Beyond Grateful For The Year We’ve Had
 As we welcome my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, we have one month to go of this year – and what a glorious year we’ve had here at Ramfis Productions. I want to start off by mentioning I was at the BFI London Film Festival with the Ramfis Productions team and we were able to go to various industry events, screenings, and meet so many creative wholesome people. As a result of us being there and connecting with the British Film world, we have some exciting news to share for next year. This is the second time I was invited to the UK Talent Days to be a mentor for 5 work in progress films. The fifth project was bought by Sony Pictures Classics which was an incredible achievement for the filmmaker. It was another spectacular edition of it, and all the mentees were incredibly receptive to the feedback and are ready to take their projects to the next level.  Thank you BFI London Film Festival for inviting me to the premiere and the afterparty for “The Kitchen”, written, directed and produced by Daniel Kaluuya. It was an honor and a privilege to walk the red carpet and to meet the filmmakers and the talent behind “The Kitchen” and attend the closing night party.  All dappered up and on my way through the main streets of London to get to the after party of “The Kitchen”. Netflix and the British Film Institute did a great job creating this fantastic immersive experience for the after party. Thank you BFI London Film Festival for hosting the UK Talent Days this year, I had the chance to meet so many phenomenal upcoming creatives with powerful films showcased this year and potential collaborators.  During the BFI London Film Festival I met up with Kristy Matheson, the British Film Institute Director of Festivals and had the chance to meet one-on-one and chat in depth. Kristy took the job in April and did a stellar job with the London Film Festival this year, it had an impressive lineup. Looking forward to building a relationship with Kristy, I’m a big fan of what she has been doing with the Festival and looking forward to next year, honored to have the privilege to talk and break bread with her.  Thank you Orphaned Starfish Foundation for the invitation to the OSF annual gala at Cipriani’s on Wall Street. It was a great night, wonderful to witness and attend an event surrounded by entrepreneurs and philanthropists dedicating their time and energy to raise money to cover university funds. I was impressed to see how Andy Stein had raised $300,000 in 9 minutes! I’m honored to be working with OSF and Andy Stein because I wholeheartedly believe in their mission and I’m excited to see what we will do together in the future for Haitian and Caribbean kids.  Excited to share that “Ricky” will be competing in the Domestic Student Shorts category at the Denver Film Festival next week. Very proud of the amazing writer/director Rashad Frett, and the cast and crew of this film. Shout out to Truce Media for supporting this film. Thank you Denver Film Festival for this honor. I will be attending the Denver Film Festival and supporting “Ricky” at the festival. For those who are in the area or coming out to the festival you can catch the “Ricky” screenings on November 10th and 11th.GET TICKETS  I am also grateful to share that RICKY won the Short Film Jury Award at Montclair Film Festival. Congratulations to the whole team, I’m so proud of the writer/director Rashad Frett. Big shout out to the cast and crew, we couldn’t have achieved this without all of you. Thank you Montclair Film Festival for this honor.  It was great to have multiple film screenings of “Bad Like Brooklyn Dancehall” last weekend at the Montclair Film Festival. We had a blast at the screenings and two Q&A sessions with Ben DiGiacomo, Amy DiGiacomo, and I. Evelyn Colbert the President of the Montclair Film Festival and Tom Hall, the Co-Head both loved the film and I was glad to be able to spend time with the Bad Like Brooklyn crew again.  I also want to do a Throwback to the end of October where I was pleased to go back to my second IronLight Summit in Nashville. They organized a Film Festival at Diamond Creek Farms. We presented an upcoming project that Ramfis Productions has been working on with Misfit Entertainment and Hugo Perez. I had a blast cultivating both new and old relationships, it was great to be in Nashville hanging with the Ramfis Productions and Misfits crew.  One of the highlights in Nashville was being introduced to Kemba Smith, the inspiration of Kelley Kali’s film, “Kemba”; a BET and MPI Original Film which is making its world premiere in November at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. Shout out to Lana Link, the producer of “Kemba” who introduced us. Excited to see the success of this film, it was really cool to meet Kemba Smith in person and get to know her when I was in Nashville.  Mentoring is one of the ways I try to give back to young filmmakers. It is very important for me to share all the knowledge I have acquired throughout the years in the industry and it brings me a lot of joy to help people get a bit closer to their dreams. This month I was able to speak at NYU for Sharon Badal’s class on Producing. I talked to her students about the process of becoming a producer. It’s always great to be back and connect with the NYU community.I was also fortunate enough to come back to Bushwick Film Festival. I was invited on a podcast style panel about shooting films in the US and internationally. This was the 5th year coming back exhibiting films at the festival and it is always amazing to connect with filmmakers and friends.Next week I am headed to India to attend Film Bazaar in Goa. The Indian Government commissioned me to come and help filmmakers on pitching, financing, and production. I will be sitting down with 8 filmmakers and working on 2 works in progress, giving live feedback on edits. This is the furthest East I have been before and I am so grateful to finally go to India and connect with such a special place.  Don’t Think About It, Do It!Have you been feeling stagnant in your creative process? Schedule a one-on-one consultation with me online or over the phone. Consultations will take your project from any phase of development to pre-production, production, and selling and distributing your project! To schedule your consultation, visit ramfis.net or email ramfis@ramfis.net.You will learn how to:Pitch your projectRaise moneyBook top-tier talentAttract investorsAcquire national distribution |
