Kris and I were able to participate in our first KOTM Panel discussion on Saturday afternoon. We were invited by IFP/Chicago to sit on the Producers Panel to talk about making the film, getting a sales rep, playing a major film festival, and trying to get distribution. It was a great honor to sit on the panel with Ruth Leitman, who made the recent doc LIPSTICK AND DYNAMITE (in theatres now), and Lilly Bright, producer of THE HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, directed by Asia Argento based on the book by J.T. LeRoy (in theatres sometime this fall). I met Lilly very breifly in Austin, as we were both jockying for good wall space in the Press Lounge to hang posters for our movies. It was nice to get to actually talk to her and get to know her a bit. Ruth was also great, and Kris and I spent some time with her talking about filmmaker empowerment, and how we need to reclaim some of the power from the Festivals. Ruth teaches here in Chicago, so hopefully we can hang out with her again.

Another pleasant surprise was running into the filmmaker Ronit Bezalel, who was on the jury one year for the Big Muddy Film Festival, when Kris and I both worked there. I hadn't seen her for over 2 years, but it was cool to run into her, and we traded films and got to catch up.

I also met a lot of great IFP members, who had plenty of good questions, and were excited to know more about KOTM. It was a great experience, and I hope we get to participate in more events like this.