Part 3 of 4 in my series of reports on the June Film Festival Frenzy (TM). Part 2 (Newport) can be found here. Parts 1 and 4 still to come. I'm George Lucas like that.
I arrived in Las Vegas last Monday, less than 14 hours after I had arrived back in Los Angeles from my voyage to Newport, and the transition between the two festivals was, in a way, strikingly easy. Both are exceptionally well run and filmmaker friendly. Of course, there are certain, obvious differences, the title of this blog post being just one, incredibly true, example.
When I tell people about CineVegas and the reasons why I think it's one of the very best festivals I've been to during this nine month festival run I've been on, it usually boils down to this description:
You stay at the Palms Resort and Casino. You get up at some point and go downstairs to the filmmaker lounge, where you grab some coffee and check your email. Then you head out to the pool and have a margarita. Then you go inside, cross through the casino and head to the Brendan Theatres at the other end of the complex and watch a movie. There is no need to pre-reserve tickets. You just show your badge as you walk in. Movies mostly play (during the week at least) during three time periods - the 3 PM hour, the 6 PM hour and the 9 PM hour. You have a choice of three movies. After your first movie, you either go back out to the pool or you stop in to the filmmaker lounge for a drink and happy hour snacks. Then you go to another movie. When that one is done, you hop in a shuttle which takes you to a party at another casino. When that's done, you go to a second party. And when that's over, you find yourself inside a suite in the Palms Fantasy Tower, wherein you find the stripper pole in question, the one that's in a shower that has a window that opens to the bar area. Sometime after this, you go to sleep.
Repeat.
There aren't many docs at CineVegas. The first time I was at the fest (with my first film in 2002) there was a whole doc slate. But it was a challenge to get folks to come. Now though, everything was packed, even the few docs that they screened (we had many more people in our single screening than in 2 screenings 5 years ago). I did get to see a few narratives I'd been wanting to see (although not Craig Zobel's GREAT WORLD OF SOUND, which played opposite me - again!), including Jeff Blitz' ROCKET SCIENCE, a charming high school story of debate team dreams (let the ROCKET SCIENCE v. THUMBSUCKER debates begin) and Amir Mann's THE FIFTH PATIENT, a twisty 24-like tale of terrorists and spies.
Here's a look at my 48 hours at CineVegas in pictures, including stops in the filmmaker lounge, Hard Rock pool area, Stratosphere (top and bottom), Palms, booze cruise and late night performance by TV Sheriff and the Trailbuddies (complete with confused dancers). And featuring Craig Zobel, David Wilson, Peter Rieveschl, Barrett Farmer, my Aunt Betty and relatives of Trevor Groth!:
Thanks to Trevor, Mike and Morgan for a most excellent return to Vegas. I'm gonna start making narrative films (or at least keep making Vegas-friendly nonfiction films) so that I can be back again and again.
Hey, Hey, AJ, Cool, really cool. It was awesome being at the Film Festival/Vegas. Jen, Tracie and I was blown away by "Kurt Cobain, One of Our Sons", You and Shirley did an outstanding job of directing and producing a GREAT DOUMENTARY for ALL TIME, Excellent. Love you, Auntie Betty
Posted by: Betty Claypool | June 28, 2007 at 02:50 PM