8- When a director couldn’t show up because of a family emergency, they took photos of the audience on the iPhones of volunteers and sent them to the missing director to see. Everyone waved and smiled. Click. They called her and let her hear all the applause at the end of the movie.
7- Coned off areas of the 5K True Life run were littered around the course to ensure runner safety (from icy areas), but instead of looking glum, T/F made a maze through snow for runners to jog, marked off by neon painted lines. The snow became not a hindrance, but a challenge.
6- With too much old “merch” from last year, and a lot of young college kids with shallow pockets, T/F sold old T-shirts from previous festivals for cheap at the box office.
5- After finishing the 5K run, in around 25 degree weather, runners rushed into the the Broadway Diner to run their frozen hands under the warm water of the sink in the back of the restaurant. Then they reemerged to enjoy a complementary tamale for an after-run breakfast.
4- Using the since vacated Pasta Factory location as their box office, volunteers had no place to “use the facilities.” They took a one-room bathroom that had no door and taped a big black tarp with a slash in the middle. Privacy at a film festival is overrated. And how can one get closer to someone quicker than them walking in on them while their pants are down. This is after all TRUE/False.
3- Much too much trash accumulates at downtown businesses during T/F weekend. One, going with the theme of tree-houses, built a cardboard tree-house and stacked it on top of their dumpster, to hold more (and look prettier).
2- After spending thirty-eight minutes looking for a parking spot, and running later for her spot in the Q, a RBHS student parked in a permit parking only spot, yelling as she swirled into the parking space, “It’s only a 10 dollar ticket!” Unfortunately, it was 15.
1- I overheard an attendee ask a volunteer, “If it snows, will they cancel the March March?” And the volunteer, looking horrified, replied, “Even if there were snow daggers falling out of the sky we wouldn’t cancel March March!!”
By Maria Kalaitzandonakes
