So I’m sitting in my car in a secluded parking lot at Rock Creek absorbing the sun and reading Agatha Christie when my cell phone rings. It’s Craig Herron.

“Hi. Where are you?” he asks.

“I’m in a park across the street from the Embassy,” I answer.

“So are we. Maybe we’re in the same park?”

In fact we were, and never even saw one another.

Today, Craig, Edward, and I finally met with Karoly Dan, the Cultural Attache at the Hungarian Embassy in Washington, DC. (Our original meeting was postponed from last week.) Thanks to a gracious woman named Ilona Teleki at CSIS, Karoly had been introduced to “Freedom Dance” and became interested in the project after screening the 2-minute cut.

Karoly, a tall and dashing fellow, has now agreed to offer the Embassy’s support including an endorsement, a screening when the movie’s complete, and introductions to organizations that may lead to financial sponsorships. He also suggested a terrific idea: contacting a peer of his at the Austrian Embassy. (Makes sense since Vienna played such a vital role in the Hilbert’s escape.) I will call Austria on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Craig is setting up a fund-raising exhibition of Edward’s original “Freedom Dance” artwork with the Jewish Community Center. The Hungarian Embassy would help us with the reception. He is also finishing the animation for the Apple Truck sequence, and I am nearly finished storyboarding the climactic Ocean Voyage which will consist of the next scenes to be animated.

Tomorrow we meet to plan the exhibition. Next month we should hear from the IFP and Roy W. Dean about our grants! Things are moving right along at an exciting pace.

Many thanks to John Bintz for his recent work updating the web site, Edward Hilbert for his incredible Liberty Ship layouts, and to Barbara Herron, Meaghan Dunn and Paul Sulsky for their invaluable help in the ink, paint, and digital art departments!

Until next time…
~Steven