hello. my name is mike ambs.

ftomfilm:

In the last few years that I’ve been working on this film, I found it harder and harder to answer the question: what’s your film about? It was one of my most dreaded questions. People would introduce me at events, saying, “this is Mike, he’s a filmmaker”, and when that happened, it was usually all downhill from there.

Erica has really, really, really been pushing me to figure out a way to answer that question, because, well, it’s becoming more and more impossible to avoid it; and if I’m going to get anywhere with this film during IFP Film Week, I can’t just freeze up and stare at my feet everything someone ask about For Thousands of Miles.

The above audio file is of me practicing the film’s pitch with Erica late last night - it is the first time, in all the years I’ve been working on the film, that I a) answered that question clearly, and b) it took less than 3 minutes!

This moment wasn’t just a breakthrough for answering that question when it happens to come up, but it was a real breakthrough in presenting the film going forward.