Bodies of Water: Transforming Grief into a Global Story

Today, we are speaking with award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, and storyteller Betsy Murphy.

Her documentaries have screened at international film festivals and appeared on Hulu, Showtime, and Amazon Prime. Her projects have also been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The UK Sunday Times, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated.

Betsy is also the author of eight books, including Autobiography of an Orgasm, Grief Glimmers Grace, and Write On: A Daily Writing Practice for Anyone with a Story to Tell.

Join our new educational platform From the Heart THRIVE and get free classes on film funding: https://fromtheheartproductions.thrivecart.com/from-the-heart-thrive/

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Stay with us to discover how filmmaker Betsy Murphy turned an unimaginable personal loss into a global documentary. You will learn her bold distribution plan designed to bring her story directly to audiences around the world.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

So glad you could join us on The Art of Film Funding. I'm your co-host, Claire Papan, along with writer and producer Carol Dean. As mentioned before, author of the best-selling book, The Art of Film Funding, and president of From the Heart Productions. From the Heart Productions has supported independent filmmakers for more than 30 years through the Roy W. Dean Film Grant, fiscal sponsorship, education, and resources designed to help filmmakers fund, produce, and distribute meaningful films. Today we're speaking with award-winning documentary filmmaker, writer, and storyteller, Betsy Murphy. Betsy's earlier films were made under the professional name Betsy Blinkenbaker. Since 2015, she's used the name Betsy Murphy professionally. And her documentaries have screened at international film festivals and appeared on Hulu, Showtime, and Amazon Prime. Her projects have also featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The UK Sunday Times, The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, and Sports Illustrated. Betsy is also the author of eight books, including Autobiography of an Orgasm, Grief Glimmers Grace, and Ride On, a Daily Writing Practice for Anyone with a Story to Tell. Her Substack platform, Beautiful Infinity Stories, with Betsy Murphy, has been recognized as a rising platform in literature, and she continues to share her stories through her Beautiful Infinity Stories YouTube channel. Her newest documentary, Bodies of Water, is a global film with an intimate emotional core. It explores fate, grief, destiny, and transformation, with the spirit of water serving as both a metaphor and a messenger. This conversation is especially valuable for filmmakers because Betsy is not only sharing how she returned to filmmaking after a profound personal loss. She's also developing a modern release strategy that combines YouTube, theatrical screenings, film festivals, social media, audience outreach, and shorter companion videos. We will explore how filmmakers can turn a deep personal experience into a universal story, recognizing synchronicities during production, build an audience beyond traditional gatekeepers, and use today's platforms to bring a finished film directly to the people who need to see it. And Carol, I'm turning the interview over to you now.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Good, Claire. Thank you very much. Betsy, we're so pleased to have you with us.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

I'm so pleased to be here. Thank you, Carol.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Yes, I want to learn all about this process. What uh courageous uh event for you to take a major loss and share it with all of us. Now, I understand you left filmmaking in 2015 and you said that you would never make another film. So tell us what happened that brought you back to filmmaking, and when did you realize that the story of your son Charlie needed to become a film?

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Well, I um I've been a documentary filmmaker since 2000, and I released two documentaries, um, New York in the 50s and something to cheer about. They both did very well, and with the support of from from the heart track from the heart productions, and my third documentary, um, Althea and Althea and Angela, a perfect match. Um, I was so frustrated that I was not offered any deal, and that there were such gatekeepers. Like this is such an important story about the first Jewish woman and the first black woman to play together at Wimbledon and break the barriers in tennis. And I, you know, it was a beautiful film, and I never got a deal. And I was so done with filmmaking that I was, you know, 2015, I left. And then in, and I, you know, turned that into a career as a writer and helping other people tell their stories, and I was just fine with not making any more films. And then in uh 2000, July 2022, my youngest son Charlie died at the age of 27 of a fentanyl-related overdose. It may have been intentional. And in my grief, I took his ashes to the Ganges River just because a few months before he died, we had talked about going to India together. I'd taken him there when he was eight, and we had talked about returning. And instead, I found myself on a plane alone from California to India with my son's ashes. And all I knew was I wanted to release them into the Ganges River. I didn't plan on making a film. I just needed to do this for myself. And I arrived and I knew I wanted to take them to a really remote area of the Ganges, not like the clean area at the beginning. I wanted to go to the very end of the Ganges. And I realized that this part of the river was the most polluted, um, but it also held the most prayers because if if the Ganges River is, you know, 1,500 miles, you have millions of people praying on it every day. So it's filled with pollution, it's also filled with these healing prayers. And I've offered my son's ashes through a ceremony that was created from synchronicities, which I'll share later. And I realized at that moment, if the Ganges River in the most polluted part is still considered sacred, then my son dying alone in a hotel room with drugs in his body is still sacred too. And um, up until that point, I had only just heard that, you know, your son's, I had only heard labels about him. He's an addict, he's this or that. Um, I never heard what happened to him, why was he reaching for the drug? Why was he in the room alone? Um, who stopped taking his calls? So I um came back and started writing these stories, and I realized I wanted to tell it um as a film because you reach a lot more people. So that's how I got back into filmmaking reluctantly.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Well, but what an extraordinary subject. So that's such a personal subject, making the documentary about the death of your son. So, how where did you get the strength to go into that emotional territory and tell us what you hoped that the this process of making bodies of water is going to reveal or transform the benefits?

