Superkid & Guest Rapping It Out During the Closing Night Party; Photo Credit Kim Storeygard

10:30 A.M.

We get up and go, complainingly--me because I work nights and 10:30 typically marks the midpoint of my second REM cycle of the night, Nora because she didn’t roll in until 3:30 A.M. [The evening prior Greta Gerwig, Barlow Jacobs, Cullen Hoback, Matthew Bonifacio, Aaron Hillis and I ended up grouped together from the filmmaker's lounge to the after party. Odd conversations about New York nudist nightclubs and shoe fetishists scouring for old sneakers on Ebay sprang out of the coming flood of Vodka Redbull inebriation. At the end of it, Greta was the only one left standing half-soberly, though, ironically, she out-drank us all.]

So we head back to Wilmington, thankfully, this time, with no directional mishaps.

1:00 P.M.

We arrive at Thalian main again, ready for the final day. We putter around, looking for those people we’ve promised to touch base with but not really finding anyone. And, then we bump into Greta--[In August, Kim panned Hannah Takes the Stairs, and as I introduced my dear, harsh critic alter ego to Greta, I very carefully watched her facial expression obfuscate feelings of desired swift flight. When we slipped into the bathroom, I laughed.

"You know me too well," Kim said.

As it turned out, Kim and Greta got along well though, and while I still wonder if it's because Greta just didn't see that videocast, I like to think it's just because she's a really sweet and open person. It's really hard not to adore Greta--how ethereal she is, how intelligent, how daring and how entirely good-hearted.]

1:45 P.M

With Nora at the Amexicano screening, I get on the shuttle heading up to the Lumina to catch Low and Behold. In the van, I meet Nick Gaglia and Kether Donohue, the writer/director and lead actress respectively of Over the GW. It’s a long ride, so we have some time to talk.

Over the GW is Nick’s first feature film. It’s been doing staggeringly well on the festival circuit, and since its production, he’s gotten a few offers to work on other projects. We talk about adapting books to screenplays and the difficulties in producing a film, get tickets for Low and Behold and promise to meet up later.

4:30 P.M

At the Low and Behold Q&A, Barlow, already told the night before that I would be coming to the screening and would want to meet with him, isn't surprised when I approach him after the theater clears out. As we talk about writing, producing and all the emotional investment and work it has been to make this movie, people start to come into the theater for the next screening and with promises made to meet up later, we have to part.

5:00 P.M

6:45 P.M.

I get on the shuttle from Lumina back to Thalian Main. It’s packed with people clearing out after the screening, but no one is talking much. Except for one guy.

He’s not only talking to his buddies, he’s recapping the most lewd and offensive Internet clips of the past five years, including, but not limited to: Donald Duck getting a blowjob. At this point, I’m just amazed that someone hasn’t told the guy to shut up, but I figure it might have something to do with the fact that he got onto the shuttle with about six other guys, all of them fairly large and none of them seeming to take issue with what he’s doing. So I bite my tongue and bide my time. I notice several other passengers seem to be doing the same, and eventually the tension in the shuttle is so thick that even the Donald Duck impersonator starts to feel it and trails off mid-lisp. We experience a few blessed minutes of silence, then the shuttle stops and we get off.

7:10 P.M.

I go to the screening for Knee Deep and wait for Nora. I’ve already peeked into the filmmaker’s lounge a couple of times to try to find Nick and Chiayi Symphony director Stefano Giannotti, but it's no dice.

Just as the screening is about to begin, Nora comes in and tells me we’ve been invited to dinner with Aaron Hillis, co-founder of Benten Films. I beg her to let me see the short that is screening before the feature, and then we quietly—and hopefully inconspicuously—make our exit.

7:40 P.M.

Back in the filmmaker's lounge, introductions already made to Aaron, I also meet Dan Brawley, the man in charge of the entire Cucalorus shebang, and he agrees to come to dinner with us. So we head to Hell’s Kitchen, a recommendation from one of the wait staff in the lounge, and learn, much to our dismay, that the place was used as a set for Dawson’s Creek—of course, after we had ordered.

