Stepping onto the top platform of the moving escalators, with the early evening glow of the setting April sun, all I could picture was a characteristically royal descent from the top tier landing of Pemberley Hall into a white marbled ballroom clad with adorning guests and silk-gloved anticipation. Perhaps my own hype had filled my head with an overzealous notion of transforming the Green Hills Regal Cinema: Stadium 16 into the social event of the year, noting my basic bohemian black dress and cardigan paired with underwhelming flats instead of white seersucker with hand-sewn pearls and lace heals. Nevertheless, the excitement of the atmosphere was far from basic and anything but boring. From the bright bulging bulbs of the box office to the velvet sheen of the luxuriously laid red carpet, the opening night of the 2013 Nashville Film Festival exuded class, elegance, and a never-ending heir of possibility. In my own eight nights of participation during the festival, I was most certainly lost to a world where fashion had its place, intellectual community was abundant, and the art of film had a choke hold passion on every attendee.
Opening night of the festival, I had the blessed privilege to work alongside some kind and talented board members for a silent auction with a wide variety of packages, get-a-ways, baskets and artist treats that not only further introduced me to a network of others that love film and all its opportunities as much as I do, but it also gave me an insider’s view of the world behind the backstage pass. While I am no stranger to working with the general public, the eclectic set of people in attendance were warm-hearted, originally artistic, and above all else, wholly entertaining.
I returned to the festival the second night as a non-profit volunteer. While I chose a couple of shifts that were well staffed, the evening did prove to be eventful as I made several friends who are also “aspiring-to-be” students, escorted several members of the academy (including Sid Ganis, Ellen Harrington, and Tom Pollock) to a debut screening, and managed to woefully lock my keys in my car with no spare key or money in sight. But, of course, all of this hard work paid off into my own intrinsic reward of attending seven key films along with several other talented critics in order to demonstrate my full appreciation and thoughts about the 2013 Nashville Film Festival. Despite the important detail that all of this took place at the same time as finals for the end of yet another college semester, I cannot and would not trade my experiences, opportunities, blessings, and the relationships that I created and built for any amount of sleep or extra moments to study. Even if I was merely one belle at the ball, the memory of a well-orchestrated dance will stay with me forever. The pastel faces of lightly reflected dancers, the clicking shoes of those rushing to take in all the sights, the films rising and falling to the swoon of the music, and the twirling of dreams, claimed a successful run for the festival that will certainly entertain the lips of society until the next year.
