Untitled Document

I am done with my documentary on the Book-Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit. More importantly, it has been submitted for the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. The entire thing is now out of my hands.

I'm done making my film and editing it. No more of trying to condense 80 years of history into a 1 hour film, when the story about the building's redevelopment efforts keeps changing. No more worrying about how to connect a local story in Detroit to a broader, international audience or how to explain abstract concepts in very real terms.

I'm done writing short and long versions of the synopsis for my Sundance submission packet.

I'm done with the director's commentary.

I'm done worrying about which of the couple dozen or so production photos that I have should include in a press kit.

I'm done agonizing over my film's web site; what should be on it and how should it be presented.

Simply put, I'm done.

It felt so incredibly good to dropped it off. When I walked into the UPS Store and handed the clerk my package to be overnighted to California, it was one of those incredible, "My God - I did it" moments.

When the clerk at UPS handed me my receipt for the shipment, I succumbed to a somewhat corny urge that I had and wrote the word "Victory" across it. No other word really described it.

Almost 2 years of my life are now condensed into a 7-digit code that the Sundance Committee will use to track my film and everything that goes with it: UDF7137.

I later learned that it's "U" as in United States, "D" as in documentary and "F" as in feature-length. Please don't ask me what the "7137" signifies because I haven't a clue.

UDF7137.

It's kind of ironic, if you stop and think about it, that so much of my life would come down to such an odd little code. Anyway, I'm thrilled to be done with it.

For now, I'm off to celebrate. Tomorrow, I start work on my next project.