saving the best for last...

The word is out. After a three day stint of too many cigarettes, drinking until at least 4AM every evening and waking up after 4 hours of sleep for another full day of smokes, drinking, and watching movies I've learned a few lessons of life, liberty, and the pursuit of self-indulgence. Muskogee, Oklahoma was a fun trip. The film festival was a little strange... but then again it's my first out of town festival I've ever been too. I also learned that on Sunday afternoon in Muskogee you can film a 1960's post-apocalyptic Zombie movie with little to no interruptions (it was really creepy to have so much space and seemingly no one around for miles--but you can feel them just behind the walls... watching... waiting... but I digress).
Christine, Mike Matthews, and I made the late night drive out to Muskogee Thursday evening after work. When we finally arrived at the "Bacone Inn" (don't know if it's breakfast meat or if you pronounce the 'cone') there were a few people outside of the rooms drinking. I figured that I'd try and make friends. We all hit it off quite well... well enough to find out that there are a lot of police and police-like groups in Muskogee... and an open container law. I slept it off and woke up late for the radio interview. They were taping the interviews for the next few days worth of radio shows. It was for a local country station... so I never got to hear myself... plus I was never in the car. I caught a nap, some short films, and got ready for the Muskogee premiere of A Cowboy's Silver Lining.
The funny thing about film festivals are that there are a lot of "different" films. A couple of these different shorts played just before my film. They cleared out the room. So, the people that came to see my movie really came to see my movie. At least the other filmmakers were fairly impressed with the quality. I also learned that through watching my own film at a film festival, I pick it apart with jagged teeth and vinegar. Next time I'll make sure that NOTHING slides and that I NEVER SETTLE for anything less that PERFECT. It's hard to do... but it can be done. At least everyone laughed where they were supposed to.
We caught a few really funny short films and a couple of great feature pieces. Some, I missed and got DVDs of. I promise to watch them soon and write all of the filmmakers back. Through watching those features we made a few good friends that stayed the path through the festival. It was great to see that all of the people we were hanging out with during the weekend were the people that were winning awards.
For an early review, I would suggest checking out Joe Scott's film, OCEAN FRONT PROPERTY. It's a great coming to terms-coming of age-dram-com. A guy gets stuck at a beach house with his ex-fiance and her new husband. He's still suicidal and bitter but learns some great things along the way. It's funny and worth checking out. Joe should make it big within the next few years because he's really got something great. It showed because he took home something like 5 or 6 awards Sunday night. They were well deserved.
As for me, I got to take home the Indie Auteur Award. It's an award for those filmmakers that have to wear all sorts of hats (writer/director/actor/cinematographer/editor/composer/etc.) in order to get their film made. I beat out a few other guys for the award and I'm very proud. I'm also very proud to share it with all of the great people that helped me get ACSL made. Even though I did so many things, I couldn't have done it all. At least now the film has some recognition around the festival circuit. We'll have to see where it takes us.
For all of those people that we made friends with this weekend... expect to hear from me soon. I've got a lot of thanks to send out. I had fun with everyone and had even more fun in a delirious state of mind picking apart the wildly strange and humorous world of the Bare Bones International Independent Film Festival. (The dancing 12 year olds in mini-skirts, the old white guy singing old man river, AL GREEN look alike, the belly dancer, etc. were something straight out of a broken circus of Tom Waits lyrics. Maybe I just had too much to drink and too little sleep). I did have a blast, though. Everyone should keep in touch.
-B