Debby goes North to promote Cat's Bad Hair Day...
Ah, Seattle land of the Space Needle, lots of rain, and fried cod. It was a good time. Solange decided to come with me at the last minute so I had company. Not sure what I would have done with myself if she wasn't there...
Opening night we saw Miranda July's Me, You and Everyone We Know which won at Sundance and now Canne. The venue, the Paramount Theatre was gorgeous gold with crystal chandeliers very old glamour of Hollywood style. The film was very quirky, funny, and sweet. Not sure if it will be a major release but prob will play small art houses everywhere. Nice to see a woman taking home all the prizes at the major fests.
One thing we discovered on opening night was that this fest was not going to be the networking opp I thought. Everyone who bought a ticket to the movie was allowed into the party afterwards so it was a bit of a madhouse. 20 minute wait for a glass of wine and another 20 minute wait for a tofu roll! I ended up meeting some nice local Seattle press whom I'm trying to convince to write about "Cat's".
The next thing I discovered on the second day was that they really didn't care about the short filmmakers. Feature filmmakers were put up in an exclusive hotel in downtown Seattle and given gift bags and taken to dinner with Peter Saarsgard. They wouldn't even give Solange and I tickets to see Peter speak nor tickets to his film. This was a little upsetting and their reasoning was "oh well u know short filmmakers get short the short end of the stick" and I couldn't relate to this having just come out of Tribeca where everyone was treated equally...hmm. One good thing is they picked us up from the airport and gave me a ride back. Solange was supposed to get a ride but the volunteer didn't show up...
Saturday was my screening at 1:45 at this community college on Capitol Hill. The venue was nice, the actual theatre didn't seat that many, maybe 200 but it was fairly full. Cat's Bad Hair Day was the last to play and it was a hit! Everyone laughed at all the funny moments and were silent during the dramatic ones. It was the best reaction we've ever gotten at a screening and at the Q&A they didn't even question the title!! The Seattle audience liked to ask complex questions such as "how do you determine time in relation to the psychology of the emotional moments in your film" Umm what? My answer: "you just know..."
Another kind of ironic moment is that one of the girl's shorts in our program ended up not playing because she gave in a faulty tape. She was furious! I think this has to do with the fact that when I met her in the elevator opening day she acted very "catty" as if she didn't want anything to do with me and couldn't believe that such a young thing had a film playing in the same program as hers. We were walking to the same place as we exited the hotel and she wanted to take a cab rather then walk with us 5 blocks up the road! Karma works I tell you so be nice to everyone!
The rest of this Seattle extravaganza was lots of sight seeing. We road a roller coaster by the Space Needle and nearly harfed! The last day I was there the sun decided to come out and the weather was gorgeous so I saw Alki Beach which was very nice. Before that was Solange and I huddled under one umbrella and freezing our boots off ! Overall a nice trip and worth it. Seattle people are kind of odd (very "cliquey" and there are tons of these lost Eddie Vedder types that can't give good directions) but I'm sure everyone thinks us Floridians are freaks too.
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