#COTB was SUPER FUN!

We had an AMAZING time at Cinema On The Bayou! My only regret is that I wish we could have stayed longer. We fell in love with both the festival and the city of Lafayette. This film festival is MASSIVE but somehow laid back at the same time! There were filmmakers from Japan, Ireland, Australia, and all over the US! Seeing all these other films made us feel even MORE GRATEFUL that we were the lone representatives of #DREAMPORT and in this festival at all! Narrative shorts is the most competitive field because they receive the most submissions. The festival received a total of 1200 submissions and selected 180 films (including short, foreign language, and feature length) to be in the week-long festival.

Pictured: us withFilm Festival Founder Rebecca Hudsmith. She’s from Shreveport originally and has been running this shindig for 14 years with her partner, Pat Mire! They are legitimately some of the nicest, most supportive people we have ever met. They have a sincere love of film and encouraging artists. During the Q&A after our screening, I was touched to see how much they wanted us to promote what we were doing next and to also show people in the audience the whys and hows of following your passion. Not enough of that in this world, if you ask me!

I really encourage you to check out this film festival next year if you can make it, even it’s just for a day! Lafayette is such an art-and-music loving city, and it shows. Plus the food is amazing, the hospitality is genuine, and the swamp tours are surprisingly beautiful and relaxing. (I had no idea I would feel this way. Highly recommend a tour with ALLEN of Champagne Swamp Tours! Did you know a swamp is one of the cleanest self-sufficient ecosystems in the world? IKR.)

Cheers to a wonderful weekend meeting new filmmakers and enjoying a city that knows how to party (without smoky-ass bars)!

(Also: SAZERAC, good golly miss molly they know how to make a cocktail down there danggggggg.)

#lafayette #independentfilm #brownbridgetmd #cinemaonthebayou

Learn more: cinemaonthebayou.com (Get on their e-mail list, stat!)