About the Film
Feel like you already know what karaoke is all about?
Drunk business people trying to sing Don’t Stop Believing…
Late night scream-a-longs of Sweet Caroline…
Over-excited, out-of-tune bachelorette parties…
What else is there, right?
I used to think that's all there was to karaoke, too.
Until I built a KARAOKE CONFESSIONAL BOOTH and found out I was wrong.
Here’s what happened…
I was a stay-at-home mom at the end of a looooooong day of being slowly depleted by 2 tiny humans. And I needed a break.
So, when my husband got home, I handed over the kids and walked out the front door with no plans in mind.
Next thing I knew, I was in a karaoke bar. On a Tuesday. Alone.
And you know what? It turns out that lots of people sing karaoke by themselves on random Tuesday nights.
Black. White. Gay. Straight. Young. Old. Liberal. Conservative. Karaoke is common ground.
That night I spent 5 hours making friends with anybody who walked in the door.
I made a list of every song I might ever want to sing in this lifetime. By genre.
What can I say? I was smitten.
I went back again and again over the next few years. Sometime with friends. Sometimes alone.
But there were always “Karaoke People” there…People, like me, who seemed to need karaoke on a deeper level.
So I built a karaoke confessional booth and turned on a camera, trying to understand why.
People opened up to me about their lives, their dreams, their problems...and the fascinating role karaoke has played.
And as I’ve watched the world around me become more and more divisive, I’ve taken solace in the connections I’ve made with other Karaoke People.
People like Bob
A Vietnam Vet who lost his wife in 1997, who has been singing old cowboy songs EVERY Friday & Saturday night at the same place for the last 20 years.
And Whitney
A woman who credits karaoke with saving her life more than once.
And Byron
A parent who regularly escapes to karaoke solo just like I do.
And Gabe
A guy who takes great pride in having karaoked 116 songs by the same artist.
And Tia
A woman who found freedom in karaoke at the end of 30 years of marriage.
And here’s what happened next…
I wanted to preserve the intimate nature of these “confessions," so instead of cutting away to a lot of B-roll of people singing, I worked with an amazing animator named Jenny Kincade, to help enhance these deeply personal but very universal stories. My fabulous editor, Laura Roe, rounded out our team, and presto we had a film.