#BWIFF2012

I just got back from my third great year at the Blue Whiskey Film Festival with probably the strongest field yet of screenings and lots of interaction with filmmakers--I believe 20 out of 32 films screened in competition had representatives there either IRL or through the magic of Skype.  I really loved the french film A.L.F. which was the unanimous choice for Best of Fest, but there was plenty of other stuff on my personal favorites list, including Quitter, Machinehead, Being Bradford Dillman, The Guy Who Lived In My Pool, The Hole, I Am Bad, Things I Don't Understand, and Future Inc.; and a couple of really solid documentaries, including Average Joe, Kinderblock 66, and 5 Days in Denver.

Powering Up at BWIFF

I've said it before, you will never go hungry in Palatine.  One of my favorite things besides watching hours and days of films and then talking about them with people is going to eat at great places in the area.  Number one for me is Billy's Pancake House where we host the annual Filmmakers Breakfast and I continue to winnow away at my twilight years by trying (and failing) each year to eat something called a Meat Skillet.  I also always stop at the 24 Hour donut shop Spunky Dunkers, where you expect you might see Raymond Chandler banging away on a typewriter on the last stool.  And this year we had dinner at a new place that looked like a set Robert Rodriguez could film a shootout in.

Whiskey-ites

Part of my enjoyment in going to film festivals is living my life vicariously through more talented people like Gary Lumpp, Michael Noens, and Steve Coulter, who I took my (I think) sixth annual photo with.  They look the same, I am getting fatter and balder.