Just Like its Stars, ‘Take A Look At This Heart’ Overcomes Challenges
By Ben Duffy, Take A Look At This Heart
Take A Look At This Heart is a film about love, sexuality, and the human bond within the disability community. It follows the journey into the lives of 17 very unique people; some with disabilities and the partners who love them, others struggling to get by in a world that seems to often overlook them.
Well folks, just like the actual film, the process of getting this project from A to B has been an emotional rollercoaster. I’ll tell you all about it, but first let me just tell you how remarkable it’s been to watch everyone in the film do so well since I met them.
It seems like—whether it’s Ali Stroker’s Tony Award win, Chelsie Hill’s wonderful determined success with the Rollettes, Vasu Sojitra becoming an official North Face athlete, or Keith Concar’s incredible wood designs that he posts on his Instagram every week—everyone is still shining the same light they blessed me with 2 and 1/2 years ago when I met them.
Micro Budget Masterpiece Conquers Adversity
As for me, the producer and director of Take A Look At This Heart, this journey has been truly an endurance test requiring never ending passion and the courage to always continue.
You see, unlike most feature length documentaries, we didn’t have the classic $900K dollar budget. We had about 5 percent of that which makes me proud to call this film—and I’d say it if it wasn’t my own—a micro budget masterpiece.
The most notable challenge to our resilience came this past September when we found out that the company that released our film on January 8, 2019 was, in fact, a scam. It went bankrupt and stole the first 6 months of our sales.
That is when the message for our efforts became just as clear as the message of this film—you really do have to pull something from within you that you didn’t know you had in order to never ever give up on finding the love and support that you need.
I’m so happy to say that only a month after the catastrophe we experienced with losing the trust of our first distributor, we were picked up by the Orchard, one of the most trusted and notable distributors in the film business. The film was rereleased on iTunes, Amazon Prime, and Vimeo on Demand (worldwide) on November 19, 2019. I guess it won’t be such a blue, blue Christmas after all!
Disability Community Rallies in Support of Pioneering Film
Probably the most joyous feeling that came since finishing this film has been from the people who have viewed the film and wrote testimonials for it.
“Seeing the topics of love, inclusion and empathy being talked about in and around the disabled community in such a raw, real and in-your-face, firsthand manner is amazing,” said @cruisybabby on Instagram. “This is more than just a film. This won’t just be helping to change the lives of and include those struggling with a disability but it will also serve as a true perspective and reality changer to the rest of the world who may not quite understand what it means to live and love with a disability. It’s a message that needs to be shared.”
These testimonials have been remarkable and keep me learning how to understand that, yes, while we did lose all of our sales, the HEART of Take A Look At This Heart prevailed and is just as prominent as it was from the day it became available to the disability community. And that won’t change whether we see a penny or not. Please follow the film @takealookathisheart on Instagram and read more testimonials.
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