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Well, the um I made it to survive. Like my grief was so heavy that this is, and I've experienced a lot of death in my life from a young age, but to lose a son, as you know, is devastating. And I had to take it, it became Charlie's death, became my destiny. And about two months before Charlie died, he sent a letter to me and other family members. It was a letter he wrote to himself as a way to heal. Um he wrote the words that he needed to, you know, hear to heal, sent this beautiful letter. And um, and he also said to me, Mom, someday you're gonna tell my story. And I said, Charlie, you're gonna tell your story. You're such a dynamic, charming storyteller, and you're you're going to connect with so many people. And he said, No, you're gonna tell my story. And it just was his death became my destiny with telling the story because I also people looked away from Charlie's pain in this, I was experiencing the same way of like they were looking away from my pain, my grief. People, we will do anything to avoid pain. So I um and then I get to this, you know, to India and see this river that has been um so polluted, and in 2000 found out in 2017, uh, the country, the government had declared the river as um sacred and having uh consciousness. So to harm the river would be like harming a human. And um and India committed to um helping you know restore the river and helping it survive. And I thought, well, if I want to change the language around how we and the conversations around how we show up for loved ones who are struggling, because in too many of our families we look away from their pain. Um, and just like a little kid is saying, watch me, watch me, um, these the moments when our our children of any age are struggling, that's when we need to stop watch, listen, witness. And India taught me that they could do that with the river, so I'm trying to change the conversation around. My son wasn't an addict, he was someone in pain, and it was a pain that needed to be witnessed. And I um saw that I could tell the story on a bigger level through using water as the storyteller.

SPEAKER_02 12:25

Oh, how smart! Because the water is emotion, right? That is what it's all about. It's all about emotion. I know in one of our conversations that I encourage you to think of Charlie, your son, as a co-producer. So, what did that idea mean to you, and how did your relationship with Charlie continue to influence the creative and practical decisions that you made throughout your production?

