Lemonade Stories, an award-winning film which was broadcast prime-time nationwide, highlights the impact mothers have had on igniting entrepreneurial spirit in their sons and daughters.
Introducing Lemonade Stories, a film by award-winning filmmaker, Mary Mazzio, about extraordinary entrepreneurs and their mothers. This film, produced in collaboration with Babson College and Scott Timmins, focuses on how mothers have contributed to the entrepreneurial spirit of their sons and daughters, as well as the influence these mothers have had on their children in terms of instilling a responsibility to give back to the community. The film, which garnered the First Place Judge's Commendation for BEST DOCUMENTARY at the Rhode Island International Film Festival (one of the few festivals which qualifies films for the Academy Award), also aired nationwide on CNNfn. The debut of the film's panel discussion aired nationwide on C-SPAN.
Garnering a full cover page story in USA Today, complete with pictures and streaming video on USA Today.com's home page, Lemonade Stories was also featured in cover story articles in The Christian Science Monitor and Forbes.com, both of which stories were syndicated around the world, including a feature story on ABC News.com's home page, as well as NPR, CNN Headline News, ESPN, The Boston Globe, Fast Company, Bloomberg Radio, The Providence Journal, Yahoo Business, MSN Business, among others.
The film has been screened and used for international consulting firms, unemployment training centers, state business conferences, high schools (being incorporated into high school economics curriculum in school districts), entrepreneurship symposiums, business schools and colleges in the US, Canada, Japan, the UK, China, Mexico, Brazil, and France.
The film, an official selection at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival (a qualifying festival for the Academy Award) as well as the Palm Beach International Film Festival and Tiburon International Film Festival, was also a finalist in the 25th Annual USA Film Festival.
The individuals featured in this film include:
Richard Branson (The Virgin Group) and his mother, Eve Branson (herself an entrepreneur, who also served in WWII)
Russell Simmons (Def Jam/Phat Fashions), his brother Reverend Run (a/k/a Run of the hip-hop pioneers, Run-DMC), and his brother Danny Simmons (co-founder, Def Poetry Jam)
Arthur Blank (The Home Depot) and his mother, Molly Blank (who took over the family business after the death of her husband and built it into a multi-million dollar operation)
Kay Koplovitz (USA Network) and her mother, Jane Smith (a 90 year old who loves Brett Favre and is known to yell at her favorite players during playoff season)
Tom Scott (Nantucket Nectars), his mother Jane, his grandmother Dorothy (featured in Nantucket Nectars' radio spots), and his wife, Emily Woods Scott (founder of JCrew)
Billy Starr (Pan-Mass Challenge), who founded the world’s largest bike-a-thon, raising over $100,000,000 for cancer research in memory of his mother, Betty Starr.
Kelly Reinhart (TPak International), an 11 year old entrepreneur who invented a thigh pack and obtained a million dollar contract with the US Army.
; "Lemonade Stories")
