Pablo Neruda: The Poet's Calling
Red Poppy, a 501(c)3 non-profit, is producing the first feature documentary on Neruda in English, a lyrical tapestry of rare archival footage; incredible shots of his native land, captivating artistic poetic sequences, often with Neruda’s own voice, and compelling interviews with intimate friends and notable poets. It is narrated by the bestselling Chilean author Isabel Allende, whose life was profoundly touched by the poet. It is directed by the Oscar-nominated Carlos Bolado, an integral member of the nuevo cine mexicano movement. There will be a Spanish version to show all over Neruda’s Latin America.   

Compelling biography represents an idea larger than its individual subject--even if the subject is seemingly larger than life—in the case of Neruda, we use the theme of el deber del poeta, the poet’s duty, obligation, calling. For Neruda, poetry was a rallying cry for the social function of art, a way of bearing witness to suffering and injustice. The Poet’s Calling will create an intimate portrait of one of Latin America’s most colorful characters, and introduce a broad new audience around the world to the universal power of Neruda’s poetry, while captivating readers already familiar with Neruda with an intimate and beautiful cinematic tale providing much more insight on the man and his words.

Pablo Neruda: The Poet’s Calling is being produced by Red Poppy's President Mark Eisner, the project’s creator. Eisner edited the bestselling The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems (City Lights), and wrote a breakthrough biography on Neruda to be published by W.W. Norton in conjunction with the release of this film, also entitled The Poet’s Calling. He has a Masters in Latin American Studies from Stanford, where he later was a Visiting Scholar.

In July 2004, on limited funds, Red Poppy rushed to have a cut of the film to show for a monumental celebration for Neruda’s Centennial in San Francisco, a festival that The San Francisco Chronicle called “a perfect birthday party.”

Despite being a preliminary rough cut, this initial version received strong reviews in Variety and The San Francisco Chronicle. The film subsequently went on to screen as a work-in-progress at festivals, campuses, gatherings, and homes around the world, from Yale to the Trieste (Italy) Latin American Film Festival.

We then returned to work on the final version of the documentary, including more research (Eisner has been working on his biography for W.W. Norton,) more interviews, rights clearance, and plans to film in high definition. We were also looking for a new director and editor with great expertise, and found both in Carlos Bolado, part of a new generation of Mexican filmmakers, who is now part of the production team. Bolado directed and edited Promises, nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary of 2002, a film about Israeli and Palestinian children. Early on, he edited Like Water for Chocolate. In 1998, the first feature he directed, Bajo California, won 2 Ariels, Mexico’s highest cinematic award, including Best First Work and Best Editing; Bolado was nominated for the Best Director Ariel. His latest film, Solo Dios Sabe, was shown in Sundance 2006 and many festivals worldwide. It will be released next spring by Palm Pictures. His next feature has Alec Baldwin signed for a lead role.

The Last Push
Due to the generous donations from hundreds of Pablo lovers, from $7 to $5000, we were able to shoot in Chile in July, 2008, now with Carlos directing a brand new HD camera. From new interviews with Neruda's most intimate remaining friends, to vivid sequences exploring Neruda's three fabled houses, we now have the material to edit a rough cut.

With this rough cut, we'll be able to secure final completion costs from various sources, including grants and pre-sales as well as possible co-production with Mexico's famed public television channel Canal 11.

We now need your help to fund one month of editing this June, when Carlos is in between projects and Mark Eisner is able to join him in Mexico. We need to raise at least $5500 to pay for an assistant editor, Mark's flight to Mexico and other costs. Neither Mark or Carlos have ever been paid for their work--and it's not like they don't need it! Please help us by becoming a member today. We're so close and your help really will help to enable the completion of this very important film.

And then once the film is out there we will be able to move onto other projects devoted to literary activism, including an illustrated book of Neruda's Book of Questions and one with a few of his odes, aimed to inspire poetry in young adults (and us all)...

Give just $35 right now and you'll get the DVD of the movie when its finished!

