The red carpet was rolled out and the spotlights were focused on the quiet riverside community of New Hope last month for a movie premiere that put the small town’s commitment to acceptance on the big screen.
“Embraceable You,” a documentary that details the diversity of the New Hope community through the thoughts, words and images of many of its residents, premiered to a sold-out crowd Nov. 17 at the Bucks County Playhouse.
The film is the brainchild of New Hope Councilmember Geri Delevich, who started considering the project several years ago during the town’s first Gay Pride parade.
“We started the parade and were coming down toward the center of town, and you could just see that the town was mobbed with people,” said Delevich, an open lesbian who’s lived in New Hope for 35 years. “There were men, women, families with children, all smiles and proud of the community and who we are. It was then that I decided that I wanted to try to show this side of New Hope, and tell the story of all the people in the town who celebrate differences.”
Delevich, along with her partner Marilyn Cichowski, formed the nonprofit Up River Productions in 2007 to support the project. They spent about a year-and-a-half fundraising, employing such initiatives as an art auction, a competition among local bars to see who could create the best “Embraceable You” drink, and a performance by out comedian Bruce Villanch.
Up River brought on director Doug Keith to write and direct the documentary. Delevich said Keith spent nearly 400 hours in the past year working on the film.
The 30-minute documentary features interviews with more than 25 residents and merchants, who speak not just about the widespread LGBT acceptance in the town, but also the overarching value it places on diversity.
“It’s a community where you can be different and be yourself and still be a part of a group,” Delevich said.
When organizers saw the overwhelmingly positive feedback the documentary was getting in its early stages, they decided to expand the project to other media.
“Embraceable You — We’re All Part of the Music” is a 15-track CD that spans genres — pop, rock, jazz, Broadway classics, folk and country — to tell the musical tale of New Hope through local residents and musicians who frequent the town. Included on the disc are such artists as Christine Havrilla, Christine Martucci and Matthew Casey.
The project also branched out to the written word, with the publication of “Embraceable You — We’re All Part of the Story,” a collection of 57 short stories, essays and poems about the town by local residents.
Delevich said the response to the project demonstrates the sense of community that abounds in New Hope.
“All the writers donated their stories and the singers donated their work, and so many people from New Hope and all over the surrounding areas donated so much of their time,” she said, noting that more than 100 individual donors contributed $25 or more. “It was a real grassroots effort. And I think people really felt a part of the project, and they are.”
Delevich and Cichowski are planning to submit the film to festivals throughout the country, and hoping other towns can use the project as a model for similar works.
For more information, visit www.up-river-productions.com.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].