Bye Sweeties!

At least for now. The SouthSide Film Festival closed last night and I'm catching up on sleep. It's amazing how exhausting it can be sitting in dark theatres.

I've heard a couple people ask, "Who is this Filmolina?" Really, I'm just writing anonymously about my SSFF experience, the films I see and people I talk to. Maybe it's given you a slice of the festival we have here in town. That's all you need to know. I'm not Jayne Mansfield.

I was really impressed with Bethlehem's Portuguese-American Club, where the closing party was held last evening. A huge dancefloor, an affable bartender (and cheap drinks!), really delicious food (especially the empanadas!), great acoustics and a warm, "classy" feel to the place. I wouldn't hesitate to hold another event there.

By the time I got to the party, everyone was whirling about the floor to Peruvian dances, then salsas, tangoes, merengues.

People were raving about the "surprise" animation, "Peter and the Wolf" (see previous post!) which unfortunately I missed. I'll have to pursue that.

The beautiful summer weather seemed to keep people outside, rather than at the film festival (that's my guess) but no matter the weather we always blame it for something, right? It's just more fun to do the festival with a good crowd of people. Helps with the meeting-new-people aspect, too.

The Danish cutie and my friend? Well, after 6 days of circling each other at the festival they are finally talking and emailing. And that seems to be the tip of the iceberg with all the connections made at the festival. Everywhere I went I saw filmmakers and volunteers and others talking talking talking about the future - "we could do this...." "we could work together..." And honestly, it was surprising. I've not been to any other arts festival where there is this kind of camaraderie, where everyone can see it happening.

Until another film festival,
Filmolina