'Genuine Fakes' book and film launch

Last week Anna Kennedy OBE was invited to Castle Fine Art and Green Eye Productions Academy together with Parkland Pictures 'Genuine Fakes' book and film launch. The event was hosted at Castle Fine Art’s flagship London gallery, located on South Molton Street in the lanes of Mayfair.

Guests' enjoyed an exclusive exhibition featuring the work of acclaimed artist John Myatt. 

GENUINE FAKES charts the never before screened true story of how two very different men meet in the strangest of circumstances and proceed to mastermind possibly the largest art fraud of the twentieth century. Told from the perspective of a struggling art teacher, whose artistic creations using household emulsion and KY Jelly came to fool the art elite. We see the moral dilemma of a man who has to care for his two children following the collapse of his marriage, but who also desires the finer things in life opened up to him by a charismatic but wholly unscrupulous patron of the arts. The result....the criminal penetration of the art world from within a plan designed to achieve the perfect fraud, which saw hundreds of fake paintings, allegedly by well-known artists such as Monet, Vermeer and Chagall, ending up in museums and collections around the planet. Many remain there to this day. All the art in the film will be created by the artist.

The book is now published in paperback and is also available as an eBook. The author, Rosemary Myatt, will be signing paperback copies at the event.

Anna Kennedy OBE shares:

'I met Julie on Twitter 4 years ago and it was suggested that Julie follow me by a friend and mentor of Her's who is a senior official at Pinewood Studio.

Julie was going through a tough time and shared her story. I was so impressed with Julie’s tenacity , creativity and story.

Julie and I decided to meet and our first meeting took place at Bafta in Piccadilly since Julie is a member.

Julie’s dream was to work in the film industry and many years ago Julie became a runner on a film set where Marlon Brando was filming, at this time Julie was working for free, not her choice but Marlon changed this for her and she eventually received a wage for this job. She never forgot this story.

Julie landed her first media London job after sending hundreds of CV’s working for the Discovery Channel. The boss was a very letchy man  commenting on the way she dressed….she realised he liked her in a non-professional way. Julie would go sick and get constant calls from her Boss and cards from him were put into her work drawer admitting his feelings for her. Julie contacted HR. HR decided her Boss was too valuable and they offered Julie a job on another Channel TLC for half the money she was on.

Julie took that job to avoid ever meeting her Boss again. Not long after Julie was headhunted to work for a top TV Company in Rome. Julie flourished at her role, which was to train a team of 6 and eventually this led to her problem-solving areas within the company.

7 years later Julie’s mum was poorly back in Ireland so she decided to move back and she got a job as an assistant working for the famous Film Producer/Writer Roger Corman. Not long after she moved up to becoming a Script Supervisor. It was a structured and organised environment. Julie never forgot this.

In a 3-month period in between working with Roger Corman Julie was able to assemble an Irish Crew to work on a film in Jersey Channel Islands called ‘The Crooked Mile’ She was involved with the script and able to work alongside the writer so the script worked for the locations and budget. The Writer was happy as he put his full vision on the script and the Director the same! This movie won a ‘Tribeca Award’.

Julie was able to do 2 jobs, work as Producer and Writer. It worked beautifully for her and the team! She learnt and never forgot that preparation of the script is key to a good, safe and happy film set and meant all crew were paid! Julie travelled all over the world for many years with her job and she loved it.

Years later she noticed that The film Industry was changing…she felt not for the better.. A few years ago, a very hurtful event occurred to Julie in her life. This in turn meant she began to struggle with her work as a script supervisor. It felt like the organisational Head structure was changing. Scripts were not finished and not locked down; new changes were coming in the night before….

Crew were being run ragged! and Julie felt this was not fair as it could be avoided if more preparation was done in the first place. Why were scripts not locked down and too long in duration? The job Julie loved was becoming unbearable. Shortly after Julie was diagnosed with PTSD and depression by the GP and given anti-depressants. Julie stopped taking the tablets, they were taking away her ‘spirit’.

During this time Julie has done voluntary care work with the Elderly and went back to working on scripts that she has written or co-written herself. Julie really struggled with the BFI and Creative England online process and waiting process for funding, but let's not forget she was able to produce a film that won a ‘Tribeca’. As an Independent Producer she felt there was no chance of making a film for ‘up and coming talent’ without BFI or Creative England support. She was right about that too!

I was so happy yesterday to see all of Julie's hard work and determination is now finally been recognised and it has been a pleasure to watch her blossom . Julie as a producer is flying the flag for autism and is pushing for a greener and fairer society.

The film 'Genuine Fakes ' is shooting in February next year and is set to be released later in cinemas and will star Colin Morgan, Peter Firth, Tara Fitzgerald, Alex Kingston and Leon Herbert with additional cast to be confirmed soon.

Watch this space .....  https://greeneyeproductionsacademy.com/