Todd Holmes
Age: 42
Short film: "Ratana"
It's the story about young emotionally abandoned latch key girl who meets, by chance, this young man who is cleaning out the apartment of the girls neighbor, and they develop a report. He befriends her and helps her get through problems, and their relationship becomes more of an emotional attachment to her. It's a story that I wanted to tell based on my experiences living in New York, based on what I see. There are a lot of people living here. Still, there seem to be a lot of kids alone here in this whirlpool of people. The film was also inspired, in part, by a short film that I saw by a renowned Bengali filmmaker named Satyajit Ray, who did a film called "The Postmaster" in the 1960s. I had this idea of trying to adapt it, trying to do a remake of it set in present day New York - something I knew would be hard, since that film was set in turn of the century India. My film ended up being a different story, with this girl and man befriending each other. … I've been working in the world of entertainment for 15 years. I worked for many years in L.A. on interactive media stuff - Web sites, CD ROMS, video games, linear videos - but I got sick of that and I decided to pursue this. I work as a film editor, that's my bread and butter. I've been doing it full time for four years, working on everything from docs to features to promos. But this is my first film that's my film.

What does being included in the

festival mean to you?

It's a prestigious festival, it's regional, so it doesn't have the profile of Sundance, but within the industry, it's respected. And they have this focus on screenwriting, which is great. I don't know of any other festival that really focuses on that and on story in film, focusing on a script that's solid. So to have a festival that focuses on storytelling select me makes it especially rewarding for me.

What do you hope to get out of

its screening?

With a short film, it's a little different, because you're included with a block of films and don't have the same profile as a feature or documentary filmmaker. I've already been to Sarasota with it, and I understand kind of how that works. You just want your film to be seen and have the reassurance that it's a good film.

On the other level, it will be a great opportunity to network. Being able to meet people who can help me get other projects off the ground would be great.