After five months on the festival gravy train, I have been shamed into starting this blog. I’ve never blogged before and fear it could become addictive. Here’s hoping it will be equally addictive for those who want to know what’s happening in the world of SKIN.

My festival calendar began this year at the Palm Springs Film Festival, followed by a brief stint at Sundance (where we weren’t showing the film but it was being promoted by our Sales Agent, Robbie Little of The Little Film Company). Part of the joy and privilege of attending all these festivals is that one learns so much from talking to one’s colleagues and seeing their work; the festival circuit is a kind of post-graduate film school. I saw extraordinary films at Sundance, most notably Lee Daniels’ exquisitely painful film, PUSH, which became a triple award-winner by the end of the week.

I’m am now in Santa Barbara for our stint at the SBIFF, where we have been presented with a few programming challenges... Our first screening was at 8:15 am last Sunday. Goaded and encouraged by marketing guru Paula Silver (of “My Big Fat Greet Wedding” fame) my composer Helene Muddiman, publicist Stacy Hess and I brazenly leafletted at the festival’s Penelope Cruz Tribute Saturday night, offering free bagels and coffee to all souls brave enough to turn up to our dawn slot. The bribery worked. Our screening was almost full and the response to the film was overwhelming (or perhaps it was just gratitude for the free breakfast).

The next challenge was how to woo an audience for our Tuesday evening slot - fine in theory, but competing with the Kristin Scott Thomas Tribute up the road. The latter would suck up 2000 potential audience members. But Helene arrived at the KST event early, and found a bevy of photographers and journalists kicking their heels on the red carpet, waiting for the star to arrive. Helene told them about SKIN and they begged her to call me over for pictures and interviews. I was just finishing dinner and rushed over to join Helene. Publicity opportunities for filmmakers are few and far between at SBIFF, as the festival’s main focus appears to be these nightly tributes for Oscar nominees.

But my concerns about no audience for our screening turned out to be unfounded: our Tuesday screening sold out, and most of the audience stayed behind for the Q&A. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be the final screening of SKIN at Santa Barbara... watch this space for further updates!