DREAMFARM

The Mill Valley Film Festival was winding down and it seemed a darn shame not to experience the annual autumn movie marathon. There is nothing else in the theaters right now and going to see the premiere of TRUST by local filmmakers Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto and the MVFF's screening of 127 HOURS by Oscar winner Danny Boyle, seemed like a no brainer in a town too cute to be real. What I wasn't prepared for was the physical impact of both these films. I haven't had the sensation that I wanted to run out of the theater mid-movie since seeing GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS. Now, mind you, just like the aforementioned 1994 film, these are good films. Nothing flagrant or gratuitously violent about them -- just hard to watch. Maybe it was because I knew what was coming, so that anticipation of where things were going drove me crazy. Plus, in both cases, the filmmakers didn't keep the plot line secret. 127 HOURS is based on the memoir Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralst...

The new subtitle for the Ashland International Film Festival is the "film festival of love". Love of movies, love of art, love of the natural environment and love of Ashland. The feeling of community was extended to such a degree to the film makers, that they moved into town "in spirit". This is a film makers dream to have an audience that is 100% supportive of your art. AIFF supplies several ways for the audience to be a part of the film maker's experience. Panel discussions with producers and director, Q&A after a screening, VIP passes to parties and just down home meet and greet on the street. The film makers give Ashland a bit of Hollywood glamour, but also, a bird's eye view of the real world of film making -- the finance nightmare stories, the rejection letters, the creative angst -- and the joyful exhilaration of success when the audience laughs, cries and applauds your film. After a film screening, during the Q&A, the audience participate...

Movies make people crazy. I have seen proof of this on several occasions. In fact, I have been in that vainglorious position myself. So be forewarned and hope that a moment of truth will bring you back to your senses before it is too late. MUSIC BY PRUDENCE won the Oscar for best documentary short of 2009. During the award's ceremony, the director Roger Ross Williams, was cut off during his acceptance speech by a crazy, loud mouth woman in a purple kaftan (yes, folks a kaftan). We later find out that the "crazy" is the producer who had been "fired" from the film under the director's request to HBO because she was harassing the editors while they were working. She took revenge in the ballsiest of manners by literally upstaging the director on camera during his few live minutes of Oscar acceptance. Roger was about to show his gratitude to his staff and the subjects of his documentary, when this wild eyed woman literally shoved him out of the way and bega...