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When Palm Beach Film School student Keri Lurtz wrote, directed and edited her first film Unconditional in October 2006, she had no idea her life was about to change. With nine years ingrained in the advertising business, film school was almost a sideline at the time.

But all that would change. This heart-warming film about unconditional love, karma and incarnation would strike a cord, not only with the audience who saw the screening shortly after its completion, but also with the Cannes Film Festival, where she submitted it shortly thereafter. "I submitted it to the Short Film Corner," she said, not knowing it would be accepted and she would be on her way to France, the first stop in a life-changing experience.

The emersion of the film's content is almost a story in itself. "I was in Berlin, just before entering the film school, and I knew I would have to come up with an idea for a film. I had just visited the Berlin Wall and the Holocaust Museum. I was at the top of a tower, walking around, looking over the entire city by myself, thinking about how everybody treats everybody else. Within 15 minutes, I knew what I wanted to do," said Lurtz. Her film covers all aspects of discrimination - against age, gender and sexual orientation. "I tear up just thinking of the story."

Captured by a Panasonic HD VU camera, this film's content captured the imagination of everyone who worked on it. "Every actor, every person in the script loved the idea and brought 100 percent to it. They worked just as hard as I did. It was great to see everyone collaborate and also to see the reaction to the film" explained Lurtz.

From this process, she learned a few things.

• Don't use music that is not your own, she warns fellow filmmakers.


• Get paperwork [releases] from your actors. Lurtz had to get her paperwork in order and register her script with the Writer's Guild of America and copyright it before distribution. She also suggests not jumping to put your film on You Tube, saying that is one question the distribution companies seem to ask. "If it already readily shown on the Internet, where people can see it for free, they don't want it," she said.

With the success of her film, also came other perks. While creating it, she found a surprising passion for both editing and acting. Her editing skills have been sought out, so much so that she has left her advertising job and strictly freelances as an editor. In addition, she has jumped in front of the camera in several films shown both at the film school and for independent companies. Another film she edited, co-wrote and starred in was recently accepted by New Filmmakers Film Festival in New York and the Sedona Film Festival.

The Palm Beach Film School teaches students of all ages to write, shoot, direct and edit their own short, character-driven drama, comedy or horror films in 8 or 16 weeks at an affordable tuition . Visit PalmBeachFilmSchool.com or call 561-242-9190 for more information.