Tag Archives: la film festival

Photo 86 out of 365 – “The Fourth of July” & Stories from Skywalker Ranch

5 Jul

This was taken from our roof last night.  Kind of what the Fourth of July is all about – right?  The Macy’s fireworks show used to be on the East River and we had the most incredible view from the roof of our apartment building!  Since they’ve moved over the west side… eh.  This specific firework seen above was set off from somewhere on our street – I’m thinking it was probably the fire station down the block – those guys being fire professionals and all.

We had a really low-key and enjoyable Fourth – with a delightful home-cooked meal and quality time spent with some of our favorite people.  I made a new salad recipe which turned out awesome… Arugula, feta and watermelon salad from Ina Garten.  This is now maybe my fourth or fifth successful recipe from Ina and I’m totally a fan… I’m convinced we’re on the same wave-length taste-wise now so I’m pumped to keep trying her dinner recipes!

Amie & Rob made chicken burgers and grilled veggies… corn on the cob, mushrooms, asparagus, onions & peppers.  I also bought a few swordfish skewers from Whole Foods that rocked my world – they were super fresh!   For dessert we had an angel food cake (I bought it ready-made at Whole Foods) with some fresh strawberries and blueberries and some homemade whipped cream (side note… homemade whipped cream is one of my favorite things to make for dessert.  It’s really easy to do and just adds that special touch to make it feel like a fancy dessert… Adam is the master whipper of our family.).  This was the perfect dessert for the evening.  First – it was kind of light and healthy (fresh berries & angel food cake) – and without even planning it, we also realized it was red, white & blue!!!  How perfect and so Martha.

On another note… for those of you following along with Adam’s film Hello Lonesome and our premiere at the LA Film Festival, check out Dr. Reid’s Office for the latest!  Adam posted a very personal account (part one) of his experience during the filmmaker’s retreat at Skywalker Ranch and the first day of the festival.  It was such a wild ride for us and hearing about it through his point of view really takes you there.  Enjoy!

Oh – and I know I owe more foodie descriptions from Stinky & China Town in Queens – but now it’s 11:30 and I am starting my new job tomorrow bright and early so I will have to put it off another day!  I’m thinking of starting a cheese column soon… where each week I just do a super cheese post (for any of you cheese maniacs like myself) – where I will list and describe all the cheeses I taste during that week – and highlight my favorites!  Interested?

Photo 78 out of 365 – “LA Love”

28 Jun

Well, here I am, back on my couch in NYC.  What a trip.  LAFF ended on a high note for us with a jury award honoring Adam and his entire cast for “Best Ensemble Performance in the Narrative Competition“! And now it’s back to reality…weird.  Though it’ll be interesting to see what kind of ripple effect comes from our experience in LA this week… we’ve already heard from a few film festivals that have an interest in Hello Lonesome so I have a feeling the ride is definitely not over.  We’re really psyched about our cheese project too – so I’ll be jumping into some serious cheese research stat!  Of course, nothing makes me happier than cheese research.  Before we left for LA I bought Max McCalman‘s new book Mastering Cheese: Lessons For Connoisseurship from a Maître Fromager - so as Adam likes to say… onward!

The best part of this festival experience has been meeting all sorts of amazing people.  Here is a photo from the awards brunch of Adam, James Urbaniak – one of the award-winning actors in Hello Lonesome, and Drea – film festival goddess, who championed Hello Lonesome from the beginning and who made our entire LAFF experience as comfortable and as fun as could be.  Team Reid loves you Drea!

So thank you LAFF and Film Independent, for inviting us to LA, for treating us so well and for introducing us to such incredible people.  And thanks to all the family, friends and fans of Hello Lonesome!  I think we’ve come out smarter, stronger and more ready than ever to take on film number two!

Photo 77 out of 365 – “The Wonder of Bubbles” & Festival Award!!

27 Jun

This is Nora Lee – an outstanding little girl we had the pleasure of hanging out with yesterday.  I always get so much joy out of watching children play with bubbles.  Bubbles inspire such an unbridled enthusiasm in children, which I guess makes sense… I mean, they’re iridescent little floating balls.  That is pretty magical.

