Plant A Seed Winner shows film at Cannes!

It's always nice to hear from one of our Plant A Seed winners, and in fact... I'm hoping to grab coffee with Carlos Portugal, who won for East Side Story in 2006, this very afternoon.



However, this was a complete surprise - while doing some research on queer film from the 30s (what us festival folk do in our off-time.. sad to say) I came across an interesting tidbit on http://moviedearest.blogspot.com/.

Kirk Shannon Butts, who has been called "Spike Lee for the LGBT set", recently screened his film Blueprint at the Cannes Festival Market. As many of you may remember, at Reel Affimations 16, Black Pride hosted a reception for Kirk and his crew after we screened a "First Look" cut of the film. The film received mixed reviews then, but I've heard from many sources that the recent edits have made all the difference in the world.



I often talk about the disconnect between the hard work that goes into putting on a festival and the seemingly effortless glamour (one hopes) that eventually appears.

But when you hear about someone we've nurtured and watched flourish over the years, it's the perfect fuel to keep going - to keep striving to unearth the talent and vision that's out there - and to give them a voice.

Congratulations, Kirk!