The audience for Other People gushed at a screening of the film on Opening Night of the Sarasota Film Festival, but Producer Sam Bisbee said the film a couple years ago seemed doomed to never be made. “It seemed like everyday, there was some crisis,” he said. But Sarasota investors in the film helped carry the project through the hard times, so it was exciting to bring the film back to Southwest Florida.

“This is very much a Sarasota product,” Bisbee told SRQ. “Two people from Sarasota helped us put this project out together. Every film requires someone to take a risk, to think it’s beautiful and love it.” And after the screening finished, Bisbee sat with those investors, Skip Sack and Franklin Carson, to celebrate the film’s ultimate success.

Carson, who has known Bisbee for years, knew from the moment he read the script that this project was worth the investment and the wait. “I just fell in love with it,” he said. “It was an incredible story and had an incredible cast.” Even during the period when the movie seemed lost in development, Carson felt a business intuition that this story would have an audience, and knew it had the emotional pull to hold viewers.

Sack’s investment was largely thanks to trust in Bisbee, whom he met at a President’s Dinner at the Sarasota Film Festival five years ago. Since that time, he has made four films with Bisbee. “Sam has a business model that takes the risk out,” he said. Bisbee, for what it’s worth, wishes that were completely true, but said having the trust of investors makes filmmaking easier.

Sack was awarded a Hometown Hero award by the Sarasota Film Festival during the Opening Night festivities for his investment in Other People. And this film already has found success. After a warm reception at Sundance, Netflix acquired Other People for distribution.

Read our full coverage of the Sarasota Film Festival at SRQBacklot.com