Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Congratulations Martin Stitt on Venice!

There are a number of interesting stories going on with friends of ours at the moment, so I thought I'd post another here. Martin Stitt came to visit Reu in hospital on many occasions which was very kind given his commitments, often just popping in on the hoof.

So it's fantastic news today hearing Martin, film director, is having his short film What does your daddy do? premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The 14min film is a "hard-hitting drama about paedophilia and its effect on family life".

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/film/article-23365929-details/Banker%20cashes%20in%20on%20film%20fame/article.do

Martin moved to LA in July to train at the prestigious American Film Institute after a reconnaissance in April to see whether giving it all up to chase the dream would be a wise thing. When he showed us the short film, I was immediately stunned at how much emotion he so succinctly crammed into 14 minutes. You felt as if you'd been watching a full length movie and the subject matter lay heavy on our hearts.

In April, heavily pregnant, I enjoyed driving him round the hotspots in LA and to the film school and recall watching other short films by graduating students which were presumably being used as a benchmark to illustrate to Martin and other prospective students Look what you can achieve with this film school. And yet Martin and I walked away feeling, hey, he's already streets ahead.


There are a few of us who had bit parts in his movie Nine Days of Hell in 2002. That seems like a long time ago now with everything that's gone on since, and I think for Martin, it must seem like a lifetime ago in terms of what he's achieved since.

Little Reu gets a mention on Martin's blog
http://martin-afi.blogspot.com/2007/08/paradise-for-seven-dollars.html

Congratulations Martin!

With Martin and his wife Julia, visiting from the UK, in the Summer

1 comment:

Crystal M. said...

Wow that is wonderful, it sounds like he is going to be a great film maker.
Hugs,
Crystal and Eva