Temecula Valley International Film Festival

September 18-21, 1997

Director/Producer Charles Sickles and Associate Producer Greg Renza, attended the festival from 9/18/97 through 9/21/97 as exhibitors. The festival provided a valuable experience and and the film was received quite well. The following is the day-to-day chronical of our experiences as we uploaded them from the festival.

Day 1 - Thursday
The festival got off to a great start with the welcome reception and the featured film "Just Write". Director Charles Sickles and Associate Producer Greg Renza spent the day meeting and greeting local luminaries most notably including festival director Jo Moulton. Jo has put in a tremendous amount of hard work to make this year's festival the best one yet.

"Just Write" was a feature-length romantic comedy starring Sherilyn Fenn and Jeremy Piven. It was financed by a group of dentists from Wisconsin. We found the film to be both amusing and touching, and sincerely hope the film makers are able to secure US distribution for this very entertaining picture.

Our short film "Trust" will be featured on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and we look forward to sharing the experience with the local festival-goers.

THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT: Director Charles Sickles
with festival director Jo Moulton.

SURROUNDED BY STARS: Charles & Greg with "Audrey Hepburn",
"Scarlett O'Hara", "Jo - from Little Women", and the "Little Princess"

THE ONE WITHOUT THE BEARD: Associate Producer Greg Renza
with one of the many hard working festival volunteers.

Day 2 - Friday
Friday was full of screenings. The turn-out was a little light, but we are told that things really get going on the weekend. The audience for "Trust" responded very well, and laughed in all the right places, even in some new ones.

Charles and Greg viewed a number of short films, including: "Cardinal Blue", "Lost Mariner", "Senior Weekend", "The Greatest Gunfighter", "The Confession", "The Time of My Life", "Memorial Days", "Truly Committed", "Cup-O-Abominations", and "Plan B". Remember, it is a film festival.

The night's event was a black-tie gala dinner, honoring Carl Reiner with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Reiner gave a very touching and funny acceptence speech noting that while he had never heard of Temecula before, he was sure to tell all his Hollywood cronies what a wonderful up-and-coming festival it was. In face, he assured the crowd he would describe it as being better than we actually remembered it.

SCHMOOZING: Greg and Charles rub elbows with
local talent, Ellen Watkins, at the Gala.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: Charles takes a moment to pose with the Burton Girls.
These five talented sisters were representing their film "Just Friends"

The night was topped off by the debut screening a new film starring Michael York. "Merchant of Venus" is a romantic comedy about a Russian immigrant (York) who finds he first job in a "toys for lovers" factory and finds love in a fading porn star.

MICHAEL YORK: Meeting the aspiring film makers.

Saturday promises to be a busy day, with workshops, more screenings (including "Trust" at 3pm), and a VIP Bash in the evening. Joining the fun will be Vincent Daly, who starred as "Rodney" in "Trust".

Day 3 - Saturday
We started our day with a workshop on film marketing, promotion & merchandising, where we basically learned that a trailer should be 2.5 minutes long, and do whatever it takes to get people to the theatre.

We viewed a feature length road adventure of boys-meet-girl and kill people, called "Lewis & Clark & George". Saturday's screening of "Trust" had more people in the theatre and was received even better despite a projector problem in the middle of a critical scene. People have been talking about the film, and have recognized Vincent Daly, who arrived today, as playing in the film.

STARS AT NIGHT: Vincent Daly and
escort Roberta join the festival.

A short film "Dust & Other Particles" impressed us with its high production quality. We also enjoyed the feature length "Just Friends" from the five Burton sister production team.

After attending a small cocktail hour and rubbing elbows with fellow film makers, our appetites yearned for a featured theatrical release, so we attended a near-private screening of "L.A. Confidential" to end the night.

Day 4 - Sunday
Another workshop started our day. This one: "Behind the Camera - Production Design & Management", where we learned it is possible and necessary to have many many crew members for all the tasks and details on a production.

Today's screening of "Trust" was the best ever. There were no technical difficulties, a good crowd, and a great deal of audience reaction during and after the film.

Other films we viewed during the day were: "Girls Night Out", "Richard", "Douglas", "William Shatner Lent Me His Hairpiece", "Super Jack", "Anna in the Sky", and "The Almight Fred". The night ended with the Closing Night Party and Viewer's Choice Awards.

The categories and winners:

• Student Film - "Dead Walk"
• Short Film - "Marina"
• Feature Film - "Just Write"

IN THE COMPANY OF WINNERS: Charles and Greg
congratulate the winner of the student film viewers choice
award, Fabrice Colin (left), for his work "Dead Walk".

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