Aloha wau iâ `oe Hawai'i Film Festival

We had a fantastic time at the 27th Louis Vuitton Hawaii International Film Festival and are soo grateful to the Bank of Hawaii for sponsoring JUMP! We met a bunch of cool people, connected with tons of students at a screening of the film for local high schools, did 5 jump rope workshops and performances, received half a dozen beautiful fragrant flower leis each, and even managed to have some Hawaiian r&r. Thanks to the rad staff, we also got to see a great new Korean movie in a spectacular old movie house, where a hundred girls surrounded the handsome visiting star while snapping photos on their cell phones. Beautiful Son, a truly moving doc about a family's struggle with autism, won the audience award.

Here are a few of the highlights:

honolulu sunset • fun crashing an Imperial Court party


Hawaii State Senator Will Espero with JUMP! director/producer Helen Hood Scheer & members of the Summerwind Skippers (Calli, Lee, Shane & Kelsy) • Hawaii Theater




Approx 300 kids attend student screening...JUMP! & Summerwind earn fans


Delicious. And the best ramen place in Hawaii accepts Japanese yen or US$.

Thanks to Don Chan for most of these pix.

JUMP! on Hawaii tv news

Yesterday, there were five different (!) television segments on KHON Honolulu Fox TV about JUMP! See one featuring Summerwind Skippers double dutch pairs here. (it may take a few minutes to load.) Thanks Monolo!

At least 4 news crews are among the crowd gathered to watch Summerwind perform at
Bank of Hawaii courtyard in downtown Honolulu. You can see them in the background, while Kelsy gets locals jumpin'.


Lee uses his noggin'.

Thanks to the tireless Don Chan for these images.

Hawaii newspaper streams video of us

The Honolulu Advertiser is streaming video of us here. The most impressive part of the lady jumping in those high heeled sneakers is not her fashion sense, it's her age: 81 years old!

Want to Start a Jump Rope Team?

We just finished a jump rope performance in Honolulu. Several people said that they want to be on a team here...and a former jumper from the Hot Dogs (who now lives on the island) said she's interested in coaching! If you want to join an existing team or start a new one, contact www.usajumprope.org.

Come see JUMP! at the Hawaii International Film Festival on Saturday, October 27th at 12:30. Buy tickets to movie screenings here or here. Whether or not you see the movie, you can come to our free, public jump rope workshop after the screening, from 2:30 - 4:30 in the Dole Ballroom (2nd floor, above Regency Theater at 735 Iwilei Road). Watch and/or Learn from Kelsy, Lee, Calli & Shane of the Summerwind Skippers. Mucho mahalo to Bank of Hawaii for sponsoring us and for giving away over 1000 ropes.

Hamptons International Film Festival ROCKS

We had THE BEST TIME at the Hamptons International Film Fest, thanks to our new fairy godmother (also known as Linda Fuller), the Greater East Hampton Educational Foundation and the Middle School. We're gaining fans of all ages -- based on their reactions, we know there is a strong market for this film. What do we want? Distribution. When do we want it? Now. More soon, but for now, some pictures.




An enthusiastic ovation for JUMP!


JUMP! film subjects Jeff, Nick & Tori on red carpet with Hamptons International Film Fest programmer David Nugent • middle school students race to hug Jeff & Nick after screening & special assembly • Tori & Nick demo for about 200 people at public workshop


Loads of kids waiting for Nick's autograph • Nick, Alec Baldwin & Jeff • Tori w/our poster and distribution dreams


Jeff asks for a volunteer • After seeing the documentary, over 200 kids signed up to start a jump rope team

Post-heart surgery, Linda's got the best ticker in town.

THANK YOU to us from Chicago Int'l Film Festival's Educational Outreach Program

Dear Helen,

Thank you so much for allowing the educational outreach program at the Chicago International Film Festival to screen your documentary film JUMP! We were able to screen this film to 200 inner-city Chicago public school students who absolutely adored this film! .... Teachers and students who participated in the screening commented on how this screening was one of the most exciting field trip experiences they had in a long time! They also commented on the jumpers commitment to community and the sport of jump rope; they were inspired to get physically fit....

TO READ THE FULL TEXT of this letter, select the "comments" link below.

New Orleans

New Orleans Film Festival

Thank you to American Family Insurance (esp Jeanne I.) for donating ropes and to Nick & Jeff from Razz Ma Tazz and Louisiana jump rope teams Slidell Skippers & Heart'n'Soul for coming to New Orleans to spread the love.

We Heart Chicago

Chicago must be one of the friendliest cities and there's soo much to do! We wish we could have had more time to explore the different neighborhoods, eat eat eat and see other films in the festival -- especially America the Beautiful and Iska's Journey.

Cincinnati's West End YMCA Rope Twisters (featured in the doc) and the Heartbeats from the Cleveland area, trekked to Chi for our weekend screenings and a free interactive jump rope demo in the fabulous Millennium Park. It was awesome to see how much West End's freestyle improved and also to see these two teams work together to teach others to jump. It's still a little scary and totally exciting for me to watch the film with jumpers who haven't seen it before. They all went crazy with enthusiasm when they saw themselves on the big screen. Whew.

Another festival highlight was an impromptu party at Roger Ebert's home, where he & his wife got many of the guests to sing standards with a piano player.

West End YMCA Rope Twisters + Heartbeats

Chicago Int'l Film Fest programmer Philip Bajorat shows his stuff • Robby & Jaz teach munchin

Teacher says LA Film Fest's educational screening of JUMP! was "one of the best field trip experiences"

In July, 2007, she writes:

Thank you so much for inviting us to the screening of JUMP! It was one of the best field trip experiences I've ever had. Before the trip my history students were asking me if the film was good, would it be another documentary (I show them only documentaries in class and they're understandably dubious), would it be fun, etc., etc....... typical teen grousing......... I told them that they needed to stop whining and to approach it with an open mind!

When the film started I was unsure how they would relate to kids who were, at least superficially, unlike themselves. In my 30 years of experience with inner-city kids, their cultural scope can be so limiting that they often can only appreciate that which they already know.

Kudos to the film makers for showing how these athletes were really just typical kids with hopes and dreams and frustrations. The whole audience really connected. And, what really gains respect for teens is the raw talent, which all of the competitors had. This seemed to cross all barriers.

We did not expect anything beyond the screening and the lunch but the rest of the event was brilliant: the demo, the audience participation, photo ops and, of course, the jump ropes. All of these really made the day magical. Even my cynical seniors were gushing accolades afterwards. What a great way to end the school year! All of my students had a magnificent experience and have vowed to start a jumping league in Mexico!

Again, thank you so much for including us. Congrats to you and your staff on a job well done!

Sincerely,

Serena Bell Refoua
Belmont High School
American History, Humanities and Film Studies

losing a limb

We've cut out about 15 minutes of the documentary since premiering at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The good news is that the movie plays better...it's tighter, the pace is improved and there is more overall depth, all of which should help us to get distribution. The bad news is that we had to trim down a lot of a team that we truly love...JUMPING FOR JOY. I spent so much time with them during the filming and in the edit bay; I grew very attached to Coach Joy, Veyom, Jessica, Christine, Sarah & Katie as people and as characters in the doc. They had some comical and good tearful scenes, represented aspects of the sport & sportsmanship in important ways, and even had a great theme song (thanks composer Matt!). Every filmmaker hates this moment. And it has happened a few times on this project -- I filmed with far more people than we had time to include in the film. Stewart from the Ropin' Rockets -- who I think is a little prodigy -- was another casualty of the editing process. When we get distribution, there are going to be GREAT dvd extras with these "missing" scenes.