what a weekend

I had a long, fun and tiring three days at the 10th annual Sonoma Valley Film Festival this weekend. Films started showing on Wednesday and escalated to more and more films until Sunday, the last day. On Saturday they were celebrating Pixar's 20th anniversary all day! I'll get to that...but first--

Friday morning at 9 am Mary and I were ready to work as volunteers at one of the venues showing popular independent films from all over the world. We got off at 6 or 6:30 that night after a good day of helping out and watching movies. That was the coolest part--when everyone's in the theater, there really isn't anything a volunteer can do, except sit back and watch a movie!
Saturday my mom and I attended a different venue (there were several different venues going on simultaneously) to see Leslie Iwerks's documentary The Pixar Story as part of the celebration of Pixar's 20th anniversary. The movie had played the night before, but I decided to keep it a surprise for myself and watch it with my mom on Saturday. I was so excited to see this movie. Still a work in progress, it follows John Lasseter's career through CalArts, Disney, and finally Pixar, and explores how the company came to be the successful hit-after-hit studio it is today. People such as George Lucas, Ed Catmul, Andrew Stanton, Pete Doctor, Glen Keane, Jim Murphey, Randy Newman, Brad Bird, Ron Clements and John Musker, and many others are interviewed in it too. I wish I knew if it was coming to DVD. Leslie said that at the screening the night before Lasseter had stopped in to watch the movie. I was kicking myself for not going after my volunteering gig on Friday night. But it turned out to be okay, because...

TRUST THE PROCESS was next! Ronnie Del Carmen, Mark Andrews, Jim Cappobianco and Jason Katz were there to give us a hilarious and inspiring lecture about how the magic of their stories works so well. And as an added bonus, John Lasseter turned up in the audience! Ronnie posted up some pictures on his blog. Lasseter popped up from his seat in the front row a few times during their lecture to insert important points. It was so weird seeing him in person after all these time watching him on the tv (not weird in a negative way). I leaned over to my mom and whispered, "He's a real person?!" And Mark Andrews wore a kilt. Totally awesome. He rocks.
After the Process lecture was over I had a few hours to kill before I had to dress up in the black volunteer garb again. I was going to volunteer at the Lasseter Tribute Night. After wandering around the town of Sonoma in search of an art store I returned and joined the crowd of volunteers. Basically I was watching people get in line and making sure they didn't get in the wrong line for about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Finally all the people who had been in line were packed in the building. My volunteer managers said, "Ok, you can go in now." My jaw hit the floor! I was hoping I could get in now and then to sneak a peek, but being told I could go see the Tribute was a wonderful surprise.
The house was packed, but I found one seat on the end of an aisle. The guy sitting in the next seat was an actor I recognized from one of the independent films that was screened on Friday (Under the Mud). I sat down there and soon John Ratzenberger came up to do his emcee job. It was an incredible evening. There's so much to describe, but briefly: Glen Keane, Tony Shalhoub, Andrew Stanton, Cheech Marin, Bonnie Hunt and Robin Williams each get up one at a time and tell funny stories about John Lasseter, sending the audience rolling with laughter and, in Bonnie Hunt's case, sighing with happy faces. I can't believe I got to be there!! It really was so fun, and it made me so happy that he was being recognized, and the people at Pixar too, for their achievements, and pretty much for inspiring me to do what I do every day. (draw, of course!)
More to come in the next post. I'll try and keep my posts on the shorter side from now on....I can get so carried away with my thoughts.