Brand Upon the Brain in NYC

God, I've been bad at keeping up this blog. My friend K.D. just directed me to Lynn's blog to look at some of her (awesome) costume designs and I was BLOWN away by the intense blogging effort Lynn has going on! Jeez. Makes me wish I were more into taking snaps and putting them on line RIGHT AWAY - like the NYC screening of Brand. I'm sure my report would be more detailed if it'd been done right away with fun photos of the lovely folks who attended the bash...

Enough dreaming. Here's the facts. That experience was one in a million. I had tix for the 8 pm show but had to show up early to give Shami her 4 pm ticket - was having so much fun seeing the Seattle and ex-Seattle people - from Sarah Harlett to Kip Fagen - you name it everyone was there looking FINE! Anyway, Gregg came out several times and the last time he came out he saw me and said "You want to come in? Just sit in the first two rows" I thought about it for about 10 seconds (since I was planning to use that time to have lunch and maybe look for a puzzle for Jesa) and then graciously accepted! SO GLAD I DID!! Seeing it twice in a row was not too much! Infact, I could have seen it a third time, if it had been possible, but after that 8pm showing it was time to PARTY.

Sitting in the first 2 rows meant sitting right in front of Isabella Rossilini, the live narrator! The film was so great and the live foley was exciting, but I could barely drag my eyes from Isabella! She was absolutely captivating! He voice, so luscious. Thank goodness I got to have the experience twice so that I could pay attention to the images on the screen! It was so fun to see Munya mourning the seemingly dead Odetta - see that little Jesa and see Eben, looking so somber! Not to mention all the other amazing cast members. What an amazing whirlwind of a film. I was very impressed with the personal leap Guy Maddin has seemed to have made.

Then the after party. It was the NY Film Festival's closing night bash so LOTS of people were there including Helen Mirren! I was too shy to drop by and say hello, but Sarah and Michelle plucked up their respective courrages and came back glowing to report that she was so nice! Lots of fun!

All in all, it was a wonderful time in New York. It ended all too soon. I never really got to visit NYC! Never even ate a meal in the city either. But so what. I got to visit with my friend Cecily and her little daughter and her husband and coupled with Brand and finishing CCL that was quite enough.