A New York Story: Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations

Filmmaker Hannah Jayanti with author Norton Juster.

When Janice Kaplan asked Hannah Jayanti to make a short film of Norton Juster and Jules Feiffer in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the children's classic The Phantom Tollbooth, Jayanti had no idea that it would lead to a full-length documentary, Phantom Tollbooth: Beyond Expectations, and a premiere at the New Yorker Festival this weekend.

"I met Norton Juster and was so moved by his spirit as a person, that I thought there was a longer documentary there," Jayanti told us by phone. "He was up for it, and really excited. The more we worked on it, the more people came out of the woodwork." Actor David Hyde Pierce was one of them. He called Norton Juster when he began work on the narration of the audiobook, and Norton was as generous to Pierce as he'd been to Jayanti. Pierce and Juster have become good friends, according to Jayanti. "I realized what a cultural icon this book was, and how much it meant to people," she said. "So many people say that this book changed their life."

"It's a New York story," Jayanti pointed out, for a number of reasons: Juster and Feiffer lived in the same brownstone in Brooklyn Heights. As Feiffer states in the film, Juster "couldn't keep his story to himself," so Juster would read parts aloud to his neighbor, and Feiffer started doodling a boy who became Milo. The Phantom Tollbooth found its way to publication literally on the streets of New York. In the film, Jason Epstein tells the story of how he ran into Feiffer's first wife, Judy, on the street and she mentioned that Jules Feiffer was working on a book, and Epstein said he'd like to see it. "Jason says if an agent had been in charge of it, he would never have gotten the book," Jayanti said. "He was not a children's book editor."

Jayanti worked with Kaplan on the film from January to November of 2011. She had a full-time job and filmed and edited on weekends; they funded the project largely with their own money. A Kickstarter campaign helped them add additional interviews--with people like Eric Carle and David Hyde Pierce. The full process took two years. Then, in August and September of this year, they launched a second Kickstarter campaign to complete post-production and pay their legal costs.

And on October 5, the film will have its premiere at the New Yorker Festival, not known for film premieres, but an ideal fit with its literary audience. Adam Gopnik, whose piece "Broken Kingdom," about the 50th anniversary of The Phantom Tollbooth, ran in the New Yorker in 2011, helped suggest it for the festival. He will interview Juster and Feiffer after the screening. Tickets sold out in eight minutes.

The crew, on the steps of Juster and Feiffer's Brooklyn Heights brownstone (l.-r.): top: Norton Juster, Jarrett DePasquale, Sarah White-Ayon, Jeremy Haik; bottom row: Janice L. Kaplan, Hannah Jayanti, Jules Feiffer.

After the success of their Kickstarter (Jayanti and Kaplan's goal was $14,000; they raised $32,035), the producers decided to create a new distribution model. Today they will open presales on their Web site. The release will be after the premiere, and the plan is to show the feature at selected theaters around the country. "Kickstarter is a beautiful model. You go straight to your audience and then you get it directly to them," Jayanti said. "The book is incredibly personal to people. We love the idea of being able to get the film directly to them." --Jennifer M. Brown

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