JC's Girls: The Movie

Today, I spent my afternoon in a screening room on Sunset in Hollywood. I was there to view a nearly-complete cut of my good friend, Bill Day's, new, feature-length, documentary film: "JC's Girls."

If you haven't figured it out already, the "J" and the "C" stands for the initials of that famous carpenter from Nazareth.

All I can say is "Wow!"

Bill has created something truly special. After working on this project for over two years, his documentary chronicling JC's Girls' story is terrific! It has so many elements that makes it wonderfully entertaining: An engaging, off-beat, subject with a sometimes touching, occasionally disturbing, and often-times comedic story-line that, in small, subtle, yet noticeable ways, mirrors some of the important political and religious issues that are playing out in today's world. It has it's share of humor, pathos, love, hate, bigotry, redemption, and inspiration. It's not so much a film that celebrates religion and Christianity... or knocks it. If anything, it celebrates the human spirit, affording the viewers a sneak-peek into the lives of a few, special people who rise above intolerance and hypocrisy and stand by their convictions-- Some of whom you might least expect it from.

Not to be a name-dropper, but I sat in the screening room with my friend, Ramon Menéndez. Ramon is also a good pal of JC's Girl's producer/director. Some of you might remember an award-winning feature-film Ramon wrote and directed back in the late 80's: "Stand and Deliver." Also at the screening was Michael Miner. On Michael's impressive writing resume, along with a bunch of other work, is a little film he penned called, "RoboCop." The documentarys principal character, the beautiful and charismatic, Heather Veitch (pictured), also attended.

JC's Girls tells Heather's story: A one-time glamour model, stripper, and soft-core porn actress who, after pretty much hitting the moral bottom and emotionally struck-hard by the untimely death of one of her erotic-entertainment friends, pursues a personal ministry reaching out to strippers, porn stars, and hookers. But it's a bumpy ride for Heather, the church she attends, her minister, and the girls that make up JC's Girls. And many of those bumps are where you'd least expect them from... or maybe exactly where you'd expect them from, especially if you're as jaded and cynical as I am when it comes to a lot of this stuff.

If you're wondering why I'm writing about JC's Girls on my glamour photography blog it's because I'm proud to say I'm one of the flick's supporting characters. I play me. (How's that for typecasting?) And my role consists of... well, it consists of me being the jaded, cynical, pretty girl shooting photographer who, for some conflicted (and maybe not-so-conflicted) reasons, donates his time and services to the girls' cause. But I'm not exactly Mister Good Guy. I'm sort of the comedy-relief "serpent" to Heather's "Eve" if that makes sense. There's more of me than anyone needs to see in the film, including a bunch of footage where I'm shooting the JC's Girls in my studio, lots of the images I shot of them, and a trip to Las Vegas. (Where I accompanied these holy hotties as, uhhh... sort of--believe it or not--their Sin City spiritual guide and chaperone.) So anyway, yeah, I feel like a star. Maybe I'll get some head-shots and go find an agent?

I'm not sure when Bill's documentary will be finished. I know he's planning to submit it to the Sundance Film Festival and elsewhere so it should be done quite quickly. After it's available, I'll be enthusiastically recommending it to everyone.

A few of Bill's other documentaries include:

Our Land - Nossa Terra - For some, the struggle to preserve the Amazon rain forest is about abstract notions related to global warming and climate change. But for the Kaapor people of the Brazilian Amazon, preserving the rainforest is much more basic. It’s about survival.

Missionary Positions - A multi-award-winning, comic, documentary about two, young, Christian pastors on a Quixotic journey to fight porn. From the Red Light district of Amsterdam to the porn sets of Los Angeles, these two guys are the funniest porn fighters you will ever meet.

Saviors of the Forest - Nominated for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, this comic odyssey follows two "camera guys" into the rain forests of Ecuador in search of the "bad guys" responsible for the destruction of the environment. Is it the loggers? The oil companies? Or two guys with a camera who need to record falling trees for their documentary? Shot in the style of Michael Moore, Daily Variety said the film "...is as funny and honest an expression of good intentions gone awry as any documentary you're likely to see."

The pretty girl at the top is Heather. Some of my images of Heather and the other JC's Girls have been published in quite a few newspapers and magazines around the world. Heck, Playboy even used some of them! (Sorry about those artifacts in the image. Blame Google. They own Blogger and I'm uploading to their servers. They reduce the file sizes quite a bit.)