“Mango Kiss” began as a two act play called
“Bermuda Triangles: The Non-monogamy Experiment”
by the award wining playwright Sarah Brown. The play was
inspired by Sarah’s real life adventures in early
1990’s San Francisco. After extensive workshopping,
the play premiered at San Francisco’s Theatre Rhinoceros,
the oldest gay and lesbian theater in the United States.
The play enjoyed sell-out crowds and rave reviews. The lead
actress was nominated for the prestigious Cable Car Award
for best actress. The Bay Area Reporter called Brown’s
play “a hilarious romp through the experimental interactions
of an enclave of lesbians.” In the wake of the play’s
success, the playwright Sarah Brown experienced a yearning
to return to a more rural setting like Ann Arbor, Michigan
where she grew up.
 Sarah
Brown headed to dusty Santa Fe, New Mexico to visit old
college friends, Sascha Rice among them. Sascha had heard
about the fantastic success of Sarah’s play, but was
too busy mounting her own production, “The Second
Snipping” to read ‘Bermuda Triangles.’
Nevertheless Sascha attempted to lure her old friend Sarah
to Santa Fe by dragging her to all kinds of cultural events
and introducing her to as many thespians as possible. The
most notable introduction was to Joe Mellis, a local actor
and director. Joe and Sarah had instantaneous chemistry;
they discovered that Sarah knew Joe’s sister in San
Francisco and that they shared a similar history. This meeting
was the first of many serendipitous events that lead to
the creation of “Mango Kiss” the movie.
Sarah
did move to Santa Fe and promptly asked Joe to direct a
staged reading of “Bermuda Triangles.” He happily
accepted, scheduled auditions, and secured a venue: The
Santa Fe Playhouse. Sarah asked Sascha to audition, but
Sascha declined as she had recently put acting aside to
focus solely on directing and writing. Sarah convinced Sascha
to come to auditions as moral support and once there, Sascha
sat on the sidelines until Joe encouraged her to read. It
had the feel of an exhilarating athletic work out or a dance
party rather than a grueling audition. Joe had all the actresses
watch as he rotated different actresses through the various
parts. The room was filled with an electric energy that
would crackle for years to come. That night Sascha was among
the 5 women who Joe cast in the staged reading; it was a
decision which ultimately wrapped Sascha’s heart around
Joe and Sarah’s play.
 Meanwhile,
Sarah was a bit concerned that the content of the play might
be too racy for Santa Fe. As it turned out the reading was
a hit. After some lobbying by an elderly heterosexual couple
who sat on the Board of Directors at the Santa Fe Playhouse,
a full production was put on the schedule and funded. Joe
directed the stage play and a new cast was assembled--Sascha
was cast again, this time in a radically different role.
By this time, Sascha and Joe had forged a partnership which
was heading for marriage, procreation, and movie making.
When asked how they met, Sascha likes to say, “The
short answer is Joe and I met on the casting couch.”
The story is a bit more complicated given that after half
a decade of being ensconced in the women’s community,
Sascha was surprised (to say the least) to find that she
had fallen in love with a man. Sascha gave into to her budding
crush on Joe the day that he showed up to rehearsal wearing
a vintage mustard yellow sweater, a lime green shirt, orange
pants, a pork-pie hat, and clogs. It was that day that she
threw out all preconceived notions of what a man could be
(and maybe it was those clogs that later inspired Sascha
and Sarah to write the part of Kaz.)
 It
wasn’t too long after the success of “Bermuda
Triangles” that Sascha and Joe moved to Los Angeles
to pursue their careers--this time Sascha was angling to
direct and Joe to act. Sascha briefly entertained the idea
of being a cinematographer, but quickly realized that ‘gear’
didn’t turn her on enough to make it a viable choice.
And she loved having her hand in every aspect of production
and perhaps given her family’s leadership roles in
public service, she felt comfortable taking the helm. Sascha
has always loved films and remembers seeing a rerelease
of Woody Allen’s “Sleeper” in the theater.
She distinctly remembers being struck by the fact that adults
enjoyed such bizarre and fanciful stories. This movie going
experience made a deep impact on Sascha. Incorporating the
surreal has been a consistent theme in her writing. She
has been particularly inspired by Jane Campion’s sublime
visual style and her enduring female characters. She also
appreciates the penetrating narratives brought to the screen
by successful working mother Allison Anders. Furthermore
Sascha shamelessly loves movies in just about every genre:
action movies, Hitchcock classics, and many contemporary
films by directors such as Steven Soderberg, Ang Lee, Kasi
Lemmons, and Pedro Almodovar. The only type of movie that
Sascha steers clear of is horror.
