South Africa’s Ekurhuleni International Film Festival has accepted “The Stairs” as one of thirty (30) films it will show at its inaugural film event. The city of Ekurhuleni is the sponsor of the festival and shall be rolling out the films during the month of June at the O R Tambo Cultural Precinct in Wattville. Professional industry adjudicators selected our movie which will be screened daily throughout the festival. (I love the word “adjudicators” so much cooler than judges. It is so British.) The festival has the admirable goals of: sustaining jobs, boosting tourism and attracting visitors to explore South Africa.

For our fans who are keeping score this is our 6th acceptance. (But who is counting). We have now won in three continents, North America, Asia (Israel) and Africa. We still have Europe, South America and Australia to go. (There are no film festivals in Antarctic that I know of).

Looking at the logo for the Ekurhuleni Festival I see a beautiful lion. I realize that is how I feel regal, proud and poised to return into the  film festival jungle in search of  laurels.

For the readers of this blog, that are thinking, “What are the proper words to use in their Respondez s’il vous plait?” —meaning “Please Respond”. 

I recommend that you study Michael Santos’ exquisite reply—short, sweet and to the point. It made my day.

Please remember Emily Posts’ admonition “Anyone receiving an invitation with an R.S.V.P. on it is obliged to reply…”, and some recent editions describe breaching this standard as “inexcusably rude”.

Dear Mr. Laitner,