Puzzle pieces that fit

As we walked up to the El Prado in historic North Hollywood, CA, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the footsteps I would walk in on this day, the opening day of the Caribbean Lens Film Festival - the first such festival in Los Angeles where film is king. The realization that one of our films had been chosen for this historic event bowled me

over. 

It wasn't that it was a film festival - we had been to many of those before. It wasn't even that it was Hollywood. Other Jamaican films have been there before. I think it was the sense that God had set this up and had paved the way for a Jamaican faith-based film to screen at the very first Caribbean festival of films ever held in the land of films. Yea that's what it was! It was knowing that the funds to make the trip, the home we stayed in, car we were driving was all supplied through faith.

Kat & Karen Kramer
with Michael Brown

As I sat and listened to Karen Kramer, wife of acclaimed producer Steven Kramer of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner fame (and 31 other films), the significance of the moment became clearer. Here was a woman who inspired me. A woman whose husband defied convention by putting a black actor as his lead in a film that was controversial at least, who managed to hide that fact until it was financed and then gave up his salary and others when the studio found out and decided to cancel the production and went on to make a smash hit despite threats and odds. She spoke passionately about how much he believed in what he was doing, how much she believed in him and the social changes his movies precipitated. I was inspired to say the least.

I looked at my husband sitting next to me and thought about the passion we have for the faith based films we make. How much we believe in what we are doing and how much more passion and belief we will need to continue on our mission and complete the journey. How much we desire to change lives with our work. With three more films on paper to produce over the next three years, the task seemed daunting until now. 

There is something about passion and following that passion through the lows to the highs, through the debts and the gains and then passing out of this world having made it just that much better because you were here. There is something so rewarding and precious about making a difference. 

Follow your passion. Change a life. Save a soul. Make a difference. It's what I hope I will have done in the end. Selah!

AFRICA CHANNEL REPORT ON CARIBBEAN LENS FILM FESTIVAL, HOLLYWOOD