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Seattle filmmaker Jimmy Bontatibus was sixteen years old when he made his debut short film about a teenage girl (Juliana Rotskoff) dating an older boy (the "old man" as her buddy calls him). Though it is really only a matter of a couple of years, that can be everything to a turbulent teen. Bontatibus explores the idealism of romantic love in a world where teens grow up fast and aspire to adulthood without the experience or the maturity to really understand it. Bontatibus shows a remarkable maturity as both filmmaker and storyteller in his first directorial effort. It made its world premiere at the 2012 Local Sightings Film Festival, Seattle's annual celebration of shorts, documentaries and feature films from the Pacific Northwest. - Sean Axmaker