Producer Judi Levine on her Sundance winner The Sessions
With The Sessions getting positive reviews at the box office, Australian producer Judi Levine tells Georgina Pearson about working with her husband, director Ben Lewin on the film that tells the true story of Mark O’Brien, a man who lives in an iron lung and wants to lose his virginity.
How did you get involved in this project?
Ben came across an essay by Mark O’Brien while researching another project and said to me, “I’ve just read something extraordinary. Read it”. I thought it was fantastic so we went from there.
Making The Sessions was very much a family affair. Tell us about the experience.
Did she REALLY say “and then we had this happy ending”!?
“The Sessions is now showing at selected cinemas.”
Selected indeed. In its third week in Adelaide, showing where? In the only fulltime cinema left in the city, a very popular locale with a small proportion of people but dark in atmosphere and hard to find for the rest. And in the Megaplex, again popular but only in one suburban region and a place unappealing to over-30s.
That’s the story with so many good films that come to Adelaide: the bulk of the population are distanced from attending — nice for the mainstream mediocre films.In this instance, the ads are big and well done so deep pockets may spread THE SESSIONS yet.