If anyone gives new meaning to the word “perseverance” it’s Valerie Gobos. The unwavering associate producer (that’s her front end credit on the movie) kept the faith for nine years to get a movie produced by a major entity.
Starting back in 1995, Gobos sold Martin Scorcese’s Cappa Films on co-producing with Athens-based Alco Films a feature by Greek director Panetlis Voulgaris.
The film, “Brides,” about mail order brides who came to America in the 1920s, written by Voulgaris’ wife, was shot last spring with an international cast on a $3 million budget. It was finished in time for the recent Toronto Film Festival.
Gobos took Barbara Sharres of the Siskel Film Center as her guest to the Toronto Festival, acknowledging Sharres as the inadvertent catalyst that sparked the ensuing events.
“Barbara, who knows I’m Greek, in 1995 invited me to a screening of a Voulgaris film and to a reception afterwards at the Greek Counsel General’s home where I met the director,” Gobos recalled.
During the course of the conversation Zoulgaris told Gobos about “Brides.” “He said, ?Will you help me get this movie made?'” she said.
Believing in the project, Gobos signed as Zoulgaris’ representative/producer and embarked on a lengthy journey, with many trips back and forth to Athens and New York to put the pieces together.
“It’s so wonderful to put closure on something like this after nine years,” said Gobos, a successful commercial representative ? who calls her commercial sales activities “my day job.”
Hopefully Gobos won’t have to wait long at all for the payout she will gain when “Brides” finds a distributor. She is confident that one of the several interested European distributors at Toronto will take “Brides” worldwide.
Valerie Gobos can be reached at 312/664-3686.
