Co-Producer and actor Ariele Senara made a visit to Milwaukee Short Film Festival and stayed for the Q&A after:

The Newport Beach Film Festival trip.

So I got my hybrid rental from Fox at LAX and drove to the house where my
cousin is staying.

My cousin Thomas  has been working in the film industry in London for quite some time, and has been the second unit director for Joe Wright, and has worked on Pride and Prejudice and Atonement.

They had just wrapped work on The Soloist, and Joe had gone back to London, but Thomas was still in the house that DreamWorks had kindly paid for. The house was insane: right next to the Hollywood sign, with a back deck that faced the emptiness of Griffith Park.

Deck video

Hummingbird deck rescue video

The Newport Beach Film Festival was pretty damn fantastic. The opening night
was hugely attended, with a massive outdoor party that wasout of control. Free
everything, and a ton of filmmakers and other folks to chat with. Now remember,
this happened EVERY night!

Craziness. I didn't see any major stars, but each
party had a few people who I recognized, know I saw somewhere, but I'll be
damned if I could come up with a name or movie title.

Overall, I saw a mix of films. There was the usual festival standard of the
high budget, no story "independent" that has me shaking my head and wondering
aloud where the hell they got the money for this one. One extreme standout was Fugitive Pieces. We went to see it because my cousin is friends with Rosamund Pike who stars in it.
It caught us both off guard with how fantastic it was. It was a rare thing to
see a movie, and be enthralled by it's beauty, and simultaneously feel pressure
on your heart like it's being broken. It touches on the Holocaust, and a man's
ability to move past things from his past. I highly, highly recommend it. Rade Serbedzija has always
played the "crazy Russian" character (even though he's Croatian) and so to see
him completely own such a dramatic part was astounding.

He was there for a Q and A
after and was facinating.

Q and A short video

He got best actor at the Rome film festival, and it is
well earned. Comes out nationwide soon, so get on it.

 

A documentary I caught was called Up the Yangtze ...which despite it's unfortunate name, is a great film about
the end of this amazing river in China to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. A
great and painful documentary with some things to laugh about as well.

Now, here's the kicker: how did the screening of The Road go? Couldn't tell
you. I missed it.

I got into my rental and turned the key, and nothing happened. Fox car rentalis great if nothing goes wrong, but if something does, they are
hideous. So with a bunch of scraping, I went as fast as I could to the
screening. All the people I promised free passes to were out of luck since I had
them on me... and I walked into the theatre praying ours didn't screen first. As
I walked in, I caught the last line of our credits. Ugh.

Nevertheless, a fantastic trip. I was mostly glad to reconnect with my cousin
who I hadn't seen in ten years. We even skipped out on one night of the parties
and just sat by the fire and talked for a few hours. A great experience to say
the least.

Oh yea, I practically lived at Cafe 101. Sweet potato french fries and a breakfast burrito to die for.

Opening of competition.

So the festival moved to a new and much larger theater for the beginning of the competition, which "The Road" opened for. I can tell you I was really nervous, especially when they called me up on stage to talk with an interpreter. And of course they asked what was my comment on the concept of Karma, and the question they were dying to ask: what was it like being a Power Ranger?
Now, most of you hopefully know I was not, nor have ever been a power ranger. But I did do a voiceover for one of their videogames. So when you google me, "Owen Thomas" and "Power Rangers: Dino Thunder" comes up.
So there I was, on stage in front of a LOT of people, being asked to do a voice that I don’t even remember from a 30 minute job years ago.
I told them it was mostly a lot of, "HA! ooh! No!!!" and the audience laughed and burst into applause. Surreal moment 236.
The people working with the festival have been fantastic, and I’ve met some great folks. On occasion I feel frustrated that I can’t carry on "real" conversations. Last night one of the organizers said something to me in both Italian and English after a few drinks. One of the other organizers asked me if I knew what he said:
"I think so. He said something about museums and Donald Duck in Latin America"
He laughed and said no.
"Then what did he say?"
He then said he had no idea.
So far the films have been VERY good. A mix of humor and then the INCREDIBLY depressing... but still amazing films.
I’m pretty sunburned from my trip to the mountains yesterday. Yes, I was wearing a ton of sunscreen if that tells you how powerful the sun was.

