Telling stories

The Atlanta Film Festival opened this past Friday and it was a kick in the rubber parts to go to the after party and get to meet the enormously talented and engaging director duo, Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, who created the heart and mind-expanding (and fesitval opening) film "Quinceanero".

Of course it was a blast! I don't see how Richard and Wash could possibly NOT be a filmmakers - we discussed topics ranging from how the limited places we played as children defined the huge way we explored the world as adults to living in Manhattan housesit-to-housesit to bearded ladies to Atlanta's Blondie and her infamous beercan-crushing breasts to Swinging Richard's and what the boys there might crush with their 'talents'.

The Getty, the Varsity, 'Grief' & Alexis Arquette, Katrina, egg donors, Civil War monuments - none of it directly film-related, but all of it vitally expressive.

For 2 hours, we laughed & drank & talked - we were artists & artists are people who have stories they are compelled to tell - whether it be in film or wedding photos or dance or over cocktails.

We went our separate ways at 2 AM, them off to NYC to pitch their next project and me home with my head full of stories both told and not. I felt an urgency to keep sharing... stories about my autistic nephew, about living in Paris and Mexico, about backpacking in Oregon, about why being gay matters... and why it doesn't.

Go see Wash and Robert's movie, Quinceanera, and then go home, find your story, and find a way to tell it.

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