On another note, this is our last evening in LA.  I have been here for 10 nights and Adam for 12… we are truly excited to return to NYC… we miss it!  Though the LA Film Festival has treated us like royalty.  It’s been a totally outstanding experience and we’ve met some awesomely friendly, talented and inspiring people.  I am so proud of Adam and of his film, Hello Lonesome,  which won one of only two jury prizes for the narrative category  - “outstanding performance in a narrative feature” – given to the entire cast of the film.  The performances are completely amazing – so this award really meant so much to Adam. What an incredible beginning for Hello Lonesome!

We are off at the crack of dawn tomorrow morning to fly back east – it’s been a crazy ride.  Expect more from Adam in the next couple days… I will link to his post as I’m sure he’ll be summing up this entire experience!

Photo 75 out of 365 – “Tubes”

25 Jun

Photo of a Coca Cola installation piece at the LA Film Festival’s Festival Village.  Check out Adam’s Hello Lonesome update from the festival!

Photo 74 out of 365 – “Blondetourage”

24 Jun

Here’s Adam turning on the charm during an interview with RealTVFilms host Kaki West at LAFF.  Doesn’t he kind of look like an old Jewish grandpa?  God he’s adorable!  Kaki told us she wanted to join our entourage… but she would make it a “blondetourage”.  Adam was cracking her up during the interview… typical. :)  I was watching, taking photos and enjoying this hilarious scene immensely.

Here is another “Blondetourage” photo I enjoy:

Anyway – finished up our last screening tonight!  It was another near full house and once again the audience really seemed to love it.  The majority of the theater stayed afterwards for the Q&A with Adam and he got LOTS of great questions and positive feedback on Hello Lonesome.

We are EXHAUSTED!!  What an emotional roller coaster the last week has been!   We took off for Santa Monica after the screening this evening and are spending a couple days by the beach now to unwind.  On Saturday there is an awards brunch where the winner of the narrative competition will be announced.  Adam is up against 8 other films in the category… I keep saying I’m not getting my hopes up – but in all honesty, I really can’t help it – call me a cockeyed optimist.  I truly think he deserves to WIN!  So fingers & toes crossed.  I’ll keep you posted!

Photo 73 out of 365 – “Caught in the Lakers Parade”

22 Jun

These Lakers fans are pretty crazy!  Our first night here was opening night of the film festival, with the premier and after party of the movie The Kids Are All Right AND the Lakers were playing game 7 against the Celtics at the Staples Center (literally next door to the festival’s main hub).  Needless to say, downtown LA was BUMPING!  While mingling at the after party we started to see a commotion – people going over to the wall of parking garage (festival village is set up on the top floor of a parking structure) – looking down at the ground below.  Apparently, there were all kinds of riots!  The fans were rioting and LA WON the game!  I’d hate to have seen it if they lost.  I heard there were cars on fire and all that kind of drama.  The LAPD were on the scene with the riot police – I caught some pics from the roof.

Yesterday – while on our way to see Toy Story 3 – the Lakers parade was going on in downtown and Adam and I accidentally found ourselves in the middle of it.  We were a little frightened.  Luckily – it was pretty tame and I think we were just on the fringe of the parade so all was well.  Until I got sick at Toy Story!  What a day.

We are on our way to Adam’s radio interview and then it’s the 2nd screening of Hello Lonesome.  The theater seats almost 300 people so hopefully it’s nice and crowded!  Til tomorrow!

Photo 72 out of 365 – “LA Times”

22 Jun

Today was a weird day.  We went to go see Toy Story in 3-D earlier this afternoon and it made me totally sick to my stomach!  I had to leave the theater halfway through and sit in the bathroom for a little while – I seriously ended up closing my eyes through the majority of the second half.  That has never happened to me before.  Maybe it was because I ate lunch right before it started?  Regardless, we came home, ordered room service and napped most of the evening away – I just woke up right now (11pm) to post my photo.

