What a weekend

I did not promote this, but "Out Here In Kansas" had a handful of test screenings over the
weekend at the Doc Sunback Film Festival in Mulvane.
The audiences were small, between 10 and 20 people. But one of the screenings included my parents, and it was the first time anyone from my family has seen it. (It also happened to be their 54th wedding anniversary, and they celebrated in style by hitting up the buffet at Mulvane's own Kansas Star Casino.)
For the record, my parents said they loved it and thought I had portrayed both conservative Christians and the LGBT community in a fair light. That was cool, and they're the most supportive parents ever, but it was a little more gratifying to get positive feedback from fellow filmmakers


Did I mention I didn't promote these screenings? We really didn't want to get a lot of people excited, since we're hoping to have our true Kansas premiere at the Tallgrass Film Festival this fall. We weren't eligible for awards or anything like that. We still haven't officially submitted to any festivals yet, since we're waiting to switch out a couple of the songs.
But what a blast we had at Doc Sunback. There were a lot of good movies and good folks at the inaugural event last year, but this year was much more of a party. It was good to spend time with Savannah Rodgers, our dynamic young producer, and we even did a couple of Q&As together. She had two of her own films in the festival, as did Lester Rowe, one of our creative advisers.
Editor Kenny Linn was out of town part of the weekend, but made it back just in time for our Saturday night screening and the masquerade ball. (That's him with the television monitor over his head, being kissed by festival director Nancy Farber.)