Mill Valley Film Festival spotlights local connections Mill Valley Film Festival spotlights local connections (October 03, 2001)

By Jane Knoerle

Almanac Staff Writer

When the film "Her Majesty" opens the family division of the Mill Valley Film Festival on Saturday, October 6, you can bet Susan Hailey of Atherton and Amanda Rawls, a teacher's assistant at Trinity School in Menlo Park, will be in the audience.

"Her Majesty" is a coming of age story about Elizabeth Wakefield, a 12-year-old New Zealand girl who realizes her dream when Queen Elizabeth II comes to visit her small hometown. The story uses as its backdrop the actual first royal visit to New Zealand made by the Queen in 1953.

The script was written and directed by Mark J. Gordon, a former Mountain View resident. Mrs. Hailey, a Silicon Valley tech executive, was executive director of the movie. She teamed up with Mr. Gordon's sister, Lisa Gordon, a publicist with a software start-up firm, to form Silicon Valley Film Fund I , to raise money to make the film.

Amanda Rawls, daughter of Peggy Rawls of Menlo Park, served as an assistant to director Mark Gordon while making the film. "She had just graduated from college and was looking for a job. I mentioned Mark needed an assistant," says Mrs. Hailey, a family friend of the Rawls.

Mrs. Hailey, a marketing and business development executive, has long been fascinated by the film business. When she spoke about her interest to career counselor Dorothea Gordon at the Resource Center for Women, back in 1989, Mrs. Gordon said, "I have a son in the business," and put her in touch with Mark, a writer in Los Angeles.

Mr. Gordon, who had already written the script for "Her Majesty," showed it to Mrs. Hailey. "I loved it and said if I'm ever able to help you let me know," she said.

Fast forward 10 years to 1999. Mark Gordon had shopped his script around Hollywood for years. "He decided it was time to produce the movie on his own," says Mrs. Hailey. "I volunteered to help raise the money."

Starting in January 2000, the women raised the money (they won't say how much) in four months from 35 investors, mostly from Silicon Valley.

"It was a good time to raise money," says Mrs. Hailey, who moved to Menlo Park in 1985 when she was recruited by Tandem. She is a 1978 graduate of UC Berkeley and has a business degree from Harvard.

She moved to Atherton two years ago with her husband, Steven Hailey, and is taking time off to be a full-time Mom to daughters Charlotte, 9, and Brooke, 1-1/2.

Filming "Her Majesty" was done near Auckland, New Zealand, last year. Mrs. Hailey was there for almost seven weeks during production. Her family came to visit for two weeks over Thanksgiving. Amanda Rawls spent four months on location and is now a teacher's assistant in the first grade at Trinity.
INFORMATION

"Her Majesty" will be screened at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, October 6, at the Sequoia Twin Theater, 25 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley; and at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, October 7, at Rafael Film Center, 1118 Fourth St., San Rafael. Tickets to both screenings are $9.