 As
she cobbled together her own version of film school by taking
AFI classes and working on student films, she made friends
with Joaquin Alvarado, a UCLA grad student who was developing
a website on which he wanted to stream video. He was hot
on the trail of original content and he encouraged Sascha
to make something. She demurred and made excuses that her
most polished screenplay required a big budget, but he persisted
and suggested maybe she knew another writer who had something
more suitable to a low budget. Immediately “Bermuda
Triangles” sprang to mind. In it’s original
form, “Bermuda Triangles” was set in one room
and required only 5 actresses. Thinking like a real indie
filmmaker, Sascha knew that these simple requirements could
help keep costs in control. In addition to the feasibility,
Sascha simply adored the play: it was hilarious, the story
spoke to universal themes in relationships, there were 5
strong complex female characters, and she loved the ensemble
nature of the piece. Sascha’s intention was to make
films that make people think about the familiar in a new
way or think about the unfamiliar in a familiar way. This
play could bring an interesting and rich world to so many
people. And the whole project had a good vibe--it was after
all how she’d found the love of her life--who would
eventually become one of the producers of and actors in
the movie.
Sascha immediately called Sarah who was still in Santa Fe,
the playwright in residence at a local theater. Sascha asked
if she could make the play into a movie. Sarah paused, then
said, “Um. OF COURSE!” After a flurry of giggles
and shrieks, Sascha added, “There is only one condition:
you’ll have to write a part in for Joe.” Sarah
agreed and set to work immediately. The next evening, Sarah
asked if Sascha would adapt the play with her. They had
been critiquing each other’s work for years and had
studied screenwriting together: it was a natural fit.
 The
two hammered out the particulars. They agreed that they
wanted to develop the first act, build the second act conflict,
develop the supporting characters, and add a few more locations,
some exteriors, a few minor characters. They estimated it
would take six weeks. Six weeks grew to 3 months and they
re-evaluated their process. Sarah realized she had changed
since she first wrote the script and she knew that the San
Francisco scene had changed too. They took a trip to San
Francisco to conduct research. They stayed with Sarah’s
mother, an artist who lives in San Francisco, and spent
5 intensive days interviewing women in the scene: tops,
bottoms, transgendered, non-monogamous, formally non-monogamous,
and earthy s/m pros. It was exhilarating and it was just
the juice they needed to knock the script into shape. They
discovered that San Francisco had indeed evolved. The role-playing,
butch/femm relationships and the S/M of the early 1990’s
had receded to the background and f-to-m transgender and
drag king had taken center stage. It was at this point that
Sascha and Sarah decided to make the movie a period piece.
While it wasn’t yet a ten year difference, the politics
had radically shifted and the play felt like it captured
a particular time and place.
 Cut
to several months later: where draft built upon draft built
upon draft, extensive e-mails traveled the country, and
marathon phone calls ran up their phone bills. The screenplay
had taken on a voice of its own and production was scheduled
to start in the fall of 2000. Sarah came out to Los Angeles
for what was to be the last face to face writing session.
They had timed the visit so she could also attend the opening
night of “The Elephant Man” in which Joe had
the title role. At the opening party, Sarah and Sascha were
engrossed in conversation when suddenly Sascha noticed that
Sarah was starring past her at someone across the room.
Sascha turned and saw a vision in a green feather boa starring
intensely back at Sarah. Suddenly, the two women ran toward
each other and embraced. The vision in the green boa was
Windy Morgan, one of the original actresses who had workshopped
“Bermuda Triangles” in San Francisco back in
the early 90’s. As fate would have it, Windy had created
a mask used in “The Elephant Man” and was there
celebrating. Windy listened carefully as Sarah and Sascha
told her about the project which was temporarily titled
“Mango Me.” Then Windy said “You have
to talk to my girlfriend. She’s a producer. She’s
the bomb.”
