NewEnglandFilm.com

This series of articles features interviews with established and emerging female filmmakers living and working in New England, as well as prominent industry figures from our region. Filmmaker Catherine Stewart discusses distribution, finding work, making connections, and handling collaborations, along with whatever else comes along. We encourage you to join the conversation here on NewEnglandFilm.com or on Twitter using #femalesinfilm.

“My husband and I were planning on making a film with our niece, Claire, while visiting my in-laws in Maine for the summer,” Tamar Halpern explains to me when I ask about her recent short film. “But I noted the little playhouse and teepee on the property and it got me thinking that maybe we could also shoot a comedy while we were there.” So, rather than the original film, a serious drama called Count Back to Ten, the short comedy Death, Taxes, and Apple Juice was born.

The film is a sweet comedy about two friends, Claire and Hannah, and you can’t help but be charmed by the young actresses, Claire Dauge-Roth and Hannah Perreault, who deliver fun and thoughtful lead performances. Despite the gloomy cloud of death and taxes, Claire discovers the meaning of life with the help of an immature gardener, a bottle of Chardonnay, and dress-up time in a teepee. You can see this funny little tale on NewEnglandFilm.com over the coming weeks as part of the 6th Annual Online New England Film Festival.

“The film has been invited to many festivals,” Halpern tells me,. “including LA Comedy Shorts, Woods Hole, Garden State, Atlantic City, Soho House, Naples, Florida, and Maine International, to name a few.” Halpern is amazed at the response it received, and thanks NewEnglandFilm.com for yet another platform. “I am eternally grateful for the exposure and for the opportunity to share this film with like-minded people.”

Halpern, who has a BA in journalism and an MFA in cinema, both from USC, worked with her husband to develop the concept. But it was her husband’s parents, Dr. George and Shirley Roth, who were the true producers of the film. “They provided everything from the location, to a place to stay, to delicious food, and the gentle wrangling of Aymeric, who played the gardner.”

For now, Halpern is back at the writer’s desk wrapping up an adaptation of A Mango-Shaped Space by New York Times Bestselling author Wendy Mass. The script, which is currently being marketed, is about a 13 yea- old girl with synesthesia, a neurological condition where senses cross. This adaptation comes after Halpern wrote and directed Mass’s critically-acclaimed book, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life into the 2011 feature film starring Mira Sorvino, Joe Pantoliano and Michael Urie.