What a week. As any film programmer can tell you, the best part of the job is the submission process-- whereby films vying to play at your festival are screened by the programming staff in the hopes of finding new and exciting discoveries. It is also the most grueling part of the job. So far, here in Sarasota, we have found some films that really struck a chord. It is the most exciting thing in the job to watch a video unspool in front of your eyes and know you've found something truly original and well-made. When you wade through so many films in such a short period of time, your moods and tastes can impact the process, as can the relationship between films. Everything becomes one story, and that is the story of your film festival. I see my job as making the festival story as compelling as is possible.

Regardless, I have been buried under a pile of over 700 submissions (not bad for a regional festival) and the process of wading through them, as well as films that are new and that we are actively soliciting, has left me almost no time to blog. So, I have to get back to the films and my programming team of Max Burke-Phillips, Craig Riley, and Maureen Donovan, as we wade through the deep waters of independent film, but I'll leave you with a proposal for a Film Festval Programmers Theme Song. I believe that everyone, everywhere who works as a film programmer can relate to this song and I hope that, as you plow through the mountains of VHS and DVD screeners at 1:00am jacked up on Diet Coke and junk food (maybe that's just me), you can find comfort in the knowledge that, as Michael Jackson once sang, you are not alone.

SUBMISSION by The Sex Pistols
(The Film Programmer's Theme)

I'm on a submarine mission for you baby
I feel the way you were going
I picked you up on my tv screen
I feel your undercurrent flowing
Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell ya what I've found

You've got me pretty deep baby
I can't figure out your watery love
I gotta solve your mystery
Your sitting it out in heaven above
Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell you what I've found
For there's a mystery
Come share it
Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell ya what I've found
'Cos it's a secret
Submission going down down
Dragging me down submission
I can't tell ya what I've found
Submission Submission