Tawny Foskett

Why This, Why Now?

Because of two primary factors:

First, I realized it was time to celebrate and honor my most recently completed film, Natasha & Sam, which was also my graduate thesis film from 2019.  Five years onwards from finishing it I am ready to add it to my repertoire on YouTube where I’ve put up my other work.  This film was fully completed in 2020… it was a film made in the background of a lot of emotional storms in my life, but a piece of work about my earlier life- and a time that was and still remains very important to me.  I shot this film in February 2018 in Montreal. Very shortly after this my marriage fell apart. Six-months later I relocated back to Northern California. Soon after this I fell in love with Bunny; then we had the Pandemic, Bunny got cancer, and then she died and my world upended… throughout those first years after the film was completed, I submitted it to festivals, especially in the “experimental” categories, but it turns out (as my friend Sanne would say) it wasn’t a “festival film.”  Not every film is.  So in realizing it was time to let it live on my YouTube Channel (where it can be found come March 21st) I needed to have a celebratory screening first.  I'm thrilled that it will now have its premiere in the 150-seat theatre at The Arcata Playhouse (March 4th) in the 9th annual Zero To Fierce festival, which is all about celebrating creative works created by, for or about women.

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Also, as I was brainstorming the right way for this work to be honored, the real-life “Samantha” reached out to me in November 2024- for the first time in 19 years!  As she has a common name I hadn’t been able to find her, and hadn’t even known if she was still alive.  It has been more than incredible and precious to reconnect with her again, and we are planning for me to visit her in Northern England this year, where we’ll see each other for the first time in 28 years!  In discussing this reconnection with my friend, Char, she said, “it sounds like she is your Muse” and that inspired me to wrap all the media pieces together into this package (as I had also concluded some months ago to let go of the idea of producing the feature script, and put it out there to the world, as an offering.)  Additionally, I’ve realized that it wasn’t obvious (to anyone but me!) that my 2005 film, Lost Almost, was also about this same story, same event in my life.  So here we go: I now get to honor all elements of this story, my past, and the work I’ve done around it- and I so look forward to sharing it with you.

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