The First...

Well, as of two nights ago, it's official. The word from Sundance--the longshot that it was--is as follows:

RE: 1228-USF - Hi8 1/2: The Medium is the Mess

Dear Marty,

As the Director of the Sundance Film Festival, I would like to thank you for submitting your work to us, and I truly appreciate your hard work and dedication as an independent filmmaker. Unfortunately, we are not able to include your film in Sundance Film Festival 2009.

For the first time in our Festival's history, we received over 9,000 submissions. While this gives us the unique opportunity to consider work that spans a wide spectrum from around the globe, it certainly doesn't make it any easier to narrow those entries down to an entire program of just over 200 films. I'm sure it is no consolation to you that we are forced to make these difficult decisions, but I do believe that there certainly is an audience for your film and I anticipate that you will find the appropriate platform for presenting it. I regret not being able to include all of the films that we appreciate, but we simply don't have the room. We look forward to having the opportunity to view your work in the future.


Sincerely,

Geoffrey Gilmore
Director, Sundance Film Festival



So there it is. The second best thing you can get from Sundance--a rejection letter!! As many students would say: "I'm not going to lie..." but I was a tad bit disappointed. I think it's natural to feel that way. It's tough. You spend so much time creating something you pour your heart and soul into, something you wish would resonate within others, something that has a hopeful life beyond your own edit station...and with a click of the send button, one of thousands of rejection letters lands in your inbox saying, in essence, "thanks but no thanks". It's time for a quiet, reflective sigh. A muchly needed hug. Another read through just to make sure the word "unfortunately" is somewhere in the body of the first paragraph. Then a swig of an ice cold beverage and finally...BAM!

You get over it and move on. The whole "...only makes you stronger" sentiment prevails. And like a current high schooler getting a "deffered" letter from his or her college of choice, I too will move on. Because that's what we do.