Day Three--Tuesday

Bumping into Noah was a godsend, but finding another friend of a friend, Frank Whaley, director of Joe the King, was a little less certain as I had no email or cell info for this one, since said director had been in Europe prior to the festival and my friend had missed him in NY when they were both there.  Figured my best chance of hooking up with Frank was to go to the Panel discussion he was participating in at 10 AM.  No sooner planned than done--his interview was funny, got to meet him and tell him I was going to try to get tickets for his film.  He told me to find him if I needed help and he'd see what he could do (ended up not even being necessary, as I found a ticket pretty easily).  Also met and spoke to Janeane Garofolo for a while, a completely righteous babe in terms of both intelligence and personality, and someone who I really admire for making choices that are true to herself.  Left the panel to go see "Tumbleweeds", which ended up being one of my two festival favorites. .  Starring Janet McTeer, an accomplished Broadway actress who made her lead actress feature film debut here,  this film was just outstanding both in terms of story and character portrayal.  Janet plays this messed up southern mother who hops from boyfriend to boyfriend and then when it doesn't work out, just skips town and moves to another state.  Only problem is, when she moves, her twelve year old daughter has to move too, which as you can imagine, basically sucks for her.  So the conflict in the film, is what happens when the daughter gets to a place from which she doesn't want to leave.  The film was funny and heartbreaking all at the same time, as you watched a woman really try her best to be a good mother and just really suck at it.  The girl who played the daughter did an exceptional job--sometimes being 12 and sometimes seeming way older and wiser than her years.  Just a beautiful film--and based on the screenwriter's mother in real life, who, she told me after the screening, is now on marriage number 5.  Exchanged info with all of the people involved with the project as I feel I would be privileged to work on anything they do again; that's how strongly I felt about the quality of this film.

Went back to the condo to hang out for the rest of the afternoon/evening until I walked down to the Library to catch the 11:30 screening of Guinevere. Also a movie I would recommend, Guinevere is the story of a young woman who falls into a love/mentoring situation with a much older photographer. Steven Rea was excellently gross and poignantly tragic as the older man, while Sarah Polley, who I had never before seen in anything, was really fun to watch as a girl who was getting in over her head with a guy old enough to be her father. Jean Smart was deliciously funny as the tough as nails society mother.  Directed by Audrey Wells, the writer of "The Truth About Cats and Dogs",  this film was very smart, and I agree with her assessment that the issue of how in our society, girls are mentored differently than boys, often in ways that involve a sexual relationship with the male mentor, was an issue that deserved cinematic exploration, because it is a story that is too common to too many women to effectively ignore.