A day of movies, meetings

Friday 2:45 p.m.

Left the condo this morning at 7:45 a.m. to catch my first screening. It was snowing, but not nearly as cold as our first two days here.

Caught the shuttle to the Yarrow, a hotel that houses two makeshift theaters exclusively reserved for press and Industry screenings, to catch the 8:30 a.m. screening of “A Good Day To Be Black and Sexy.” I wanted to see this film as a possibility for a new section of the Sarasota Film Festival that will be attempting to develop new audiences.

The film is set to a ’70s style rhythm and funk beat and chronicles the sex lives of several couples. Next up at 11:30, I duck into the theater next door to watch “The Visitor” directed by Tom McCarthy who won three awards for “The Station Agent” at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. I liked this film a great deal as it follows an economics professor still grieving the loss of his wife who finds his NYC apartment has been taken over by two illegal immigrants, Tarek, a Lebanese man and Zainab from Senegal. He becomes swept up in their lives and it effects a profound change on him.

In between I took a brief meeting with Mike Ryan, a producer and Dan Mirvish, the co-founder of Slamdance, who has a script for my producing partner Keri and I and is looking for financing. We agree to meet up again later in the after to discuss further. — Jody Kielbasa