So, this film festival experience has been both amazing and exhausting thus far.  It has been an emotional roller coaster for us – the highest highs (premiering Hello Lonesome to a sold-out crowd on Friday night and walking the red carpet behind Julianne Moore) and some really low lows (we got a few nasty reviews in the industry trades since the premier – jerks).  Hello Lonesome has definitely managed to split audiences!  Some reviewers have listed it as their top pick for the festival, while others have totally dismissed it.  It’s quite confusing actually!  Of course you want everyone to like your baby… but we’re hanging in – trying to stay focused on what’s important and that’s the audience reaction – and getting the film out to the people who seem to really appreciate and connect with it!

Tomorrow is our second screening and I am very much looking forward to seeing Hello Lonesome with an audience again.  That has been my favorite part of this whole thing since the beginning… sitting there on Friday night and experiencing a movie theater full of people respond to our film.  It was quite a thrill.

Tomorrow is a big day – Adam is going to to be doing a live radio interview with KXLU Los Angeles and then our second screening is at 10:15pm.  I’m sure there will be many more highs and lows over the next week – I guess that’s what happens when you put yourself out there – you open yourself up to both praise and criticism!  It’s awesome and terrifying and I have no doubt it will all lead to something wonderful.  We’re already working on a delicious idea for Adam’s 2nd film – let’s just say it will have a delightfully CHEESY theme!

Stay tuned for more from LA – we’ll be here through Sunday!

Photo 71 out of 365 – “Asher Under the Table”

21 Jun

My adorable little cousin Asher

So – I have a lot to say but I keep waiting until the end of the night to post and now I’m too tired to say what I want in a coherent way, so I’m going to wait until tomorrow.  I’ve gotten into the silly habit of posting late at night and it’s not conducive to writing for me – gotta break that habit.

2 quick things first:

  1. My dad rules.  I got to spend all day today (Father’s Day) with him watching festival movies.  We watched 4 in a row from 1:30 to midnight.  We were hard core.
  2. My favorite film of the day today was Bitter Feast – a story about a restauranteur who abducts and tortures a blogger who pans his restaurant.  It was quite a ride.

Photo 70 out of 365 – “On the Red Carpet”

20 Jun

From left to right - Dave K. Williams, Lynn Cohen & Adam Reid

I took this photo before our world premier of Hello Lonesome last night at LAFF.  We had a sold out first screening and the audience seemed to really connect with the film!  I’m so proud of Adam – my husband, my inspiration and the bravest person I know.  Way to make it happen babe.

Thanks to all the family, friends and fans who came out to downtown LA to share this evening with us – and to all those in far away places who were not able to make it…we love you all!  We have two more screenings over the next week and we plan on going to see many films while we’re here!  I will report in with more on the festival over the next week.  This is the first moment of rest we’ve had since we got here, and right now we are going to SLEEP!

Photo 68 out of 365 – “Jim Beam”

18 Jun

I did a fun photo shoot with my friend Robyn last night as I was packing to leave for LA.  This photo was pretty blown out – but I really liked it so I played around with the treatment.  With this violet/magenta hue and a little kicked up contrast I think Robyn’s looking pretty rock and roll… right?

Here are a couple others I really liked – props to Robyn for being such a good model and such a creative self-stylist.

Meanwhile, the first night of LAFF has been pretty awesome.  We are staying at the LA Athletic Club, which Adam described as “the scotch of hotels”… total old school private men’s club vibe going on – it’s kind of awesome.  Tonight we got to walk the red carpet and saw the opening film – The Kids Are All Right.  I thought the movie was excellent – really touching, great performances – especially by Mark Ruffalo, who was quite hot in this role as the organic gardening, strawberry rhubarb pie-baking, restaurant-owning, motorcycle-driving sperm donor.  Intrigued?

So… tomorrow is the big night (world premier of Hello Lonesome) – and it’s now 4:15 nyc time and I desperately need to go to sleep immediately. Send good vibes to LA!!  I’ll report in tomorrow.

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