Breakfast with the stars

In terms of the festival I was really only there for the breakfast. It was a filmmakers only thing and it was very nice. It was at the home of ... I bet she's a board member of the festival. Anyway, the kind of place on a private road where you have to tell the security guard whose house you're going to. I remember the house from when I was here with Passing actually. It was another lovely spread, but what was really great about it is that it's filmmakers only so you really get a chance to meet and talk with people. It's easy enough to start a conversation because it's pretty safe to walk up to almost anyone and say, "So what's your film about? And when do you screen?" I handed out my business card to 3 new people today. And one of them, the one from my favorite film of last night (sorry Debbie) is going to start work on a feature film in September part of which will be set in Boston. I told him yes, absolutely, get in touch.

I only managed one screening last night. It was the first block of shorts. I almost didn't get in. It was sold out so just being a filmmaker couldn't get me in. Fortunately for me I ran into Debbie and she had an extra comp ticket that they weren't using. There were 5 films in that block. They were all sort of love stories - or about love anyway - but only one of them actually ended with both parties saying I love you and living happily ever after. Call me an American, but I like a happy ending.

So Akt 2 wins as my favorite of the night. Though the film itself, in spite of being made by a guy from Vermont, was set in Sweden and in Swedish with English subtitles. It was compelling enough that I didn't mind having to read along with it.

Halfway Somewhere Else was Debbie's film. Well, she wrote it and her friend Avery directed. That was really good too, though it didn't quite resolve in the way I'd been hoping so it didn't win as my favorite for the night. But it will be interesting to talk to Debbie about it later to get her perspective on what it's like to write and then have no control over the directing or actual production of the film. I don't get that because if I write something I produce it myself. And anyone who wrote something I directed won't necessarily be honest with me about what they liked and didn't like about how the film finally turned out.

Other exciting news is that in our swag bag there was a regional industry trade journal that had a review of the Woods Hole Film Festival and my film got a mention. I wish I could link to it but the website doesn't make it easy to find and will be a bad link in about a week when the next issue comes out, so it's not worth it. Still I think it officially counts as "press" for Killer.

Also I got an email from the folks in Baker City, OR where we're screening in mid-August, with a PDF of their program to check for typos in our listing. There weren't any. But what there was was an extra notice that we got nominated for best cinematography. That's exciting.