Yari Film Group

Toasting her success: "Gray Matters," written and directed by Sue Kramer of Park Slope, stars Heather Graham (at right) as Gray and Bridget Moynahan as Charlie.

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There are many fields in the film industry where one can make a really good living; there’s editing, cinematography and, of course, writing.

But it seems as though what everyone really wants to do is direct. And this is where chances are taken.

Park Slope writer Sue Kramer has made a career of penning screenplays; it can be a lucrative field, whether or not one’s script ever gets produced. However, success in one arena is no guarantee of success in another.

"I was the poorest I’ve ever been [while I was] trying to direct a movie," Kramer told GO Brooklyn at a cafe across the street from a cinema in tony East Hampton. So getting her first writing-and-directorial effort made - and selected for October’s Hamptons International Film Festival - was no small feat.

The Hamptons festival, which showcases approximately 100 films, programmed Kramer’s first narrative feature film, "Gray Matters," in its Spotlight section, a part of the fest reserved for films with celebrated names attached to them. In this case, the boldface names include stars like Heather Graham ("Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," "Boogie Nights"), Molly Shannon ("Superstar," "Saturday Night Live") and Tom Cavanagh (CBS’s "Love Monkey," NBC’s "Ed").

Graham plays Gray, an advertising executive who discovers, on the eve of the wedding of her brother (played by Cavanagh), that she might just be gay. Shannon is the best friend and co-worker with all the best lines. ("Molly Shannon is me!" Kramer revealed.)

When Kramer introduced her romantic comedy at its premiere screening in Southampton (where Graham, Shannon and Cavanagh were all in attendance), she explained that the seeds of inspiration came from her sister Carolyn.

When asked how close her sister’s experiences as a gay woman were to the character of Gray in the film, Kramer said that, while it’s not a full representation of her life, "I wanted to convey the idea of making sense of who you are."

Behind the scenes

While writing, shooting and editing the film was a two-year-long process, getting to the point where she was able to make the film was a bit more arduous for Kramer. Having graduated from UCLA’s film school might have given her a leg up, but she still had to work to make "Gray Matters" a reality. She wrote and sold screenplays, and she apprenticed as an editor on "NYPD Blue." But even with her writing and editing credits, Kramer said she waged a six-year-long campaign trying to convince people with the purse strings that she was up to directing a film.

It became easier as some heavy hitters attached themselves to the project. When Alexander Payne (director of "Sideways" and "Election") became an executive producer of the film, others followed. Kramer had previously worked with Sissy Spacek on a book called "Last Innocent Summer," but when the star of "Carrie" came on-board as Gray’s obnoxious shrink, it gave Kramer a stamp of approval.

But Spacek is more than a colleague to Kramer.

"Her family are very close and dear to me," explained the first-time director.

After that, Kramer was on a roll, and sometimes kismet played a part. Her film opens with Graham and Cavanagh’s characters dancing to Irving Berlin’s classic "Cheek to Cheek," but anyone with the smallest bit of smarts about the Berlin estate knows that getting the rights to use his music is practically impossible. So how did she do it?

Kramer had always planned to use the song in the film, but she had no idea how to make it happen. Luckily, her co-producer, Rachel Peters, just happened to be Berlin’s granddaughter.

Although the interiors for the film were shot in Vancouver, most exterior shots were done in the summer of 2005 in New York, and Kramer says, "I proudly call myself a New York filmmaker."

Let’s talk about sex

But this Brooklyn filmmaker has an agenda that’s bigger than New York City. Her "Gray Matters" script is multi-layered, covering all the gray areas that Kramer sees in the world.

"There were a lot of things I wanted to say, and I think comedy is the best way to say them," she explained. "Sexuality, body image, prejudice; if you bring levity to it, you can hit deeper.

"Society says you’re never good enough; society says be whoever you want to be, but we won’t really approve of it [and] just don’t try to get married or get benefits."

Speaking of society, the Hamptons film festival is well attended by society of the high type and the parties are a must.

There are essentially two kinds of soirees: loud, noisy bashes at the seemingly unending supply of clubs, or more intimate gatherings at the homes of various festival board members, where the artwork alone is worth a fortune.

The party after the Hamptons screening of "Gray Matters" was, happily, of the latter type, in the oceanfront home of board member Ann Barish, who also introduced the film.

"At the party, people of every age came up to me: 10-year-olds loved it, and 70-year-olds loved it," recalled Kramer. Aside from a sneak preview of the film at the Outfest in Los Angeles, the Hamptons screening was really the world premiere as far as Kramer’s concerned. And the film arrived on the East Coast with distribution plans in place; the Yari Film Group ("Crash") will open the film in February - right around Valentine’s Day.

’A family affair’

That a story like this can have a life beyond film festival screenings should make her sister Carolyn proud. When asked if Carolyn had seen the film, Kramer told GO Brooklyn that her sister was a part of the crew. Her sibling acted as wardrobe mistress and nanny for Kramer’s baby daughter on the set, among other duties. Since then she’s showed up for the opening, and seems to be the film’s biggest cheerleader.

While making the film, Kramer was trying to get pregnant, so she wound up on set with a five-month-old baby, but the filmmaker believes that women can do everything - with planning and the correct choices.

"It was a family affair," she said. "I’m trying to attack the stigma that women can’t do it all."

Kramer thinks they can, and she’s out to prove it.


For more information about Sue Kramer and "Gray Matters," visit the Web site, www.graymattersmovie.com.

Marian Masone is a member of the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s and the Museum of Modern Art’s "New Directors/New Films" selection committee and is the associate director of programming for the Film Society of Lincoln Center.

©2006 The Brooklyn Paper

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