Donna in Hollywoodland

Paradise Now

Usually when I do volunteer work for the American Cinematheque , I am over at The Egyptian in Hollywood.
Only one other time, have I ever driven all the way to Santa Monica to the Aero Theatre.
But this weekend, The Aero had a whole bunch of stuff going on, so I decided to make the journey to the Westside.

Well, driving from Hollywood to Santa Monica on a Friday night after work was not a good idea.
I don't like the freeways, so I basically took Highland over to Wilshire, and then Wilshire straight west.
It took me One hour and 15 minutes.
And of course, I was late for my volunteer shift.

When I arrived, I apologized to the other volunteer for being late.
Explained I had the long drive.

It was my job to do the Marketing Survey and Mailing list.
But the thing that is different from the Aero is that there is no Table for the mailing list.
At The Egyptian, we have a table with all the paperwork and forms on it. So we can stand at the table, and people can sign-up for the mailing list and look over the pamphlets and calendars for upcoming movies.
Here at the Aero, there is a table but its against the wall. So you really can't place yourself there. It just won't work.
So instead, I stood by the ticket taker and passed out the January calendar to patrons.

Then a friend of mine showed up to watch the film. (He is actually a volunteer at the Egyptian.) And since the movie was to start, I decided to sit with him.

The movie, was "Paradise Now" . And the Director, Hany Abu-Assad, spoke after the movie.
You might think a movie about two Tel Aviv Suicide Bombers would be very depressing, but this isn't. It is a very real human movie about their lives.
And I will admit, I am really not a very political person, so I only know the basics of what is going on in the Middle East - ok, probably still more than most people do. But even with my limited knowledge, the movie was still very easy to follow and I understood it.

The Q&A with the Director was very interesting. I liked the fact that he didn't want to give alot of explanation about the movie, but he wanted to the viewer to come to their own conclusions about what they saw.

And I was absolutely thrilled, when "Paradise Now" won the Best Foreign Film, at The Golden Globes.
It was really cool, as I watched the TV, to see the Director get up to accept his award - and I had just heard him speak and do a Q&A at The Aero a few days previously.