DAY TWO - Jackson Hole Film Festival

Took forever to get out of the hotel today. Chatted by phone with Mike in NYC as he prepped to head back to Newport, and with Tom in LA. SW was invited to screen at the Gaia Film Festival in Boulder, Colorado which should be fun as my son Josh will be attending University there in the Fall. Josh, incidentally was our set photographer on SW and many of his pics have appeared in print and online recently.

I finally made my way downtown around 3:30 and was eager to find a lunch spot since I hadn't eaten anything of substance since my meal with Mike Wednesday night. Much to my surprise, there was NOTHING to eat anywhere near the Teton Theatre where the 4:15 screening I was hoping to see was playing. After roaming the wooden-planked sidewalks, I finally had to give up on lunch and dine on popcorn during HAVE DREAMS WILL TRAVEL, a charming road picture starring two very talented young actors. One of the film's producer's is none other than JHFF Programmer Diane Becker, who incidentally produced the AFI short SADIE AND THE SLOT MACHINES, which was edited by our very own Chris Gay. Small world. After the Q&A I had to dash off to our own screening down the street.

I walked into the Center for the Arts and was stunned to see the huge lobby stuffed with an overflow crowd. Could they all be here to see SHERMAN'S WAY? Yeah, right. They were all here to see United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon give his keynote address. Great. Our little movie has to compete with this? His speech was sprinkled with humor and was well-received. (I tried to imagine, however, how the same crowd would react to President Bush -- or any US President for that matter -- making the same plea for Hollywood to use it's influence to promote a specific agenda, no matter how noble. But alas, I digress.) It was impressive to see him captivate the audience and I applaud the festival's commitment to important global issues.

Five minutes before showtime, I walked into Studio One where we would be screening at any moment and was taken aback to see just two in the audience. I walked back out and made a beeline for the bathroom, to both pee and hide. Luckily, when I returned there were significantly more butts in the seats. Ultimately, we had around 75 people or so and they were a terrific audience. As I told James later in the night (he couldn't attend as he was having dinner with the Secretary General... seriously), there were laughs where there hadn't been before, and other times when no one laughed where there had been guffaws at other fests. Go figure. But great crowd nonetheless. A smallish group of 30 or so stuck around for a lively Q&A hosted by none other than my new friend Diane Becker.

In the hall I got to chat even more in depth with a number of audience members who stuck around to say some very nice things. Then I was off to the Filmmaker's Party at the Lindsay McCandless Gallery. I've got to say, both parties I've attended here have not only been well attended, but very well stocked with food and booze. Not always the case for late-arrivals like me.

I got to chat it up with among others, James Lester, director of doc SAL MOSCA: UNSUNG, who I met on the plane ride into Jackson. I plan to see his film tomorrow. Also met Siobhan Mahoney, a funny and attractive actress/producer who has a short CUTE COUPLE playing this weekend. Then there were producers Wally Kurth and Markus Zetler of sports doc CLASS C. Briefly chatted with Lauren Williams of MovieHatch.com, a website dedicated to finding new film talent. We got interupted, but I look forward to chatting with her more about their venture. Ran into Matthew Stevens, the founder of the Indie Spirit Film Festival, who very generously provided me with bunny ears in the photo with festival Artistic Director Melanie Miller and Programmer DIane Becker. Is this blog starting to sound like a Larry King style stream-of-conscious column?