Perfect Day @ the San Diego Black Film Festival
4 February 2014
This being my first time going to San Diego, I was super ecstatic. But that died down shortly. My best friend, Jahcobie Cosom and his hilarious friend, Tommy came out. First, we went a few hours ahead just to get tickets and more information since no one was picking up the phones in the festival office.
We received the tickets, and got extra ones because we were not at our first screening which was the day before. I was under the impression that filmmakers were able to go to the events, but was told when I received my tickets that I would have to upgrade my pass by $300. Now, I understand that festivals need to make the money back that they spent…but dang! Why was I just then finding out?
So, I let it go. I wasn’t able to go to any panel discussions, no screenings, nothing. Just my own. That night when my guests and I returned, we didn’t know where to go. Many of the festival staff were kind but had no idea where to direct us. We ended up directing ourselves to taking photos. Then we found our theatre and walked into this (honestly) terrible feature about a dude in some fraternity that was killing people that he was close to. It was terribly made, pro-rape, sexist and anti-gay. I was so disgusted at the filmmakers and the festival for even screening such work. I began to wonder what the caliber had to be to be accepted. Just by this example, not much. I walked out of the middle of the film. After sitting out for 20 mins, people began to leave the theatre. I was confused because the schedule that I received said that the feature was going to screen before two shorts, including Perfect day. A woman came up to me and said that she thought the same but they reversed the order.
We all went downstairs to the Q&A section. Filmmakers were allotted 10 minutes to answer questions, comments and concerns. A few people asked me questions about Chicago, the Derrion Albert story, etc and made all around great, inspiring comments about the film. When I was done, a few people came up to me and chatted. I realized that two dudes that I was talking to were the filmmakers of that awful feature that just screened. I told them very respectfully my thoughts about it. They knew what I was saying, it was written all over their faces. Honestly, they probably were just messing around with their camera and ended up trying to put it together to make that movie. Nice attempt, but completely irresponsible. It takes a lot for me to get upset about a visual piece. Trust me, it was brutal. My friends and I left right after I spoke with those guys.
Overall, this festival experience is something that I will never forget. It also lit the fire under my ass more to continue creating work with people who are not only talented but have so much positivity and honesty to bring to the world. I hope that the future years at SDBFF are much more organized with much better content.
Thank you to everyone who has continue to support the film. I truly love each of you and thank you for this journey. Next up, Perfect Day will be screening at the Pan African Film Festival in 2 weeks 🙂 Stay tuned for that!
