The Maryland Film Festival started this past Thursday. Freedom Dance had its premiere on Friday, May 4! Nearly three years boils down to this weekend. (Two screenings at the festival.)

The crowd was good and as a direct result a couple of dvds were sold, a rep from a private school in Baltimore approached asking if the school could host a screening, and the program director from the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival approached showing much interest in having the movie screen in Delaware.

The next scheduled screening is at the Creative Alliance in Baltimore, May 25 and 26. Check back for more details.

These last three weeks have been exhausting for me, but the premiere has more than made up for it. In three weeks I’ve taken 10 flights, attended one conference and two film festivals screening various films I’ve produced or co-produced, won three awards (one for Houdini, two for Draw the Line) and overall hob-nobbed with some fabulous people in Los Angeles, Houston, and Miami where I am at the moment to work with two Sony Music artists and a broadcasting company.

It really is exciting. In each market I’m selling Freedom Dance, spreading the word, and getting closer to reeling in the right distributor.

Was with Judy recently, dropping off DVDs of the movie for her family. We sat in the living room chatting and she asked me to tell her about my day. As I answered, I realized just how insane life is for me these days.

Well, I started, actually it began yesterday. Was up at 4am, in Virginia by 6 to work on my Civil War docu-drama, left 4pm and straight to Baltimore to finish burning some Freedom Dance DVDs to send to sales reps I’d met in L.A., then stopped at the gym about 9, home by 10 and continued packaging Freedom Dance distributor packs until 1am. Slept for two hours, back in Northern Virginia by 6am to resume work on the docu-drama (start shooting in one month!), to Baltimore by 5pm to finish the DVD burns. Stop at Craig’s place to see a new trailer he’s cut for the movie, then here to drop off the DVD’s. Next onto the Maryland Film Festival office to drop off the Beta tape they’ll screen, and THEN home to bed.

But you know what? This is what it takes to get a movie out into the world. You think production is tough? Just wait til your movie’s done. Then the work really begins.

But I love it, and the rewards are sweet.
~Steven