Proposal: Green Card Club

Ahmed Khawaja

Describe your idea.
I’m currently writing my second feature film and plan on shooting it starting in July. It’s titled Green Card Club or Maggie Makes Mesmile! It’s about a recent college graduate/international student who within a week assembles a book club made up of women a few years out of college. There’s also his roommate/best friend who helps him moderate discussions in their living room. This young man’s sole aim is to secretly date them all, over the course of four months, so that one of them might want to marry him, out of pity, or love, but for the sake of a green card. We’ll be shooting the movie in the area with non-professional actors, using a documentary/fiction hybrid style.

The book club meetings will be segments of the film. Between now and the end of the summer i plan on having at least four meetings. This book club will start with either Nicholson Baker’s Vox, a book about phone sex, or maybe Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Anyone interested in joining this club is more than welcome to join in and take part in the shooting. Again, remember, it’s for the film, but it’s also real; not the dating part, but the book club.

My co-director, Andre Puca (roommate/best friend), with whom i made my first feature effort, Kassandra With A K is an adjunct film professor at Emerson College, where he’s been able to meet some recent graduates who will be working with us on this project (I’ve also gotten to know them through being an usher at the Harvard Film Archive). This project will serve as a test run for filmmakers coming out of different film programs who haven’t had a chance yet to work together, giving young filmmakers in Boston a chance to collaborate. In the past, Andre and I have had to rely on friends living in NYC, which kills our spontaneity and it would be great to make this project happen with a local crew instead.

How will you use your grant?
If my project is rewarded with this grant, I will use it specifically towards the sum needed to purchase 10 rolls of 400ft 16mm Kodak Vision 3 stock (approximately $1,200).

What is the expected status of your project by the time of the next Feast?
There will be a website available in august with a short film about each book club meeting, and when the movie is finished, hopefully by end of august, I will do a screening at the Harvard Film archive. The greatest thing about receiving funding, especially from a community source, is that however joyful the endeavor of making a film can sometimes be, the task of committing my time and loyalty is incumbent now not only because I feel the need to make a film, but because everyone here tonight might be willing to see it, can, given we all live past this night of the 21st.