Derrel Johnson

The World Premiere of the 2014 Imagination Series Films took place Tuesday, April 22, 2014, in lower Manhattan as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.  Presented by Bombay Sapphire Gin, the event centered a great evening of entertainment and delicious cocktails on two floors with five short films.

Upon entering the event, guests were greeted with cocktails named after the five films, and 45 minutes into the event, guests were seated to view the five films.  The first film, “Reflections” directed by Anthony Khaseria from the United Kingdom, centered around a couple on a date whose evening is disrupted by a mirror that peaks into an alternate reality.  The second film and my favorite of the five was The Other Side of the Game, a psychological thriller directed by New Yorker Kiara Jones that has an ending that will leave all stunned who watch it.

The third short was “Graffiti Area” directed by Maiti Fernandez of Spain, which looks into the vivid imaginations of two graffiti artists.  The fourth film was “Need For Speed (Dating)” directed by New Yorker Allyson Morgan.  It takes a look at the world of speed dating from the perspective of an imaginative woman who knows what she is looking for.  The fifth and final short was “Exit Log” directed by Chris Cornwell from the United Kingdom, which takes a futuristic look at time travel over 200 years into the future.

Immediately following the premieres, Academy Award winner Geoffrey Fletcher, who wrote the short scripts, led a question and answer session with each of the directors.  “Sci-Fi is great fun to work with on a short,” Cornwell said about his work.  Fernandez, who learned about her film’s selection on her birthday, said “The imagination is like a muscle. You have to exercise” in her first visit to New York City. Khaseria was really humbled by the experience.  “I am really touched to have gotten this far,” he said of being selected.  Morgan talked about her personal life’s influence on her short.  “My partner Michael and I have a two-year old son.  I thought about being trapped.” The veteran even surprised her partner Michael with the film, as he didn’t know it was semi-autobiographical.  She described the process of being selected for the Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series as “starting at the finish line”, and talked about trying to think of the audience and getting down to the core of what emotion is. Morgan talked about her process starting with “a delicious Bombay Sapphire drink” which inspired cheers from the crowd.  She included lines from actual gentlemen in her short, and thanked her many friends who were there.  “You are only as good as your support system.”

After the Q&A session, patrons enjoyed more Bombay Sapphire cocktails while listening to the soulful sounds of DJ Mel DeBarge, who even got me on the dance floor during the evening.  There were two virtual tours at the event, an interactive piano that played music and voices of different recordings of people whose faces appeared on a giant video board, and there were too many cocktail stations to name.  The event also included passed appetizers, cotton candy, popcorn, and much more.  To check out the five shorts, visit YouTube.com/BombaySapphire and be on the lookout next year for the third installment of Bombay Sapphire Imagination Series during the Tribeca Film Festival next year.