As we have official 501(c)(3) non-profit status with the IRS, if you're from the US, your donation is tax-deductible, minus the cost of any gift you receive with it:

• $23 - Get a free copy of the bestselling The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems!
• $35  - Free DVD of the movie once it is completed.
• $59  - Free DVD of the movie plus a copy of the bestselling The Essential Neruda: Selected Poems.
  
• $100  - All of the above, plus a Tinta Verde CD.
• $250 – All of the above, plus a copy of The Essential Neruda signed by Robert Hass (former US Poet Laureate), Jack Hirschman (Poet Laureate of San Francisco), and Mark Eisner.  
• $500 – All of the above, plus your name mentioned in the movie’s credits.
• $1000 - All of the above plus have their name highlighted in the credits.  
• $5000 – All the above, plus prominent credit.

Join here now. Please help us continue our work while we await some major grants next year for the finishing funds to get this important film out to the world.

Short on dinero? Give what you can everything helps. If everybody gives just a simple $7 we can keep the poetry flowing.
If you are interested in donating but would like more information, please email us and we will be glad to answer your questions.

Check out our Poppy Store to make your donation.

You can also mail a check made out to Red Poppy, PO Box 53217, Washington, DC 20009-9217

If you're already a member, but would like to give more, simply purchase another membership of the value you'd like to give.

If you dig us: please tell your friends - send out an email with our link.

Gracias y Paz

Filiming in Chile: On the beach at Isla Negra	Interview down the hill from Neruda's house	Ode to Conger Eel Chowder In the stormy Chilean sea lives the pink-red congrio, gigantic eel of snowy meat. And in the Chilean waves, on the coast, the chowder was born, heavy and succulent, so enjoyable. From below the waves, the congrio is brought to the kitchen, its stained skin slips off like a glove leaving the bouquet uncovered. The tender congrio, now naked, glistens, prepared for our appetite. Now, gather garlic, but first caress that precious ivory, smell its irate fragrance then let the chopped garlic fall with onions and tomatoes until the onions are golden, Meanwhile, cook the regal marine shrimp with the steam, and then, when they've become tender, when the flavor curdles in a sauce, formed by the juice of the ocean and the clear water, shined by the light of the onions, then let the congrio enter and submerge in glory, so it oils in the pot, so it condense and impregnates. Now all you need to do is let some cream fall into the delicacy, like a heavy rose, and slowly let the flame heat the treasure until the essences of Chile are heated and the newlywed flavors of the sea and the earth are brought to the table, so that in this dish, you know heaven. translated and (c) by Mark Eisner. Original poem (c) Fundacion Pablo Neruda
Filming the sea in front of Pablo's Isla Negra home	The conger eel
Carlos at Pablo's bar, Isla Negra	Filming 'Ode to Conger Chowder'
Filming Rafita, Neruda's good friend and carpinter for his three poetic houses
Rafita	The chowder!
On the dolly inside Isla Negra casa	Director Carlos Bolado in front of Valparaíso
Manuel, Isla Negra fisherman, friend of Pablo's

Below are selected clips from the first, rough cut version, which holds the heart of the film, but we're going to now make it much more gripping, lyrical, and powerful.

What people are saying…

 “Well-crafted…smoothly handled package” – Variety

“Never losing any of its lyricism, this film deftly laces interviews with those who knew Pablo best with readings of his own magical works throughout. One need not be a Neruda fan to enjoy this documentary, nor even a poetry fan. It is, quite simply, the story of a great man who possessed great thoughts – and of a world that has forever become a better place because of them.” 
 – San Francisco International Latino Film Festival


”During his lifetime, Pablo Neruda became the world's most famous poet -- a giant of a man who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, counted Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera as close friends and was so politically active that he became a senator in his native Chile. Yet what emerges as much as anything in [Red Poppy's Exec. Director] Mark Eisner's fine documentary about him, is Neruda's ability to connect with everyday people -- not just in the superficial style of a glad-handing politician but in ways that were so genuine and lasting that the people he touched remember him, decades later, with love in their eyes.”
- San Francisco Chronicle