OUR WORLD PREMIERE

February 2, 2007

Yesterday was our first full day in Santa Barbara, and we had a great day. Most of us slept late in an attempt to adjust to the time difference and recover from the party the night before. Logan and Darius were interviewed by Martin Bashir of Nightline, and according to Logan, Darius "nailed" the interview. Later, Nightline filmed the rest of us arriving at our 7:45 PM world premiere. We were all decked out in our new "DGW...Know about it" polo shirts (thanks, Shirtworks!), dark blazers, blue jeans and shades (hey, this is Hollywood!).

The premiere was a huge success. We had a good sized crowd, with many folks just walking into the theater off the street not having a clue what they were about to see. Everyone in the audience laughed at the right places, which was a huge relief, and afterwards, we got a standing ovation!! At the Q&A, not many people asked questions. Instead, most folks stood up to thank us for what we were doing to say how much they enjoyed the film. A few highlights...

One man in the audience said he had recently lost a son to DMD. His son was an artist and had spent six months drawing one of his favorite Santa Barbara landmarks. When the film was over, the man gave Darius a giant hug AND presented him with his son's drawing. We were all blown away by this gesture.

Martin Bashir got up and talked about how he has interviewed Princess Di and Michael Jackson, then said he was more nervous interviewing Darius than any celebrity he's encountered. Turns out, Bashir lost a brother to DMD. He then offered praise for Darius, the film and Darius's valiant efforts to help find treatment/a cure for this disease. There are rumors that the Nightline segment may take up as much as one-half of the show. We'll let you know the air date (mid-February, we think) as soon as we know it.

Tracy and Benjy Seckler (Charley's parents; (www.charleysfund.org) were in the audience, seeing the film for the first time on the big screen and with an audience. After Benjy spoke about how much the documentary meant to them, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. It was surreal. After the premiere, we all piled into a pizza parlor for a late supper. Then, half of us went to a film festival party while the other half decided to call it a night. Today it's back to the streets to drum up business for our second showing tonight at 9:00 PM. Hopefully, people who saw it last night will tell others, and we'll pack the theater tonight.

Belated thanks to Randy Reiff, Kathe and Reid Chase, Robert Tucker, and Susan Levine for donating frequent flyer miles to get many of us here. Also to Tom Wicka, who convinced Delta to donate first-class tickets for Darius and Jason.

We promise to post pictures soon. If you can't wait, you can see a few that Kevin and Jarrard took (before the camera battery died) by checking out this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47667889@N00/sets/72157594514205610/

More news tomorrow!

DGW...Know about it!