Join The Community Library for a special script reading of the upcoming feature film, Hammond Castle (formerly titled Breathe In / Breathe Out).
The script, written by Naomi McDougall Jones, is a magical realism story that explores themes of identity, legacy and gender through a modern-day, seven-months pregnant woman’s unexpected interaction with the brilliant, eccentric and deceased inventor John Hays Hammond Jr. The film is expected to begin production in November 2020.
Naomi and a cast of local actors, including Joel Vilinsky, Denise Simone, Juliette Rollins, Patsy Wygle, Melodie Taylor-Mauldin, Katrina Jankowski and Andrew Alburger, will read the script, followed by a Q&A session.
Naomi McDougall Jones is one of the current Hemingway Writers-in-Residence with The Community Library. Naomi is an award-winning actress, writer, producer, and women in film activist. She grew up in Aspen, Colorado and attended Cornell University before graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA). Following the success of Imagine I’m Beautiful (2014), Naomi’s second feature film, Bite Me (2019), premiered at Cinequest. The film is a subversive romantic comedy about a real-life vampire and the IRS agent who audits her.
Naomi has also appeared in 100 plays, films and TV shows, including HBO’s Boardwalk Empire and The Mire (Cherry Lane Theatre). Seven of her played have been produced in New York City and through the U.S. Her articles on the independent film scene and women’s role in it have appeared in IndieWire, MovieScope Mag and Cinema/Verite and is a contributing blogger for The Huffington Post. Naomi is currently at work on a book, The Wrong Kind of Woman: Dismantling the God of Hollywood, which will be published by Beacon Press in February 2020. She is also the host of the podcast Fear(ful)less: Filmmaking From the Edge, a monthly window into the successes, failures, and conversations of an independent filmmaker.