Mike Peebler
“We truly believe that awareness is the key to solving this problem, and there is no more powerful medium to do this than film.”
Childhood marriages are typically thought of as only occurring in “less sophisticated” societies around the world, right?!
Actor-turned-filmmaker Mike Peebler discovered that’s not the case when he heard a radio news segment about an 11-year-old girl in America forced into marriage with the consent of her parents. This motivated Mike to recruit his Upstart Crow Films creative partner Marc Fellner-Erez to create an original project that would help to raise public awareness.
To help keep the storyline genuine, they sought the assistance from the non-profit Unchained At Last. This also led them to develop an independent means for which to fundraise the project, giving them an immediate way to financially make a difference.
The result is the short film Evie, a shocking tale of a sexually abused girl being forced to marry her secret violator by her parents and a willing judge.
Since releasing on the festival circuit, Evie has been attracting attention. It earned a Remi Gold Award at Houston WorldFest and named Best Narrative Short runner up at the Albuquerque Film and Music Experience with screenings at numerous others.
To keep the momentum and awareness moving forward, Evie recently premiered worldwide as a Featured Short on FilmShortage.com. In addition, Mike and Marc have plans for expanding the story into a full-length feature film.
With Evie now streaming to global audiences, Mike Peebler recently took some time to answer a few questions:
What motivated you to want to create a film about child marriage?
MIKE: The genesis of this project was a story we heard on NPR about a child bride in Florida who had been forced to marry when she was 11 (the law has long since been improved). Our outrage about the facts of this story led us to research the broader topic of child marriage in America, and what we learned only motivated us further to create a story that would show the horrors of child marriage and hopefully raise awareness about this surprisingly prevalent problem.
How did you develop the storyline for Evie?
MIKE: We started with researching true stories of child marriage in America. From there, we combined different aspects of these stories into the one storyline you see in the short film. So, when we say that this movie is “Inspired by actual events”, we really mean it. While this is not one person’s true story, it is a combination of several different people’s experiences.
At what point did you reach out to the non-profit Unchained At Last? And, why did you feel that was important?
MIKE: After we completed the script for the short, we realized that in order to tell this story properly we were going to need to crowdfund the film. It was at that point, as two men at the helm, we began to feel uncomfortable with the fact that this is not our story to tell. Before we were willing to ask others to contribute to the making of the movie, we decided to reach out to the non-profit Unchained At Last. They deal specifically with the problem of child marriage in America helping the women and girls in forced marriages as well as helping craft legislation state by state to change the laws. So, we essentially cold called them one day, told them who we were and what we’re doing and asked if they would be willing to read the script and tell us if it felt authentic to their first hand experiences dealing with the problem. They graciously agreed, and after a couple of nerve-wracking weeks waiting to hear back from them, they gave us terrific feedback and eventually became wonderful partners in this whole process.
You crowdfunded for the film a little differently than most filmmakers. Can you tell us about that?
MIKE: After developing a great relationship with Unchained, we decided that we wanted to give a portion of our crowdfund proceeds back to them to directly impact the cause. What we discovered, however, is that obscure IRS rules prohibit anyone from promising a portion of raised funds on crowdfunding sites on to anyone else, even/especially non-profits. We found this rule frustrating and confounding, but also realized it presented us with an opportunity. So instead of using the traditional methods like Kickstarter or Seed and Spark, we built our own crowdfunding page with a built in PayPal button. As our crowdfund campaign got underway, this also presented us with several distinct advantages over the traditional sites. We were able to do matching donations, short term deals, and also control the flow of information in a way that gave us total control. By the end, we wrote a healthy check to Unchained at Last as we had promised 5% of all funds would be passed on directly to them. It really felt like a win-win.
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Your character Evie needed to convey a lot without saying much. Did you already have Caitlin Durkin signed-on for the role or tell us about your casting process?
MIKE: This is where my experience as a professional actor for 20 years really paid off. We didn’t have a single audition for this movie. Every single actor that appears on screen is a friend and colleague whom I have worked with on stage and screen. It was a delight to have that built in trust with everyone before we even began. With the role of Evie, I was especially blessed because I’ve known Caitlin since she was a little girl. I directed her older sister Judy and Caitlin both at a summer Shakespeare Drama Camp at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum—a beautiful outdoor amphitheater in Topanga Canyon, California. So, I’ve known Caitlin’s family for over a decade and have directed Caitlin long before we did this. So that amount of understanding and trust with Caitlin’s parents made dealing with this sensitive subject matter very easy, and working with Caitlin on set was a dream.
Did you secure the FilmShortage.com release from your successful festival run or how did that come about?
MIKE: We were certainly blessed with our festival run, but FilmShortage is its own animal. I’ve been aware of their site for some time as a home for quality short films from around the world. They have their own, specific submission process and I submitted Evie as soon as our festival screenings were almost over. We are blessed that they chose us as a Featured Short, which means we will sit atop their site for the three days hopefully giving this issue great exposure during that time.
You have plans for a feature length project, right?
MIKE: Absolutely. Long before we shot the short, we finished the feature script so that the actors and ourselves would have a full understanding of what happens to all of these characters before and after the short takes place. Now we have this terrific proof of concept movie and a finished feature script and we are currently talking to several different producers about financing the full-length feature. While the short has definitely helped start the conversation, there is nothing like the power of a successful feature to bring massive amounts of attention and eyeballs to the issue. Our plan is to shoot the feature in 2020.
What surprised you most during the making this film?
MIKE: This will sound dumb and very practical, but as a director I hadn’t ever shot on a process trailer before for car sequences. I’ve done it as an actor, but not as a director. My terrific 1st AD warned me that everything would go slower than we wanted on that thing, and boy was he right!
Lastly, what social impact do you hope the film creates?
MIKE: The one thing we’ve encountered over and over as we’ve taken the film across the country to festivals is the same feeling we both had when we first came across this issue—shock. We truly believe that awareness is the key to solving this problem, and there is no more powerful medium to do this than film. When we started writing Evie, all 50 states in this country allowed child marriage in some form. Now, thanks largely to the hard work of Unchained at Last, that number is 48. Maybe after the feature we can knock that number down below 25! That would be real, meaningful change we would be honored to be a small part of.
Mike Peebler I am so proud that you and your company are bringing this issue to light in such a respectful way. You are a hero to many including me.
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