Remembering Sarah!

Sarah Jacobson was one cool lady. She wrote & directed as well as edited, and produced along with her mother the film "Mary Jane isn't a Virgin Anymore". I had a chance to see the film here in Philly, but was disappointed when she didn't show up to the screening. You see Sarah was a one women tour`de force. She took her film to colleges, and small art theaters around the US and even in parts of Europe. She was exhausted, and could not come, but it mattered not, because I was thoroughly impressed at what Ms Jacobson had done for a mere 12K. Sarah was the original punk Do it your-selfer. She and her mom did their own advertising through the web, and by putting up posters for her screening. She sold a short film on video called "I was a teenager serial killer" at her screenings as well as T-shirts. Ms Jacobson eventually got a job at the Oxygen Network, and was a producer there before her illness took her.

I've read almost every article I could get my hands on that she wrote. I read all the interviews she gave, and she was someone I admired, and cheered on. It's hard work making a film, but it's even harder promoting it, and Sarah was a pro at that. She died last year, and it was a loss to the independent movement here in this country. She was a pioneer of sorts, and some one who influenced me on doing my own thing.

So when I get down, or get angry at my failures and think I can no longer do another film I think one thing, and it cheers me up. That one thing is: "What would Sarah do?"

The answer is always the same: Kick some fucking ass.

Here's to you Sarah. You are missed and yet you still inspire. I'd think she'd like that.