SPEAKER_01 12:55

That was such an important moment because I had imagined the documentary as being full of interviews with um uh, you know, Hindus in India who um grew up swimming in the river and grew up swimming with the the pink dolphins swimming in the river, which are now in danger. They've disappeared because the river is so polluted. I've interviewed water experts, I've interviewed experts on um how sound impacts water as a way to understand like how prayer can influence water. So I was interviewing all these experts, and but the film it just wasn't coming together. And so I reached out to you and you said, take Charlie on as your co-producer, and that changed everything. And I decided to pull all those um experts that I'd interview out of the film and um and use those as supplemental interviews um to promote and market the film and so that we could have more in-depth conversations too. But um, and then with Charlie's guidance, I really have ended up telling the story that uh we needed to tell to together. And I'm I uh so I will never forget that conversation with you because it it switched everything.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Oh, thank you. Well, Betsy, when you go back and think about Imoto's frozen water forms. Remember, he froze water and he love on one and on one bottle, he put I will kill you. And the vision in the uh what in the frozen water was a man with a gun. Amazing that water has a memory and water responds to people, so you've chosen the right connection. So let's talk about creating a global production. So, what part of Bodies of Water was created with a production team in India, and how did those relationships come together? Because you're working across cultures and geographic distances and emotional and spiritual dimensions.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah. All I can say is, you know, none of it was planned, and but everything came through asking and receiving. Um I had previously shot um worked in India on two different projects, you know, oh gosh, 15 years ago, and I always took a um, you know, my photographer US-based crew there. And this time I really wanted to use a um a local crew, and I used the platform Fiverr. I'd been using the platform Fiverr for editing skills, and I I have such good luck finding great people on Fiverr. And um and so I found a young, you know, hot shop producer named Um Um Mohammed Youssef on Fiverr. And he was building a studio, but at the time I didn't realize he was building a production studio, but at the time, this is you know five years ago. Um uh but he was doing it out of his dorm room. And um, but he was um so I connected with him to film the first uh part of the we were going to Varanasi, which is the holiest, um, you know, considered the holiest city in India. And but he and I had to trust each other that he was, I was sending him money and I had to trust that he was gonna show up with a photographer. He had to trust that, you know, I was gonna be there. And we ended up building, you know, a really strong relationship in the last five years, and um and there was a bit of synchronicity too with the filming, the end of the film, which I'll share in a minute. But um he I also ended up taking the editing back to him. I'm I'm used to sitting in an editing, you know, suite from 20 years ago with a big, you know, avid suite, and now you know we can use editors that are anywhere. And so he actually knows this product project better than anybody. So he's, you know, I've used this crew um uh uh for the whole film, and it's felt really good. At one point when we were driving six hours to film, you know, the end of the film, the car was filled, it was me, um, two people that were Muslim and they were uh it was Ramanam, so they were fasting, two Hindus in the car, only two people spoke English, and they were all in their 20s, which was my son's age when he died. And it just felt like Charlie was taking me on the most amazing adventure. And in the same way that people uh here, especially close, you know, family members, couldn't see the gift of Charlie when he was in pain. Um this group just held on to the gift of the story that was trying to come through. And I just love like the global, you know, the story turned itself into this, you know, global story. So um, and I'm very fortunate with these young hotshot filmmakers. I'm the end of our film, it looks like it was shot with a big Hollywood production budget. It's really incredible.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. Well, it all started with Fiverr. It can you spell that for us?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yeah, it's f-i-v-e-r-r dot com.

SPEAKER_02 18:55

Great.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

I'll share the link, uh, his link too. He's fantastic.

SPEAKER_02 19:00

Okay, great. So water as a metaphor and a messenger is what you're doing. So, how did the water become the connecting element?

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah. Well, as we said before, you know, when you're talking about Emoto's work, I um I was surprised that there was more compassion for, you know, this body of water that was in danger of dying than my son in the last months of his life when he really needed attention from family. And all I heard was, uh, oh, we don't want to be around him, or he's this or that. Like they were constantly sending negative information, you know, to him and negative messages. And if our bodies, you know, are 60, 70% water, then what is that doing to somebody who's already struggling? So I really wanted to make the point of if you can't help somebody that is in a lot of pain or struggling with drugs and alcohol, can we at least send, you know, positive healing to them, not just say, oh, well, they're an addict or they're this or that? Um, because Charlie was so much more than that. And and he was someone in pain that was really trying to um get beyond the pain. Um, so I there was no better example than this dying river that's now coming back to life to tell the story.

SPEAKER_02 20:27

Oh my gosh. So, what you're doing here is making the personal universal, and um, that's very hard on your own emotions. How there has to be a delicate balance between personal expression and creating something that connects with a wider audience. So, how did you protect the intimacy of your story while you were making bodies of water meaningful to people?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Yeah, well, what it was people's connection to me when and reaching out to me because I'm sharing uh this very intimate personal story, and I'm sharing details about his death and what happened before and after that people don't usually share. And I've heard from so many people that said, me too, that happened to me too. I've been um I've been struggling with this. Thank you for sharing uh how your writing is very healing. Um I didn't want, I also wanted someone like Charlie, who I think at the end of his life, you know, he had uh he died in a hotel room, but his phone was right by him. And I know he was watching a lot of um movies and videos, and I was just hope, I hope that this video would be um bodies of water would be something that if somebody is scrolling and in pain, they stop and watch it and they feel seen, they feel heard, they they don't feel um, they might be disconnected from loved ones, but the message might connect them back to themselves and and bring them back into a state of um where every cell in their body is reflecting that love that they need to be sent in this moment, not judgment, hate. Um yeah, so I've just uh I really want to change the story around how we're showing up for loved ones. At the end of Charlie's life, you know, we were told as a family, tough love, don't take his calls, tough love, you know, let him hit rock bottom. Well, my son's rock bottom was death.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Oh my gosh. Yes. That's that's almost impossible to deal with the emotions that go on. But how great for you to go back and recreate all this that he was going through because there's so many people on drugs now, this can be a great help to them to understand they're not alone. And to see that Charlie died, they should recognize the fact they've got to get help, I would think.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Yeah, absolutely. And and also and feel witness and seen. Um and at the very least, you know, um um send themselves some love or uh if you can't show up for that person, um, you know, send them so that there is help. And you ask about also water was the other way. Like I I've I bathe, I go to hot springs, I constantly, you know, that's where I connect to Charlie.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

