"Welcome to the Fishbowl" makes Colorado a character in the film
One of the highlights of the Denver Film Festival is the Colorado Spotlight. These are films that have a tie to the state.
This year, there are 19 of them, including eight features, six documentary shorts, and five narrative shorts. Among the features is "Welcome to the Fishbowl," a midlife-crisis road trip comedy that was made by a Colorado filmmaker and was shot in Colorado.
In it, British actor Jeremy Swift plays famous author Storm Grandquist.
"He's a chaotic character with many sides to him, so I get to do it all, really," Swift told CBS Colorado.
In the movie, Storm Grandquist needs to get to Telluride to receive an award. It's Elizabeth Ford's job to get him there, and hijinks ensue.
The character of Elizabeth Ford is played by Natalie Gold.
"I love American comedy. I love American independent films, so that was sort of one box ticked. And it was a character unlike any that I've played before," Swift explained.
He also loved filming in Colorado.
"We had 21 locations in 23 days, so I got to see so many aspects of it. We went into the Rockies, and it was the first time I'd seen beaver dams in my life, which was thrilling," Swift recounted.
"It's a love letter to Colorado," said Colorado resident Sheryl Glubok, who co-wrote and directed the film. "I am on cloud 9. This is a dream come true. We worked on this script for twelve years until we got it into production and made the film."
"Welcome to the Fishbowl" is based on her own experience of trying to make her filmmaking dreams come true in midlife.
"Just because things don't happen immediately or when you're 25, it doesn't mean it's never going to. So I hope that people who are even younger can figure that out too from this film," she said.
Glubok figured out how to get her movie made. Now she's working on how to get it distributed widely. Denver Film Festival is one of the stops along the way.
