I am incredibly honored to serve as Vice-Chair at the Garden State Film Festival.  This year, in particular, I was so proud of our team for our response to the stay-at-home order due to COVID-19.  With less than less than two weeks to plan, we switched gears and live-streamed our entire program (all 240 films), as per our original schedule. GSFF was the first film festival in the U.S. (and, possibly, the world) to successfully pivot and execute the live-streamed version of our event in its entirety and, since then, we have had many other festivals reaching out to us for advice about how they can do the same.

Our 4-day event culminated in our annual awards ceremony.  While we usually give the awards out at a black-tie dinner on the last night of the festival, this year our Executive Director (Lauren Concar Sheehy) and I broadcast the ceremony on Facebook Live, from her living room (from 6-feet apart), while in our pajamas (eating ice cream).  And it was perfect.