Drinking the Accolades

Is it as dangerous as drinking the Kool-Aid?

Maybe sometimes.

But today, I think I’ll just celebrate.

At RIFFA 2024, Fear & Trembling won Best Saskatchewan Short Film!

Back in Spring of 2022, my friend Jeremy Ratzlaff took me out for lunch and told me about the short film script he had co-written with our mutual friend dustan j. hlady.

It was a chaotic, emotional, cinematic tornado following a church play directed by Kit, young millennial evangelical who was people-pleasing her way through surviving her trauma. It climaxed in a prophetic, psychotic break where Kit finally pushed back.

Jeremy loved so much about it but worried the ending wasn’t earned. So we brainstormed and he liked my suggestions enough to hire me to re-write the script. We created Sophia, the angel child, adding a sliver of tender redemption and a protective motivation for the meltdown.

I will forever be grateful for that invitation from Jeremy. It kicked off a string of experiences that involved Fear & Trembling and other films/projects that have been so so rewarding.

And now, a film I co-wrote, with characters I created and an original song I composed is being celebrated by my peers!

So I’m enjoying the moment.

One of the moments in this awards experience that really brought the joy home was listening to Jeremy and the inestimable Shauna Powers on the radio the morning after we won. I felt proud of him and all of us as he talked more about what went into Fear & Trembling and what it meant to us.