Our First US Film Festival
Well I’ve made it back to Vancouver after a very fun and successful trip to The Cleveland International Film Festival. We were very excited to be invited to screen at this festival and it certainly didn’t disappoint. These people know how to do a festival right.
Our first screening was on Thursday in the middle of the afternoon and I was a little nervous about how many people would be there but, wow, the folks in Cleveland are all over that festival like rainbows at a Pride Parade. They were breaking attendance records every day and I was really happy to have the theatre over 1/2 full on a weekday afternoon. Friday night we screened again to a full house and what a great audience. They laughed and cheered in all the right places and the Q&A afterwords was one of the best yet. They are getting geared up for the 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland so many people had a real connection to the message of the Beyond Gay. So many more kind words from people after the show – thanks to everyone I met for your support.
One of the great things about getting to these festivals is being able to see other films and my faves from this festival were Stolen, City of Borders and the new Ken Loach film Looking for Eric. The talk of the festival circuit will surely be the winner of two awards at its World Premiere in Cleveland: Louder than a Bomb. I missed it myself but it sounds amazing.
Thanks to everyone at the CIFF, I had a great time and you put on a fantastic festival. Next stop Phoenix on April 10th!
-Bob