This weekend marks a homecoming of sorts for both Kathleen
Slattery-Moschkau and her locally written and produced "Side
Effects," a sobering but sprightly romantic comedy that has caught
the attention of audiences across the country.
And after hearing her story of struggles and successes, it also
seems to mark a day of vindication for an aspiring filmmaker who has
faced every imaginable hurdle in bringing to life a story she felt
had to be told.
The first moments of the film, which itself questions the
marketing, motives and mindset of the pharmaceutical industry and
their sales reps, shows a young woman graduating from college, being
offered gobs of money and the keys to a new car.
All she has to do, it turns out, is shell pills at docs and help
her company make a few billion.
The inspiration, Slattery-Moschkau says, was more personal than
some might expect.
"When I got hired I was 23," Slattery-Moschkau said, admitting
she worked for years in the industry before turning her attention to
writing and, eventually, writing screenplays. "All of a sudden there
was this great job and this good pay and this company car and this
great salary - and you’re a political science major and you’re like,
‘Where can I sign up!’"
But around five years into her career, she said, she started to
question what was happening around her, and started to look closer
at what the industry was all about. She said she stared taking notes
on Post-Its and writing what she saw and heard, eventually setting
out to sell a first draft of a "Side Effects" script to a major
movie studio.
What came back from the studios, however, dismayed
Slattery-Moschkau.
"I had an agent in L.A. shopping the script around I kept getting
told to dumb it down," she said. "I got into four or five pages of
the final draft and I wanted to cry. It lost everything that was
original or unique. All the ideas about the pharmaceutical industry,
how they’re trained was gone.
"It was so commercial."
And so she set out to take the risk that so few writers or
filmmakers are willing to take: She found investors, built a bank
account (the film only cost $190,000 in total - a stunning fact
proudly announced on screen prior to the credits) and set out to
hire a director, a cast and a crew. She said she was careful to plan
the film’s production for the summer of 2004, when many television
actresses have time available, and landed Katherine Heigl as her
star, an actress well known for her work on the television show
"Grey’s Anatomy."
I first met Slattery-Moschkau and saw her intriguing film at this
year’s Wisconsin Film Festival, where I hosted a panel on getting a
movie made in Wisconsin. Already armed with a finished product and
encouraged by a sold-out debut screening at the festival,
Slattery-Moschkau said she was heading out to Los Angeles the next
day to show the finished product to distributors.
When she could not convince a distributor to take a chance on an
edgier, less formulaic film, she decided to do it herself, again. In
the months since, while serving as screenwriter, director and now
distributor, she has traveled to Dallas, Boston, Minneapolis, San
Francisco, Berkeley, Calif., and Portland, Ore. Before the release
of the film on DVD, which she hopes will help "Side Effects" reach
an even wider audience, Slattery-Moschkau is hoping to take the film
to the kings of all markets - New York and Los Angeles - in
February.
But in bringing her film home for the holidays, screening both in
Milwaukee and in Madison starting this weekend, Slattery-Moschkau
said she hopes her story will serve as encouragement to all those
eager writers and directors who have a story to tell.
"For any aspiring filmmaker, it should serve as an example you
don’t need to be in L.A. to make a movie," she said. "If you’re
passionate and march to your own drum or have something unique to
say, you can do it."
"You do not need permission to get something done," she said.
Not long into her cross-country adventure, Slattery-Moschkau
started receiving praise and recognition for her story and her
stamina. The film has garnered both mention and acclaim in USA
Today, the Financial Times and British Medical Journal. In a
testament to both the relevance and charm of the film, she said it
has been more warmly accepted by audiences and medical writers than
film critics.
Slattery-Moschkau, however, seems unfazed by all the setbacks she
has been forced to overcome. Speaking to the first-time filmmaker
from Madison as she takes "a breather" from the insanity of a life
on the road, Slattery-Moschkau just seems happy that her film is
being seen and, more importantly, being understood.
"The film is incredibly important for the general public to
become more savvy, and for the medical community so they know how
they’re being targeted and manipulated by the drug companies," she
said.
"Then they’ll be better prescribers."
It’s an undeniably powerful and timely message, reaching
audiences just as health care costs have put even more financial
strains on some of the country’s biggest companies. But it’s not one
that got here easily.
"Do we have a list of the top 25 things we’d do differently?"
Slattery-Moschkau asked. "You bet I do, but oh well."
During a weekend where the biggest competition facing "Side
Effects" will be a fantasy-based blockbuster of lions and witches,
this romantic-comedy-that-could faces yet another uphill battle
against an industry of formulas and mass marketing.
But for those who seek movies that speak to our common struggles
and experiences, here’s the chance to make your voices known.
Then perhaps next time Slattery-Moschkau, and those like her,
won’t have to fight so hard to say something new.
"Side Effects" opens tomorrow at Marcus Ridge Cinema.
