Finding Sandler Film Spotlight
Today’s film spotlight focuses on the feature film Finding Sandler directed by David Seth Cohen.
What is the title of your film and what inspired said title?
The title is Finding Sandler.
The title was inspired by my quest to find my hero, Adam Sandler, and to finally have the drink I passed up with him back in 1998 when I worked on Big Daddy and he invited me to hang out.
Tell us a little bit about the story and origins of your film.
The film came to fruition because of a real life experience in 1998 and then a dream that I had in 2006, not long after my 30th birthday.
At that time, I was living in my grandmothers basement with my girlfriend and my two dogs while working at a Catholic TV station – which was a little unorthodox considering I’m Jewish – and not where I envisioned myself to be at that time of my life.
In the dream, I went to California looking for Adam Sandler to try and have the drink I passed up back in 1998 when I was 22.
Somehow in this vivid dream, I ended up finding Adam. The next thing I knew we started walking and talking and I abruptly woke up. It was at that moment when I realized that if I didn’t do something about this whole drink thing, I’d go on regretting that missed opportunity to hang with my hero for the rest of my life. So, I. decided to go on a quest, to document it, and to find Adam and try to have the drink I regretted passing up in 1998.
Any films or filmmakers that inspired this film?
Adam Sandler of course!
Adam Sandler was definitely the inspiration for this film. Ever since he was on MTV and Saturday Night Live, I was a fan. And when he came out with the Chanuka song, it made me feel cool to be Jewish because before then there weren’t any Chanuka songs on the radio. I also loved his movies – Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, Big Daddy of course and Click are some of my favorites.
There are a lot of other filmmakers that inspire me too, but for this project, it was really just Adam Sandler.
What is the goal of the film for you?
My goal for this film is probably similar to most independent filmmakers goals with theirs – to get it seen by as many eyeballs in the public it can be seen by and after that to be able to make another movie.
Hopefully while watching Finding Sandler people will get some good laughs, cry some tears, and get some inspiration to never give up on their dreams no matter what!
What has the journey been like getting the film into production?
I guess I was lucky because getting into production was pretty easy. I had a small production company with my friend, Dan Hagendorn, back in 2006 and when I woke up from that dream at 6am with this idea to make a film, he was my first call. Although Dan was reluctant at first, he agreed to help. After that, I reached out to some other friends to help out as crew and from there, we just started shooting.
The hard part of this film journey was the post production process. Because this is such a personal story, I always felt it needed to be told a certain way. In the early edits, I actually hated the film. So it took over 13-14 years (some of those with the film sitting on a shelf) to get the film finished. Really, an editor named Anthony Marinelli was the savior of this film. He took it off the shelf and his edit was the one that finally got me to love the movie. And then the animations by Chuck Downs really took it to another level – to make it cooler than I ever thought it would be. So although we started production in 2006, the film wasn’t complete until 2022.
One thing you learned from this project?
Oh man, I learned so much on this project, but I guess the overall lesson can be summed up by a quote from a Rolling Stones song “You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.”
How can folks find you and your film online?
People can find me on Instagram @davidsethcohen, on Facebook @davidsethcohen and on tik tok @realdavidsethcohen.
Currently, the only way to see Finding Sandler is at a festival because the film has not yet been released. We will release it as soon as the proper distributor for this project comes along.
So for now, if anyone wants to see Finding Sandler soon, they can see it on the big screen at a festival. It will play at the Montauk Film Festival in Montauk, NY on July 23 (they are also offering it streaming), Long Beach International Film Festival in Lynbrook, NY on July 29, the Manchester International Film Festival in Manchester, NH on August 13 (which is super special because that is Adam Sandler‘s hometown), and Highlands Comedy Film Fest in Highlands, NJ on August 20 (which is cool because it’s a drive in movie festival.)
Any last pieces of advice for fellow filmmakers?
My advice to any filmmakers is to keep following your dreams and to never give up until you make them come true. And if someone invites you have a drink – such as Adam Sandler – don’t say no!
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