I'M NOT IMAGINING IT! BANNED!

A little bit ago, I made a post where I pondered how our film's subject matter was affecting our chances of playing at festivals. Over the past month, I received two personalized rejection emails where I discovered I wasn't being paranoid. Because they made me giggle, I thought I'd share them with you here.

The first message came from a festival that initially accepted us, but then rescinded the invitation. Naturally, I asked why and got the following response...

Hi George,

I wanted the film to play, but it got smashed down in a final decision by our PR team and the city sponsors as being too controversial. This has only happened one other time when I scheduled Birth of a Nation. Anyway, it sucks. Not sure what to do but offer an apology.

Wahoo! I'm putting this on our t-shirts - "This film ranks right up there with Birth of a Nation!" And here is the second email. This comes from a local festival in Washington...

Dear George,

When I reached out via FilmFreeway inviting you to submit, I thought the title and synopsis sounded fun. However, when our reviewers watched the film it just wasn’t a good fit for our audience. I actually had never heard of the term “Browntown” so was pretty surprised to find out what it all meant.

You will be receiving a notification that we will not be able to include in our lineup in September, but I wanted to write you personally just to explain. I’m sorry and hope you are too disappointed.

Yeeeah, I'll live. I actually consider both of these badges of honor - I'm being kept from festivals because I made a film without violence or nudity that makes folks uneasy. I'm freaking talented!