When In Rome

Well I did make it to Rome and it didn't disappoint. I got to see a few locally lensed films and to hangout with the usual suspects from the Atlanta film scene: Greg Thompson, Samantha Worthen, Terrie Thompson, Stephen Caudill, Daniel Burnley and I'll just say a few other folks before this list gets too long. Although, I have to say, I've run into Mike Brune so often the last month I think I started stalking him at some point. I hope not, I don't have enough black clothes in my closet.

I also got to hang with non-Georgia folks like Stephen Rubin (program director with the Santa Fe Film Festival) who I met at the Maryland Film Festival and Michael Behrens (education rogram director with Filmarts) from San Francisco.

Talking to those last two was great. We talked about some possible partnerships that could benefit the Atlanta Film Festival, but will also be useful for Georgia filmmakers if they happen. As with all things in life, hoops will have to be jumped, meetings will have to occur, caveats will have to addressed. But, hopefully at some point we can bring some of these ideas to fruition.

At the minimum, even if nothing program wise takes off--which as we all know, is the norm--I was energized to connect with folks from the West Coast/Southwest who are just as committed to finding new ways of keeping our respective organizations relevant and accessible to independent filmmakers.

Samantha (and sorta me) hamming it up for Terrie

Stephen Rubin on the right, and someone

I was too lazy to find out their name

Harry thanks the presenters at the Awards Ceremony

There are so many captions I could use for this pic. But I think

Samantha would kick my ass if I used any of them.
It was good to see Greg Thompson though.
And the answer is yes, he does have some interesting LA stories...