....">

So I love me some Italian or French breakfast. Essentially caffine, butter, and sugar. Fine stuff. I have CNN english in my room so I’ve gotten to watch poor dumbass Elliot Spitzer go down. Note to self: don’t make powerful enemies then give them an opening to destroy you. How else does one get a wiretap over a few thousand dollars moving around in a bank account without someone calling in a favor? I’m not saying Spitzer is a victim, I just know he went too high in his search for wrong doing.
CNN international puts up small headlines with no explanation during their broadcast. "Woman spends two years stuck on toilet" was the last one.
So I forgot to mention I did eventually get my luggage back and was able to shave and shower after 3 days. By the way, the cord connected to the wall in the shower calls the front desk for help should you fall and not be able to get up. I call it the shower-ruiner cord.
After my hideous start to the Italy trip, things have gotten better. I think jet lag has a larger hold on me than it should considering how exhausting the first few days were. I pop awake at 6am, can’t keep my eyes open to save my life at 5pm, and then can’t sleep at 1am.
Varese is a stunning town to say the least. It has an incredible history as I discovered at the local archeological museum. I think I was one of the few visitors they’ve gotten in a while, because I got my own personal guide, who as sweet as he was, insisted on explaining each exhibit to me in Italian. Not only that, he needed to be sure I understood. To my surprise, it’s amazing how much I was able to understand when he spoke slowly and gestured wildly. Each time I put a fact together and repeated it back to him, he clasped his hands together and yelled, "bravo!" Hysterical. 2 hours later, I had a grasp of 3000 years of local history.
People around the year zero were incredibly short by today’s standards. Nutrition and diet, and probably breeding kept things small. I imagined the battle scenes from Troy and Gladiator being played by thousands of Gary Colemans, and I think being historically correct would lessen the impact of both movies.
After a rainy start, the weather in Varese has been amazing. The alps sticking through the scenery make for some amazing views against a blue sky.
The downside for me on these trips is my feet. I walk and hike everywhere to make sure to take it all in, and consequently, my legs and feet are a wreck. I have to take a break and put my feet up every few hours.
Every time I leave the states, I’m reminded how young America is. People here in Italy apparently live in the same town for generations. Years ago when I visited Ireland, I found it comical how families held grudges for centuries: "you see those people over there? They looked at us funny 500 years ago, so we don’t talk."
Meanwhile in America we’ve got suburbs that were farmland last year.
Fashion in Europe is ahead of America by about a year. And therefore the men look very... how to put this diplomatically? Flashy. Yes, flashy. Gold shoes, tight designer jeans, huge sunglasses and the most hideous haircuts. It’s this kind of faux mohawk-mullet thing, that half-asses both the mohawk and the mullet, and should be reserved for those playing pro ball for a Latvian soccer club. I’ve seen a bit of it in LA, and I want no more of it. Wow. I sound old, don’t I?
The film festival has been packed so far, and really interesting. The presentations and discussions they have about film are entirely useless to me, since Italian quickly becomes entirely gibberish as the speed picks up. I can get the gist of what’s being said if it’s slow, but at normal speed, I’m amazed how I get nothing.
So far, it seems the younger folk speak English, but I mainly find myself limping through conversations about what coffee I want and why I’m in Italy.
Yesterday I ordered a meal in French after Ital-ish was getting nowhere. It worked!
"Mi dispiace, Non parlo Italiano. Est-ce que vous avez quelque chose..."

Sacre Monte!
I took the bus up to the top of the mountain and saw some of the most amazing little apartments. The entrances were literally in caves that lead up through the mountain to the living quarters up top. I took a million pictures since the place was frozen in time, and I still can’t believe that people live there. It is so isolated! It was a monastery in the year 922 and then was rebuilt in the 1400s. Again, the US is SO young!
I sat in a cafe on the top of the mountain, had a coffee and looked out over the valley leading to the alps. They looked so close you could reach out and touch the snow. The sun was SO strong up there, and it was so dry, you had to hold your breath each time you reached for a doorknob. Zap.
I promise to post pictures when I get back.
We got into another festival in Italy. They seem to dig us here!

