Miss Liberty
… A taste of freedom
SETTING THE SCENE
FOR MISS LIBERTY
A dairy cow escapes from a slaughterhouse in a Midwestern town and takes refuge in the yard of Bob Sanders, a computer tech owed money by the plant. He seizes the cow as collateral and calls his lawyer, Mike Johnson. Because the abattoir has a history of sketchy practices, Mike contacts Patricia Levinson, (aka Cow Patty), his law school classmate who is now a well-known animal rights lawyer in New York, to lead Bob’s defense. Jason Levinson, Patricia’s ex-husband, also an attorney, shows up to represent “the Association” and undermine the case. Patty is dealing both with facing her ex in court and with pressure from the firm where she works. Bob must contend not only with having a cow on his patio, but with his recent divorce and split custody of the two children who become great friends of the bovine refugee.
AUDIENCE FOR THE FILM
Miss Liberty is entertainment for families. It’s not a juvenile movie: there are no talking animals and the plot is sufficiently sophisticated to mesmerize adults. It could be––and will be––a date movie, too, but we see the core audience as parents and kids, i.e., the divorced dad who has his children for the weekend and thinks, “We can go to McDonald’s and then to see this movie with a cow in it.” This is not someone who would look for a vegan or animal rights flick, but they’ll see this one.
LIST OF CHARACTERS
Patricia Levinson, JD
Attorney committed
to animal rights who travels from
NYC for Miss Liberty's case
Jack Parnell, Sr.
Owner of Parnell’s Meat Processing & Packing Plant in Tombul, a fictional
Midwestern town
Jack Parnell, Jr. (Jackass)
The hapless heir apparent to his father's slaughterhouse
Carlos Garcia (Shakespeare)
Slaughterhouse foreman from Mexico where he earned a degree in English literature
Jorge Martinez
Slaughterhouse worker fired early on; the Parnells appropriate his truck
Miss Liberty
Cow that escapes from the Parnells’s slaughterhouse
Bob Sanders
Divorced dad and computer tech owed money by the plant. Miss Liberty wanders into his yard
Steph and Erik Sanders
Bob's children, ages 8 and 12
Mark Johnson
Patricia's former NYU classmate, now a lawyer in Tombul representing Bob in his case against Parnell's
Jason Levinson
Patricia's ex-husband and opposing counsel
Dave Bowman (Doc)
Veterinarian who comes to help with Miss Liberty
Pete Benton and Mr. Gregory
"Goons" supposedly brought in by the Association to support the slaughterhouse
THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE PROJECT
SCREENWRITER AND PRODUCER
WILLIAM MELTON
Miss Liberty was William’s concept, and he did the initial writing in Upstate NY near Farm Sanctuary to get acquainted with cows. A retired attorney whose career experience is invaluable to the legal aspects of the story, Melton is now an ordained Interfaith minister and animal chaplain, and cofounder of the Compassion Consortium, a spiritual fellowship for animal advocates. A lifelong musician and coauthor of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Playing the Harmonica, William is married to co-writer Victoria Moran. They live in NYC with Rupert, a chihuahua mix adopted from hoarding, and Thunder, a half-blind rescue pigeon.
SCREENWRITER AND PRODUCER
VICTORIA MORAN
Author of thirteen books including Main Street Vegan, The Love-Powered Diet, and the international bestseller Creating a Charmed Life, Victoria is a longtime animal activist who went vegan in 1983. Her daughter, Adair Moran, vegan from birth, is a SAG actor, aerialist, and stunt performer. On the VegNews list of "Top 10 Living Vegetarian Authors", voted "Peta’s Sexiest Vegan Over 50" in 2016, and featured twice on Oprah, Victoria and her Main Street Vegan Productions led the production team on the 2019 documentary, A Prayer for Compassion, from filmmaker Thomas Jackson. She is also host of the Main Street Vegan Salon on UnchainedTV and of the Main Street Vegan Podcast, as well as founder and director Main Street Vegan Academy, training Vegan Lifestyle Coaches and Educators since 2012.
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
GENE BAUR
Gene is president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, the world’s first sanctuary for farmed animals and a very real place that shows up in the fictional film, Miss Liberty. Time Magazine called Gene “the conscience of the food movement,” and he is the author of Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food. Onboard with Miss Liberty from its inception, Gene was a producer of the documentary Vegucated and played himself in pro-plant documentaries From the Ground Up and The End of Meat.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
JAY KARANDIKAR
Jay Karandikar and his production company, VegGood Films, are the producers of Coffee Wars, starring Kate Nash as a vegan barista who enters a prestigious international competition, defying its rule calling for dairy milk only. Jay is also producer of Finding HAPPY, a film in production that explores the unique animal/human relationship through a touching story. Inspired by the video Meet Your Meat at age ten, he is dedicating his career to ending the exploitation and use of animals in agriculture. In addition to his work in film, Jay is a venture partner at New Crop Capital Trust, investing in alternatives to animal foods.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
SCOTT CARLSON
As CEO of Scott Carlson Entertainment, Scott oversees a full-service production company both representing talent and pitching, producing and managing film and TV products. He maintains LA offices, but lives on Prince Edward Island, Canada. Scott will bring his considerable expertise to this project in getting us from development to production and beyond. A non-vegan member of the team, Scott says, “You don’t have to be a vegetarian to see that Miss Liberty is a great story and this movie will make money.”
