the second installment of my amazing weekend

Sunday. I woke up and watched "Meet the Fockers", which had some funny parts. The Focker parents were hilarious. Especially Dustin Hoffman.

Kuya and I left at around 6 to attend the film, "Slow Jam King". Mom, Dad, and Mom's friend were going to meet us there. The film was premiering in LA for the first time at the Visual Communication's 21st Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival at the Directors Guild of America on Sunset Blvd. I never thought I'd have the chance to go to the DGA at my age, I always thought that maybe I'd drive by it sometime, maybe get to go inside once I'm a steady filmmaker, but not now, not at 18. What a huge privilege.

We went inside to get my ticket at will call. The lobby is huge. Black and white pictures are framed on the walls. Right now, they've got pictures from musicals of directors collaborating with the actors. There was a picture from "The Wizard of Oz", "Moulin Rouge", "Chicago", and more. I'm guessing they change it up every so often. This season musicals, next season who knows?

We went to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf across the street to get something to drink. Bunch of trendies hanging outside sipping their coffees. "These are where the deals go down," I said jokingly to my brother, and he laughed. We got our drinks, went back to the DGA, and sat oustide the theatre, Theatre 1, where the film would be showing.

Mom, Dad, and Mom's friend showed up around 15 minutes before the showing of the film. People working for the festival started handing out goody bags. Pretty cool. I left mine at home though because I didn't feel like bringing mine up here. Got a film program too.

They started to open up the theatre for the guests, so we went in. Oh. My. Gosh. That theatre is by far the most beautiful theatre (cinema-wise) that I have walked into. Second is the Arclight. The curtains, carpeting, and chairs were this deep red. The walls were white and lined with these columns that extended onto the ceiling with lighting behind these columns. I can't really explain it well, but it was beautiful. It made me realize, "This is what I'm going to do, it's all because of this, because I want people to see my vision on that screen." It further cemented my feet to the idea that I have to go through with this, I have to proceed with this future or else I really wouldn't be living, fulfilling a purpose that was (hopefully) meant for me.

We took up half of a row in the middle of the theatre. I sat in that soft red chair thinking, "Who else has sat here? Who in the DGA has sat here? Sofia Coppola maybe? Wes Anderson, I hope?" The director of the feature, Stephen Mallorca (Mom's friend's son), came up and did an intro for his film. Another guy came up and introed his short film that was going to show before the feature. Then they showed the films.

The short film was good and funny. It's about a caucasian comedian who starts dating a filipina and how the comedian reacts towards her family. The girl's brothers would come on their dates and so would her grandfather. Hilarious. She tells him not to use her family in his comedy routine. He does anyway, she finds out, and so forth and so on. Everything gets resolved, he doesn't use the whole comedy routine for his tv appearance, and they make up. It was pretty good for a student film.

The feature film was pretty good for a first time feature. It was all done digitally, and the director's band even did all the music. It was pretty good. Afterwards, the directors came up and did a Q&A, and then the actors came up and did a Q&A also. One of the actors was even sitting behind us! I didn't even realize. So that was cool.

After the Q&As, we went down to the stage to speak to Stephen. He recognized my Mom and Dad and brother. He was really nice, and Mom told him that I was majoring in cinema, and he said that his mom told him that too. He then had to go and do all this press stuff. He was sorry to say goodbye so early.

We left the theatre late. I can't even remember what time. What an awesome experience. I'll never forget that night. That night made me excited and scared for the future. My head was spinning, and I got sick when we arrived home. I got so sick, I threw up. That's how scared I am for this path I've chosen.

Anyway, what an awesome time despite the vomiting.