Just FYI - All of these reviews and notes were written pretty much after the festival was over. I'll get into the reasons why in a minute.

I didn't do anything to get ready for The Austin Film Festival this year really. After The Gay and Lesbian Fest (Agliff) in late August, I have had a lot on my plate. I had to get three shows ready for my cable access show "The Lodger Showboat," as the new season on cable access starts October 1st, and you have to have three episodes "in the cam" before they will allot you a time slot. I also went to Las Vegas with my dad and visited some friends in Houston in September and, just a few days before AFF, I went to see Laurie Anderson with my friend Melissa. It was an amazing show, as would be expected and, because I have a hook-up at the Paramount, we got FRONT ROW seats. It was awesome.

I got a bit behind on my film watching so, the night before the festival, my friend Johnny Oh! and I did a double feature of "I (heart) Huckabees" and "The Motorcycle Diaries." I still haven't written those review. After the movies we went to Pluckers and had a wonderful meal. There are always hot young college guys there (we go to the one by campus) and there's always hot Asian guys. I don't know why Asian guys like chicken wings so much but, who am I to complain.

Anyway, one review I did write ahead of time was for James Bolton's "The Graffiti Artist" which is playing at AFF. I met Bolton when his film "Eban and Charly" was shown at Agliff a few years ago. Bolton sent me a VHS screener and I got to see the film before the festival started and get my review ready.

Right before the festival started, my wisdom teeth, in particular the two on my left side, both of which were rotting away, began to hurt like crazy. The pain could be excruciating one minute and non-existent the next. I got Tylenol and Anbesol and tried to keep them numb but sometimes the pain was excruciating. All through the festival, I had enormous pain at times. I made myself go see films, because many of these might be films that would never be seen in Austin again, but I just couldn't focus enough to do any writing. I took notes every day and at all the films I saw, which is something I usually do at festivals anyway.

Web, the guy who does the website with me, has been writing some screenplays over the past few years and even had one go to the second round at Project Greenlight. He wanted to go to the festival and I got him press passes because he does the site with me, so he was coming down for a few days. He has family in Austin, so I usually don't get to see him to much but we do get to spend a little bit of time together. Web always hypes me and treats me like a superstar, plus he's a nice, fun, easy-going guy, so I love hanging out with him. He called me Thursday and we planned on hooking up on Friday. I got on-line at the AFF website and tried to figure out what movies I would be seeing over the first few days because I hadn't got an AFF scheduled yet.

I planned on seeing two films at the Paramount on the first night, Thursday the 14th, "Overnight" and "The Woodsman." I like seeing the stuff at the Paramount because it is almost never full and you don't have to get there early and stuff. I like to sit in the front anyway, and so, I don't have to be too early unless it seems like it might be a sold-out show.

At about 6pm I headed to the Driskill Hotel, which is right by the Paramount, as that is where the AFF headquarters usually is. I went in and got my badge and goodie bag very easily. The older guy there that helped me out had it all under control and it went smooth as silk. I walked through the bar and decided to head over to the Paramount to see what was going on and I ran into my friend Cargill. Cargill is on a cable access movie review show called "The Reel Deal" here in town and he is also friends with Harry Knowles. Most of the folks over at Ain't-It-Cool-News don't care for me very much, but Cargill has always been very nice. He was standing with a guy I recognized as one of Harry's people and smoking. We talked for quite a bit about stuff and how we were chosing to go see "Overnight" at the Paramount rather than "Imaginary Heroes" at the Dobie. Cargill's friend said he was pretty sure that "Heroes" would get a theatrical release and come back around anyway.

After a bit, I told them I'd see them later. I walked towards the Paramount and saw the line was rather small, so I stopped at Wendy's and had a bit to eat. This Wendy's is downtown, so it's dirty and full of odd people. There was a big black guy talking very loud on his cell phone and homeless "travelers" with backpacks. A cute young guy and his girlfriend got a salad and shared it. He looked like a male model. Some people came by my table with the manager and started going through the trash in one of the receptacles. Apparently the woman had lost a FedEx package and thought she might have thrown it away there.

I went back to the Paramount and they were letting people in. Now, I've been watching this young Asian guy on his webcam on-line lately and he is totally into Von Dutch stuff. They seem to mainly make trucker ballcaps, the kind that Ashton Kutcher has made so popular. Someone told me that they cost up to fifty bucks apiece. This guy has like 40 of them. I'd never ever heard of Von Dutch until this. Anyway, when I was in Vegas in a giftshop, I saw a shirt that said "Von Bitch" and was going to get it, because I thought it was funny and now I got the joke, and after I picked it up I saw one that said "Von Drunk" and knew that was the one for me. I found an XL and bought it. I was wearing it on this day and when I went into the Paramount one of the older ladies usher volunteers said, "Von Drunk" out loud. It was odd. "That's me," I replied as I showed my badge and went it.

