FIRST. FILM. FESTIVAL. part two.

FIRST UNKNOWN AUDIENCE.

We got up and headed downtown to see the first block of movies at the Academy Theater, where our movie would be playing in a  block of shorts at noon. The Academy, like many of the places that would be hosting the films, was a church. It was very nice, pretty open, and had a medium sized screen set up in front of the stage.

Tom Riford, who I think is somehow actually everywhere in Hagerstown at the same time, opened the series with a quick shout out to the filmmakers. We watched a few movies, one from a few guys we'd met from Philly the other night at the pre-party and one absolutely gorgeous movie from Brazil called IN THE CLOUDS about a man proposing to his girlfriend.  It was basically perfect - my favorite film of the weekend.

We slipped out early for some breakfast and to wait for my mom and aunt Holly who came up from Baltimore (which was awesome). As we were sitting having coffee at the local shop, Brandon Green, the director who we had wanted to meet last night, randomly showed up and introduced himself! He recognized Jonny from the pictures I was posting on Facebook! So we all had drinks, met my fan, and headed over to the theatre.

One of my best friends from high school, Ethan, lives in DC with his wife Kathryn and they made the drive up to watch the movie for the first time with us!  I was super thrilled and pretty humbled, actually. We did the requisite lots of photos and mugging.  (We didn't mug anybody. Relax.)

So we settled into the fourth row (or thereabouts), watched a bunch of movies - some great, others.... not.

I did discover some things while watching these - a few movies looked AMAZING - I mean there was a futuristic chase movie that looked like it cost a million bucks. I had NO idea what the plot, characters, or story was. Consequently, I was bored to tears.  Also, and maybe this is a preference, but most of the "important, dramatic" shorts were long in the tooth and hard to watch. Sometimes, it was simply because the filmmaking was jarring and experimental, but shorts I think work best when a specific narrative of beginning, middle, end is simply made. This works best in comedy, one could argue, but no, if enough care and quality storytelling and writing are involved, it could be anything. This festival was a true mix.

But then, HOMESCHOOL REUNION came onscreen.

Now, I'd watched this for the first time in MONTHS about a week before this festival and I was still picking out issues - I should've changed that, tweaked that, cut that, "God I wish I'd been able to do that rather than have second unit," kinda thing.  But watching it with this crowd was different.

The crowd laughed immediately at the opening credits. And they KEPT LAUGHING! (The movie is a comedy so this is good...) And the vibe was so terrific that I was able to get out of my head completely and just truly enjoy this movie for the first time maybe ever. I was laughing at scenes that I have watched over 200 times. I was incredibly happy.  We were definitely a success.

After the series, Tom invited each of the filmmakers up to talk about the movie and answer some questions. We were referred to as the "blow up doll movie."

After the screening, we talked to the other filmmakers and made the usual Facebook connections - there were some great shorts in the group and I honestly hope we get to work with some of these people in the future! We hugged our visitors goodbye, high five the other filmmakers and said we'd see them at some screenings, then headed off to have some crab and lobster for lunch!

We headed over to see Brandon's movie "GOOD GRIEF!" afterward - a movie about what happened to the Peanuts characters when they grew up which you MUST see!- and then headed out to the parties.

And whaddaya know? The mermaid girl was there! Jonny and I met up with a bunch of the filmmakers we'd met over the last day or so, and as soon as we walked into the bar, Tom Riford (who is everywhere) greeted us with "Matt Ritchey! The Blow-up Doll movie! What are you guys drinking? I got your first round!"  I love this guy.

And after all of that partying, we left at one am and headed to the last open bar in town... and it was snowing. 

Of course it was snowing, it's April in Maryland.

FIRST. FILM. FESTIVAL. part one.

MADE IT.

The Maryland International Film Festival in Hagerstown was held the weekend of April first.  No, this was not a Fool's Day joke. To say this was a fabulous experience is not doing it justice, so bear with me here...

I arrived in Baltimore a day ahead of Jonny, as I have family in the area and we hung out for a day before I drove north. Once in Hagerstown, Jonny and I hopped in the car and wandered around the downtown area, parking in a metered lot and getting five dollars worth of quarters for the weekend before realizing the lot was free on weekends. Yeah.

We checked out the main party location at 28 SOUTH, got our badges and swag, and had a coffee in a nice outdoor park area. Seeing our movie's name on the bag, on the mobile app, and on our "Filmmaker" badges was really, really cool.  (As a writer I recognize that using "really" twice is pointless and also that the whole sentence poorly conveys emotion and that I'm coming across as a hack.... but it was really really cool!)

We walked around a bit (downtown is pretty small and the main street is only about a block or two), and passed the Maryland Theatre, which is where the "red carpet" and the major Opening Night movies (some shorts and Michael Bay's "13 Hours") would be playing.

It just so happened that Tom Riford, VP of the Festival, was being interviewed live on WHAG (my favorite call letters ever now... it's like a local station run by witches...). We talked to them a bit about our movie, how we were here from L.A., and that I was born in Baltimore.  Next thing you know, they're doing a live segment where Mark Kraham pulls out my HOMESCHOOL REUNION card, namechecks me and the movie and BOOM - we're on local TV.

We found out (via posting on Facebook and having people know people etc) that our DP's wife was in one of the movies they were showing and that the director, Brandon Green, was here for the screening! He wasn't arriving until later, so maybe we'd meet him tomorrow...

We attended the festival mixer upstairs at 28 South where we finally met Nicole Houser, who we'd been emailing back and forth for a month! We chatted with some filmmakers, had some whiskey, and headed over to the red carpet premiere of "13 Hours" by Michael Bay. Photos happened, and, crazily, I got a text from Leah Stansberry Richie, my high school pal, who just HAPPENED to be in Hagerstown filling up the gas tank mid-way to dropping off her kids with her mom!  She detoured to the theatre and we took some pics outside before rushing off.

"13 Hours," by the way, a pretty good movie. And I'm not a Michael Bay fan.

There was a SUPER cute girl in an amazing mermaid dress who walked in behind us (and sat behind us!) who I sadly didn't talk to, and after the screening which went way longer than expected, Jonny and I headed back to the room to catch some shut-eye, not realizing that the AFTER PARTY WAS ACROSS THE STREET!!!!!

But we had someplace to be at 10am (a new pal's screening), so we knocked out...