Enter Erin O’Malley- a petite blond with disarming
blue eyes. Sascha and Joe met her in the Cat and Fiddle
Restaurant in Hollywood, eagerly to hear an expert’s
thoughts. Finally, after hellos and food ordering were done,
Erin looked at Sascha with those intense eyes and smiled,
“I love the script.” She handed them a 10 page
document. It was a first pass at a budget breakdown--a favor
for Windy. The shoot date was nearing and Sascha had yet
to find a producer. At that point, Joe’s role was
simply supportive partner and he had yet to become a full
fledged producer. That was all Sascha needed. Erin was on
board and Sascha wanted her to be a part of the movie in
whatever capacity she could. Erin’s resume was an
arm long and she didn’t look 25. She had the feeling
that Erin was headed for big things. Erin was producing
a TV show and if they shot on location in San Francisco
as Sascha was pushing for, she wouldn’t be able to
be on set, but Erin agreed to come on board and proceeded
to crank out version after version of the budget, chiseling
away costs as she cut great deals with vendors.
The
one thing that was not discussed at lunch was that Sascha
was one month pregnant and that principal photography was
to coincide with her second trimester. Sascha and Joe hadn’t
told their parents and figured they would tell Erin when
they got to the magical 12 week mark. When they did tell
Erin, she said she’d suspected there was something
they were holding back, but she hadn’t expected that.
Luckily Erin and Windy have a soft spot for animals and
they give care to an every changing assortment of pets.
Perhaps presenting more like an excited and pregnant puppy,
Sascha earned a special place under their wing.
The
child within didn’t slow Sascha down, but rather seemed
to solidify her resolve to stay on schedule. She called
friends she had made on past sets and began to assemble
her team. The first script went out to the cinematographer
John Pirozzi. Sascha and John had met on the UCLA grad student
Vivian Umino’s film “Captured” for which
he was the DP and Sascha a green script supervisor. Sascha
had been immediately drawn to John’s commitment and
creative handling of the material. Sascha wanted to have
someone she trusted in the key role of DP. John read the
script and loved it. His energy, his ideas about the script,
their familiarity, and his considerable talent and experience
made him her first choice. Ultimately they embarked on a
close and rewarding collaboration. This first hire was part
of Sascha’s plan to surround herself with experienced
people, as she knew that as a director she was about to
experience baptism by fire.
The
next key crew member was Frank Esposito, whom Sascha had
also met on “Captured” and who had gaffed the
first feature that Sascha first ADed--a feature in New Mexico
by USC grad Morgan Nichols. Sascha enticed Frank with a
pitch that worked across the board, “I’m pregnant
and the food will be amazing and there will be lots of snacks
all the time.” Sascha likes to think that everyone
who came on board did so because they believed in the project,
but there was another draw --to see the giant pregnant director
waddling her way through the making of her first movie.
There was always an abundant spread, in fact, despite a
brief crisis when the craft service guy jumped ship to work
on another movie. While the crew worked for a fraction of
their regular rate (if they were paid at all), they were
consoled with delicious meals consisting of organic salads
and excellent entrees.
Sascha
asked Joe to be the casting director, not because his fees
would be deffered (aka free), but because Sascha recognized
that he had incredible instincts about actors and she had
absolute faith in his ability to deliver great talent. They
had family business to attend to in both New York and San
Francisco and decided to hold auditions in both cities.
In fact, they read Jessica Patton and Machiko, who played
Sass and Chelsea in the original San Francisco stage production.
Both were great talents, but the story had substantially
changed and the casting no longer fit. They saw some fantastic
actors in New York, but the cost of travel weighed heavily
against them. They saw some great talent in San Francisco
and ended up casting supporing roles from that pool, but
for the principle parts Sascha was a stickler for professional
experience. Sascha knew that her hands would be full with
all the other production elements and that she would not
have time for inexperience. They went the traditional route:
placed a notice in Backstage West and put a listing in the
breakdowns. And thus the deluge of headshots began. The
most amusing headshots were all the men who submitted for
the part of Lou, despite the specific mention it was a lesbian
movie.
 Over
the course of a week, they held auditions at a second story
theater in Hollywood. Sascha sat in the back while Joe interfaced
with the actresses, introduced them to the reader, and explained
the givens of the scene. When Danielle Ferraro walked into
the room, Sascha took note. She possessed that magical kinetic
energy that was at Sass’ core. In the read, she went
for it completely. Her instincts were right on, fully committed.
She was it, with that rare combination of naiveté
and untamed curiosity. Meanwhile, not one Lou had walked
through the door. It was expressly noted that they wanted
the Lou character to be butch, yet the women who arrived
were impossibly femm. It was hard to see past strappy sandles,
plucked eyebrows, lip gloss, glittery eye shadow, and skimpy
tank tops. Indeed, there were talented women who read for
the part, but Joe and Sascha were unconvinced. Lou needed
to be the anchor. She would be the ballast on the wild ride
and Sascha would not settle. Sascha couldn’t decide
if she was feeling dejected or just suffering morning sickness.
