Neverlost in La La Land
We are here! Thanks to Wendy – the name we gave to our trusted GPS navigator, we have been managing to get around town for the various events without getting lost. Not used to being a VIP, the special treatment has been almost shocking. No waiting in lines, free food, always people there to help, no paying for parking, valet services, complementary tickets – LA’s not such a bad place after all (Or rather, great kudos to the organizers of Outfest for sponsoring such an extraordinary event.)
I actually skipped out on the first VIP event last night because Marilys and I are still jet-legged and were absolutely exhausted. (It was a big see-and-be-seen party for “Project Runway” at Ivar – not exactly my scene anyway.)
Today, however, is our BIG DAY and we wanted to be rested and ready. (Marilys is napping as I write.) "Contemplating Emily" premieres this evening. There will be a pre-party arranged by Power Up, a women in film organization. We chatted it up yesterday with one of the lead actresses from "Loving Annabelle" at a meet-and-greet for the filmmakers. (We saw it already in New York at New Fest.)
To briefly chronicle the events thus far: We flew in on Thursday to Long Beach (Jet Blue) and drove to West Hollywood in our rented Taurus. We are staying at the Ramada Plaza, a very queer looking complex in California pink and green.
Thursday night was the opening Gala at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA. A special award was given to Kenneth Anger for his 60 plus years in queer filmmaking. He was there to accept which was apparently a rare treat. (All communication between the festival coordinators and him had been done via fax and snail mail. No one was certain he would show up.)
A brief on KA – born in 1927, he began making films at the age of 9, as a child he appeared in the 1935 Hollywood production of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" (the one with Mickey Rooney as Puck). Most of his films were experimental and too risqué for US audiences; consequently, many of them were made in France. Among his most notable are "Scorpio Rising" and "Lucifer Rising". He is perhaps best known, however for authoring the landmark "Hollywood Babylon" books, which detailed a seamier side of the Hollywood film industry than most were aware of.
The film of the evening was "Puccini for Beginners" written and directed by Maria Maggenti. We were especially interested in seeing this piece since it has received such high acclaim. Additionally it was produced by Eden Wurmfeld, someone I have been trying to cross paths with for sometime as she was also a producer on "Kissing Jessica Stein". She was at the Oberlin reunion when I was there a few weeks ago, but we didn’t get introduced. She wasn’t at the Gala because she is in production, but hopefully we’ll catch up with one another back in New York. In short, I think she might be interested in our project.
We did meet up with other Oberlin folk, notably the lovely Linda Santiman who is helping with Outfest and has been giving us a good talking up among those she knows. Also a chance encounter with RL on the dance floor made my night. 16 years is just too long to go without seeing one of your favorite gay boy sweethearts who was coming out with you during the troubling early years of the AIDS epidemic.
Two other Obies will be joining in this evening’s events: TR who lives here and is a doc filmmaker and ESC who lived with me in Spanish House. But roots go even deeper as we will also be joined by junior high and high school classmate from Burlington, IA, fellow runner and now quite accomplished athlete, TE.
The good omens of the evening were: one, the mention and quoting of Emily Dickinson at the end of "Puccini for Beginners". And two, the magical incantation of ‘Open Sesame’ by a lady in the hotel elevator. (It worked.) For those of you who don’t know, Open Sesame is the name of the fledgling production company that Sarah E Shively SES and Marilys Ernst ME are creating for the purposes of moving "Contemplating Emily" forward toward feature film production.
Then, good omen number three came from an unlikely place. I received an email yesterday from the MacDowell Colony because they are asking all of their filmmaking fellows to submit material they have done that highlights MacDowell to be part of a centennial celebration of the Colony next year at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Given that the opening and closing of "Contemplating Emily", the short film, was shot at MacDowell, I think they may be interested in including it in their showing. Additionally, I am going to have Marilys help me edit together some of the other material that I shot while there last year. I was working with an old super 8mm camera and have quite a bit of film from which I could create a nice tribute.
The next festival film we saw was "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" at DGA Theatre One. Let me first note that this was the first time we had seen the venue where CE will open tonight. It is a truly lovely and superb space: arched screen with full red stage curtains that glide open at the top of the show, plush seats with plenty of room for legs and people passing by to interior seating and a state of the art sound system. Mom would be proud. No shitty downtown, rat-infested hole-in-the-wall this.
Maxi was a touching a wonderful portrait of an openly gay 12 year old from the slums of Manila who lives with his family of thieves and develops a crush on an upright and uptight new cop in the hood. Directed by Auraeus Solito and written by Michiko Yamamoto, this film had me in tears and aching from the sheer beauty of remarkable cinematography that brought everything of the Philippines (except the smell) to life.
This morning we saw the Boys’ Shorts. They were all very well done. My Spanish exchange brother, HAD will be pleased to know that the Spanish short, "K" screened here and was very well received. Additionally, my brother in Madison, WI, PS will be interested to know that "Straight Boys", shot on the campus of the University of WI, was also screened and was a critical success.
Aside from the exciting events of this evening, we have on the horizon a filmmakers’ pool party tomorrow afternoon, many films to screen, the HBO Breakfast Series (this will be our ‘school’ of the week.), and after speaking with an Executive Director of Feature Production Finance at Paramount Pictures yesterday, Marilys and I have a private invitation for a VIP tour of the studios whenever we’d like this next week. I’m looking forward to it.
