody of a person, as opposed to a real human being.

At Hurricane Films, we’re producing the feature film A Quiet Passion, the life story of Emily Dickinson directed by the esteemed Terence Davies. Company directors Roy Boulter and Sol Papadopoulos are the producers of A Quiet Passion, and Sol is lined up to direct the accompanying documentary, Phosphorescence.

The Kickstarter campaign for the film is here.

Watching the film develop has been a delight; from script to screen, the project has really embodied Terence Davies’ vision of Emily’s life.

In a narrative film, the embellishment of truth is an absolute necessity. Conversations that happen behind closed doors can only ever be imagined; the beautiful screenplay that Cynthia Nixon, Jennifer Ehle and the rest of the cast brought to life, whilst dependent on Emily’s poetry and legacy, is from the inspired mind of Terence Davies.

For the documentary, Phosphorescence, we will insist on sticking to facts; working with Emily’s letters, poems and the details about her life, including her love of gardening and baking. With help from the Emily Dickinson Museum and experts from Harvard and Amherst Colleges, we’re delving even deeper into Emily’s world.

We want to immortalize the genuine person behind the poetry; her passions, her talents, and her eccentricities.

Making this happen is dependent on two major elements; research and outreach.

Outreach

Building a core audience for Phosphoresence in the early stages of production has been a primary goal or ours. This will ensure a full-bodied, group of partners to spread the word about the film through its inevitable theatrical and digital releases. This is a project that will be driven by Emily’s fans; the Kickstarter page has been seen by over 3,000 people and over 150 people have supported it so far, with numbers growing by the day.

In addition, by working with partners, organizations and ambassadors and having them connect to their members, Phosphoresence will reach a much bigger audience than any traditional marketing campaign could ever achieve. For fans of Emily Dickinson’s, it’s important to retain the dignity of her legacy, while tastefully reaching those who want to spread the word about a film that will ensure that Dickinson will be remembered.

Research

At this early stage, we want to be as well prepared for production as possible, which means becoming amateur scholars and breaking out the textbooks! We are reading all the Dickinson we can get our hands on, as well as reaching out to major players in Dickinson research and reading critiques – the positive and the negative.

We want the documentary to be comprehensive and exhaustive; to turn over every stone and analize every fact we can about Emily Dickinson’s life. The opportunity to explore the life of one of America’s greatest poets is not something we are taking lightly; it is so important that the facts behind Emily’s life and legacy be immortalised on film, and you can make this happen.

Find us on Kickstarter, Twitter @DickinsonDoc Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EmilyDickinsonDo

Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality,
Nay, it is Deity—

Unable they that love—to die
For Love reforms Vitality
Into Divinity.

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

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Tags: documentary, Emily Dickinson, featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing