Aug 27, 200708:53 AMThe Life

Views from the Film Festival

Last night I worked the filmmaker's party at "Crazy Bones" (above "The Chop House" in downtown Palm Springs) which was sponsored by "Women In Film." It was a sticky, humid evening and my fellow volunteers and I were certainly feeling the heat standing downstairs at the entrance! The array of food upstairs was fabulous and was still plentiful when I finally got to check it out at the end of my shift. There was bbq chicken, pepperoni stromboli, and lots of other interesting bite size morsels. They topped it off with a great dessert spread of mini berry tarts, fondue and cream puffs. There was plenty of staff to keep people and plates flowing and the room was buzzing with conversation. The filmmakers are more relaxed now, and many of them have their "entourage" with them. This is a very gracious and young group of filmmakers, I would guess the average age is mid twenties to mid thirties. Every single one said thank you and gave us a smile and a hello when they entered the party-there was no air of entitlement, they seemed genuinely pleased to be invited to a free party. Now that the festival is half over, many of them have established a rapport with the volunteers -they discuss their films with us and tell us about their screenings. One filmmaker I spoke to from Australia was excited last night that her film had just screened in a theater for the first time. "The house was full," she said, "and they laughed at all the right bits.." so she considered it to be a success. Many of the filmmakers are presenting films that are their senior project for film school, and you have to be impressed that their first time out they landed a showing at a prestigious film festival. I couldn't help wondering when I was chatting with them, am I talking to the next Steven Speilberg? The next Jane Campion? A future Academy Award winner?