I made a couple of phone calls. At my day job, they were going to be shooting a scene for a film called "Dot" in the evening. This is a long story. It's been in talks for months and I had been working on it and hoping to get to be an extra in the thing but at the last minute the opted to film on the opening night of AFF and I set it up but told them I couldn't be there. Still, I was on the phone all day taking care of the logistics of the shoot and spent a part of the night making calls making sure everything would go smoothly. It did.

"Dot" is being made as a part of Burnt Orange Productions which is this huge deal that was set up through UT that is going to have the college involved in making a handful of small independent films every year. This one is being directed by the woman who helmed "But I'm a Cheerleader" and it starts Elisha Cuthbert (whom everyone says is a complete bitch), Martin Donovan and David Gallagher. (Do you think everyone at work got their picture taken with that cute little hottie. You bet, everyone but me, the fay guy. Goddammit life is so cruel sometimes!) Anyway, "Dot" is about a deaf girl and I hear that a lot of people who have been working as crew and as extras in the film are being underpaid, overworked and treated like shit. Not a good word of mouth thing for Burnt Orange. This should be the highlight production of Austin this year, not the shittiest one.

After I got off the phone, I heard some guys behind me talking. They were pretty loud. One said he was from Iowa, which is my home state, and was talking about how only a few famous people were from there like Tom Arnold and Ashton Kutcher. Then he started talking about this deal that William Shatner just did that is going to be a reality show. Shatner, as everyone knows, played Captain Kirk on the original "Star Trek" and Kirk's character was supposedly from this little town in Iowa. Shatner went to this town and pretended to film a low budget sci-fi movie, but it was all a hoax and the point was to see how far the locals would go to be in a film and have something to do in a film. An elaborate practical "Candid Camera"/"Joe Schmo" kinda thing. It seems like a pretty cruel thing to do but Shatner ended up donating a bunch of money to civic organizations in the town for being "such good sports," so I doubt anyone will sue or anything.

My friend Christian called me right when before 7 and was talking about getting together and watching movies and editing and when Barbara Morgan, the Executive Director and Co-Founder of AFF came out and began to make announcements, I just about had to hang up on him. Barbara did her standard intro, mentioned the ballots and told us the director of "Overnight" would be doing a Q&A after the film.

The lights dimmed and the AFF trailer played. It was a really funny spoof of educational films, this one about filmmaking in Austin, and had quite a few funny lines. It was made by and starred Troy Grant. It was one of only three AFF trailers that I saw. All three trailers were followed by a overly long trailer that had the logos of over 20 sponsors on it that went on forever. It has Texas swing music on it and about 10 seconds into it, a sweet-voiced cowboy goes "ahhh-haaa," We I hear that I always think, Does it take a lot of corporate sponsors to put on a film festival? "Ahhh-haaa,"

A guy I have met several times at AFF named B.J. Burrow (the program lists him as "Screenplay Competition Marketing Coordinator") came out and did the Q&A with "Overnight" filmmaker Mark Smith and I've included some of his comments in the review of the film.

After the Q&A, I ran into my festival buddy J.H. who I met a few years ago at AFF. We run into each other once in a blue moon and usually several times at AFF. J.H. is a real cutie and it's always nice to talk to him. We walked out front (I saw SXSW Director Matt Dentler talking to some folks in the lobby) and talked about a lot of stuff regarding films including the relocation of the Downtown Alamo Drafthouse, Pauly Shore's film "Pauly Shore is Dead," which is playing for a few days at the Alamo here next week, and "Melvin Goes to Dinner." J.H. was going to the Dobie to see "Z Channel" but I told him I wanted to stay and see "The Woodsman." This film stars Kevin Bacon as a pedophile recently released from prison and it got a lot of buzz at Sundance. We said our good-byes and I got into the line.

I called Christian back and got his voicemail and I apologized for almost hanging up on him. Then I called my friend Ben Kobbs who was working on the "Dot" shoot and made sure everything was going smoothly. It was.

We got into the Paramount and it was rather quiet and dull waiting for the film. Right when it was about to start this group of sexy Alt-Rock kids came over and sat to the left of the theater. I wondered what they were doing in this film. A volunteer came out, didn't bother to introduce himself, and very nervously and quickly introduced the film.

The AFF trailer before the film was a funny animated thing about Hollywood turning Ernest Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" into a Jerry Bruckheimer/Michael Bay vehicle for Will Smith and Nathan Lane called "Man vs. Sea." It was kinda funny although it was mildly homophobic when it came to the jokes about Lane.

lodger@AFF2004