It Was the Talk of the Shiva!

It's amazing how much you can do in a week. We are back after an amazing adventure! In the course of the week - we probably each slept about 14 hours - so, it's all kind of a blur. But it's a really, really good blur. We did about 10 interviews, had a fantastic second screening, and got lots of great feedback. Everyone in Austin was covered in balloons and our T-shirts became a hot commodity. We also met a lot of cool filmmakers from "The Job", "Frownland", "Confessions of A Superhero", "Big Rig", "Crazy Sexy Cancer" and many others. It was nice to meet other people in similar situations. And (name dropping alert) - we even chatted a little with Morgan Spurlock and Paul Rudd.

At the closing night party we talked to a couple from NY who came to our Saturday screening. When we asked how they heard about the film, they informed us, “It was the talk of the shiva!” For those of you who do not know, a shiva is a period of mourning following the death of a Jewish person. Makes perfect sense, eh? Seems, these nice folks were at a shiva in North Carolina when they met a friend of Naomi’s. They said they were going to SXSW and she told them about our film. Within minutes, everyone at the shiva was discussing a movie about balloon twisting conventions. Perhaps, the best shiva ever. We can only hope there comes a day when our movie is discussed at inappropriate venues everywhere!

We spent a good portion of the day on Thursday packing up boxes. We seemed to have over-ordered a bit. We made a $290 donation to the U.S. Postal service to send all of our marketing goods back home. More for next time.

And just to be consistent - Naomi's flight got cancelled again. This time she got as far as lovely Newark, and was able to spend some extra time to take in the sites (it's common knowledge that Newark is at its most beautiful in March, when the factories begin to bloom). Readers are hereby advised not to book the same flights as Naomi when traveling in winter.

All in all - a really wonderful week. We both feel a huge relief to have screened and to have had such a positive reaction from the crowds. We've been putting off sleep for oh - I don't know - about 3 1/2 years. So, now seems like a good time to catch up on that. We'd love to chat more - but we're actually already sleeping.


Hint: The real Sara and Naomi are the one's wearing the black T-shirts.


One of our first interviews, with G4 TV.


Vera signs an autograph.


In our hotel room: All of the boxes of marketing goodies we brought with us.


At the post office: A cart full of marketing goodies to ship home.


All in a day's work.