John Bintz, Freedom Dance webmaster and colorist, had a book signing this morning for his new cartoon book, A Moment of Clarity. It was at Greetings and Readings in Hunt Valley. I drove up and took some photos of him talking to the kids that came by.

Then it was off to Annapolis to attend the screening of Craig’s A Fall From the Clouds at the Annpolis Film Festival. Craig, Barbara and I sat together in a theater at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, watching and listening for the audience’s reaction. (We three had seen the movie dozens of times.)

The screening was well attended and when the movies finished, a festival moderator asked Craig to stand and talk about A Fall From the Clouds. Craig stood where he’d been sitting in the theater, answering many questions from the audience. Then one person ask, “What are you working on now?”

Craig and I looked at each other and smiled big, both thinking the same thing: “A chance to plug Freedom Dance!!”

“Well,” Craig began, shifting his weight, settling in for a well rehearsed pitch. But to my surprise, Craig layed out his hand and introduced me. I stood and together we told the audience about our partnership on Freedom Dance. The crowd seemed very intrigued. One couple even stayed with us after the event ended to learn more about our upcoming exhibit at the Jewish Community Center in Baltimore. And a high school student who had attended the screening awaited us outside the theater to ask more specific questions about animation, a field she said she was interested in purusing.

We talked with her a good while, and in our trademark fashion turned it into a comic routine. (And, really, we’re like the Marx Brothers sometimes!) On the subject of the girl joining the Freedom Dance art department to gain experience, Craig commented, “Yeah, that’d be great. We have another high school student doing some work for us. Her name’s Rachael.” To me, his voice had an intonation that made the line sound leading, as though expecting a reaction to the news. So I played up on it in a cheeky sort of way and said to the girl, “Yeah. Do you know her? Rachael! She’s in high school. You must know her!”

This evening I was in Baltimore at Martin’s West attending the screening of Gregg Landry’s “Hope for Haiti” promotional documentary. Gregg, as you know, is Freedom Dance’s chief videographer and owner of our movie’s host studio, BlueRock Productions LLC.

This summer Gregg travelled to Haiti to shoot this video for one of his clients. Tonight’s gala drew awareness to the movie’s cause, bringing relief to Haiti’s extreme poverty.

An exhausting day (and night), but filled with many wonderful events and friends.

~Steven