Then came a call from Carol Carpenter, a writer friend from
Santa Fe who had moved to LA. Sascha whined about the difficulties
of finding a butch woman in Los Angeles. After Carol poked
fun at the irony of a married woman pining after a butch
woman, she said that she might know someone.
 Carol
explained that she went country and western dancing at Oil
Can Harry’s (a gay bar) and that her dance partner
was kinda butch and might even act. They planned to meet
at Harry’s the following night. Sascha felt like a
teenager on a blind date, except for her swelling pregnant
belly which made her feel more woman than girl. She watched
the door anxiously. Then Carol pointed. That’s her.
Enter Michelle Wolff. Everything went into slow motion.
She was hot. Really sexy and cool. Sascha’s first
thought was “Please, be able to act.”
 Carol
introduced them, then Michelle politely whisked Carol onto
the dance floor and proceeded to wow Sascha with her phenomenal
dancing talent. Sascha entertained notions of adding an
extensive dance number, but decided she ought to take a
look at the woman’s resume first. Michelle asked Sascha
to two step and pretty much had the part after that. Michelle
gave Sascha an envelop with her resume and Headshot and
agreed to come in for an audition. Sascha went to her car
and practically tore open the envelop. She scanned the resume:
lots of theater- always a good sign and a sizable list of
credits. Michelle came the next day and, as Joe says, “smoked
it.” When they put Daniele and Michele together, the
energy was electric. Chemistry.
 The
rest of the casting was going well and had progressed to
the call back phase with several promising candidates. When
Dru Mouser read for the part of Leslie, the room nearly
caught fire. Shannon Rossiter who plays Micky, was in the
same theater company as Joe. He had not thought of her for
the part-- perhaps because her personality didn’t
scream “wanna be bad pip-squeak brat.” Erin
knew her, and recommended her for the part of Micky. She
arrived dressed for the part and threw down. She immediately
knocked everyone else out of the running. Meanwhile, Windy,
a talented actress in her own right, read for a number of
parts, showing amazing versatility, and was ultimately cast
as the magnetic pink haired rock star Ginny--the lead singer
of Micky’s band. Sascha got permission to use her
old friend Nodiah Brent’s song MPFS (“My Pussy
is a F*cking Shrine”) for the movie’s live band
performance. As soon as Shannon was cast she signed up for
guitar lessons and exceeded Sascha’s expectations
in her transformation into the punky guitar player.
 The
part of Sass’s mother hadn’t been filled. They
had hopes of getting a known actress in the part, but had
hit dead ends. After several rounds of casting sessions,
Joe handed another pile of ‘mom’ headshots to
Sascha for review. Like a good casting director, Joe reviewed
Sascha’s reject pile and found Sally Kirkland. Joe
held up her head shot and asked Sascha why she’d rejected
it. Sascha said, “I can’t see what she looks
like.” As it turns out Sascha hadn’t even looked
at the name. Joe said, “This is Sally Kirkland”
and proceeded to rattle off her credits. Joe offered her
the part. As it turned out Sally is a big fan of female
directors and women centered screenplays, and jumped to
do the role.
 Casting
Chelsea was also proving to be a challenge. A lot of time
had been eaten up chasing after a name actress who was supposedly
seriously considering the part. Joe was pushed to the limit
as Sascha expressed dissatisfaction with everyone who read
for it. Joe was increasingly annoyed as Sascha found fault
with each excellent actress he brough her. Shooting was
just around the corner and they had yet to find Chelsea.
Twp days before principle photography started, Sascha was
in their hotel room in San Francisco, tired after a long
day of location scouting and shot listing with the DP. Joe
had enlisted the casting director from the Magic Theater,
Jessica Heidt, and had assembled a new slate of potential
Chelseas. Chelsea had to be there because they were shooting
in 48 hours. Sascha watched wanting to find her, but was
not impressed with the first two of Joe’s three picks.
These women were the best so far, but she had hopes that
Chelsea would blow everyone out of the water. Enter: Tina
Marie Murray. Tina said two words and the search was over.
She was the one.