Yes, I bet. I bet. Because I believe that people have crossed over are still around that we can feel their energy and communicate with them.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Absolutely, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

Wonderful. Well, so the audience experience, now that the documentary is finished and ready to screen, what do you want audiences to understand? Or what would you like them to do after they watched it?

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Well, uh, one thing that Charlie was really clear on in the film is like he really wanted people to dance out of the you know theater, like to feel uplifted, not feel uh like, oh, this was such a hard story, and this you know, person has died and the river is dying and the pink dolphins are endangered. Um I wanted, I we wanted to explore the opposite. What is it like when we don't turn away? What is it like um when we uh, you know, I want people to start paying attention to what or who they've stopped watching. And the invitation is to reach out to that person, um make sure you know, uh pay attention to a body of water near you that may need, may need help. I really want people to have a new relationship with water, uh not just the bodies of water, uh, you know, oceans, rivers, um, but also bodies of water are our loved ones. So if we can't, if we can't see each other as um as uh the you know the humanity, if we can't witness the humanity of everybody, can you at least witness them as a body of water? I hope that's making sense.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Oh, that does. It makes a lot of sense. We are walking bodies of water. Yes, you're absolutely right. Well, let's talk about your you chose YouTube for distribution. So your plan has always been to release bodies of water through your beautiful Infinity Story YouTube channel. So now that will let your film reach a lot of people. So why did you choose YouTube?

SPEAKER_01 25:59

Well, it's the number one streaming platform in the world. Um, and just as I shared at the beginning, where I was so frustrated with my last documentary, Althea and Angela, not getting an offer after doing film festivals, not getting, you know, any offer um for streaming platforms. I um I thought, you know, why not go right to the number one platform? And also we're living at a time where we're not waiting for a gatekeeper to buy our film. We can be our own gatekeepers. And um the other thing that had happened is my deals with the first two films, New York in the 50s and something to cheer about. Um my deals with them were 10 or 15 year deals, so they had just come up. So I just put, instead of trying to resell everything, I just put all my films on the same platform. And um, I knew I I wanted this story to reach as many people as possible right away because um it can save rivers, but it can also save lives.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Absolutely, and it gives everyone a chance to look inside a family that's been through such great loss and understand how to recognize when someone is in trouble. I don't think people realize because um your your children will just disappear on you, they're not communicating. And when they do, uh, if you don't give them immediate feedback, they feel lost. Your reaction becomes really important, right?

SPEAKER_01 27:42

Yeah, oh absolutely. I mean, it was like a a dam had been set up in our family, and there was no possibility, you know. Charlie was only reaching through to a few people because people had stopped taking his calls. And I um one of the gifts is at you know, the last six weeks of his life is I never stopped taking his calls, and I took a lot of painful calls, but I um he he um uh got completely you know off everything in the last uh weeks of his life, and he was still reaching out to family, and they weren't showing up or listening to him or taking his calls because they could still only see him as and define him as uh who he was on a drug or alcohol, not who he was trying to you know recover.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

Right. Well, I I really think you're courageous for making the film, but I have to really commend you and bravo for making the most of YouTube. So tell us how you're preparing to use this YouTube release. Are you considering scheduled premiere or live conversations or sharing trailers or YouTube shorts or tell us the ways that you are helping audiences discover and share your film?

