Tribeca Film Festival

There's nothing cooler than proving to terrorists that they can't bring us down. There's no person cooler than Robert De Niro. There's no place cooler to have Robert De Niro proving that terrorists can't bring us down than New York City. Three parts cool, one part travel. Mix until it's all blended together. Your result will look like the Tribeca Film Festival.

One of these days I'm going to go and spend the entire two weeks in New York City traveling between cinemas and talking to directors and actors and all of the people behind the scenes of the Tribeca Film Festival. For this trip, though, I got just barely got a taste before being ushered back home.

My fandom(s) carries me to places all over the world. So far I've been to Toronto and London and New York in pursuit of films and premieres and meeting people, and so far it's all worked out. But one of the coolest things I've done is go to the Tribeca Film Festival.

Granted, it was only the second time I've ever been to a film festival in my life, and yes, it was less organized that the Toronto International Film Festival, and no, Cillian didn't attend this one-- but this time it was on my turf. I've been to New York before, so I knew my way around better than in Toronto. I was way closer to the cinema from my hotel, and I could take a nice little stroll to the theater. Not to mention that I was meeting three of the coolest people ever once I got there-- not counting the people who worked on the film.

Watching the Detectives had its world premiere on Tuesday, and I was there to witness it. That's saying something. There are very few people in the world who can say they did that, and I was one of them. It wasn't glamorous and no one was dressed horribly fancy (although Lucy Liu looked very gorgeous in her dress), and everyone hung around on the red carpet for a long time, just chatting.

The film was wonderful. I laughed the whole way through, and I loved every minute of it. It was clever and witty and intelligent, which is a shiny gold star on Paul Soter's report card. The film itself was worth the trip, but the people definitely added to the experience.

Several of the actors, as well as Soter, who wrote and directed the film, were present for a Q&A after the film, and they took to it, laughing and having fun with each other and the audience during the time they were up front. And then even afterwards, when the auditorium was clearing out, a few of them stood around to talk to fans-- namely Lucy Liu and Paul Soter.

Before you ask-- no, I didn't talk to Lucy Liu (although I stood beside her and she's probably only about five feet tall-- very tiny). Everyone seems to be so interested in that. More importantly to me was having a chat with Paul Soter.

Now, I don't clam up when I get nervous-- and I am always nervous when I meet new people, whether "famous" or not-- but I get chatty. I thought it was important to tell him how much I appreciated the film, so I went to talk to him. I waited patiently until he was done talking to the people in front of me, and then I shook his hand and told him it was a great film. I told him everyone I could hear laughed through the whole thing and the audience really seemed to take to it nicely. I told him I was glad I made the trip. He was very nice and responded to everything I said very humbly and even asked a couple of questions in response.

I am glad I made the trip. It would have been a wonderful trip and a wonderful first visit to the [slightly disorganized and chaotic, but only sixth annual] Tribeca Film Festival even if I hadn't met my awesome Internet fans or gotten to speak to Paul, but the best part about film festivals is how cool everyone is.

So scratch that first part. It's not three parts cool and one part travel. It's four parts cool and one part self-motivation. Final result is still something greatly akin to the Tribeca Film Festival.