We are grateful for the opportunity to share Becoming Fools with Omaha and look forward to enjoying the festival events!
We would love to pack the house. Please save the date: Becoming Fools will screen sometime during the festival between March 6-10, 2013.
Stay Tuned for more details.
Thank you to the wonderful team at Omaha Film Festival!
Why do we keep marching forward in something that seems so foolish? Seriously, sometimes I wonder if I am just stubborn or foolish myself. Either way, we seem foolish for pressing on. Today, I finally finished editing “Becoming Fools”, and we received our first response back from a film festival where we submitted the project. It read:
“I’m sorry to inform you that your project was not selected … Best of luck with your future projects.”
Not exactly the most encouraging news on this milestone of production.
Let me set the stage for this message. I’ve been working on the “Becoming Fools” documentary for two years, full-time for the last year and a half, and honestly, “full-time” is an understatement. It’s more like 16 hours a day, six days a week. I don’t share this for sympathy; I share it to emphasize just how truly foolish I feel.
From the very beginning, every step of this journey has felt foolish. It’s been a marathon of impossible hurdles designed to challenge our resolve to keep going:
– The protagonist of the story passed away while we were in pre-production.
– Amelia and I lost our day jobs within three weeks of each other, leaving us without a secure income.
– Our Kickstarter fundraiser failed to raise the necessary funds to produce the film.
– Funds were not raised to pay for the live theatrical event documented in the film.
– The lead character of the live theatrical event quit and returned to the streets.
– We had 485 hours of footage that needed to be translated before we could edit it down to feature length.
– The editing process took five months, working 16 hours a day, six days a week.
– We missed the opportunity to enter several major film festivals for the season.
– Technical difficulties complicated the finalization of the edit.
– Our first film festival notice was a rejection.
– We currently lack funds to release the film.
And yet, we continue. Why?
There are days when I wonder if I have wasted the last few years of my life investing in this seemingly foolish endeavor. Some days, it really stings and makes me feel like a total failure. But then I take a deep breath and remember why we started this project: it is a story that needs to be shared to inspire others.
What is failure? What is foolishness? Italo could be seen as both. He lived his life in accordance with the passion that God gave him, risking everything to care for kids who seemed unlikely to change. In fact, many of the children he helped still struggle with addiction and have not completely left the streets. But Italo didn’t die in those streets. Instead, his passion sparked the creation of a community of “fools” who believe they can make a difference together.
Was Italo a fool? Yes. Was he a failure? Absolutely not.
Like Italo, we continue because we are “fools” living our lives according to the passion God has given us. With that purpose in mind, there is no way we can fail. So, we keep marching forward.