Soaking it up at the Sarasota Film Fest

Top Left to bottom right: Brentwood Elementary kids are eager to jump after
watching Summerwind Skippers perform • Summerwind on cover of Herald-Trib •
Lee hamming before ABC news interview • Magician Elia tries juggling in the ropes •
Fun in the sun • Sarasota has the best signage ("Let's Go Clubbing" & "Seeking
Someone to Share Gummy Bears") • Musicians at farmer's market •
Helen at awesome bookstore

The Sarasota Film Fest rocks! Not only did they have a nice line-up of films, but the location-- by a gorgeous Gulf Coast beach--and festive parties are tough to beat. Plus, my pal and documentary consultant Sarah Jo Marks of At Risk Films and Kelsy, Calli, Shane & Lee of the Summerwind Skippers were able to come, which made for a completely awesome trip.

SFF matched us with a ACI, a local company that generously sponsored the Summerwind Skippers to attend the festival. With Summerwind on board, the festival's educational outreach department worked with the Sarasota School Board Supervisor of Physical Education to plan a couple fun programs. First, we visited Brentwood Elementary School; 300 kids in kindergarden, 4th and 5th grade attended a 1.5 hour assembly in which they got to see clips from the film, a live jump rope show and participate in a an interactive demo. They begged for a jump rope team to start up at their school.
The following morning we were surprised and stoked to see a great front-page picture in the Herald Tribune of the Summerwind Skippers mid-flip in the Brentwood show. See photo above and check out additional photos in the newspaper's image gallery here.

Next up was an assembly for 200+ 8th graders at Booker Middle school, the city's most diverse campus. Booker was also a lot of fun -- enthusiastic kids with great questions about both the sport and the filmmaking process. And of course, they were also psyched to jump.

Other highlights: hearing that Summerwind was picked up from the airport in a limo, seeing Sarah Jo on a panel about distribution, sunset swim, Miami Rice Pudding ("have a rice day!"), the doc Great Speeches from a Dying World, the magicians (more soon), the farmers market and dancing our hearts out at the closing night party.