SPEAKER_01 29:13

So the um intention is to release the um to do a release in uh this fall on YouTube and um you know with a Q ⁇ A after. But building up to that is I've uh filmed, I haven't filmed them all so far, but all those interviews that I've done for the that I thought were going to be in the film, I'm um I'm uh editing those into three to five minute segments that will be posted uh leading up to the premiere. So we will start engaging with viewers even before the film is out. And I've started also engaging with viewers through the trailers being posted, through my Substack platform. Um and, you know, the the gift is I can only do this because of having fiscal sponsorship through From the Heart Productions because I'm not it was the first film that I wasn't worried about making my money back because everything came in in the form of donors who got a tax deduction. And it really took a lot of the pressure off of um selling a film. I will still do film festivals, but um and the film festivals are a great way to connect to you know word of mouth and and build um intimacy with audiences, and everybody has somebody in their family that has struggled, everybody knows somebody. And um, so I really feel like we are connecting to a community that has not had um of a positive voice to share uh messages about our loved ones um who have been struggling.

SPEAKER_02 31:03

That's true, that's really true. Well, let's talk about festivals, theater screenings, and outreach. So you are planning to submit the film to festivals, and you're considering having a seven-day theatrical screening in Los Angeles. So, how will the festival and the theatrical strategies support the two YouTube release?

SPEAKER_01 31:28

The um the festivals will um at this point the festivals are coming after the YouTube release. So it's and because it's a documentary short, uh, I'm just using any outlets available, especially for an environmental film, because this is it's a film about grief, but it's also an you know it has a big environmental climate um um message. So, and there are specific um festivals that um promote these films. So I'm focused on the environmental climate festivals and um and with the the theatrical release, it's I wanted a way to honor um uh being in Los Angeles where I've come, you know, I'm finishing the film and being right by a body of water. Since it's a documentary short, you know, we don't have, they're not, you know, film uh theatrical screens aren't normal for them. I just wanted uh it to be a way to gather um and then have a QA after and raise awareness. And you know, LA is a pretty good place to connect with people that could perhaps uh help the film.

SPEAKER_02 32:45

Exactly. That's a great place, right? And you're also creating shorter videos featuring water consciousness experts, grief support. So, how will these companion pieces help you build an ongoing audience?

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Well, the um, you know, I'll be sharing one a week to build um the YouTube platform, and it you know, brings people to the platform. So then they actually, you know, click on that one and they go, Oh, that was interesting. I'm gonna go back to this one um featuring a um water expert um who also does freezing, like um Dr. Emoto. And then I'm gonna go click on to this one that is talking to a parent that might have uh a son that or child that um um you know that experienced um that they had lost through uh drugs or alcohol. So it's the idea is that they're gonna be shorter videos for our shorter attention stands spans that are also telling of you know a uh an a message that connects to the um bodies of water, the bigger message of the film.

SPEAKER_02 33:56

Yes. Excellent. So um so you started making the film around the year 2000. What are the most important differences that you see between documentary filmmaking then and now?

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Well, yeah, so 2000 was when I made my you know early films, and I just remember when you know those were being sold, the budgets for distribution um were you know fifty to a hundred thousand dollars just for marketing. Yes, and yeah, and I and the film Something to Cheer About uh um was bought uh by a distributor and they had a big you know marketing budget for it. And the it it the film got great reviews written up in you know, Sports Illustrated, uh New York Times, you know, great, great um reviews. And it just didn't have uh, we didn't get you know the people in the theaters. That was also before Facebook. So if I would have had Facebook out during that time, social media promoting the film, we would have had like a blockbuster film. Um now with social media uh we can reach um markets that would take uh that you know I could have never reached before. The other big thing is um as much as people are uh want to debate about you know AI, it's here, it's how we use it. And what it has allowed me to do using AI is taking it on as a production partner in areas as a producer that I would not have been able to afford. So um, or I would have done a lot less, like in grant writing uh or in grant research, which would take me, you know, a week before. Now it takes me two minutes to research which, you know, which festivals are going to be the best for an environmental uh film. So yeah, AI is an important co-producer on my film.

SPEAKER_02 36:13

Great. Well, um, speaking of environmental films, you know the Redford Center has a wide uh outlook of environmental films. And they they took one of our films and put and put it in a lot of festivals because it was environmental about moving a town. So um, so you should check the check that website out because you're right on what they want to do. They want films that are personally involved around environmental issues. So they're uh whatever they list as the best um festivals might be beneficial for you.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Thank you. Yeah, I they are on my radar, and I think the biggest thing for me right now is in my mind, I wanted this to be released in September of this year because I wanted to get, you know, get it out as soon as possible. Um but and a uh a film festival plan um and slowing down a little uh and um and going for you know grants with Redford, you know, Redford's organization and others could also be um a good way to uh expand the outreach. So I'm I'm making a decision by August 1st, and I'll I will reach out to you about that.

