Louisiana International Film Festival #5

I have been lucky enough to be apart of this Louisiana International Film Festival from the beginning.  We have been working hard at this for five years. Baton Rouge has embraced the idea of a film festival and we find that every year the attendance and support grow dramatically. Chesley Hemsfield is the champion who started the festival. She has birthed quite a beautiful thing, I can't wait to see what happens with it next.

This was special year because we honored our friend,  artistic director, the amazing Dan Ireland or better know as "Danny Boy", who past away last year (2016). He had a special place in my heart, and I feel that he felt the same way about Aaron and I.  I feel like the arts really have the power to create family. What a handsome, brilliant and genius filmmaker. Dan knew more about film that anyone I ever met and I trusted his opinion. I would often ask him questions, just so I could sit in awe of what he knew about the craft I'm just scratching the surface to understand. He really understood how to make a film matter in the world. He understood humans and encouraged us with the films he directed and produced to embrace the moment and to love people. He smiled a lot and laughed really loud.  In the last film that he directed called A Most Peculiar Man there is a line that will stick with me forever. "Max the day." I do feel as artists we tend to get lazy and sometimes we expect good things to just fall in our laps. Dan once told me that he thought I should pursue directing, he wanted me to really go for it. As artists we need experts in our respective fields to encourage our gifts.  I would never have met Dan Ireland if I had not decided to volunteer for the film festival five years ago, when it first started. I never knew that film festival could bring so many great artists/ filmmakers together. I will cherish the time I had to Dan forever. 

Below are just a few pics from this years festival. I was blessed and had two films screening in the festival. Last Light won Best Louisiana Live Action Short film. I also had a film called The Verses. I love both projects.