Jason and I have finally finished (well, you're never really finished) the web site for "Last Notes red green blue or black." So Daniel and I are working the lines at the Los Angeles Film Festival for a couple days. Daniel does a little magic, introducing my movies' theme of choice, then turns it over to me. I open my little case and invite them to choose between red, green, blue or black: a red armband that says "ichoosered.org", a green sticker that says "ichoosegreen.org", a blue button, or a black yo-yo.

A goofy, gangly man emerged from the parking lot asking talking to no one in particular: "Where am I going?" I couldn't quite convince myself he was Jeff Goldblum before he had followed my directions toward the theater. Darn! He could have been the first person at the festival to wear a red armband. Or, with his playful personality, he probably would have chosen the black yo-yo.



Like the Newport Beach Film Festival, the $100 opening night movie and party was too expensive, so I watched from the bleachers. While celebrities and would-be celebrities meandered down the red carpeted, blocked-off street, media folk (and would-be media folk?) stood on the other side of a fence and interviewed them, and the rest of us stood on the other side of a second fence and gawked. The adjacent street was walled off from the sidewalks for an after-party.


Seems like a tougher crowd than Newport Beach where people seemed less suspicious of us. I was even kicked out of one gathering. I guess it sort of looks like I'm selling something when I open my case of chotzkes. (Does anyone know how to spell that word? I really have to take that Yiddish class soon.)

During our two days at the festival, Daniel and I saw five movies (okay, six -- we saw a "real" movie at the local cineplex -- I'm not admitting to the title). My favorite was "Stranded," an Australian film written by Kathleen O'Brien, directed by Stuart McDonald, and starring the lovely, lively Emma Lung as a 17-year-old torn between her nutty family and lonely independence. The acting was superb. McDonald said they rehearsed with acting games developed by Philippe Goulet. Also, McDonald added some real visual flair and depth. The ending felt a little contrived but I wish "made-for-TV" in the United States could mean the same as it does in Australia.

Stranded was accompanied by a similarly themed but much darker short film, the moody "Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves: by Andrea Janakas (pictured with the tie) from the American Film Institute. Two teenage girls spend an evening trying to escape their humdrum, upper middle class lives. The movie was a bit frustratingly elliptical even for me, yet the ambiguity was probably what allowed the movie to develop its mysterious, teenage-achy mood. The young lead actor (pictured in green) was superb.