Prior
to assembling in San Francisco for the final stages of pre-production,
Sascha rehearsed with Michelle, Daniele, Shannon, Dru, and
of course Joe. They spent 5 weeks working the scenes, doing
acting exercises, and getting to know each other’s
working style. Sascha wanted to be as prepared as possible
given the daunting task ahead. In addition to formal rehearsals,
they spent time discussing S/M, non-monogamy, lesbian culture,
San Francisco, and the political climate of the early 1990’s.
Sascha wanted the women to understand this story from the
inside out. She wanted the actors to surrender to the material
completely and to create an atmosphere in which they all
felt comfortable asking questions, taking risks, and being
themselves.
At
the end of October, Sascha and Joe were in San Francisco
preparing for the shoot. While some scouting had been done,
none of the locations had been secured and they were still
trying to secure a location manager, not to mention a first
AD. Sascha’s initial indie filmmaking instincts had
caved to an exuberant burst of blinding creativity and simple
inexperience. The location list had gone from 1 to 10 interiors
and another half dozen distinct exteriors. The role-playing
had evolved into full blown fantasy sequences, the cast
had grown to 18, and the crew would number 49. The mini-dv
Internet movie had graduated to super16, and two days before
the shoot, to 35mm.
 They
were fortunate to have hired Sini Anderson, an old friend
of Joe’s sister, who had recently worked on the indie
movie, “By Hook or By Crook,” which went on
to play at Sundance in 2002. Sini was a godsend to “Mango
Kiss”; she worked as the 2nd AD, an associate producer,
a casting associate, and their favorite background actor.
She brought in tremendous support from the community and
helped find one of the key locations: Sass and Lou’s
apartment or as it is known around town “The Blue
House.” As it turned out, when Sarah Brown first moved
to San Francisco, she had lived in the Blue House for a
short time. Another fantastic find was Steak House-- the
person, not the eatery. She was a producer on “By
Hook her By Crook” and in addition to working as the
production manager, she housed “Mango Kiss’s”
production office.
Shooting
on location in San Francisco proved to be more of a challenge
than they anticipated. The dot com bubble had yet to burst
and the vacancy rate in San Francisco was about 0%. Tenants
were uptight about staying on the good side of their landlord
because landlords had started evicting tenants and selling
properties at astronomical prices. This made finding locations
exceedingly difficult. Luckily, Sascha had friends in Oakland.
Sascha hired Dave Windget to be a part of the art department
and then discovered that he also worked for a property management
company. Dave found and finessed three key locations. The
other locations were slow in coming and were often yanked
right before shooting. In fact they had to rewrite the script
to accommodate the fact that it was impossible to shoot
in a laundromat.
Sascha
had originally planned on staying with family, but as much
of the cast and crew would be coming from out of town, their
options became limited. They considered putting everyone
up at Sascha’s Uncle Jerry’s compound in Oakland.
Yet, as 90% of the locations were to be in the city, the
thought of bearing the bridge commute every day seemed like
a sure death. Their supervising producer, Linda Barry (not
the cartoonist) who Sascha had met on the same UCLA grad
film, found The Pacific Heights Motor Inn which was to be
their base (and home to a number of memorable parties.)
Another happy accident was Linda’s union to Frank
the gaffer. They are now married and expecting their first
child. Another marriage catalyzed by “Mango Kiss”
was that between Linda Cohen, the excellent First AC, and
Matt Nicholey the sound guy.
 Two
days before shooting, Sascha and John Pirozzi were busy
shot listing and prepping. Joe was holding final auditions
and Erin was coordinating the travel of equiptment from
LA. They still had no first AD. Finally, Erin found a god
old Texas boy, John Nolan, who arrived to spiraling chaos
and quickly saddled up to whip the crew into shape. He marshalled
the forces with Southern charm and hard work. Meanwhile
the 2000 presidential elections returns were coming in and
the Bush/Gore stand off was mounting. Sascha tried to cap
on-set political discussions because John Nolan was the
lone republican on board and she couldn’t afford to
let him get pulverized by the cast and crew of ultra liberal,
transgendered, hippie, arty democrat yahoos--of which she
was a proud member.
