“The Swag Bag” A Mort Laitner Short Story
Who would have thought that I would ever be awarded a swag bag? Well it happened at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival. I was bestowed a sack full of free stuff. A (Well not so free, the cost of making a movie ain’t cheap). A goodie bag filled with irreplaceable items which will become souvenirs of my life. (A question for my accountant friends, Do I need to declare these gifts as income?) Here was my thank you for participating at the film festival.
I remembered reading the about the freebies found in the Golden Globes, Emmy or Academy Awards Celebrity Swag Bags—stuff like vacations to Oahu, plastic surgery gift certificates, iPhones, $100 Pilot pens, bathrobes, T-shirts and movie tickets.
This Hollywood time-honored tradition was a perk setup for A-listers and I was definitely not in that category. But I dove into the Fresh Market bag, embolden with the FLIFF logo and a bunch of photos of berries and veggies, as if it belonged to Leonardo DiCaprio.
My heart thumped as I pulled item after item from the bag: a gold rimmed Stella Artois wine glass filled with a cloth wrapped collection of message Valentine Day candy hearts; a FLIFF logo T-shirt, two film festival posters (To be framed), a Stella Artois bottle opener emblazoned with the words “Perfection has its price.”(Boy, as a movie maker, I’ve learned that lesson); printed tickets to my movie “The Stairs”. (To be framed); a stack of tickets to go to lots of other movies; an islands of the Bahamas key chain.
As I contemplated my collection of merch, I untied the ribbon on the cloth pouch of candies. The bag filled with yellow, pink and pastel blue hearts. The hearts inked with words of wisdom: MY LOVE; DATE NIGHT; FIRST KISS; LET’S KISS; BEST DAY; MELT MY HEART; 4U; TRUE BLUE; DREAM BIG.
I realized: my love of film making; how watching the movie on the big screen melted my heart; how my movie-making crew was true blue; a big kiss to my family for all their help; how this adventure was my big dream.
I will always cherish these goodies.
Blake and I give special thanks to FLIFF for accepting our film, especially Michelle Filippi, Gregory von Hausch and all the FLIFF staff for their kindness and professionalism.
