Last Wednesday we headed down the road for a return trip to the Beaufort International Film Festival (BIFF), and it was just as awesome as last year. Joanna, our sister and paparazza, came to support us and you can see all her pictures here. We also borrowed some pictures from the super talented Susan Deloach to round out the photo album.
The
opening night reception was Wednesday at the Old Bay Marketplace Rooftop, and it was a beautiful night with just a bit of chill in the air. We don’t know if it was a more outgoing group of filmmakers than usual, or maybe
it’s just us who’ve gotten more outgoing as we’ve gained experience at this festival thing, but we met
so many fun filmmakers this time. And it was such a supportive bunch – showing up at everyone’s screenings to cheer each other on. Special shout outs to
Christine and Victor Romero (
Besa: The Promise),
Angela Alford (
Granny’s Got Game which was scored by
Fred Story, who scored both of our films),
Ben Hall and Chris Frith (
Sergeant Townsend),
Chad Mathews (
Detention),
Gary Weeks (
Bad Advice from Good People), and
VW Scheich and Uyen Le (
Wallenda) – they all made great films, so check them out if you get a chance. That night we also got
interviewed LIVE on the radio by
Anneliza at
104.9 The Surf, which was super scary, but we don’t think we embarrassed ourselves.
The screening of
High Heels & Hoodoo was at 1:25pm Thursday. Like last year, it was a
surprisingly large crowd for the middle of a Thursday afternoon. The BIFF audience is so amazingly supportive – many of them show up for the first screening and stay through the whole day, and some even brought coolers of food for lunches and snacks. As filmmakers, we are so appreciative of that kind of dedication, and it really makes all the hard work worth it – thank you! And special thanks to two of Jocelyn’s Beaufort friends –
Kami Kinard and
Janet Gregory – who have shown up both years to be cheerleaders for us.
Also like last year, the audience was very responsive, with laughter at both expected and unexpected places, as well as gasps at the end followed by enthusiastic applause. They had lots of great questions
during the Q&A, both about
High Heels & Hoodoo and
Saying Goodbye. It was gratifying to learn they had such fond memories of our screening last year. Afterwards we were interviewed by
Mark Shaffer and Jeff Evans at
Lowcountry Weekly, which
you can watch here.
The rest of Thursday was packed with screenings of other films, a presentation by
Haden Yolin on How to Sell Your Screenplay, and a wine and cheese reception with enough delicious food to feed an army.
Friday we tried to balance catching a number of screenings with
exploring Beaufort. Then on Friday evening there was a special ten year anniversary screening of
Radio, in which we were surprised to find
Rebecca Koon, the star of
Saying Goodbye, as a waitress serving Radio pie in two different scenes. This gave us the perfect opening later to talk to the director
Mike Tollin, who was there as part of the celebration. He was very gracious and even asked about our current movie, which made us feel like we were
hobnobbing with Hollywood bigwigs.
The screening of
Radio was followed by
a panel discussion with Mike Tollin,
Gary Smith (the
Sports Illustrated reporter who first told Radio’s story), and the real life Coach Jones and Radio. It was extremely moving listening to them talk about their actual experiences. Afterwards, Jocelyn went up to Radio to shake his hand and tell him how much she liked his movie, and he grabbed her in a giant bear hug. Such a joyful man who inspires people to appreciate the life around them.
Saturday was even more screenings before the festival came to a close with the
awards ceremony. Sadly we didn’t win anything, but we were excited to see most of the prizes go to the new filmmaker friends we made during the festival. We had an absolutely wonderful time at BIFF, and we encourage filmmakers out there to apply to this fantastic festival. Thank you so much to festival directors
Ron and Rebecca Tucker – y’all are fabulous hosts!
Whoa! It’s been another really long chunk of time since we last posted, but we wanted to share some news. High Heels & Hoodoo will be playing at the 
Yikes! It’s been over a year since we posted on this blog, but we have some exciting news to share. High Heels & Hoodoo is playing in the 
A while back we were invited to submit High Heels & Hoodoo to the 
