Shoes Full of Feet

TFF is in full swing right now, with as many films, parties, panels, and special events as one could ever want...or dream of. With hundreds of filmmakers, industry, and press, dozens of stars, and thousands (millions?) of festivalgoers - and the entire stressed, sleep-deprived, running-solely-on-adrelalin-and-hors d'oeuvres festival staff running around the city trying to make it all run smoothly - there's certainly no lack of drama and excitement.

But amidst the insanity and the sheer enormity of it all, it's the quiet moments spent getting to know a few people that makes the rest more manageable. Such was a certain set of introductions made at the Apple Store party last Thursday evening, where I met the star players of Toronto-based film company Shoes Full of Feet: Kris Booth, Raj Panikkar, and Bryce Mitchell. Their short film For All the Marbles - directed by Kris, produced by Raj and Bryce - is playing in the Family Festival's Show and Tell program.

These guys are AWESOME. We spent more than one night hanging out together, and with other short filmmakers, and suffice it to say that I could not have asked for a better way to spend the first weekend of my first Tribeca Film Festival. We ate, talked film, had drinks, I showed them around Tribeca very late at night, and even took them into Tribeca Cinemas through the "back door" (i.e. the Box Office...according to Kris it was "SO Goodfellas"). It's not every day that you meet people who you want to know for the rest of your life, but it happened to me last week, and it was brilliant.

To the Shoes - I still don't know you very well, but my life improved when we met. You rock my world.

Raj, Bryce, and Kris. Perfect photographic summary.