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I can't believe how lucky I was/am this year. Not only did I participate in a few profoundly creative and energizing projects--a mix of narrative and film endeavors--I have become giddy with glee, because after a two-minute conversation with my former film-producer friend, Margaret Ford Rogers, I got back into filmmaking mode. BACK. Full speed ahead!

Mickie and Margaret

Long story short. Margaret is the screening director for the prodigious Charleston International Film Festival and moi, the screener for Edina Film Festival (EFF). We are old friends and old film business partners. Last month, Margaret came down to our frozen tundra to visit me and  check out our film festival. That first morning I remember walking from the living room into the kitchen, and saying very quietly: "I think it's time I made another film. It's been too long."

The words weren't even out of my mouth when I heard, "Alone?"

I took a few steps back and said, "You don't like fiction. I want to do fiction." For years, Margaret has been dreaming about returning to Cuba to film a documentary on the settlement of the first American colony in the east.

"Yes, I do," she said softly. Wow, how could I forget Margaret's multiple awards for screenwriting (all for narrative scripts).

Seaweed and Viennese Liqueur

"Well, you won't like this idea. It's based on the story I wrote for the Festival in Crime anthology. Six people read it, four loved it, one didn't. You were on the fence. Remember?"

"What are you talking about? I loved your story. I couldn't put it down. But I was confused in some places. You know very well Ms Mickie that I'm a concrete thinker, you are more abstract . . ." Margaret was being nice. For her, 'abstract' is a euphemism for 'muddled'.

And just like nothing, my butt was once again seated in the living room, across from my concrete-thinking pal.  For the next two hours we ate seaweed and drank creamy white liqueur out of tiny round bottles that came all the way from Vienna. At the end, Margaret had nailed down the script for the trailer. And I loved it!!!

Not only are we the co-directors and co-producers of a new short film called The Lightness of Pins, but we are planning to shoot the trailer in May 2014. (Stay tuned for more about the film and upcoming website.) I am so happy I could spit. And now the work begins. Script and grant writing, deal making, hiring crew, auditioning actors, and best of all--watching film after film after film after film. I even signed up for Netflix.

I'm still writing and reading but have added at least one film or television show--or two--a day to my research/entertainment schedule. I continue to read--as many film reviews as book reviews.  I will never stop loving books, but I've been reunited with my soulmate--film.

So what does this mean for my blog and followers. You guessed it: film reviews. I'm going to start by reposting  earlier film and television reviews. After that, I will write up something short and spiffy about anything and everything I've been watching lately. I will continue to post some of my work: excerpts from novels, entire essays and memoirs, other people's writing and art, photos, etc.

The Lightness of Pins

SYNOPSIS

In the summer of 1965, a boy and a girl shared an exquisite moment. For one, it left a lifetime of soul-crushing shame. For the other, an indelible exhilaration.

One can’t forgive and the other can’t forget.

Forty-three years later, they agree to meet and re-enact the singular episode. As both adults scramble to make sense of the mysterious past, slowly, inexorably, grief and strange compulsions begin to tear at the seams of their neatly hidden lives.