I have loved the idea of film festivals ever since I moved to Northern California in autumn of 1981 and ‒ while applying for a job in downtown Mill Valley ‒ saw a stack of programs for the upcoming Mill Valley Film Festival. What is now a world-renowned, 10-day-long cinematic showcase was then celebrating its sixth year. Aside from, I think, the Gregory Mark Bezat documentary The Art of Eating: The Life of M.F.K. Fisher, and possibly John Sayles’ The Return of the Secaucus 7, I can’t remember any of the films that were being screened that year.

But I do remember thinking, “Some of the filmmakers are going to be there, too? In person? This is the coolest thing in the world!”

[To read the full column in the Petaluma Argus-Courier, click HERE]