March 19, 2024 • 43 mins
Movies and the great outdoors combine for some best supporting scenery, including dunes for days and Death Valley's surreal-scape (and the new but temporary lake, Manly). In this episode, Holly and Brad discuss several sand dune sites to adventure at, plus the ethereal nature of Death Valley National Park, which is spring-primed. Find out the best spots there for private sunset viewings; where to get stellar vistas of the park's temporary phenomenon, Manly Lake (which reflects Telescope Peak and the Panamint mountains); and the best way to stargaze in this dark sky destination. Later in the pod, they are joined by Ginny Krieger, Executive Director of the Sonoma International Film Festival (March 20 to 24, 2024) to talk about the beauty of Sonoma, and the ways in which the film festival has become one of the best in the West.
Show Notes:
Sonoma Valley International Film Festival (March 20 to 24, 2024)
Death Valley National Park Weekend Sherpa Edition
Dunes for Adventure
Show Notes:
Sonoma Valley International Film Festival (March 20 to 24, 2024)
Death Valley National Park Weekend Sherpa Edition
Dunes for Adventure
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:18):
Welcome to the Weekend Trip of podcastTake It Outside. I'm Brad Day,
I'm Holly Coulac, and we're recordingthis inside in the dark because we have
no power. We're having a windevent. It's a wind event, and
yeah, all the power is outin our neighborhood where we record the podcast.
So luckily this is a battery operatedpodcast machine, so we're doing it.
(00:43):
I just can't do cheat sheets,you know, I can't like look
something up really quickly. Right.Oh, well, we're just gonna when
the WiFi is out and the electricityis out, You're like, what is
going on? This is the Allthe Right Movies podcast because we're going to
be talking about movies in the greatoutdoors, including dunes and Death Valley,
and later in the podcast, we'llbe talking to Ginny Krieger, the executive
(01:04):
director of the Sonoma International Film Festival, which is coming up March twenty first
to the twenty fifth Great Film Festival. Yeah, it's a great conversation with
Ginny. Two, what is yourfavorite part of the film festival. I
mean the movies that you get tosee are typically ones that you want to
(01:25):
normally be watching because they get somekind of like under the radar stuff.
Yeah, and a lot of themare quite good. So that's fun.
And you do get to see someof the filmmakers or producers that come and
just get to hang out with them. The parties at night are a lot
of fun too. I like those. Yeah, they do a really good
(01:46):
job with that, so that Yeah, they really do it up. The
town of Sonoma comes to life forseveral days all about the movies, and
yeah, it's a lot of fun. What about you, same thing,
like you get the World premieres,So I'm excited to see Widow Kluco And
I know Ethan Hawk has a movie. I think it's called Wildcat with his
daughter. Yeah, and then Ilike the walkability. You know, everything's
(02:08):
kind of around the plaza. Sothe historics of Austianic theater, I mean
all venues and you can get wineat some of the venues, which I
kind of like. Yeah, Andso you can go online you'll hear much
more about it. We won't givetoo much away in the beginning. You
can listen for later in the podcast. But it's just it's my favorite mold
festival in the West. Yeah,No, it's great and uh and So
today we're going to be talking aboutsome movies and how you can partake in
(02:34):
the outdoors that inspired them. Iknow, kind of, I know.
But first to the news. Sothe Oscars happened. We're a little late
to the like discussion on But whatdid you think of it? Uh?
It was entertaining, actually, Uhit was you know, I thought Jimmy
Kimmel did a pretty good job.And uh, you know, I saw
a fair number of the movies thatwere up for up for awards, and
(02:57):
I didn't see poor Things. Ididn't see that one with Emma Stone and
she won Best Actress. But youknow, Oppenheimer, that was such a
good movie. It's strange because itseems like a lot of the movies that
do well at the Oscars are releasedkind of like late in the year,
and that was like a summer Yeah, totally, And but that was it
(03:19):
was so good. It was greatto see you know, Christopher Nolan get
was that his first Oscar? Yeah, I mean that's crazy. It's such
a good movie. Like I likedhow he got that. I mean,
all of his movies have been reallygood. But you know how sometimes like
a director or an actor will getan award for a movie that isn't there
like best. I get it.I get that, but it always bothers
(03:45):
me because I'm like, it's forthe performance of that year or the director
at whatever, you know, thescreenplay, it's all about that year,
and it just sometimes I'm like thatactor like Leonardo DiCaprio, he was so
good in so many films. It'slike, what's heed and Gilbert great?
Right? Was that the name ofthe movie? Yeah, so long ago?
