It is with great pleasure that I report that my short film Keys has been accepted and will screen as part of this year’s Sonoma International Film Festival. I’m tremendously excited and proud to have my first non-Twin Cities festival screening!

Now I just have to find a way to get out there…

This past week will most definitely go down in history as one of my most film-filled.

Three regional premieres with directors present, my first film festival screening and tons of other great movies that I got the chance to see — Tucker & Dale Versus Evil, Wagner & Me, Phil Ochs: There But For Fortune…

On top of seeing a ton of films, I also spent an equal amount of time working on Dreaming Paul, due to be finished by Friday. So the scramble on that continues.

Major highlights were getting to meet Morgan Spurlock (pictured above with myself and the usual crowd) after the screening of his film, POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold and getting to see his race-car driver ad placement suit coat in person. 

Wednesday came and went in a blur, as my film Keys was shown as part of the Emerging Filmmaker showcase. It was a total success and I was happy to peek around at a few ballots giving my film a ‘Superb’ rating. Fingers crossed. 

I met J.T. O’Neal the very first night of the festival, so I was intrigued to go and see his film Au Pair Kansas yesterday afternoon. A low budget dramedy set in the heartland, it was pretty fantastic to see what an indie filmmaker can do with a extremely limited budget. J.T. is a hard-working MN filmmaker and I’m happy to know him.

The cherry on the top of all this film-seeing had to be the Minnesota premiere of Kelly Reichardt’s newest film, Meek’s Cutoff at the Walker Art Center. Reichardt has been one of my absolute favorites ever since I saw her film Old Joy. Since then I’ve been hooked, going to see every single one of her films during her Regis Retrospective at the Walker last year. She was present after the film and had a Q & A with friend and fellow director Todd Haynes, another favorite of mine.

Meek’s Cutoff did not disappoint, easily one of the best films I’ve seen this year — easily one of the best films… ever. But then I could make that claim about any number of the films I saw in the past seven days… 

Keys had a magnificent showing Wednesday evening at the Bryant-Lake Bowl & IFP’s Cinema Lounge, a monthly exhibition of short films. I was very happy how it stood up next to the work of many in-town professionals. 

Above is me being interviewed after the showing and making quite the fool out of myself in the process. 

Thanks to everyone who came and made it a terrific success!

Another good ‘Keys’ production still. 

Working with the tremendously talented Andre Durand, who is operating the camera and with the equally talented Grant West on the keys.

Almost finished up with ‘Keys’ the latest film project I’ve been piecing together. The film’s been a real joy to work on and I’ve gotten to meet an collaborate with some fantastic and talented people.

One of the film’s stars, Christopher Philly Williams (Pictured here in the green hat) is a member of local band The Big Strong Men, who have been peddling their happy-go-lucky jazz pop around town for the past few years. I strongly recommend catching them live if you get the chance.

The film’s first big showing is on March 4th at MCAD.

Photo by Dan Huiting.