FilmOut, San Diego

What a crazy weekend!  I raced back to L.A. from Alabama on Sunday morning, showered, repacked, jumped into the car and drove down to San Diego for our featured, closing night screening there.  Head programmer, Michael McQuiggan, and is crew were great and what a terrific screening!  We had a long Q&A after -- covering some questions & issues that I'd never gotten the time to address on other occasions.  They were a thoughtful, generous audience and I had several exchanges with folks afterward that made me feel tremendously welcomed.  And the film seems to have made a good impression at FilmOut because we received quite a few of their awards!

Best Narrative Feature
Best Direction
Best Supporting Actor:  Cheyenne
Best Supporting Actress:  Illeana
Audience Award for Best Lead Actor:  Jason

 Check out this article for a full list of the awards:  http://sdgln.com/news/2011/09/08/green-wins-top-honors-filmout-san-diegos-lgbt-film-festival

The biggest surprise of the day came when a guy walked over to me in the lobby prior to the screening and asked, "Are you Steven Williford?"  I said, "Yes."  Then he extended his hand and said, "I'm Scott Williford."  You could have knocked me over with a feather.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've met other Willifords out in the world.  And the even crazier thing is that Scott has a brother named Steven, with a "v"!  We had a terrific conversation before and after the screening and I look forward to climbing high up into the family tree to find out if we're related -- which is a remote possibility since his grandparents originally hail from Dunn, NC.


Scott and his partner, Grant, live in San Diego and saw my name in the festival literature, prompting their trip to the theater that evening.  I still can't get over the serendipity of all that and I look forward to the next opportunity to share some more time with my heretofore unknown potential cousin.