AUSTIN, Texas, Mar. 13, 2005 — At one point today we agree with each other that we are just goofing off, dabbling, doing what we please. Not being serious. We also tell this to someone we run into. We put FFP's company name on our tags, though. If it makes the young kids we are talking to think we are a distribution company or something, so be it. I'm happy that FFP is getting at peace with what I've established as my retirement lifestyle. He even told me today (or maybe yesterday) that he has in mind a couple of paintings (or maybe it's only one) that he's going to do. Painting. That sounds like retirement, doesn't it?

We get off to the club but I only do about thirty minutes on the bike and a set of assisted chin ups. I have to hurry to shower so we can get down and line up for seeing a documentary at

Alamo South. It is a doc about a high school kid in Lubbock who decides to champion sex education even though she herself has taken a pledge to not have sex. Entitled The Education of Shelby Knox, the piece is having a Texas premiere and it attracts a full house. At eleven in the morning. We eat and watch it. (The Alamo South garden burger fills me up! Too many fries. Yikes.) Made by veteran documentary filmmakers Rose Rosenblatt and Marion Lipschutz this piece is amazing. After, Rose and Shelby herself (who is a UT student now) take the stage. This kid loves the spotlight. Great piece. The audience is mostly wildly behind this kid and her stand but some nut case gets up and asks the first question. He says he is making a documentary about 'stupid things liberals say' (which actually sounds like a great idea, but he was still an idiot) and that he wants to use something they said in the movie and that is that "Christianity is one of the most intolerant religions." "If you just look at the Middle East," he says clearly ready to occupy the Q&A with a diatribe. Everyone turns to him and says "the preacher said it." Which he had. Not the filmmaker and not the kid. It would have been a stupid thing to say. Most religions are intolerant and extremist. It was a stupid thing to say. Someone in the movie did say it. The abstinence is the answer and homosexuals are like murders preacher said it and said it proudly. Shelby was at odds with this guy by that point although she identifies as a Christian and had further taken the abstinence pledge that he avocates. Shelby assured the heckler calmly that the documentary (which I'm sure he isn't making) will find an audience in Lubbock and neatly moved on to another question.

We head over to the convention center. We park in a lot nearby and go wander around the trade show. We aren't in the market for anything. Not for cameras or software or services. We do look over the books. But we have at home a DV camera, software and books we haven't used. We are dabblers, wanderers. We have a diet soda and then wander to the Hilton for coffee and dessert. We go see a panel which is an interview with Todd Solondz. We are skipping his film (which we will eventually see at the theater or on DVD anyway). But it's fun hearing him talk about Palindromes and Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness. That guy is sincerely weird and I guess that shouldn't surprise given his movies but it's hard to figure how he gets them made. Not that I don't like them. I liked Happiness better than Dollhouse. He did mention having to put up his own money to get this one started. No surprise there.

We go home, let the dog out and relax with some snacks and some reading and such for a few hours. I'm watching something off the DVR sort of and reading about inexpensive bistros in Paris when it's time to go to the Dobie. (Now we've made all the venues during this one except The Hideout which is a minor venue.)

Straight Line. Remember we gave a ride to a kid to the Dobie the other day? Well, he was acting in this one. So, we eschewed Palindromes and went to see it. Sean Ackerman was the writer/producer/editor/director and acted in it. (He says he couldn't afford another actor.) The movie had three time periods going by intercut. I confess that I got confused by this and almost didn't recover. Sean played a part at three different times and looked quite a bit different while playing them. So much so that I would think there were two actors and that some of the action was actually happening at the same time. This made me spend a lot of the movie being more puzzled than I should have been. Like many low budget movies, the sound wasn't all it could be. Sean wanted to show beautiful scenery and the gurgling streams were beautiful but also created (possibly intentional) noise on the soundtrack. Having said that it was a nice first effort. ("This is my first film, my first festival and the first showing of the film.") If I hadn't gotten confused about the time line (and this is probably entirely my fault...all these young kids look a lot alike to me anyway and that didn't help me snap to what was happening), I would have liked the movie a lot. I like the theme which was basically that we obsess on something (in this case a beautiful girl) while ignoring all the other good things that come our way. I admire a lot about this film. They shot from Montana to Panama. On a budget. They used a '92 Buick for a lot of the trip. (Sean also drove it to the festival.) Sean's film school friends Shannon and Sam were beautiful and great actors. (Sean said he hated acting but he was darn good, too.) The cinematography was quite good and amazing considering budget. Sean said he made this film after getting something optioned after film school and then not being able to stand seeing it eaten by Hollywood. Sadly, his chance of escaping the maw isn't great, but he is looking for that good thing and at least found the festival to show something that is entirely his. Part of the 'Emerging Visions' programming this is what makes the festival so much more than going to see a bunch of movies. We've seen a lot of premieres and seen the people in the movies and directors. Nifty.

We go home and goof off a bit before sleep.