Premiere In Unique Springfield and Branson Special Events, Combining Film, Artisan Wine Events, and Celebrity Receptions.

Paso Robles, CA — From November 9-11, Branson and Springfield, MO will hold a series of Celebrations of the Arts when actor Gary Conway’s visually arresting dramatic film WOMAN’S STORY (with Erin Gray and Kent McCord, who star with Conway) premieres at local cinemas, preceded or followed by Missouri-California wine pairing-tastings, filmmaker & artist receptions, artisan wine events, and silent auctions to benefit local educational and cultural institutions, all of which will include personal appearances by filmmakers, artists, winemakers and special guests.

The first event will be an 8:30 p.m. “Celebration of the Arts” at Clary’s restaurant in Springfield, on Friday, November 9, following the 7:00 p.m. Missouri premiere of the new film WOMAN’S STORY at the Wehrenberg Campbell 16 Cine.

There will be a wine tasting and pairing event at Clary’s restaurant in Springfield on Saturday, November 10 at 4:30 p.m., preceding the evening screening at 7:00 p.m.

In Branson on Saturday, November 10 at 7:00 p.m., the film premieres at the Branson Meadows Cinemas, followed at 8:30 p.m. by “Palette to Palate – Taste of the Arts” at Liberty Tavern Branson located in the Hilton Promenade Hotel.

On Sunday, November 11 at 8:30 p.m. “Palette to Palate, Part 2 – Feast for the Senses” is set for Liberty Tavern Branson, following the 7:00 p.m. screening in Branson.

The top wineries and winemakers in Missouri will be on hand with their finest artisan wines, including stellar wineries Stone Hill, Mt. Pleasant, St. James, Adam Puchta, Branson Ridge, Meramec, White Rose, Hermannhof, and OOVVDA. One of the highlights will be a special Missouri-California pairing and terroir colloquy which will include the estate wines of California’s Carmody McKnight.

The University of Missouri-Columbia’s Missouri Regional Cuisines project will be a participant. Funds generated from ticket sales and silent auctions of special wines and art will benefit the Miss America/Miss Missouri Scholarship Organization, providing scholarships for young women, and Fighting for the Arts, which seeks to restore art and music education in our schools.

At all events, WOMAN’S STORY director, writer and star Gary Conway and producer/former Miss America Marian McKnight Conway, proprietors of Carmody McKnight Estate Wines in Paso Robles, CA, will pair and discuss terroir wines of Missouri and California in conjunction with the top Missouri winemakers in an exchange of ideas on the culture of wine and art making.

WOMAN’S STORY stars former super-model and award-winning actress Erin Gray (Silver Spoons, Buck Rogers in the 20thCentury, Baywatch, Six Pack), award-winning actor Kent McCord (Adam-12, Farscape, Predator 2, Airplane II, The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet) and Gary Conway (Burke’s Law, Land of the Giants, The Farmer, Once is Not Enough, I Was a Teenage Frankenstein).

Filmed in Memphis, in a lovely lake region in Arkansas and in the Central Coast of California, the film dramatizes the breakup of a long and seemingly successful marriage and focuses on what leading thinkers predict will be the major issue of the 21st Century: the disintegration of the family in a material-obsessed world.

The music in WOMAN’S STORY by Bach, Vivaldi, Liszt and Locatelli was performed by Philharmonia Virtuosi, under the direction of Richard Kapp, featuring pianist Jerome Rose and violinist Mela Tenenbaum. A prominent critic recently called the soundtrack the best-ever recording of Bach.

Former Los Angeles Times and Variety critic Dale C. Olsen declared, “I found myself engrossed in the human quality of the story. The look of WOMAN’S STORY is much like a great painting. I don’t know when in 40 years of being involved with film that I’ve seen one with such a vivid sense of color and shadings. The classical music score sets exactly the right tone for the profound passion the story delivers. The performance of leading actress Erin Gray was stunning in its honesty and believability.”

Renee Sanpei wrote in Women’s Press: “The overall effect of the film was one of feeling elevated by its reverence for life. Hearing the thoughtful dialogue, the pensiveness of the characters and the humor coming of the angst and pain gave me time to digest it all. It was cathartic watching a woman handle herself with such poise, while she is met with dishonest, heartbreaking and challenging events of her life, not to be further degraded but to gather her strength, retain her warmth and rise above it. The music of Vivaldi complements so well this celebration of the invincible spirit.”

The San Luis Obispo Tribune’s Katy Budge called WOMAN’S STORY “a beautiful and mature film that tells the truth about personal relationships, the family and social threats to the human condition. Gary Conway relied heavily on his talents as a painter. Scenes are shaped with rich color, elegant baroque music, dramatic rural and urban landscapes, and understated, honest performances.”

And Kathryn Riddle wrote in Cleveland Currents: “WOMAN’S STORY is a stunning, provocative, intelligent film dignifying themes of renewal and strength through creativity.”

Gary Conway explains: “With WOMAN’S STORY I was committed to move the film form to a more visual place. As a painter all my life, I believe that film, at its best, is closer to painting than, let’s say, the novel or a play. Almost every shot, from the very first scene when Laurel, the heroine, is driving to town, relies on visual composition to convey the essential story, while underscoring the layered themes with mood and emotion. I wanted the close-ups to be portraits and the long shots – landscapes as well as the architecture – to be like paintings. I also wanted to celebrate all the arts in this film: painting, photography, drawing, sculpture, architecture, music, theater, dance, food and wine.”

WOMAN’S STORY deals with the central social and cultural themes of our time: how our “consumer-based” society is destroying the family structure, and with it a sense of woman’s innate value. Today 70% of parents and 79% of children end up in single-parent families. “People have been forced into economic and social decisions that make the family secondary,” Conway laments.

As part of a slow, deliberate, platform-release strategy, WOMAN’S STORY has already been shown in pre-release screenings at highly successful wine-food-art-movie premiere events in eight Ohio, Virginia and California cities. These community events have raised scholarship funds for major museums, schools and universities. In some cases, after the event, the towns set up special education programs and/or community art centers. To date, more than 200 scholarships have been created from the proceeds.

“I see true independent winemaking and filmmaking as very similar processes,” Conway concludes. “They both are the definitions of patience. On average it takes at least eight years to make and distribute an independent film. It takes the same from planting the vine to the barrel to the bottle. When you can put music, film, art, food and wine together, it creates a truly memorable event and gives us a chance to show the divine commonality between these art forms.”

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