Eric Byler Guest Post: Washington D.C. premiere of Americanese

Read the original post at Eric Byler’s MySpace

Opening Night went about as good as possible. Packed house for the screening. Sound and projection were perfect. Good q/a and GREAT PARTY afterwards. I’ll try to come up with some photos. Several people promised to email me some.

There was a thunder storm tonight. When we left from Gainesville, VA, my parents and I were concerned that we might be late. Traffic was barely moving. There was thunder and lighting directly overhead. I decided to take a nap and not worry about it while my Dad used some short cuts taking country roads to avoid the traffic. We got there with about half an hour to spare. My Mom had about 15 friends there. There were some speeches before the screening, and the microphone was a bit too loud, but it was no where near the 90 minutes of torture we endured in Los Angeles last spring…. The audience seemed engaged during the screening. During the q/a there seemed to be a disagreement among male and female audience members about the character Joan Chen plays. A man asked a question and referred to her as “the crazy lady.” A woman later asked a question but first stated that she didn’t find her “crazy” and identified with her a lot. Murmers insued.

I need to go to sleep, but wanted to post for those who are interested:

I published a piece on IMDiversity.com about the N-word / M-word scandal in the Virginia Senate race.

More on the festival screening tomorrow.