Here’s another Scribbler pick from the Orlando Film Festival, currently happening at the Cobb Theater downtown.  Auld Lang Syne tells the story of three couples at their annual New Year’s Eve retreat in West Virginia.  The story starts with a visual tour of the to-die-for cabin where the gathering is held. By the end of the story, my one question for writer/actor Kimberly Dilts and director Johanna McKeon was: did the cabin survive the shoot? They assured me it did, and today my mind is lingering more on the three couples, and hoping for the best for all concerned.  Yes, by the end of two hours, I cared about them like old friends, and I believe you will, too.

Here is the synopsis from IMDB:

“On New Year’s Eve, married couple and theatre artists Steven and Vanessa host an annual get-together at their parents’ cabin for their oldest friends, struggling actress Sadie and her new surfer/rock star boyfriend Jude, Bryce, a repressed accountant, and Jodie, a world-weary photojournalist. When Jodie and Bryce drop a relationship bombshell over dinner, they set off a chain reaction of truth-telling that promises to destroy the carefully-crafted reality of everyone present. How long is too long to wait for your dream? Can art change the world? Are we all doomed? A film about old friends and artistic passion, Auld Lang Syne is a meditation on the creative class, global warming, and the power of damn fine pie.”

I saw “Read Me” at the Orlando Film Festival, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I laughed and cried and walked out feeling uplifted and humming the original score; what more can you ask from a feature film?  The really great news is that it’s playing again on Saturday, October 22nd at noon in Theater 10 at the Cobb Plaza Cinema Cafe, 155 South Orange Avenue, Orlando.  Written and directed by Fred Zara, and produced by Aviva Christie, “Read Me” tells the story of Clark, who can’t read words, but can read people. His special gift touches everyone he becomes involved with, and changes lives for the better. See this movie, and bring a friend.

Here’s the trailer. Enjoy!

Regular readers of this blog know that I was the 19th writer in residence at the Jack Kerouac House, and most of our friends know that I also met my husband Brad Kuhn at a party there; heck, we were married on its front porch.  But a lot of you haven’t heard the story of how another Kerouac House writer, Sion Dayson, and I met when I was selling copies of my novel, Sewing Holes at an authors fair at Bookmark It, or that within 5 minutes of our first hello, Sion and I had arranged a road trip (what else would two Kerouac devotees do?) from Orlando to New Orleans to start the day her residency ended, to visit our mutual friends from Paris. Sion’s boyfriend, French filmmaker Frederic Monpierre, who had just finished shooting raw footage of her at the K-house, gamely climbed into the backseat of Ruby, our trusty red Lexus, and with Brad acting as chauffeur, we were on the road.

Now we’ve come full circle, as Monpierre’s 15 minute documentary, Haunting the Kerouac House, starring Dayson, makes its Orlando debut at the Orlando Film Festival on Friday, October 21st at 7 p.m. in Theater 9.  Join us!  Here’s the teaser.