CONSULTANT AND CONNECTOR
MARIAN HAILEY- MOSS
Marian is a veteran stage and screen actress with film credits including Lovers and Other Strangers, Harvey, and The Survivors. Her late husband was the legendary Jeff Moss, head writer for Sesame Street and composer of “Rubber Ducky.” She has maintained strong relationships in the entertainment world, even as she shifted professionally to become a psychotherapist and Quan Yin Method practitioner (the Way of Compassion) in NYC. A dedicated vegan, she is the author of numerous books about children and animals, including Cha Cha Chicken and Mike and the Rescued Animals.
CREATIVE CONSULTANT
NEHA LOHIA
Neha Lohia, vice chair at Apple Productions, Inc., NYC, is a director and filmmaker whose portfolio spans Hollywood to Bollywood. Yashodhara: The Buddha’s Wife, Neha’s debut film, earned critical acclaim. Currently, she is passionately at the helm of projects including Who Am I? featuring spiritual luminaries such as Krishna Das and Dr. Deepak Chopra; and The Voice of Spirit, an animated adaptation of Kelly Tallaksen's book, The Voiceless Soul. Neha's recent addition to our team leverages her experience in major studio productions, including the iconic Avatar.
CREATIVE PRODUCER
WENDY SAX
Wendy Sax is the noted producer of the 2018 dance documentary, Moving Stories, associate producer of the classic science doc, Particle Fever, and co-producer of the beloved feature, Songcatcher, tracing the origins of Appalachian folk music. Formerly manager and curator of film selection for the Independent Filmmaker Project of New York, Wendy has been a fan of Miss Liberty from its beginnings. She is a vegan and an advisory board member of Plant-Powered Metro New York.
Development Coordinator
CARLOS GARCIA
Carlos Garcia, videographer, musician, animal activist (and 2018 "Peta's Sexiest Vegan Over 50"), had a long career in magazine distribution. While based on Maui, he was the founder and publisher of Living Aloha magazine, and he has produced vegan festivals in both Hawaii and California. It is a beneficial coincidence that he shares his name with a character in the screenplay, Carlos Garcia, aka Shakespeare. The real Carlos has temporarily relocated from the West Coast to his native New York City to help bring this project through development to production.
WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW
STEPS FOR
MOVING FORWARD
We're more than halfway to raising development funds of $200,000, boosted substantially by $100,000 in matching funds pledged by an anchor investor/donor. Our legal counsel is the entertainment law firm of Alexander Murphy, Jr., Esq. We have key art from Real Pie Digital; registered with the Copyright Office; set up Miss Liberty the Movie, LLC; and we have a nonprofit partner, the Compassion Consortium, Inc.
With this funding, we will be able to:
• Seek out a director who is skilled at the craft and understands and cares about animal issues
• Get rewrites of the script at the director's discretion
• Bring on a line producer to create the production budget, estimated in the $2 to 3 million range
• Scout locations
• Finalize casting. Although we can't announce them until they're officially attached, actors who have expressed interest in roles in Miss Liberty include an Academy Award nominee, a Golden Globe and Drama Desk Award winner, a sports legend, and a veteran of over fifty films
OUR NONPROFIT
PARTNER
Founded in 2021 by Interfaith ministers Rev. William Melton and Rev. Sarah Bowen, along with Victoria Moran, this 501c3 offers spiritual support to animal advocates of all faiths. Outreach includes monthly Zoom services, Book & Film Nights, pastoral counseling, and the Animal Chaplaincy Training Program. As our nonprofit partner, it allows for tax-deductible donations earmarked for Miss Liberty.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
Become a real player in the development and production of this first-of-its-kind family feature film with an animal rights theme by making a tax-deductible donation earmarked for Miss Liberty to our nonprofit partner, the Compassion Consortium.
Other Ways to Support Our Mission:
Collect unique artworks, clothing & home decor by world-renowned artist and activist Layla Love. Use the code Liberty10 for a 10% discount. Find gifts for you while helping us reach our financial goals, explore more at Layla Love Art or Layla Love Collection.
Sign up for the "Free Miss Liberty" interest list
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