WE HAD A BLAST IN 'BAMA!

October 1, 2007

We have just returned from Birmingham, Alabama, where we had an amazing weekend (we've already posted some pictures) at the Sidewalk Film Festival. The weather was picture-perfect, and the festival provided us with two rooms at an awesome historic hotel downtown called the Redmont, where the people were so friendly, and the staff loved Darius. From the Redmont, Darius could roll (and we could walk) to every venue. We saw lots of films, went to some great parties, and ate some great food.

Daniel Epting's mom, Bobbie, provided "overflow" lodging at her home in Birmingham, and we thank her so much for the hospitality!

Fifteen of us made up D's entourage. DGW crew members included: Ben, John Harmon, TBarn, Kevin, Jason, Daniel, Collin, and Kevin. Barbara Smalley and co-editor Allison Firor also joined the fun as did longtime friends and supporters Matt Phillips, Martin Suiza, Chris Williams, Ashley Epting, and Melanie Graham.

Our screening was Saturday at the Civil Rights Institute theater (how appropriate is that for a venue for our film?). The crowd was standing room only (they had to turn people away!) and so enthusiastic. They laughed at EVERYTHING--even Daniel's line about the "man purse" and Collin talking about his "skin condition". When Darius and the crew came into the theatre for a Q&A, they got a thunderous standing ovation. Darius nailed every question he was asked and cracked a lot of jokes. And when Daniel let it slip that D had turned 18 on Thursday, the entire audience sang happy birthday to him!

While in Birmingham, we met so many other great film folks and want to give a special shout out to our new friends associated with the short, "Heartburn", and the feature film, "Blood Car."

This morning, we found out that DGW was one of four movies chosen for an encore performance! Unfortunately, most of us had to get back to Athens for school or work on Monday, but Daniel volunteered to stay behind and represent us at our second showing and attend the awards ceremony.

He just called and said that the 6:30 encore performance was very well attended, and that the audience was awesome. Not only that, but we won TWO awards: Best Documentary (juried) and Audience Choice Award! We were pleasantly surprised at this news, since the competition there was quite stiff, including two docs that Kim Voyner recently mentioned as likely Oscar contenders in her "What's Up With Docs?" article in Cinematical.

That makes 23 laurel leaves!

Know about it!!!