It’s been almost two weeks since the Sarasota Film Festival but I wanted to do a late recap of the wonderful weekend. I have been to a handful of festivals but my experience at SFF was different, magical in a weird kind of way. Tom Hall and Holly Herrick are incredibly sincere and passionate programmers and basically curated my dream line-up of a festival. It also didn’t hurt that the fest is on the beach and I hadn’t seen sun in too long.

It wasn’t until two minutes into the film - playing to a full audience - on a real movie theater screen - looking incredible on DigiBeta - that I finally felt proud. Through this whole process and the handful of screenings I’ve had I have felt a myriad of emotions. It’s difficult to watch the film for what it is instead of picking out the flaws with my overly critical eyes. Making Widow was my own cheap version of film school in every way possible and the minute we wrapped I felt like I had instantly become a year older. Now I am forty pages into my first feature and seeing Widow on the screen was refreshing. I watched it and I liked it, despite it’s flaws, and was proud to see my name in the credits.

So here’s to good film and family and lovely, lovely, Florida.