Film Festival

It is 124 miles from our home to Palm Springs.

A bit of a drive to see a movie.

Especially if you take the scenic route.

Considering the last part of the trip (looking down on the curvy mountain pass to the city) was a bit brown…

We had hoped to catch an 11:00 film called I am Sindhutai Sapkal.

“The journey of a poor village girl who grew up tending buffaloes while craving an education…. she was able to make the leap from intense poverty to becoming an effective speaker, raising enough funds to build three ashrams, educating two thousand children and sheltering one thousand orphans.”

It sounded fascinating and was based on a true story.

And no doubt the audience enjoyed it...

But we were running late, hungry, and it was bright and sunny. 

Too nice a day to be stuck inside.

Just yet.

So we walked around town.

Had lunch on a patio overlooking a fountain.

Picked up a brochure describing all the films and eventually hit the ticket booth to snag anything that hadn’t sold out.

Tickets in hand, we got in a long line to enter the theatre.

45 MINUTES BEFORE IT STARTED

Looks like some folks take this film festival experience quite seriously.

The gals in front of us were festival veterans. They now see 4 films a day because they found that trying to squeeze in 5 or 6 was just too much. They had seen a terrifically funny movie the night before (which was now sold out) and recommended that we try to RUSH IT (festival lingo for being in the standby line just as the movie starts).

We did RUSH our second movie. Hurried in, sat in the third row from the front (which I guess is better than the first or second row from the screen) and missed the very beginning.

As ‘newbies’, with apparently no stamina for sitting all day, we ended up seeing just two films on Saturday.

One drama with subtitles, For 80 Days, and a comedy, Thanks.

The first was poignant and memorable and the second was laugh-out-loud funny.

With no advance tickets and making decisions on the fly, we were 2 for 2.

Time to hit the road.

We took the faster route home.

Perhaps I am Sindhutai Sapkal will make it to our local theatre or Netflix…