<font color="maroon">by Larry Richman </font>
<font color="gray" size="1">September 10, 2006 10:56 PM</font>
No, I didn't disappear into Lake Ontario. The reason I haven't posted a blog entry since Friday afternoon is because the action has been nonstop. I'm totally in festival mode now. I just spent almost 48 hours straight with little food or sleep. But that's what it's all about. If you spend much time in bed or having meals, you're not seeing films, and that's why you come here. Health be damned.
After my last blog entry Friday afternoon, I went to my first 2 films: <i>7 Ans (7 Years)</i>, from France, and <i>Suburban Mayhem</i>, an Australian entry. I got back pretty late and only slept a few hours before getting up early Saturday morning to go to the box office to try to get tickets to a couple of films that were not on my list. Then I had a little bit of time to come back to my room, an hour, to take a nap. Then the marathon really began.
I watched movies for 12 hours straight, from 3 PM to 3 AM. I saw 4 films in a row: <em>The U.S. vs. John Lennon</em>, <em>Love and Other Disasters</em>, <em>End of the Line</em>, and <em>All the Boys Love Mandy Lane</em>. Each film takes about 3 hours because that includes waiting on line for about an hour before each screening, the film, the Q&A afterwards, and then travel time to the next one to do it all again. So that was 4 films in a row, including 3 world premieres. Those are the ones where you actually get to sit with the cast & crew, and they are literally seeing it for the first time also, sometimes not having even seen most of the scenes when they were shot so they have no idea how the film even turns out. Then they do a Q&A afterwards and then you get to meet them. That's really what makes festivals so exciting, and so far that's happened at every film.
After getting in at 3 AM Saturday night, I had to get up early this morning to go see 2 films: <em>Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker</em> and <em>Citizen Duane</em>. Then I made the decision not to try to find another film to fill a gap I had from not getting a film so I could come back to the room and rejuvenate. So I just had my first real meal since Wednesday. And I finally have chance for a short update.
There were a couple of near-crises, being stuck for an hour in gridlock trying to go one mile and almost missing a film (that happened twice). But I've been pretty lucky overall, especially with my choice of films. I'll come back and post some feedback on the films
Jeez man, I'll have to stay up all night to read all your reviews. ::shocked: 