SPEAKER_02 37:42

Oh yes, because they are very good at that outreach. They want those film seen, so they're very helpful. Yeah. So what advice would you give filmmakers who are waiting for someone to give them permission uh to make or release their films?

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Well, uh with YouTube being the number one streamer right now, you know, you already have distribution. Um the other thing is with this film, I made the choice to do a documentary short. Um, I could have made a 90-minute feature film that would have taken a lot more feature documentary that would have taken a lot more, you know, um money and time to do. And, you know, start with making a short film, start with making short clips um that grow interest on YouTube. Some of the biggest uh uh uh YouTube success stories right now are storytellers that are just telling short three to five minute stories, they're building up their platforms, and then that's a way to you know get your bigger stories seen and out there.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

I agree, and uh especially on documentaries because I worked with um Alexis Kresowski, and she did this great film about uh women behind the camera. Uh it was two hours and 30 minutes, I think, when I first saw it. It was outstanding, but I love documentaries and I love the uh women directors of photography, and that's what she did. It was all over the world. So she had to cut it down, right? She had to cut it to 90, and then what got the most was a 60-minute version. And for a 60-minute, you need 53 or 52 minutes, so it kept getting shorter, but that's where the the whole thing ends up is around the 30, 40 minute where your real audience is, Betsy, and you have more um events. I mean, they will take you into more festivals because when you go to a festival and you've got a 90-minute film, it's got to be really good for them to give you that much time in the screening room, right? Right. So let's take your 40-minute film gladly and screen it. And which reminds me uh um uh the authentic global film festival is in September, I think. And it's from our church, Pastor Gerson is in control of that.

unknown 40:27

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02 40:27

So we'll say some prayers and we'll send your submission in the fall, right? So this is where you want to know everybody who knows anybody anywhere. Talk to them about getting your film into a film festival because they have so many applicants. If you just even know somebody who knows somebody, that's the way to get in these days, I think. True. Yeah, so true. Oh, but you have so much fun ahead of you. It's half the fun making the film, and now you're getting the joy of sharing it and watching it change lives, Betsy. What a wonderful thing you've done.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

Well, thank you for being a part of it and helping to make it happen. Like I said, the having the physical sponsorship, and also I went through your intentional uh producer filmmaking program, and that helped so much. So I am you've made it possible for storytellers like me to get our stories out in the world.

SPEAKER_02 41:33

Oh my gosh, how kind of you! And thank you for sharing this extraordinary journey with us. Bodies of Water is a powerful example of what can happen when a filmmaker listens to the story that continues to call her, even when that story emerges from profound grief. So, Betsy, you've reminded us that filmmaking can be more than the creation of a finished motion picture film. It can be a path towards healing, understanding, and transformation. And you've also shown filmmakers that we're living in a remarkable time. We're no longer having to wait for one distributor or one broadcaster or a studio or any gatekeeper to tell us whether our stories deserve to reach an audience. We know we can go direct. We have YouTube, social media, email communities, new technologies that allow us to build direct relationships with the people who care about our subjects. So our responsibility is to understand our audience, develop a thoughtful outreach plan, and keep creating opportunities for this film to be seen. To every independent filmmaker listening today, believe in the value of your story, give it time, care, and persistence because it really deserves it. So forget about rejection and limited resources. Forget things that can stop you. Put yourself in a bubble and secure your future by visualizing your future and bringing it into the present. So thank you very much for your honesty, Betsy, your courage, and your commitment to bring bodies of water into the world. Our listeners can learn more about Betsy and her work at Betsyburphy.com. B-E-T-S-Y-I-B-I-M-U-R-P-H-Y.com. And you will find beautiful infinity stories with Betsy Murphy on YouTube and Substack. I'm Carol Dean Preston from The Heart. And to learn more about our Roy Dean Film Grants, named after my father, and our fiscal sponsorship program, visit from the Heart Productions.com. Thank you for listening to the Art of Film Funding. Thank you, Claire Papon, and thank you, Betsy Murphy.