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OUTFest Los Angeles, USA - July 2007

Up and OUT in LA

We just got back from Los Angeles yesterday and already Iíve been inundated with your calls asking about it.

You can all rest assured - Outfest went well. In fact, I think it was the best festival yet. I arrived in L.A first, followed by Rachel (now Producer), Danny (Rag) and Tamsin (Olivia). The programme of events for we directors in the days before our screenings was stellar ñ it included a soiree in the Hollywood hills, a pool party on Mulholland drive and a fancy lunch where the director of Grease was amongst those trying to persuade us to join the same Guild as the likes of Stevens Spielberg and Soderberg. Only in LA-LA land.

Events for directorsí guests included fully catered breakfast meetings with top execs from all over the industry every morning at The Standard hotel (that cool one that Brad Pitt bought in Oceanís 12), post screening parties with oysters and champagne, as well as an Awards Night post party where we got to rub shoulders with Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, XMen 1-2, Usual Suspects).

The Rag Tag posse were pretty popular, especially Danny, so by the time we screened, even the lesbians had massive crushes on him. As for the screening itselfÖThe theatre was definitely the biggest ñ 750 seats, of which we managed to fill about half, so our biggest audience yet.

Like San Francisco, they watched quite quietly in the beginning while they adjusted to the different accents and cultural contexts. A bit too quietly for my liking since the speakers at the back began to play up and buzz. But it seemed that we were the only ones who noticed since no one else turned their eyes away from the screen. And by the end, they were laughing, and clapping with vigour as each story line found its conclusion. Quite a lot of them stayed for the question and answer session afterwards, and came up to tell us what a great job they thought weíd done.

No, these people werenít just my aunts and uncles, even though I was touched by how many of those came, despite their personal views on same gender love.

We also made lots of friends amongst of the other filmmakers, and they showed much love and support at the screening - so I urge you all to try and catch Deondray and Quincyís ëDL Chroniclesí, Rezaís ëSugar in the Bloodí and Ashishís ëHappy Hookersí at a festival, cinema or video store near you soon.

Also there to support was my former employer Tim Reid, as well as my new fairy godmother Samantha Sprecher ñ VP of Billy Crystalís ëFace Productionsí. She was beyond fantastic in making sure we met anyone she thought might be of help in any way ñ and this included several heads of little and large production companies, TV networks like HBO, agents, managers and even possible sponsors for my next film.

As for distributors, I know of at least one who was in the audience, and weíll see what she has to say on behalf of her company ñ hopefully in the next few weeks. The assistant to the chief programmer at Sundance was also in attendance, and seemed to enjoy the film and the Q&A. Weíll see if that translates into us being invited to the festival ñ if not ëin competitioní at least as part of the ëspectrumí selection.

All in all, we sowed several seeds, and weíll just have to wait and see what fruit they bear.

Unfortunately there will be no one to represent at the Roxbury Film Festival in Boston next week, so fingers crossed our little movie does well on its own. Do send anyone you know in the area to check it out, and let us know what the predominantly black audience thinks.

Weíll hopefully have the opportunity to see that for ourselves soon enough. Rag Tag has been invited to the Black Film Maker Festival in London, which runs from 8th ñ 15th September. For many of you it will be the first chance to see it, and weíre hoping to have the finished version ready for your inspection by then. Kalilah and Lise our working very hard in LA to make sure that happens.

But most exciting of all, is Venice.

Although we did not make the official competition selection for the Venice Film Festival, we have been invited to be in the ëGiornate di Cinema Omosessualeí, as part of the Venice Film Festival. This will be happening between 5th to 7th September, so if you think you can make it to Venice (one of the top 5 Film Festivals in the Entire World) then let me know before the end of the month so we can sort something out.

Now gotta go ñ they are subtitling the film in Italian so I need to send them the words.

Snaps to follow shortly,

Adaora x