Thanks to Saba and our friends at Q&A we were able to peep out a wee bit of the Newport Beach Film Festival this past weekend. The last film festival I went to–and Josh can attest to this–sucked. It was the Sundance Film Festival in 2003 and we (thought we) had the privilege to deejay alongside DJ Dan and Mr. Beck Hansen himself while checking out tons of movies. Come to find out a week before (surprise) that every ticket in every theater is sold. No one told us that all the movies would be sold out for the entire weekend! The closest thing we got to a movie was seeing Samwise Gange (Frodo’s sidekick, big up Rudy!) slipping on some ice on the main strip of Park City, and we also ate lunch next to the  nick nolte mistress lady that was violated by Robert Deniro in Cape Fear. Other than that, our experience at Sundance had absolutely nothing to do with movies…
And that’s what was so cool about the Newport Beach Film Festival - it was actually about FILMS. Anyone could stroll in to the theaters and get tickets for the various movies featured. A tiny bit of waiting for the heavily anticipated films, but all in all stress free and (mostly) cool people just interested in watching good movies. In just one afternoon/evening we saw a handful of good flicks: a RunLolaRun-type UK short (Walking Away ) of the subtle choices that an east London orphan can make to map her future, some intense movie about a Romanian executioner getting what was owed to him years later, but hands down the movie that was the most stunning was Red Like The Sky - based on a true story in 1970s, a little dude named Micro plays with daddy’s rifle and has an accident and goes blind. He gets sent away to a special school. Instead of sulking in despair, Micro confronts the school bully (yes, apparently even blind schools had bullies), seduces the girl who lives next door to the school (and he’s only 10 - actually convinces her that he can ride a bike with her on the back - what game!) and develops a knack for creating sound samples by sampling with a reel to reel tape recorder. (his name is Micro - get it?) Like most foreign films - totally non-Hollywood, refreshing, heartfelt, and funny as hell. Definitely put this one in your netflix queue if it comes out. Of course it wouldn’t be a festival without an afterparty, and it wouldn’t be an afterparty (at Bloomingdales no less!) without some bonafide North County Cougars:

and of course there were some d-bag filmmakers telling us how noble they are for not owning a car or a computer yet still making films (”that would be a great story for your magazine”). ummm, yeah. thanks. looks like you could use an “i am not a paper cup” buddy.

all in all a great experience. once again, it’s the smaller conglomerates of media (wasn’t sundance supposed to be an offshoot of cannes?) that can pull it together for a real experience for the people.