Sarasota Film Festival

April was a busy month full of very exciting events! I was working around the clock for the Sarasota Film Festival and I had a great time. The festivities started out with the Opening Night at the Ringling Museum of Art.

I was invited to go up on the roof to take a picture from above.
At the entrance of the museum there was an all girl electric string quartet who call themselves "The String Divas" you can check them out here: (http://www.thestringdivas.com/divas.html)
Dagmara Dominiczyk and Patrick Wilson were there too, I was delighted to see how very down to earth and kind they both were... Patrick Wilson starred along Kate Winslet in the movie "Little Children" (a great movie, go see it!!)Through out the entire festival I was amazed by all the clever ideas they had... this is actually a couple dancing behind a projection of a moon. It was really funny to watch people try and figure this one out..eventually they would walk behind the screen to get a look at the dancers. Someone started a rumor that the people were dancing naked so I am sure that brought in a lot of traffic!

The following night was the Reel Experience at the Lake Club. The big treat this night was getting to meet Edward Norton!

The night ended with fireworks and I captured a great shot of the theme of this years festival... The mermaid! They had several mermaids placed through out the Lake Club and this one happened to be on a boat!

A couple of nights later was the World Cinema Celebration in downtown Sarasota. This was supposed to be my night off... but... of course I brought my camera and ended up shooting!

The band "of Montreal" was there, everyone seemed to love them...

Steve Buscemi (Big Fish, Mr.Deeds, Armageddon) was given an award that night for for his outstanding contributions to the art of filmmaking, as an actor, director, writer and producer.

So after a little bit of sleep it was time to get up and do it all over again! The next day it was time for the Luncheon Under the Banyans at the Selby Botanical Gardens. Oscar winner Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) and Joe Pantoliano (The Sopranos, The Matrix, Memento). Joe kept everyone laughing through out the afternoon!

Friday was the "NIGHT OF 1,000 STARS" at Michaels on East. I am not sure if there were quite 1000 stars... maybe 8 or 9... however, one of my personal favorites Chad Lowe was there. He played Jesse in the TV series Life Goes on which aired in the late 90s. I think I saw every episode of that show way back when and he looked just the same as I remembered him.



So the final night was The Filmmakers' Tribute Dinner at the Long Boat Key Club. This is the most formal night of the festival. The guests arrive and walk down the red carpet where they are met by lots of photographers. I think the "non celebrities" enjoyed walking the red carpet... funny what all a red carpet seems to symbolize!


Time to rest up for next year! It was an exhausting but wonderful 10 days. I made lots of new friends and it was inspiring to be surrounded by such a talented group of people.