The six year old's reaction

Today I showed Nathalie, her parents, and 3-year old and 9-year old brothers, the film. Nathalie has grown since the last time I saw her, at her 6th birthday last summer. Her cheeks have lost their baby fat and she's gotten more giggly. I was slightly terrified that the family would watch in expressionless-horror, think that I had created some horrible impenetrable art piece that used their daughter as a wooden doll. But no, they actually seemed to love it. Nathalie and her brothers shrieked with delight when they saw her face on the television screen. She laughed because she remembered filming the movie but would never have imagined that this is what it would look like. The parents thought it was beautiful and flowed well. The three-year old was far more interested in showing me the farting sounds in "Ice Age" than watching my film. So it was a nice little bit of encouragement.

I am basically in a holding pattern, the sound and image editing 95% done, now I need to send the film to festivals and look for money. I have a friend of mine who is going to try to help me with this but it seems quite hopeless. Plus, I spend far too much time looking at film festival websites and dreaming of sitting in crowded theaters in krakow and lisbon and edinburgh and portland, and far too little actually looking for funding and writing scripts and being a creative spirit. The internet is an addictive force that is pulling me into mediocre behavior. I believe only chocolate will save me.