Raindance Film Festival

My guest today is writer, director, and producer Reese Chapman.

And Reese's breakout project, Wonder Kid, was backed by major organizations such as Adidas, the Premier League, and Sky Sports, and premiered at the Rain Dance Film Festival before being broadcast on Sky Sports and Sky Cinema across Europe.

Now, with over 7 million views online, the film has left an incredible mark, prompting over 100 screenings within football communities, including Russia.

Now, his most recent short film, Ryan Can't Read, which won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Live Action Short at the Edmonton International Film Festival, has been showcased at numerous Oscar and BAFTA qualifying festivals.

I'm Michelle Kawamoto-Perry, joined today by Mayer Prasad and Sanam Hassan as we explore the intersection of leadership, storytelling, and creating opportunity through compassion and purpose.

One of the comments coming out of Rain Dance Film Festival described the film as being filled with light and love and hope.

Why do you think audiences are responding so deeply to this story?

I think because of the way the story is told, you see the beginning, and I don't want to give away the storyline, but from beginning to the end, it kind of builds up this, because you don't realize that it's going to end in such a hopeful way and such a hopeful light.

So that was sort of the first step.

set of reactions that we received.

Then the Rain Dance Film Festival, which started off as a small independent film festival.

It's now in its 34th year and has become quite big.

One of them was an animation.

Another one did well in Raindance Film Festival.

And I absolutely loved it.

And then I was around, was it around this time last year, maybe? My husband turned to me and he was like, you know, you've not made a film in a little while.