MALIBU FILM FESTIVAL

A week of opposites: we screened at the Director’s Guild on Friday the 3rd: the print never looked or sounded better. At the Malibu screenings: never worse — I would heartily advise any filmmaker to avoid this fest like the plague if you care about film and fair play: real bush-league stuff. Luckily, the screening that meant something was the DGA, and we’ve been running the prints all over LA for distributor executives to see, then shipping them to NY for more screenings (thus the delayed update). — Tony

SAN DIEGO FILM FESTIVAL

Holy smokes, what a great festival! Karl Kozak and Robin Laatz (but they’ll be Mr. & Mrs. in a couple of weeks) put on one heck of a show: great venue (Pacific Gaslamp Theater), great parties (800 people at the black-tie awards ceremony that was a 40’s theme!), and great people (the staff was ever-friendly and well-organized). It certainly helps that Chris Gore (of Film Threat fame) is an active, attending board member, and that the sponsors have really stepped in to help. Clearly, they’ve taken the very best ideas from film fests worldwide, and included them here. Best of all: two screenings (so you can build buzz — our second was sold out), and plenty of time for a Q&A. Anything else? Oh, yeah, I won Best Director. Almost forgot… :0] — Tony

BOSTON FILM FESTIVAL

We heard we had big crowds!

RHODE ISLAND INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

We’ve really gotten to dislike this one screening thing. First, you can’t build buzz that is a big part of a fest. Second, if you have technical problems (like they did — one projector on the fritz), you don’t get to recover. So, despite our big audience and great response, we were left feeling a little cold about the whole thing, especially since there wasn’t even time for a Q&A. Overall, it seemed that the fest is geared to shorts (because it’s Academy-eligible), and not to features. Oh, well. But while we were away, for some reason (or combo of reasons), the website went berserk with hits — so much so it crashed the server twice! And the deluge of emails has just been phenomenal (sorry to anyone we haven’t responded to yet..) Seems like people want to see the movie. A good week after all… :0]. — Tony Vidmer

DANCES WITH FILMS

No doubt about it, DWF is a VERY small festival. One smallish theater, one screening for everyone — all sequential (so no-one hangs around), no hospitality suite (so no-one hangs around), no real mid-fest parties (so no-one hangs around, although there was a happy hour at a local bar at 5pm), and they charged $10 for drinks at the closing-night party. Ouch! But we DID get a great review out of Film Threat while we were there (see PRESS), rode recumbent bikes on Santa Monica’s BEAUTIFUL beach, got to finally meet our brilliant composers Starr & Jeff (and their wonderful agent Christine) in person, and did the Universal theme-park thing. Still, thanks to Michael and Leslee for having us at the fest. And even more thanks to the several folks that drove many miles to catch us here. On to Providence! — Tony Vidmer

CINEVEGAS

So we arrive in Vegas and find out that we aren’t eligible for any awards because we’re a “local” film. OK, we understand. Sort of. Anyway, we sweated all weekend waiting for our screening on Tuesday, hoping people would show up. OK, we drank all weekend — amazing parties here! We get a clue that things are going well when we get moved into the big theater on Monday, then get a second screening for Friday. But what happened on Tuesday was just plain overwhelming: HUNDREDS of people waited in line for TWO HOURS to see our film. TWO HUNDRED were turned away, forcing a quickly-scheduled third screening for the next day (we called it, appropriately, the “pissed off performance.” They liked it, anyway.) The final screening was in the big theater, and sold out as well. Sara, the Sundance alum who ran the box-office for the festival told us with a smile at the closing-night party: “You guys were great, but I never want to hear another request for ‘Stuey’ again….” Seems we just plain wore ‘em out… Trevor Groth (from Sundance) and staff have done a great job with CineVegas…hope to go back someday, and make ‘em work TWICE as hard… :-] — Tony Vidmer

NASHVILLE FILM FESTIVAL

There was something to sweat about in Nashville, too. “Charlie’s War,” shot in Nashville at the same time we were, and starring Olympia Dukakis and Lynn Redgrave, was premiering at the festival with a lot of hoopla, including red carpets, gala parties, and the appearance of Oprah Winfrey (her father is in the film). Still, our screenings sold out, and they added another. The votes were cast, and we won the Audience Award (see above). Go figure. Kudos to Geoff Koch and Brian Gordon for putting on an ever-improving festival, and including films from Alan Rudolph, Ken Loach, and others. See ya at the next fest. — Tony Vidmer

TAOS TALKING PICTURE FESTIVAL

As Kelly Clement, the Festival Director, introduced our first screening, I was sweating. Post-production being what it is (laborious), nobody had seen the final print until now, and we had a full house. In fact, our first two screenings were already sold out. But as the film unspooled, first relief, then joy, washed over me. The spell was woven. Nobody left. They laughed in the right places and were silent in the right places. The reels were in the right order. And in the end, the comments were amazingly positive and wonderfully gratifying. We were even interviewed twice on local radio. But best of all, we then sold out the third show, in the BIG theater on Sunday morning — which, if you’ve been to a festival party on Saturday night, is no small feat. Speaking of which, I can’t say enough good things about Kelly and staff — if you want a first-class festival experience, as a filmmaker or attendee, go to Taos next year. It’s worth the trip. Except this year was its last. Bummer. — Tony Vidmer