TGIM #6

Maybe not a dollar short, but definitely a day late. Please meet Matt Palmer, the 'film guy' I refer to during my periodic rants about the depression project.

I ran into him yesterday at the coffee shop and we were talking about one of my depression scripts where I go all tough-love about not playing the victim. Matt said something about how he learned the victim lesson the hard way. I said I had too. We high-fived. That's the kind of dude he is.

Name: Matt Palmer
Age: Unknown, but old enough to have had two kids and a mid-career crisis
Occupation: Producer/Director of Asante Sana Films (Asante Sana means 'Thank you very much' in Swahili, I think it is. Appropriate, no?)

Things You Can't Tell By Looking At Him: Hangs out at Caffe Beano with all the other cool film guys, is a graduate of UCLA's screenwriting program, would win Man Most In Touch With His Emotions Award if such a thing existed, is training for his first marathon, has a new blog about things beginning with 'Fuh.'

What are you grateful for?
I used to spend money on a lot of dumb stuff that I thought would make me happy. So I ended up with a lot of stuff and, you got it, The Big D, depression. It's been a long road to finding balance in my life, and setting intentions and manifesting good things in my life. Now, every night when I get into bed, I close my eyes and I feel gratitude for all the abundance in my life. I feel gratitude for my wife, my sons, our wonderful home, tremendous wealth and success, and for my Quadrinity (my body, intellect, emotion, and my spiritual self).

What's the most awesomest thing in your life right now?
There are two awesome things in my life right now. Sorry, can't do just one. The first is my family. My wife and I have so much fun watching our two boys develop and grow. There are not enough words to describe how awesome that is. The second awesome thing is the coming release of my feature documentary "Letters From Litein." We beat the odds with this film. It was done with little money, and despite a long search, we finally got a Canadian distributor (Kinosmith) who was willing to give us a show at releasing the film theatrically in Alberta. We are just waiting for our dates which should be in April.