CHILLED IN CALGARY

February 13, 2007

Daniel, Sam, and Darius finally made it back to Athens last night. They got caught in some nasty Atlanta traffic and spent a total of almost 12 hours on the road yesterday. They were beat!

Ben and I made it to Calgary (thanks, Delta). It is so cold here that it hurts. We think it's something like 15 below. Everyone keeps talking about these strange winds called shinooks-- warm winds that enable canooks to wear shorts in the middle of winter. I think they are full of it! And we were complaining about Oxford being cold! The snow is beautiful though.

Last night was the Picture This Film Festival awards ceremony, which we almost didn't make it to. We took a cab and left in plenty of time, but we got stuck in some terrible traffic. Once there, the crowd was warm and receptive when we proudly accepted our Honorable Mention Award for "Best Documentary Over 30 Minutes." After that, we saw an excellent film, which won "Best of the Fest," called The Cost of Living.

Picture This is Canada's first and largest international disability festival, and our award was decided by a jury. Their comments on Darius Goes West:

"Great concept, set up and opening...engaging storyline...positive and interesting...great flow and very interesting...funny...great rap music...inspirational, educational and delightful...neat to see a film about youth and how they get through a life with disabilities...natural humour...really enjoyed it!"

Our film makes its Canadian premiere on Wednesday evening, so we took advantage of having a day off and slept in this morning. Our room at the Marriott is really awesome. Huge thanks to Kathleen Laughlin and her husband Alan Kraft (who taught us both social studies at Clarke Middle School) for donating timeshare points that meant our stay here was complimentary. This afternoon we plan to bundle up and explore the city before going to watch some more films.

I got a great e-mail from Molly at the Oxford Film Festival that says she's receiving tons of e-mails from DGW fans asking how they can help the cause. We apologize for misspelling her name in yesterday's blog and for leaving out Mica and Kevin, equally awesome Oxford Film Festival organizers.

We hope to go skiing before heading home Friday to catch NIGHTLINE!

DGW…Know about it!