Phoenix Film Festival

I'm not sure if this is a disco pose or a superpower pose. In any event, it's one of Aaron's favorites (see previous post).

My mom has been heavily involved in the Phoenix Film Festival since (I think) the first year it started. She's now on the "executive staff" and, even though it's a black hole that sucks up every minute of her time for weeks, she has a blast doing it. One of the perks of having someone on the inside is getting in to see stuff for free. Last night Aaron, my dad and I headed over to the festival and hung out in the tent with my mom for a while before we went to the AZ premiere of a film called Blind Dating.


Aaron was really excited to be there.

My mom works the auction booth, which had all kinds of awesome stuff signed by famous people. Our favorite was a matted and framed picture of Jack Sparrow signed by Johnny Depp and if we had $400, we would have thought about bidding on it.

Despite Aaron's lack of enthusiasm, my dad and I, however, were super extremely amazingly excited to be there. Why?


Because Jane Seymour was there with her husband, James Keach to promote the film. That's her right there talking to my mom while signing stuff for the auction.

My dad has been in love with Ms Seymour since heaven only knows when. Probably since she played Solitaire in Live and Let Die (I'm link happy today).

All evening I had been thinking about what to say to her because I didn't want to be one of those people who was like OMG I LOVE you and I LOVE Somewhere in Time and you are so gorgeous and I know you're like 56 years old but you're hotter than me and your dress is FABULOUS and OMG can I have a hug?? Cause that's the kind of stuff that was running through my mind and she probably didn't want to hear it.

So I decided since I didn't have anything interesting to say, maybe I should just hang back and surreptitiously take pictures. But then my mom called me over to meet her (eeep) and she shook my hand and I grinned like an idiot and didn't say anything except "Hi! Really nice to meet you!" and then we got these:

After this one, James Keach was like, "I think there was a shadow. Take another one!" And when a very accomplished Hollywood director tells you the shot has a shadow, you shoot it again! So then we took this one:

The woman is almost old enough to be my grandmother. I'd hate her if I didn't love her so much.

Where was Aaron, you ask? Eating at Subway. He didn't know who she was so he didn't really feel like putting dinner off any longer to wait for her. Boys.

After this we went in and grabbed some seats in the theater since it was going to be packed (again, having someone on the executive staff is AWESOME because everyone else had to wait in line and make a mad dash for decent seats when they opened the doors). While we were waiting, Jane and James (I bet that gets confusing) came in and did an interview with some lady right there in front of us. So awesome. Then they actually stayed and watched the movie with us.

The movie itself was really funny and we very much enjoyed it. This was a relief because I was worried that the movie would suck and then we would have to look them in the eye on the way out. After the movie they did a quick Q&A with us which is another cool thing about the Film Festival. A lot of times the directors and actors are there and they are all about talking about the film so you get to learn all kinds of neat things.

So, if you're in the Phoenix area this week, the festival is running until Thursday I think, so head on over and see some awesome indie films! And say hi to my mom while you're at it.