SOLD the Movie: Behind the Scenes
Behind the Scenes of SOLD the Movie with Jeffrey Dean Brown and Jane Charles
Interview by Christopher Buck
Jeffrey Dean Brown studied film at Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. His first short with dialogue was an adaptation of a book called “Molly’s Pilgrim.” The dramatic short won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 1986. Brown’s first feature as a director is also a book adaptation, SOLD, written by Patricia McCormick. As a director, Brown has won numerous awards including an Emmy (for an After School Special), a Peabody, a Cine Golden Eagle, among others. He has directed 17 hours of episodic television shows such as: “The Wonder Years,” “LA Law” and “Hooperman. “ He has also directed over 200 commercials. He Executive Produced and co-wrote with Finn Taylor; “Pontiac Moon” for Paramount and co-wrote and co-produced “Dream with the Fishes,” an indie that premiered at Sundance.
Award-winning producer, Jane Charles’ recent credits include: Fat Kid Rules the World, Switchmas, Grassroots and SOLD, which won “Best Narrative Feature” at AFME, and the Audience Awards at LIFF, FIFF and SIFF. Previously, Jane worked on the series: 21 Jump Street, Booker, Wise Guy and feature films Bird On A Wire , Run and Pure Luck. She has produced countless television commercials, television shows and music videos (Sting, Harry Connick Jr, Our Lady Peace). Jane ran production companies (Apple Box Productions and Run Spot Run Films). Now she is committed to making cause-based films which entertain and enlighten. She is a co-founder of the Seattle non-profit Stolenyouth.org.
Open dialogue with Academy Award-Winning Director Jeffrey Dean Brown and Award-winning Producer Jane Charles
Christopher Buck: SOLD, What an intense movie!
Jeffrey Dean Brown: Oh, yeah, it is. Well, you know what? Here’s what I always say – if you think our movie’s intense, you should see what these kids go through. Our movie is like the scaled down version of what they deal with.
Christopher Buck: It’s a great privilege to be able to connect with you and discuss this.
Jeffrey Dean Brown: We’re not just releasing a film. We’re actually, waging a campaign. We’re dealing with, just so much more than, what you would do in a normal release because we’re all about, how can we take this film and make the real impact on the lives of the kids that we met in Nepal and India and the US. We’re partnered with a lot of organizations, with Save the Children, United Way Worldwide, The Rotary Clubs International, World Vision, and then a lot of like smaller NGOs that fight trafficking in the US, in Nepal and India. We’re doing a lot of fundraisers. One of our partners, for instance, is a group called Child Reach International, and they have a branch called Child Reach Nepal, and they’re the ones that came up with our campaign name, which is called Taught Not Trafficked, because if you can keep kids in school until they’re 16, primarily girl children, their chances of being trafficked in countries like Nepal drop 80 percent.
Christopher Buck: OMTimes Magazine is an outreach of Humanity Healing International. This is our charity. We’re a 501C3 public charity. We have two projects that have impacted in this area. One of the is actually in Nepal, and we still have three girls left in the program who were second daughters that were at risk of being sold to China and were brought into a school. They are training to be nurses. All three of them were able to actually go and help people after the earthquake, using their training which is a wonderful pay it forward. The other big project that we have is in Uganda; we rescue albino children from the hands of traffickers who sell them for human sacrifice, or their body parts.