I actually skipped out on the first VIP event last night because Marilys and I are still jet-legged and were absolutely exhausted. (It was a big see-and-be-seen party for “Project Runway” at Ivar – not exactly my scene anyway.)
Today, however, is our BIG DAY and we wanted to be rested and ready. (Marilys is napping as I write.) "Contemplating Emily" premieres this evening. There will be a pre-party arranged by Power Up, a women in film organization. We chatted it up yesterday with one of the lead actresses from "Loving Annabelle" at a meet-and-greet for the filmmakers. (We saw it already in New York at New Fest.)
To briefly chronicle the events thus far: We flew in on Thursday to Long Beach (Jet Blue) and drove to West Hollywood in our rented Taurus. We are staying at the Ramada Plaza, a very queer looking complex in California pink and green.
Thursday night was the opening Gala at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown LA. A special award was given to Kenneth Anger for his 60 plus years in queer filmmaking. He was there to accept which was apparently a rare treat. (All communication between the festival coordinators and him had been done via fax and snail mail. No one was certain he would show up.)
A brief on KA – born in 1927, he began making films at the age of 9, as a child he appeared in the 1935 Hollywood production of "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" (the one with Mickey Rooney as Puck). Most of his films were experimental and too risqué for US audiences; consequently, many of them were made in France. Among his most notable are "Scorpio Rising" and "Lucifer Rising". He is perhaps best known, however for authoring the landmark "Hollywood Babylon" books, which detailed a seamier side of the Hollywood film industry than most were aware of.
The film of the evening was "Puccini for Beginners" written and directed by Maria Maggenti. We were especially interested in seeing this piece since it has received such high acclaim. Additionally it was produced by Eden Wurmfeld, someone I have been trying to cross paths with for sometime as she was also a producer on "Kissing Jessica Stein". She was at the Oberlin reunion when I was there a few weeks ago, but we didn’t get introduced. She wasn’t at the Gala because she is in production, but hopefully we’ll catch up with one another back in New York. In short, I think she might be interested in our project.
We did meet up with other Oberlin folk, notably the lovely Linda Santiman who is helping with Outfest and has been giving us a good talking up among those she knows. Also a chance encounter with RL on the dance floor made my night. 16 years is just too long to go without seeing one of your favorite gay boy sweethearts who was coming out with you during the troubling early years of the AIDS epidemic.
Two other Obies will be joining in this evening’s events: TR who lives here and is a doc filmmaker and ESC who lived with me in Spanish House. But roots go even deeper as we will also be joined by junior high and high school classmate from Burlington, IA, fellow runner and now quite accomplished athlete, TE.
The good omens of the evening were: one, the mention and quoting of Emily Dickinson at the end of "Puccini for Beginners". And two, the magical incantation of ‘Open Sesame’ by a lady in the hotel elevator. (It worked.) For those of you who don’t know, Open Sesame is the name of the fledgling production company that Sarah E Shively SES and Marilys Ernst ME are creating for the purposes of moving "Contemplating Emily" forward toward feature film production.
Then, good omen number three came from an unlikely place. I received an email yesterday from the MacDowell Colony because they are asking all of their filmmaking fellows to submit material they have done that highlights MacDowell to be part of a centennial celebration of the Colony next year at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Given that the opening and closing of "Contemplating Emily", the short film, was shot at MacDowell, I think they may be interested in including it in their showing. Additionally, I am going to have Marilys help me edit together some of the other material that I shot while there last year. I was working with an old super 8mm camera and have quite a bit of film from which I could create a nice tribute.
The next festival film we saw was "The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros" at DGA Theatre One. Let me first note that this was the first time we had seen the venue where CE will open tonight. It is a truly lovely and superb space: arched screen with full red stage curtains that glide open at the top of the show, plush seats with plenty of room for legs and people passing by to interior seating and a state of the art sound system. Mom would be proud. No shitty downtown, rat-infested hole-in-the-wall this.
Maxi was a touching a wonderful portrait of an openly gay 12 year old from the slums of Manila who lives with his family of thieves and develops a crush on an upright and uptight new cop in the hood. Directed by Auraeus Solito and written by Michiko Yamamoto, this film had me in tears and aching from the sheer beauty of remarkable cinematography that brought everything of the Philippines (except the smell) to life.
This morning we saw the Boys’ Shorts. They were all very well done. My Spanish exchange brother, HAD will be pleased to know that the Spanish short, "K" screened here and was very well received. Additionally, my brother in Madison, WI, PS will be interested to know that "Straight Boys", shot on the campus of the University of WI, was also screened and was a critical success.
Aside from the exciting events of this evening, we have on the horizon a filmmakers’ pool party tomorrow afternoon, many films to screen, the HBO Breakfast Series (this will be our ‘school’ of the week.), and after speaking with an Executive Director of Feature Production Finance at Paramount Pictures yesterday, Marilys and I have a private invitation for a VIP tour of the studios whenever we’d like this next week. I’m looking forward to it.
posted by Sesame at 4:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home