After graduating a couple weeks ago, I found myself with a few film gigs to keep me in Oberlin, OH for the summer. When the students leave, the town is reduced to a quiet 3,000 or so folks. This would be bearable, if the one drinking hole in town didn't close it's doors for renovation, reducing social interactions from minimal to none. I figured it was time to get out of town.
So I went down to Oklahoma City to attend the deadCENTER film fest (so named because it is in the center of OK in the center of USA) where my film 'Creation' was screening. This was the first film fest I could get to that was playing my own work.
OKC was BORING. There is no way around it, no way to sweeten it, and the locals know it. The local Okies more than make up for the city's drab facade. Every single native I met was welcoming, friendly, outgoing, and all around good people. The folks running the festival were great, and as I was cruising around on my own, welcomed me to every event and get-together they had.
Watching an audience enjoy my film, and giving it a great reception at the end was very rewarding. I got to meet a number fellow cinephiles, including the director and producer of "Armless" (premiered at Sundance earlier this year), the writer/director and lead actress of "Heart of Now" (World premiered there), the director of "Holly Rollers" (starring Michael Cera oriented Jesse Eisenberg), and got wowed by Spike Jonze and Matt Hoffman opening their new doc "The Birth of Big Air". All in all, a wonderful experience and I hope to make it back next year.
