I love the Lonely Seal Festival. I am touched by its origin, of Hammad and his sister coming up with the name as children, inspired by a documentary in which a large group of seals was clubbed, except for one and that one died of loneliness.
Wow.
Hammad and Jonathan have created an ultra-safe and friendly space for filmmakers. It is really true, as it says in its description, that these are stories aching to be told.
The festival took place in the classic, beautiful, charming and welcoming Regent Theatre in Arlington/Boston. It is a gorgeous space and the staff there were very kind and helpful.
From the very beginning, when I applied, Lonely Seal has been friendly and kind. They contacted me before they even made their decisions of who would be in the festival, to be in touch and let me know how things were going.
Hammad truly pays attention to every detail of the festival, putting like-minded people together and doing his best to help everyone have the best possible time and get what they need/are looking for as a filmmaker.
Jonathan is a very experienced and wonderful tech genius and has even offered to help the Lonely Seal filmmakers with their websites!
I also love the inclusiveness of the festival, especially including people with special needs and women (50% of the filmmakers in the festival this year were women!).
I met a lot of very creative, fun and friendly people at the festival and saw many unique, touching films.
Hammad shared his vast expertise at a very helpful seminar during the festival as well.
Also, Hammad has gotten right back to me, whenever I have contacted him and has encouraged me to keep in touch and is also going to be putting together a message system for the filmmakers to keep in touch.
Again, I can’t say enough how friendly Hammad and Jonathan are and how much they care about you as a filmmaker; they made me feel very special, appreciated and respected.
They really went above and beyond.
Thanks for giving me, a first-time, untrained filmmaker a chance.
Laura Scruggs, director of Best Documentary Winner, Uncle Fun: You're the One.