Favorite Memories 2010

As 2010 comes to a close, i'm reminded of how much SDAFF has accomplished during this last year. It's been a year of work, joy, and hardships (definitely more joy then hardship). One of my favorite memories from this past year was seeing the packed house for the REEL VOICES program during the Film Festival. Our high school interns had been working hard throughout the summer to create a 5 minute documentary highlighting a topic near and dear to their hearts. Their hard work finally paid off when they got to premiere their films during the Film Festival at a special program dedicated to them. During which they got the opportunity to experience their first taste of being a selected filmmaker by participating in Q+A (the photo to the left is of student Calvin Ha), an autograph session, and much more. I got the chance to meet all of them, talk to them about their work, and ultimately become inspired by their drive. Now many of them will continue to pursue their film career with the experience they had either with film school or work on another project.

This memory particularly popped up in my mind today because one of the previous REEL VOICES students dropped in to work on a film project in our office. We usually keep tabs on all of the former students, so it's especially nice when a student goes out of their way to stay in touch with us. Makes me that much more excited to get out the word about this upcoming year's REEL VOICES class.

-DAN