MCN Blogs
Kim Voynar

By Kim Voynar Voynar@moviecitynews.com

Posted Thursday, April 14th, 2011 - Comments Off on SFF Dispatch: Beautiful People and Beaches
Be Sociable, Share!

SFF Dispatch: Beautiful People and Beaches

After a long day of travel, I finally made it to Sarasota last night for the Sarasota Film Festival — oddly enough, my first time to this particular fest. It’s fun to step outside my comfort zone of the regional fests to which I normally travel and experience a new vibe, but I was also a wee bit nerve-wracked when my itinerary included specifications as to “attire” for the various events I’m slated to attend.

“Dressing up” in Seattle tends to mean “throw on the jeans without holes — unless they’re designer jeans intended to ironically look like they were pulled out of the Goodwill reject bin in spite of costing a small fortune in ramen noodles — and maybe a cute top or that sweet vintage Posies t-shirt.” Here in Sarasota, though, as I expected after talking to some fest folks about what to wear, things are a bit dressier.

Fortunately, I decided it was better to risk being over-dressed than under and a quick shopping expedition the night before the trip saved the day. I added an unusual splash of color to my wardrobe, which generally consists of variations on “black,” and opted for a cute, long, sunset-orange sundressy thing, in which I felt weirdly grownup-ish, but I guess fairly appropriate for the occasion, as I saw other women in similar attire and nobody stopped me at the door to ask what the hell I was doing at this fancy-pants party.

The party itself, themed “Cinema Tropicale,” was held at the Sarasota Yacht Club, a lovely place located, as one might expect, on the waterfront. Vodka-based beverages and Stella abounded, and the food spread was, I have to say, among the best I’ve ever seen at a film fest party. It was pretty astounding, actually — abundant seafood in various incarnations, pulled pork tacos, and bananas foster with ice cream that everyone around me was in ecstasies over. I nibbled on some shrimp, mostly, and vicariously enjoyed the reactions of everyone else to the dessert.

The party boasted two bands, but the way the venue is laid out they didn’t overlap each other. The band by the pool was playing dance tunes, and there was quite a crowd getting down over that way. I kept expecting some woman in heels to get a little carried away and go tumbling into the pool, but fortunately that didn’t happen.

I only have one film on my jury slate left to watch, so feeling fairly caught up there. This is one of the best selections of films I’ve juried at a fest, and I expect deliberations will be of the robust and energetic variety, as these films, while very different stylistically from each other, are all quite good. It’s exciting to have such an array of films competing against each other, so looking forward to hearing what my fellow jurors think.

Today’s agenda is pretty low-key other than a dinner later, so I’m thinking of taking advantage of that to try to head out to Lido Beach, which the fest folks and locals tell me is a must-see thing here. Since we’re rather lacking in warm, sunny beaches in Seattle, other than for about 12 minutes every summer, sounds like a good idea to me. I brought along plenty of sunscreen, so hopefully my pasty Seattle skin will merely sparkle in the sunlight rather than exploding in flames. Werner Herzog is in town (and staying at my hotel) so perhaps I’ll run into him there. If not, I can just imagine him drolly narrating the day in my head, which should make my day, however it turns out, at least entertaining.

Be Sociable, Share!

Comments Off on SFF Dispatch: Beautiful People and Beaches

Comments are closed.

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon