Michael J Downey's Blog

Current mood:satisfied

It’s good to be back in the neighborhood again

The "Bridge of No Return" video was chosen as an Official Selection at its 4th film festival, and last night it screened at the 2008 International DV Film Festival in Hollywood. What a great opportunity to see some of the cast, crew, and friends of the "Bridge" video, and to tell the story to a big audience.

Since these days it’s cheaper to fly from SF to LA given the price of gas, I got in to Burbank mid-afternoon and checked into my usual hotel in Universal City. The recording studio where we recorded America and Bridge is just about 1/4 mile away from here. Took a cab into Hollywood and hooked up with friends at a restaurant just a block away from the film festival. Chao Krung

 was the perfect meeting spot on Fairfax, and the food was awesome.

After dinner, we made it over to the Fairfax Theater, where the festival was happening:  They show films in 2-3 hour "blocks," and then have a Q& A with the filmmakers. This evening started out with a feature-length, post-apolcalyptic, sci-fi film called "Like Moles, Like Rats." This was so good, I wouldn’t be surpised if it’s picked up and gets a distribution deal. After that, a brillian and fun spoof on the crime-fighting genre called "Asian Task Force" (ATF). Then one more short, and finally our "Bridge" video.

Before going up for the Q&A session, I was thinking how many Asian people there were in the crowd, and how much more they knew about Korean history than I did, but my fears were unfounded, and the Q&A session was by far the best one I’ve done. The promoter was totally enthusiastic and pro-active, and the questions were really good, and gave the other filmmakers and I a great opportunity to talk about our films.  I got to tell the story of Panmunjeom, where, at the end of the Korean war, officials have people a few days to make the decision to stay on the side they were, or cross this bridge to the other side, but if they did, they could never return. And someone asked about the song itself, and I shared about the difficulty of writing Korean lyrics for part of the song (there was a Korean Dry Cleaners across the street where I lived, and would write a line, and run across the street and ask my friend there about it, and she’d say like "uuuh, we don’t really say it like that. It would be better to say it like this..." But I’m thinking "...that doesn’t rhyme!")   It was an honor to have been chosen to be in this festival, and an honor to share the stage with these talented filmmakers.

It’s a balmy day in LA, and I’ll soon head out to go exploring my old stomping grounds, then meeting a friend for lunch. And I’m thinking how fortunate I’ve been to have met the right people at the right time to make something like this happen. Life is like that, one step this way or that way, and it would come out different. But as it is, I couldn’t be happier...