9 P.M.

Though not too crowded, there are plenty of people back at the filmmaker's lounge, including Barlow and Greta. In this downtime, I chat and mingle, making friends. It’s an opportunity I haven’t really had much of a shot at because of the all day screenings, and it's a nice reprieve, just to sit and talk to people.

The best story comes from Barlow and Greta about the B&B they’re staying in with three others, the group as a whole later dubbed the Taylor House Five. The owner, they theorize, is a nervous man who has yet to come out of the closet and who doesn’t actually like having people stay in his house. They reason that this must be so, not only because of how the man speaks--apparently with a perpetual lisp-- but also because of how he reacted when one of their group brought an overnight guest back. [ Ahem, ahem. Cullen. Ahem.]

The offending guest got a lecture about bringing strangers into the house and how as long as he stayed in that B&B, he would have to abide by the rules of the house. After that, the guest in question found new lodgings, and those who remained were terrified to do anything to offend this man or his schedule--breakfast at 9 AM sharp, and you have to sign up the night before so they know how much food to make. Don’t bring anyone back because only the people who were given keys to the house should be allowed in, etc.

[Now, here's the deal. The night I met Cullen I knew first that he was single and second that he didn't want to be. Generally an oblivious woman, I deduced this with exactly one overt clue. Earlier in the night, I'd attended a screening of Erica Dunton's atypical romantic-comedy RedMeansGo, and at the start, all the audience members were given a bag of three pipe cleaners, each a different color. I promptly twisted the three pipes together into a heart and shoved it on my wrist as a bracelet, although I was later to find out that each color signified a different relationship status. Red, we were told, meant we were single and possibly interested in a serious thing or fling.

Just as a single woman notices a man wearing a wedding ring, or should at least notice a man who wears a wedding ring, I immediately spied the red pipe cleaner sticking out from the pocket of Cullen's shirt. From that point on, I watched him with great amusement, knowing for the duration of the festival what the upshot of the scenario would be. Two mornings later, Kim and I met Miki, an absolutely sexy, smart sprite of a film productions college undergrad. She looked on Cullen with eyes of easy possession, and I smirked at him, placing my hand on his shoulder and shaking my head at his attempted look of denial. Jointly, Cullen and Miki, despite being thrown out of the Taylor House, were fortunate ones.]

11:30 P.M

A couple of smoke breaks later, I go to the after party with Barlow and Dan while Greta makes her appearance at the screening of Hannah. The party is in a place a few blocks close to the water, and we get there right at the beginning. It’s filled with people eating and drinking and mingling. I find Nick and Kether and Jon Schneider, among others, and as the stories fly left and right, Stefano gets out his guitar and sings some Italian folk songs for us.

Eventually, the Superkids, our quasi-ubiquitous hosts for the screenings, get up and start rapping--in their own Superkid kind of way. Someone else gets up and beat boxes with them, and everyone is grooving. Until it stops.

Then there’s a general kind of mayhem. Who’s going where? Is there more booze? Where can we go to find more booze? Is there anything else to do here? And then we find our answer: the after-after party. Rock on.

3 A.M.

We head to the after after-party at Jengo’s Playhouse, another small venue for screenings, and get there just in time to learn that there is virtually no more booze. People start filtering out after that, but we meet some more interesting people and see Aaron, Cullen and the Superkids running at each other with inflatable beer bottles. We mingle, talking to filmmakers and playwrights and anyone else who might be there and try to stay warm. It’s about 35 degrees outside, and there’s no room for everyone to be inside the venue. Most of us are pacing around trying to get spots by the portable heaters they have set up, but eventually we have to give up and drive home.

4:45 A.M.

Attempting to beat the sun, we stay awake on the road by talking about our plans and dreams for this little magazine, listening to the eclectic collection of music on my iPod. [Sometimes we hum to keep ourselves awake. I love listening to Kim's quiet melody as fatigue washes over me. It's a bit, I reflect on memory, like listening to a lullaby.]

7 A.M.

We get back to Raleigh. Holy God...what a night! When can we do it again?

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