REVIEWS
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Made with love, a youthful exuberance, and compassion, Blanche Baker’s “StreetWrite” is MovieWise. It uses marvelous original songs and dances to tell the true stories of unsung victims of Freedom of Speech–or rather lack of same–when they’re tried and sometimes even imprisoned for essentially being themselves and celebrating life.
It is itself a smart celebration of life.
David Kaufman, Film Critic, New York Post
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I have always loved Blanche Baker as a talented and dedicated actress who enthralled me in every role. Now I am happy to see that in her new capacity as a filmmaker, she is exploring new horizons with renewed energy and imagination. Her work behind the camera is not only interesting, but socially and culturally relevant, too.
Rex Reed, Film Critic, The New York Observer
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The Girl Next Door
Blanche Baker is superb as the small-scale Eichmann who vents her bitterness and frustration on the two girls in her care. She hits just the right note: neither underplaying nor overplaying her role.
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STREETWRITE, which I saw recently at the Manhattan Film Festival, is an
excellent what I would call Doc-Musical. Written and directed by Blanche Baker,
and produced by the New York Film Academy under the auspices of its Chair of
Musical Theatre, Mark Olsen, it is innovative and important for several reasons.
It takes the ‘musical’ genre and subverts the traditional light entertainment role with which it is so often associated (yes, of course there are exceptions). It is an activist musical film which raises a series of serious issues, and manages to do this in just 25 minutes! It entertains, informs and provokes debate (which is what we also try to do at Guerrilla Pictures). You don’t have to have a deadly serious format and sad-mask performances to raise awareness of social, political, religious or financial issues. The excellent energetic and enthusiastic young singing, dancing, and acting performers give us a real ‘show’ – but one whose content couldn’t be more ‘serious’. This is one reason the film is important, in that it uses young performers who give their all to the audience, and particularly to their own generation. That is how message can be communicated and debate started. We need more movies like this. Genuine independent films with intent.
It takes the ‘musical’ genre and subverts the traditional light entertainment role with which it is so often associated (yes, of course there are exceptions). It is an activist musical film which raises a series of serious issues, and manages to do this in just 25 minutes! It entertains, informs and provokes debate (which is what we also try to do at Guerrilla Pictures). You don’t have to have a deadly serious format and sad-mask performances to raise awareness of social, political, religious or financial issues. The excellent energetic and enthusiastic young singing, dancing, and acting performers give us a real ‘show’ – but one whose content couldn’t be more ‘serious’. This is one reason the film is important, in that it uses young performers who give their all to the audience, and particularly to their own generation. That is how message can be communicated and debate started. We need more movies like this. Genuine independent films with intent.
Alan Ward, Guerilla Pictures
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The matriarch is a cheerful ignoramus…played with a perfect honed dopiness by Blanche Baker, an actress who…would make you laugh if she asked you how to make soup.
Ginia Bellafante, N.Y. Times
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Blanche Baker wrote and directed the movie musical ‘Streetwrite’. After Sunday’s screening at the Cutting Room [she received] a standing ovation.
N.Y. Post
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And far from being the cool, competent model mom of the TV sitcom, Ozzie Ann teeters on the edge of insanity, a mental balancing act nicely sustained by Blanche Baker.
Marilyn Stasio, Variety
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The casting of Blanche Baker as Ruth Chandler proves to be [an] important element…Baker follows her gut instinct to pull back and simply allow the character to speak for herself. Not since Hannibal Lecter has the screen seen such a coolly cunning, quietly terrifying villain as Ruth Chandler.
Barry Meyer, Penny Blood Magazine
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I’d also be remiss not to mention Blanche Baker as Ruth, who is one of the strongest points of the film…She’s completely terrifying and evil but in such a different way than you’re used to on film.
Alex Riviello, Creature Corner
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Blanche Baker is a gem as an out-of-it 1970’s matron who just can’t dust off the Eisenhower era.
