Tag Archives: SFF

Sarasota Film Festival – The US Premier of An Encounter with Simone Weil

At the Sarasota Film Festival, we had the opportunity to speak with Julia Haslett, director of the documentary An Encounter with Simone Weil.  This film is the result of Julia’s six year journey exploring the life and philosophy of Simone Weil, a French philosopher and social activist.  Julia approached the project in an unusual way – with an actress who immersed herself in the writings and life of the subject.

Her own alarm over the economic and political conditions of millions of world citizens was an inspiration for this work.  The documentary asks critical questions about human suffering.  See the trailer here:

See more at the film website.

Sarasota Film Festival – One Smart Indian

Take a minuscule budget and 24 hours spread over three days in NYC…and you get Craig Butta’s One Smart Indian.  This story of an aging writer trying for a last ditch comeback plays at Sarasota Film Festival as part of the Midnight Shorts program.  If you missed the earlier screening, you can see it again on Wednesday, April 13th at 10:15 PM.
Craig talks about making the film in this interview.

See the One Smart Indian trailer.

Sarasota Film Festival Opening Night 2011

Opening night at the Sarasota Film Festival brought filmmakers, actors and festival sponsors out for the movie Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times.  The red carpet event at the Sarasota Opera House was the place to be for movie lovers on Friday night.

Sarasota Film Festival – Ringling College Student Trailer Competition

Movie lovers eagerly await the annual Sarasota Film Festival.  This year, it runs from April 7-17.  Since the first festival in 1999, the event has grown exponentially.  Attendance this year will be over 45,000!  SFF has expanded to an eleven day event that offers over 200 movie screenings, family activities, educational sessions and panel discussions, student competitions, parties and many other events.  This is the largest event of it’s kind in the Southeast.

This year, there was also a new online competition for Ringling College of Art and Design to select the best trailer for the festival.  Students in the Motion Graphics department created trailers and the public voted online to select the winner.  When I spoke with Tom Hall – Artistic Director at SFF – he said the response was great for this first time competition.

The winning trailer will be announced and played before the opening night film – Page One.  During the festival, each film will open with one of the finalist’s trailers.  A great opportunity for Ringling students to show their stuff!  Here’s an example: