Damah Film Festival First Night

It was a great first night for the Damah Film Festival. The event is small enough that I felt like someone special which is something I can't say about most festivals I attend. Katherine Makinney greeted me and helped me along the registration process and had personally called the night before answering my question about parking. This is Katherine's first year as Executive Director of the festival, and so far shes done a very nice job with excellent screening facilities and resturaunts and coffee shops within a five minute walk from the venues and the hotel. The Culver Hotel is the center of the festival where registration is, I especially liked the free t-shirt for all attendees. The hotel was built in 1924 and was the hotel where the actors who played the munchkins from the Wizard of OZ stayed. At one point the hotel was owned by John Wayne, and the bar in the hotel is now appropriately named Dukes. I met several filmmakers at the meet and greet and the afterparty including a full time filmmaker from Littleton named Tom who's made several documentaries and is currently working on his first feature. As for the films, the evening programs are the showcase films from the festival and it's clear why, all were polished films that spanned genres from animation to a quirky love story, and to my favorite, a samurai film entitled "A Monks Awakening" where a monk learns to deal with his fear of death. My next favorite was Wentworth, the story about a man who has an imaginary girlfriend and must decide, with the help of his pet pig (I kid you not about the pig), whether to choose the girl OF his dreams and the girl IN his dreams. This was the only film presented in 35mm with all the other shown on DVD. Other notable films were "Emelia", a an animated story about a 5 year old goth girl and the world as seen through her eyes. "Incident at Alma" based on a true story where a preacher has only 10 minutes to save a condemned black man's soul, and "Wood Diary" , an unusual film where wooden statuettes take on new meaning in a man's life. Though the festival is small, the atmosphere is great and the intimate time spent with other filmmakers and actors both accomplished and emerging is very encouraging. I look forward to sharing more with you tomorrow, so until then.....