Film festival friends

Today something different, I want to acknowledge some of the great people who are friends of mine. There are three, all of whom have had their films accepted by film festivals. Two are former students and one is my partner in Travel Day.

Maggie Franks is a mom and surfer in San Clemente as well as taking a few semesters of my UCLA course. She got together a bunch of young filmmakers and her son and made a documentary short called The Board Meeting,  described as "two old guys reflect on their past, their future and everything in between at their weekly board meetings". The film was selected by Action on Film International Film Festival in Pasadena CA.

Randy Gifford is another ex-student who made two feature-length movies for $10,000. Yes, 2 movies for ten grand. Talk about low budget. He shot them both in 30 days, using the same actors. Cafe Co-Existence won an award at the Illinois Indie Fest and was also accepted the International Film Festival in Pasadena. 

His other film, The Best Sex, was also accepted at Action on Film International Film Festival and also a nomination for Best Actress as well as IndieFest Film Festival in Illinois. And if you want to know how he did it, go to his website www.doubleshotfilms.com.  It's also on this blog on the left side, under Materials.


Then there's Shirley Petchprapa, who began this blog with me over a year ago. Shirley will direct Travel Day, which is the reason this blog exists. She made two short films this year that have been accepted internationally.

Roxy has been officially accepted at Marabella International Film Festival in Spain, 63 Degree Fest in Locarno Switzerland and Santa Monica International Film festival.

Tuesday has won for Best Soundscape and is an Official Selection at Indie Spirit Film Festival in Colorado Springs, Frameline 34 Film Festival in San Francisco as well as United San Francisco Film Festival.

Shirley has trailers for both films. Tuesday can be seen at http://issara.net/tuesday/ and Roxy can be seen at http://issara.net/roxy/

We've had a hard year with Travel Day, the ups and downs can break a partnership but ultimately we both respect what we do and I look forward to producing a feature film with Shirley this year.

Good luck to all.