Here’s the play by play of my Delta adventure:
We couldn’t land at JFK because of weather, so we circled until we ran low on fuel, then landed in Albany. We then sat for an hour or two and then took off for JFK. The landing was so choppy because of the wind, that it was the closest I ever came to barfing on a flight.
I missed my connecting flight to Milan by an hour, so I went to the Delta counter for help. They told me before they could re-book me, they had to fix an error: no one noted that I had boarded the plane in SF. An hour later, they corrected the problem, and then spent another hour trying to rebook me. I got on an Alitalia flight the next day, but by then, every hotel in a 20 mile radius was taken. Oh, and no, they wouldn’t give me my luggage after waiting an hour in line at the luggage office.
I got one in Manhattan, and jumped on the subway. I arrived at my hotel at about 2am. Since it was too late to cancel my hotel in Milan, I was probably the only person on earth enjoying the use of a hotel room in NY and Milan on the same night.
...and I missed the first of the two festivals I was there for...
Never check your toothbrush. NEVER check your toothbrush.
I ate my "Smartfood" dinner and went to bed. By the way, there’s nothing "smart" about that food. 20 grams of fat in that small bag of popcorn.
Got up the next day, and tried to walk around NY. Considering I had only a hoodie and a t-shirt, I began to freeze. After trying to warm up in cafes here and there, I gave up and headed back to the airport via the subway.
My luggage was fine, and would be waiting for me in Milan. ...right...
Got on the airplane, and they started serving dinner. No, they did not get the note that I was a vegetarian, so no dinner.
When we landed, we unloaded down a set of stairs in the pouring rain into a waiting bus. We drove to the terminal crammed together for about 15 minutes. We then all crammed into a giant room with a few other flights to get to 3 doors where we’d have our passports checked. Since there were about 1000 people in the room, and no lines, it was total chaos, and took about an hour and a half.
When I finally made it through, the baggage carousal came up empty for me, so I waited in line for about an hour. I filled out the paperwork and they said I’d probably get my bag in 24 hours.
After calling my shuttle service to pick me up, I walked out into the rain looking for my ride. A man with my name on a sheet of paper waved me down, and as we walked to his car, he told me that since I cancelled my shuttle the day before too late, I would have to pay for both yesterday and today. And since I didn’t officially book with Expedia, I would have to pay the "full fare" of 90 euros: about 3 times the original price.
"Will that be a problem?"
"Yup. See ya."
I turned around and walked back to the airport like I knew where I was going.
I finally figured out how to get to my hotel via rail, and got on a train. I sat down, and saw a panel next to me, and tried to open it. I instantly crushed my finger, and decided I was temporarily cursed.
Despite the cold and the rain, being in the same clothes for 3 days, and not having brushed my teeth for the same amount of time, I went out, found a toothbrush, and got on the Metro to visit the Duomo. I was soaked and freezing, but dammit, I went to church.
It was an amazing place, and I’ll eventually post some pictures.
Anyway, I’m now in Varese for the second festival and the town is so cute it’s unreal. It honestly looks like a movie set. There are advertisements everywhere for the festival, and opening night was pretty amazing. The Italian station RAI and several other news people were there, and it was a packed house.
Tomorrow they begin to show the films in competition, opening with "The Road"!

So 11 hours after leaving SFO, I land in JFK. The weather here ruined everyone's flight plans. My flight landed at 9pm (after a stop in Albany) and I just got to my hotel here at 2am...wait, now it's 3am thanks to daylight savings!
No food, no luggage, no JACKET (it's freezing here) and no toiletries. NEVER check your toiletries. I try again tomorrow at 6pm. So I'm paying for a hotel in Manhattan (everything in a 20 mile radius was booked) AND one in Milan right now! On the plus side, I took the subway through Brooklyn and Queens. People do not respond when you yell "hello Brooklyn."

I need a drink...

Night,
--Owen

So I head to Milan and Varese, Italy next week to check out 2 festivals "The Road" is in. Should be very interesting considering I speak zero Italian. It was a mad dash around the bay area to find a place that could transfer our short on to Mini DV PAL version. For those who don't know, the US uses a different frame rate format (NTSC) than Europe does. What a pain in the ass. I plan to get the Mini DV back and hold on to it in case we get into another European festival.... but wouldn't you know: festivals all seem to have different requirements for their screening formats. Formats that cost up to $100 for the NTSC format, and perhaps twice that for PAL format.

Regardless, I picked up a guide to Milan at the bookstore today, and I'm pretty excited. There is a church there called the Duomo (the name partially means "the never ending") because it was built from the 14th century until the 19th century...with finishing touches done in 1965. And you think your home improvements are taking too long?



"What a wonder it is! So grand, so solemn, so vast! And yet so delicate, so airy, so graceful!" --Mark Twain viewing the Duomo
I'll add more later.
--Owen