Our ‘Coming Home’ Screening at SIFF

Besides the cast and crew premiere of our film, there was one screening that I dreamed of from the very beginning: Playing in Seattle at SIFF.

I can honesty say that when banging my head against a wall in the shower, despondent and looking for any way to fund While You Weren’t Looking, the thought of a theater-full of local Seattle-ites laughing along with Daylen helped me keep faith that it would all be worth it in the end.

That day finally came today. Six hundred local adults and kids of all ages filed into the Uptown SIFF theatre to see the Family Showcase, and like a perfect echo of my dreams, they chuckled at Daylen’s misadventures all along the way.

But something happened there that I didn’t expect, and extraordinarily touched me. Throughout the screening, a young girl of 2-3 directly behind me kept asking questions of her Mom about the movies playing like “Why’s the bear sad Mommy?’ ‘Why does the frog’s tongue go so long?’ She was that perfect age where she was free of any social conditioning that stopped her from speaking exactly what was on her mind.

And when our film finished playing, she whispered enthusiastically – “I liked that one Mommy’. She had no idea that the director of the film was sitting right in front of her, nor would she have really cared.

I had to bite my upper lip to keep from tearing up.

When I set out to make While You Weren’t Looking, the thought of a theatre full of people inspired me, but it was one true honest response of a child that affected me the most. I couldn’t have asked for a better lesson in filmmaking.