Shooting began November 10th 2000. They had planned 90%
of the exteriors for the first few days in case bad weather
prohibited them from shooting. They were blessed with sunny
skies and in fact Sascha worried that the skies were too
blue to feel like authentic San Francisco. The producers
were happy because there was no cover set in case it rained
and no options to extend the schedule. The first day was
an early call at Baker beach, and the first scene they shot
was the last in the movie. Sascha could barely contain her
excitement. She ran back and forth between the actors and
the camera, hardly resting for a minute. That night when
she lay down to go to bed, her legs seized up with intense
cramps. She lay awake in terrible pain with the words of
her midwife rattling in her head, “You don’t
want to have this baby in San Francisco, do you? Take it
easy.” She also remembered the cautionary words of
Edith, Joe’s grandmother, who had miscarried a daughter.
The next day and every day following, Sascha sat in her
director’s chair as much as possible, until Edith
pulled Sascha aside and said, “Don’t sit too
much or you’ll end up with a flat ass.”
The
shoot went exceptionally well, except for a number of minor
car accidents, getting kicked out of a several locations,
losing an actor the day before they were scheduled to shoot,
and the occasional 18 hour day. Luckily the cast and crew
were top notch, the problems were solved, and the business
of shooting the movie got done. Erin had gotten them organized,
crewed up, and ready to go, but she was stuck in LA producing
a TV show. Therefore, they needed someone who was going
to make decisions, execute or adjust strategy as needed.
Luckily, by day two, Joe stepped up from role of check signing
producer to the unofficial line producer and ultimately
a full fledged producer: making decisions, delegating, managing,
problem solving, and taking care of everyone including his
pregnant wife. Joe’s hours were probably the longest
as he had additional responsibilities massaging the Charlie
horses out of Sascha’s legs at 4am.
 In
addition to keeping the movie on track, he also performed
in the role of Kaz. Sascha insisted that once Kaz has his
eye make-up on that he be treated solely as an actor and
that all business questions be held until he was wrapped
for the day. The first day that Joe appeared as Kaz, heads
turned as he sashayed onto set in his mid-rift top and hair
do. The guys had come to know Joe as a salty good old boy
and were thoroughly wowed. Joe maintained excellent focus
and straddled both jobs remarkably well. He and Erin became
a phenomenal team through the shoot and into post. In fact,
Erin’s friends called her the “wolf,”
inspired by the character played by Harvey Keitel in Pulp
Fiction. He was the guy called in to handle the bloody mess
when they blew off a guy’s head in the back of the
car. Erin earned the name thanks to a bloody string of jobs
(“Mango Kiss” included) in which she was called
into impossible situations to clean up the mess and take
care of business.
Sascha
steered the project with passion, presence, and tenacity.
Her rock solid focus coupled with a natural ability to multi-task
made directing a natural fit. She nurtured a balance of
artistry, practicalities, and personalities with an unwavering
commitment to the process. She maintains that at the core
of success is faith in the cast, crew, and your own decisions.
She believes the job of the director is to hold the vision
while facilitating brilliance. Her nick name on the set
was “mama bear,” not only because she was absurdly
pregnant, but because her calm grounded core made others
feel she was completely at ease helming this vast project.
Sascha has poured her heart and soul into this project and
brought together a deeply committed cast and crew. Joe and
Erin have been steadfast in their commitment to project
and have kept the project afloat through incredibly trying
low budget filmmaking madness.
 Immediately
following the shooting, Sascha and Joe took a well-needed
rest. In January of 2001, Sascha put together the first
rough cut, then put “Mango Kiss” on the shelf,
nested, and in March gave birth to their beautiful baby
boy.
 Both
Joe and Sascha’s families have been enormously supportive
of the movie. Due to their generosity, they were afforded
the opportunity to do re-shoots in the early fall of 2002.
They shot in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Once again Erin
called in big favors and cut amazing deals with vendors
and made it possible for Sascha to get everything on her
wish list. Erin also brought Post Supervisor Amanda Ramey
on board, whose day job is supervising post on a number
of shows at the Disney Channel.
 The
editing process was quite a journey. Sascha likes to say
that she has been “non-monogamous” in the editing
department--not because she wasn’t in love with all
FIVE editors, but because circumstances made them unavailable
when the money arrived to get back to editing. Each of them
offered a fresh perspective to the material and Sascha appreciated
their unique contributions and creativity. Sascha brought
on board Composer Matthew Ferraro who transported the piece
into the next dimension. They recorded with a big band at
Capital Records with some of the best musicians in town
and Sascha worked with Music Supervisor Steven Vincent to
put together a great line up of bands for the soundtrack.
After Joe and Erin wrestled with the final production details,
MANGO KISS enjoyed a sell out premier at Frameline’s
International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival in the 1400
seat Castro Theater in San Francisco.
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