In February, I flew to Flagstaff Arizona to screen STRINGBEAN at the Flagstaff Mountain Film Festival. Flights from Chicago were cheap, but in true O’Hare airport fashion, flights were also delayed. I landed in Phoenix at midnight and hopped in a rental car. Around 2am I pulled up to my AirBnB at the edge of downtown Flagstaff.
I had never been to Flagstaff before and I was surprised at just how contained the downtown area seemed to be. You can walk the entire city in twenty minutes. Films were screening all weekend at various locations. STRINGBEAN was part of an adventure series that screened Friday night in a bike shop where the audience sat in metal folding chairs. People ate popcorn out of brown paper bags and a man served beer from a keg tucked behind the counter.
After STRINGBEAN screened I was brought up for a quick Q&A. I was a little nervous to stand in front of such an intimate crowd and face the possibility that no one had any questions. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. After a dozen questions we had to cut the Q&A short to keep the festival moving. This is our target audience, I thought.
When I got back to my seat, a couple sharing a water bottle with a Hiss Golden Messenger Sticker complimented the film. They especially loved Joe’s comments about New Jersey. We’re from New Jersey, they said. It really is beautiful there.
