INDIAN RIVER ORANGES Not Chosen For Sundance

In filmmaking, honesty in one's failures and rejections is as important as in one's victories and accolades. Today I received the letter. The Sundance Institute has decided not to include my first feature-length screenplay, INDIAN RIVER ORANGES, in its January 2005 Screenwriter's Lab.

This, of course, was a tremendous disappointment to me. INDIAN RIVER ORANGES was the best I've had to offer, and now it is dead, at least for the time being. After receiving tremendous praise from the likes of Sterling Van Wagenen and screenwriter Barry Sandler, I suppose I can be proud of being among 400 chosen for serious consideration out of the over 2000 applicants who sent in their work. But I guess I'm cynical. I tend to assume that at least 80% of the people who think they're talented in this world in all actuality suck supremely, so the fact that I was counted among those who did not suck isn't entirely comforting. One who sucks not can still be not-good-enough, and that's how I feel at the moment. No matter. I shall push on. I'm finally working on a new feature project, and perhaps this is just the kind of closure I need to push me forward into a new project. Thanks again to all who supported me in this endeavor. Your help and praise has been invaluable.