We haven’t talked about it openly, but Harold and I feel it’s time for an update.
Tell Me About Tomorrow came just short of premiering at South by Southwest last month. If you are unfamiliar with how this works, you submit your application to these festivals, and then wait for 3-6 months to hear if they accept you. Typically this means you can’t premiere your film, but you wait months for an email that 99% says “Sorry, not this year”, but we all do it anyway because “What if?”
This time though, Harold and I talked to the SXSW programming team 3-4 times. They were very clear that “we were in consideration for a World Premiere and to keep them informed if any other festivals tried to premiere it first”. We were told over Xmas break that their team would be watching the film again, and in Jan that it was still in final consideration, but the night before announcements they said they weren’t going to program us. No reason just “tough decisions had to be made”
It’s one thing to not be invited to the dinner party, but another to have a foot in the door and be told “actually theres too many people”. Jokes aside, nothing but respect to SXSW, these are the top festivals in the world, this is how it goes, but in the aftermath I got a different call.
The head programmer of another festival picked up the phone and talked to me. Told me they are blown away SXSW passed on this, and that their whole programming team loved our film. I had submitted to this festival, not just for the turn out, but because I know they take care of filmmakers, and this feels meant to be. I have a sadness with SXSW, but if it was meant for me it would have happened. I believe that, my faith is in God not a festival.
That being said, i’ve been asked to stay quiet until a press release goes out next month, but mid-May a lot of news is coming. If you are not following
@wiseoldcrowmedia or
@tellmeabouttomorrow.film please consider it. Im so damn proud of this film, my growth as a filmmaker, but also the cause and what i’ve built with the Noriega family. The fentanyl epidemic needed a face outside of statistics. No one dies taking half a pill if not for fentanyl. Let’s rally and stir up change.
