Last weekend Pops came out to watch Danny so David and I could go to Austin for the premiere of the Levon Helm documentary I've been working on since September 2007. It was something of a game-time decision whether or not to go, as carrying Danny home from Abbot Kinney the week before, then walking home from the restaurant after a surprise baby shower from my mom friends, did my hips in to the point where walking was difficult - truly, honestly difficult. Like, I considered taking the random cane that can be found in the garage (?!?).
But, figuring you don't remember the pain, but I would always carry regret that I didn't make it, I decided to take many deep breaths and go. And boy am I glad we did.
The last time David and I were in Austin it was 115 degrees every day. Driving in your car with the windows rolled down had the effect of a heater running. It was miserable. So my expectations were low. But man, in March, that city is awesome. Small enough downtown that you feel like you can get everywhere, full of energy and yet somehow still really laid-back. And the surrounding areas have tons of charm. It's a lot like how LA wishes it was, if that makes any sense.
Anyway, the flight was actually really easy, except for the woman across the aisle who almost threw up - literally - she had the barf bag out and everything - when the flight attendants were chatting with me about a baby being born on a Southwest flight last week. Baby Inside (as Danny calls him) was doing backflips in my belly during the turbulent landing, which was an interesting sensation...
Friday was pretty uneventful outside of a stroll up to Stubbs BBQ where we met Jacob, the director, his girlfriend Jen and Phil, our sound guy, for some tasty dinner. The wait was an hour (oof), which I spent on the one folding chair in the entire place as Phil kept exclaiming how much nicer the women were in Texas - "they're actually looking at me!"
Saturday, however, was the big day. A stroll up to the Convention Center to get my filmmaker's badge took up the entire morning, and then a long nap to prepare for the premiere.
Emily, the DP for the Levon doc, and with whom I'm making the Baltimore documentary, picked us up in her rented Ford Focus and we drove to the Alamo Drafthouse Lamar - an incredibly cool theater with dining service in the coolest strip mall you've ever seen. Everybody was there, including our press guru, Emma, who started out stuffing my expectations all the way down. "It's a vacation festival - people sleep, they drink, don't expect too much." NO PROBLEM, I thought - hey, I was just happy to be there, happy the film got finished, happy to be finally showing it after nearly THREE YEARS!
(Note the disparity between front and side shots of me!)
But the line grew and grew, and press started showing up, and then suddenly, we were completely sold out and walking into a buzzing theater.
And it went great! Laughing, cheering, crowd was into it, great Q&A afterwards, we were all on cloud nine. Reactions out of the screening were all positive. Three long years of hard work, and nothing like seeing it in a theater, sounding amazing (thanks to Mr. Pants, natch) even with a kind of crummy sound system. It was beyond awesome. It's been a tough road the past two months, and we've almost had to pull out of the festival altogether about three times. That's another story for another day, but suffice it to say it was a real victory - a real personal victory in many ways - to have that movie screen, and it felt GOOOOOD.
So off to the adjacent bowling alley/restaurant/bar for a celebratory drink, before we piled into the Ford Focus again (this time with our very high-powered Executive Producers, one of whom got very close to David squished in the backseat!) and headed to the restaurant owned by Jacob's cousin's best friend from college's husband...
There is nothing better than knowing the owner of a restaurant, let that just be stated for the record. Nothing. Crazy and delicious appetizers, champagne, incredible service, milkshakes, and they comped the entire meal. Unbelievable. But our ragtag group of crew, Hollywood power players, Jacob's family and Texas locals were eating off each other's plates by the end of dinner.
And then we went home, right, because I'm nearly 37 weeks pregnant, and that's entirely too much excitement for one day...
No way!
Jacob, at this point on the high of his life, declared we were all heading to The Broken Spoke to hear Dale Watson. So we pile into the Ford Focus again and head out into the Austin sticks to the most incredible, inimitable Texas Honky Tonk joint you've ever seen. The ceilings on this place were max 7 feet, and when you walked in, you were greeted with an enormous dance floor FILLED with men in cowboy boots and cowboy hats dancing with their fine lookin' women in a highly-choreographed two-step. Tables lined the sides of the room, covered in red-checked picnic table cloth and littered with empty Lone Stars. It was totally, totally awesome.
We all found an empty table and crowded 15 chairs around it, celebrating the day, the whole thing. David and I made our way out to brave the dance floor and were nearly bowled over by the movement of the crowd. It's been a while, sure, but we can usually hang. Literally, one minute in, I'm laughing my head off and yelling "move, move move!!!" as a nearly-300 lb man was threatening to flatten me. We couldn't hang. Maybe next time.
Finally, at about 11pm, our small group piled back into our favorite car and headed back to the hotel. In the car, our Executive Producer Ron explained that he was staying with his friend Steve James that night. Steve James directed HOOP DREAMS, and I mentioned that that movie just happened to be the film that made me want to make movies. "Oh, you'll meet him tomorrow then," said Albert, our other EP. "Oh, OK," I thought, and then yelped a little inside.
Then, we slept. It was glorious. I can't sleep much more than 3 hours at a time anymore, but who cares. Breaking hips, incessant need to use the bathroom, nothing could spoil this day.
And the next day wasn't so bad either - caught three movies and met both Jason Reitman and Steve James. Even cooler, Steve James happened to be there with a film about Allen Iverson and the incident in his hometown of Hampton, VA that highlighted the ongoing racial divide in that city...sound familiar? Needless to say, Emily and I were talking about our Baltimore doc as much as we could, and both the Levon EPs and Steve James's producer asked to see what we had so far. Steve J said he couldn't wait to see it at Sundance, which was an awfully nice thing to say. He was just an awfully nice guy.
And then, the next morning, we left the beautiful city of Austin. Flight not quite as easy this time - I was ready to get home. But incredibly glad I went. And Baby Inside is still Baby Inside, thank God.
We got this great little shirt for Danny....
But this picture is very misleading, since Danny and Pops bonded hardcore while we were gone and kind of couldn't care less when we showed back up. We can't thank you enough Dad for letting us do that - you are the best.
And lastly, here are some of the reviews we've been getting, which are truly unreal. The Hollywood Reporter one in particular - that's the real deal folks. Pretty unbelievable, our little movie made the trades.
