About this project

I am an independent filmmaker making a feature length, broadcast quality documentary about Shakespeare, NOTHING IS TRUER THAN TRUTH, based on the book SHAKESPEARE BY ANOTHER NAME www.shakespearebyanothername.com. The film is about Shakespeare, but not the guy from Stratford. It is about Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxford, A-list party boy on the continental circuit, who spent a year and a half in Venice and traveling in Europe, learning about commedia dell'arte and collecting experiences that would become the plays. My goal is to shoot on location in Venice and elsewhere in Italy and France, visiting the places that De Vere visited, including the settings for THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, OTHELLO, ROMEO & JULIET, TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, THE WINTER'S TALE and THE TEMPEST. Material filmed to date includes interviews with many renowned Shakespeare scholars and actors including Sir Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance, and a tour of Castle Hedingham, the ancestral home of the de Veres family since the days of William the Conqueror. I have screened the trailer and lectured at Shakespeare conferences around the country on topics including Shakespeare on film, Shakespeare and sexuality, and Shakespeare and modern theatrical interpretations, building audience for the film. NOTHING IS TRUER THAN TRUTH looks at the process of writing, where life experience, imitation of the masters, and relentless revision come together to create works of genius, as the key to discovering Edward de Vere as the true author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare. The film focuses on the eighteen month period when de Vere escaped the confines of life at Elizabeth's Court, and traveled the continent from his home base in Venice. NOTHING IS TRUER THAN TRUTH will introduce today's students, tomorrow's writers, to Edward de Vere, a man whose life story is the greatest story ever written. The Shakespeare myth is about to undergo a huge paradigm shift, and what it means to be the greatest writer in the English language will never be the same. As a writer and someone who loves Shakespeare, I am compelled to tell the story. I invite you to join me on this literary and cinematic adventure, bringing Shakespeare back to Venice, revealing the source of his inspiration, and creating a new model for understanding the canon that will engage students for generations to come.