Before leaving L.A. for Palm Springs, we made an out of the way stop to the Getty Museum in the Santa Monica hills. It was a great place to wonder around and take in the beautiful landscape, the interesting architecture and an amazing installation of photography from a turn of the century photographer and a mid-century husband and wife photography team. Both collections were inspiring. For me, when I go to a museum with such a huge offering of art, photography and sculpture, I find that I have to focus in on one collection or installation so I don't get over stimulated or burned out on way too much work. Taking in just the photography was perfect.
From the Getty, we rolled down the 10 to Palm Springs. The smog of L.A. gave way to sunny blue skies and puffy clouds just outside of Palm Springs. With the clear skies came the blistering heat. We didn't even get the brunt of it, but I think it was near 105 degrees F! So hot that even with a convertible, you wanted the top up so you could blast the cool air from the AC.
We immediately got checked into our hotel room and got settled. From there, we went to the festival headquarters and got our pass and got the lay of the land. Immediately, we felt welcomed by the staff. There were so many volunteers running around attending to the details. Clearly, this festival had their act together. We made an early night of it and sacked out early. We had big plans ahead of us: poolside lounging, screening films, seminars and more pool time.
Here's the funny thing, it is so hot in Palm Springs that if you want to hang out at the pool, you almost have to be in the water. The water is refreshing, but even it seems a little warm. And no, it wasn't a kitty pool, so not much peeing in the pool. It is basically super hot in Palm Springs and being there in the summer is kind of crazy.
Regardless of the heat, the hospitality and the organization at the Palm Springs ShortsFest was great. We got a chance to meet the curator of the festival, Kathleen McInnis. She was super supportive and very enthusiastic about having Dry Rain in the festival. Luckily, she was also the person moderating the Q & A after the screening, so we had some very good questions to ponder and try to answer.
Q & A's can be a funny thing. You don't know what kind of questions you'll get and then once you're up there, you just hope that you get some questions. In Palm Springs, we had a doozie. This one lady had nothing but negative things to say about all the films. Of the two of us up for the Q & A, she just bombed on both of us. It was actually a funny thing. Kathleen did a great job wrangling her and steering her away and letting other people chime in, but dang, I thought she was going to go for awhile tearing up our films.
Our time in Palm Springs culminated with a great drive up into the mountains for a nice sunset followed up by a party thrown by local sponsors and the film festival. It was a fun gathering with lots of networking going on of course. If any one ever asks about the Palm Springs ShortsFest, I encourage them to submit their work and attend. It was a great experience.
Oh, and lastly, we got invited to the Rhode Island Film Fest while we were there. I should clarify, we got invited to submit. So, hopefully another festival to screen our Film at and share it with a whole new group.
