Spit Farther! (2003)

Director/Co-Producer (with Mark Nathan). For the last half century, the little town of Luling, Texas has held an annual Watermelon Thump Festival – and its own world championship watermelon seed spitting competition. This short documentary is about both the contest and the chief seed spitting judge, Phil, an underemployed, over-stimulated, former expatriate, who’s come home after years abroad in Europe. Premiered at SXSW 2002. Screened at Doubletake (Full Frame) Film Festival and the Dallas Video Festival. Texas PBS broadcast on SXSW Presents Oct. 2006.

The idea for this film came from after years of making UT students produce short documentaries for my classes.  I thought it’d be fun to try one myself.  We shot over two plus days at the Thump Festival in June 2001, with Deb Lewis on camera (and competing!) and Diane Zander-Mason on sound.  Sandra Guardado edited.  And one of the surprises was filming a past world champion, Tito Beveridge, who besides being great at splitting watermelon seeds, is also the founder  and owner of the world famous Tito’s Vodka!