I’m a pessimistic guy, which is patently obvious to most people who read these little missives. My friend Jon, on the other hand, leads an optimistic and charmed life. Everything he does seems to be a rousing success.
Including DC Shorts.
Let’s start with Friday’s party. The outdoor courtyard at the Hotel Monaco which was the venue for the party was under construction. On Wednesday, it was still unfinished due to rain. But Friday night rolled around and the courtyard was done. About 300 people turned up, enjoyed drinks and nibbles (we even had our own drink, the DC Short), listened to a great band, and watched scenes from the movies projected 20 feet high onto the walls of the hotel.
Saturday. 130 seats in the screenings, and we sold out every show. In fact, it oversold and latecomers pulled up a pillow in the filmmaker’s lounge, a room filled with pillows, cushions, and draped fabric where the filmmakers could luxuriate, have a drink and a snack, and watch the films. It was amazing how many people came! Of course, by the time the 10pm show wrapped up at 12:30am, they were still asking questions of the filmmakers and mingling around the place… I came to realize that the sort of people who go to 10pm shows are the sort of people who stay up really late. About 1am I started to lower the lights to give them a subtle hint… I needed some sleep.
On the way home at 1:30am, I heard a news story on the radio plugging the festival. I hope they ran that story during the day as well, because plugging it at 1:30 in the morning after the event wasn’t very helpful.
This morning, a filmmaker’s breakfast and screening of the 4 award-winning films. We expected to have 6 awards, but when one of the shorts won 3 of the categories, we decided to combine them and give it the Best of Show category. My opinion was validated: the winning film, “Cacophony,” was my favorite, too!
Everyone was talking about how great it was and they couldn’t wait for next year.
I’d like to get about 3 days worth of sleep before I even think about anything closely resembling next year.
