Kickstarter

Secrets and Stories will follow MARIO LIGETTI, an aging hipster DJ who produces an underground radio show in Montevideo UR that invites listeners to share their intimate thoughts with him and a live radio audience, in real time. Mario has an extra marital affair with JULIA, a divorcee searching for an artistic spark. In the end Mario quits his show and returns to his wife and family and a more private world, as Julia starts a similar venture on the web: she becomes the new media darling. In this bi-national production (USA and Uruguay) each ‘call in’ to the show will be written and performed by local actors. In addition, some of the callers will be Uruguayans living elsewhere in the world, so the film will consider the questions surrounding the diaspora. Subjects to be broached in “live” telephone conversations on Mario’s show: mental health issues, class and geographical tensions, (between Montevideo and the countryside), and how callers maintain a sense of national identity in the face of an increasingly globalized culture.

In March 2011 director Mark Street will travel to Montevideo to flesh out casting choices (Mario will be played by local radio personality Rufo Martinez), scout locations and meet with technical crew as well as representatives of the Uruguayan national film industry. In May 2011 he will return for a month to shoot the film. In June 2011 he will edit the film at home in Brooklyn on his Final Cut Pro system.

A major part of this film is a collaboration with the Fundacion de Arte Contemporaneo-- an artist's collective where the director has taught several workshops and presented films. These artists will join in as callers to the radio show-- writing and performing short vignettes that form the core of the film.

The modest amount requested will pay for part of both trips to Montevideo, and join with other funds applied for (from the American Embassy in Montevideo, Fordham University) for production expenses.