Apr 29, 2005  |  By: SARAH KELLOGG  | COMMENTS     

WHAT WOULD YOU call a women’s Hollywood film cooperative that finances short movies about lesbians and gay men? A joke? A pipe dream? Dead on arrival?

These days, you call it successful.

Despite the odds, POWER UP (Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up) will celebrate its fifth birthday in October, and with considerable pride. After all, the nonprofit production company-that-could has produced and distributed 11 short films and is working on its first feature.

That POWER UP has succeeded where others have failed — or not even dared to go — is due in no small part to its powerhouse founder, Stacy Codikow, a former television and film producer, who apparently won’t take no for an answer.

“I completely believe in what we’re doing here,” says Codikow, whose previous credits include a stint on “Cagney & Lacey.” “There are so many lesbian and gay filmmakers who have so much to say out there, and up until recently, not that many places to say it. We’re a club with members around the country, and we are trying to help as many of them tell their stories as possible.”

Telling those stories wouldn’t have been possible, Codikow says, if there hadn’t been exceptional people to support POWER UP’s mission. Even she marvels at the vein of talent that POWER UP has tapped into in recent years. Talent that many in Hollywood had ignored or didn’t even know was there.

Look at the credits for any of POWER UP’s short films, and you’ll find the names of successful directors (Jamie Babbit, Lee Friedlander), producers (Andrea Sperling, Lisa Thrasher) and writers (Cherien Dabis, Michele Greene).

“These people are making it right now,” Codikow says. “Imagine what they’re going to be doing in five years.”

TO DATE, POWER UP’s most accomplished alum has been Angela Robinson, the director of the recently released feature film, “D.E.B.S.,” the lesbian spy caper. POWER UP financed a short version of the film in 2002, and its success proved to be a ticket to directorial stardom for Robinson.

“Stacy and Lisa really came in and took a risk with me,” says Robinson, whose latest film, Disney’s “Herbie: Fully Loaded,” is coming out in June. “Here was this lesbian talking about directing a story with girls in short skirts carrying big guns. I’m not sure everyone would have bought it, but they did and my life changed after that.”

POWER UP has had at least one of its short films accepted into the Sundance Film Festival (the gold standard of festivals) every year since the production company first opened its doors. And almost every one of its short films has won festival kudos and awards.

Originally, the grant program selected three short film scripts each year, helping fledgling directors and writers turn their dreams into reality through $20,000 grants and in-kind contributions that ranged from production help to distributing the film. The group has given away $1 million in cash and in-kind assistance since 2000.

By shelving the shorts program to focus on feature films, the company will surely increase its visibility and influence. Feature films, not short films, are the currency of real power in Hollywood, and Codikow and her board of directors are determined to elbow their way into the film world’s old boys’ club. The feature film application deadline is May 1.

First at bat for POWER UP in the features league is “The Itty Bitty Titty Committee,” a comedy about a high school girl who joins a radical feminist group. The film was written and will be directed by Jamie Babbit (“But I Was a Cheerleader”).

What has made POWER UP so successful up to now has been its old-school, major-studio approach to bringing films through the pipeline. At every step along the way, whether it’s production, marketing or distribution, POWER UP’s Codikow and her No. 2 partner, Lisa Thrasher, have called on a cadre of friends at Los Angeles studios and production companies to assist their first-time directors.

“POWER UP really came to the rescue when I was making ‘Memoirs of an Evil Stepmother,’” recalls writer/director Cherien Dabis, whose screenplay “Little Black Boot” was produced by POWER UP with a different director. “They offered me production insurance, crew recommendations, free locations and completion funds. It doesn’t really get much better ...