And now for part two of my trip to the Palm Springs International Festival of Shorts:
After barely escaping certain death (these pools in Palm Springs have depths of up to FOUR WHOLE FEET!), I got ready for my One on One meeting debut, which Paul very correctly described as speed dating, but with filmmakers. Well, this is conjecture – I’m assuming he was correct, as I’ve never actually done speed dating, what with all the opportunities these days for electronic rendez-vous (a/s/l????). So I sat in a little room, behind a curtain and met with filmmakers, ten minutes at a time. Unfortunately, under my name on the sign up sheet, it said that I was there to answer any questions about just the Screen Actors Guild, not their low-budget contracts. In the end that turned out ok, because mostly people just wanted to tell me to come see their short film premiering at the fest, or to give me copies of their film that was in the market.
When I was finished with the two hour block of meetings, I had another two hours to kill before my next party and screening. I had sent Marcus off to take notes at a panel discussion that I had wanted to attend, but couldn’t because I was busy being important. Since there is pretty much nothing at all to do in Palm Springs (I thought Phoenix was bad!), and I didn’t want to risk heatstroke by meandering aimlessly outside (what? I’m dainty!), I resigned myself to hanging out at the mall. I stopped in at the only department store to people watch, which is how I get a ton of my ideas for films. While wandering through the labyrinth of racks displaying elastic-waist jeans and beaded tunics, a polite older woman stopped me and asked if I was looking for anything in particular, as she was available as a personal shopper (!!!) A personal shopper, you say? Consider my interest piqued. I told her that I was planning a trip to Las Vegas, and I was interested in purchasing a new outfit for the trip, but that I wanted to be comfortable. She looked me up and down, sent me off to the dressing room to wait, and returned with the lovely little number shown here.
Marcus and I met back up and attended a "Meet the Industry" party before heading to our second program, Boy Meets Girl. I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with each film in this screening, but the highlight had to be the animated opener, "Angry Unpaid Hooker". I highly suggest tracking this down, it’s one of the funniest things I have seen in at least a week. I know I’ve said this before, but I really love short films. Maybe because almost no one makes any money off of a short, so filmmakers seem more sincere about their passion for telling stories through this medium.
After the program, since we couldn’t put our best party clothes to waste, we hooked up with some filmmakers and as a newly formed crew decided to explore the local nightlife. "It’s an experiment, you guys! It’s an art project!" we said, and tumbled Alice-like into the first bar with live music. We spent the rest of the night there, learning what the people of Palm Springs consider a party.
And then, just like that, it was over. I had a wonderful time, and would love to thank Kim for all her help and patience. Many talented filmmakers were met, and I truly look forward to seeing what they create after these films. I’d love to return next year, but hopefully I’ll be there with my own short.
