Telluride Films Festival

Mandy and I went to The Telluride Film Festival in Colorado on Labor Day weekend. It was so long ago, that I don't spend too much to writing about it, but in here is a synopsis in brief.

First of all, I like Colorado again. I am not really a scenery kind of guy. I prefer urban sprawl to mountain's majesty and spacious skies. And I had a bit of a bad time with the fine folks in Colorado on my last visit. But Mandy and I had a really good time on some jogs through the mountains, and it really is beautiful. I am sure the good folks of the Centennial State are very glad to hear this, but all is forgiven now.

Second, rich people assembled together to watch hours and hours of pretentious films can be annoying when standing in line with them for hours. We saw some great movies; Babel and Last King of Scotland. We saw some crappy movies too.

Third, Penelope Cruz is really frickin short.

Fourth, Mandy's family (Glenn and Nancy) are a lot of fun to hang out with. We had a great time talking with them, and I am really glad they were there to keep us sane after hours and hours of mind-numbing fictitous assaults.

Five; Comedy is essential. On some days during the festival we would watch four films in one day. Telluride is known for drama works, there was nary a comedy in the bunch. I have to say, after 8+ hours of high-brow drama, you are ready to jump from the side of the mountain to the kind, warm, and loving concrete below.

Couple of cool things, I got to meet John Canemaker and there is a Chuck Jones theater in Telluride.

All in all, we had a really good time in Colorado. For the most part though, it was because of the company, the scenery and just a few of the films at the festival.

An interesting side note, on the way into Telluride we had to stop to take care of some last minute legal business for Glen and Mandy before we could start the weekend. They needed a fax machine, so we stopped in a small town and I asked the first person I saw on the street and asked if we could use a fax machine. The gentleman said sure, and I went into the office, which happened to be called Billings Artwork.

It just happened to be where they make the Grammy Awards and many other awards (including the Annie Awards for Animation). This is a picture of Tim Burton's Ub Iwerk's award, which was in the shop for repairs.

We had a great time talking to the father and son that run the shop, learned a little about bronze-smithing, and posing with awards.