But The Departed, like all ofthese great movies. And then he
gets it for the one where hegets attacked by the bear. Right has
(04:08):
hardly spoken, and like, that'sfine, the movie was fine, But
I'm like, you gave it tohim for So do you think that Robert
Downey Junior won it based off ofhis performance or body of work? Okay,
that's a great question. I honestlythink his performance in that case,
I thought he was outstanding. Imean, I think he could both.
Actually I think that was a mix. But I could live with that because
I'm like, I thought the performancewas really stellar. Yeah, but I
(04:30):
liked all the stuff this year.I haven't seen a couple of them either.
I haven't seen poor Things yet orThe Zone of Interest. I read
the novel The Zone of Interest.What was your favorite movie that I saw,
Oppenheimer, that I've seen. Yeah, I really really liked it.
Just a movie that challenged me andmade me think, and that like I've
only seen twice, but I couldsee a few more times and just always
be like, Okay, now I'mgoing to focus on this part of the
(04:53):
film and the message and you know, yeah, it's just such a fascinating
story. Yeah, No, itwas good. It was a great Oscars
and you know, the Ryan Goslingjust ken performance was pretty amazing. Like
that guy, it's ridiculous that thathas to be so much pressure to know
you're going to be going up anddoing a live number not only in front
of like all of Hollywood, butalso the entire world that's watching the Oscars.
(05:16):
And this guy is like so charmingand so good looking, and then
he has this like natural kind ofsinging, like charisma. You're like,
oh my god, this guy isjust a Swiss army knife of of of
Hollywood. Best ever. I knowwhen I first heard he was going to
before, I'm like, oh wow, like that's really cool. But that's
(05:36):
I don't know, I felt likeit was sort of risky. I don't
even know why, just like wow, like that's a lot of pressure and
mm hmm. And he just nailedit, like it was iconic. It's
just like one of my favorite inoscar history. Yeah, yeah, that
was that was good. So bringingthat into the outdoors, although it wasn't
(05:57):
nominated for an Oscar because it cameout twenty twenty four. But Dune the
movie too, Dune Too, whichwe saw and really enjoyed. Great,
great movie to go see in themovie theater, that's for sure. The
visual aspect of that movie was prettystunning. And we didn't even see it
in imax, but I mean it'sstill it was like it's an event.
It's kicking ass and taking names.It was really good. Yeah. Yeah,
(06:20):
so but and we you know thatthe novel that came out back in
the day was inspired by the dunesin on the Oregon coast. Yeah,
Oregon Dudes National Recreation Area, whichwe were at a few years ago and
have some great footage from it.And when you see the photos that you
took, you're just looking at thatthinking like that's cat. That's what it
(06:42):
looks like in the film. Imean, it's like, obviously the film
is remarkably shot and very visually stunning, but you see how that landscape inspired
this sci fi novel. It's soethereal is that the word like mystique,
and it's just really cool. Butother I mean, if the Oregon Dunes
are a little too far out foryou, there are some amazing dunes here
(07:06):
in California. One of our favoritesis Death Valley. And we just did
an entire issue of Weekend Chirpa thatcame out recently on Death Valley, So
check that out, and it includesgoing to the Mesquite Flat sand dunes,
and that's just one of the bestsunset spots in the entire Death Valley National
Park, although I think you're comingaround to maybe there being a better sunset
(07:30):
spot or at least one that ison par with the sand dunes like Death
Valley National Park. Just it's sobeautiful and it is the most one of
the most fascinating landscapes to me.And you had suggested, hey, let's
go. We had gone to aplace called Dante's View for sunrise, which
was cool, really cool. Itwas very cold the year that we went
(07:54):
in an overcast. Yeah, andovercast, but you said, hey,
let's go check it out at sunset, and so you drive up and they
do have like the parking area andthe viewpoint. But if you just walk
a short distance is it North HontariaNorth up the trail, a spur trail,
you get to this outcropping like tenminutes. Yeah, and this is
your idea. Ten minutes to thisgorgeous outcrop. I mean you can it's
(08:18):
beautiful from really any angle, butit's kind of special to just do a
short hike and then get to thatvantage where you just feel like you see
the world. Yeah, like thevalley, the mountains. I think you
can see as far as Mount Whitneyon clear day. Yeah, you can
see the Eastern Sierra, which isamazing. So you're looking at like the
tallest points in North America and you'relooking at the lowest point. Yeah,
(08:41):
bad Water Basin. It's very blowlake right now, Lake Manly. Yeah.
That I wasn't necessarily expecting that.I remember reading about that it's like
a while ago, and I waslike, I kind of forgot about it,
and then I was really just struckby seeing that this lake that is
at bad Water Basin that is justvery reflective, especially in the morning when
(09:07):
there's no wind. It's it's anamazing sight to have that in Death Valley.
And who knows how long it's goingto be there. I know it's
from the atmosphere river, so likethey kept coming, so I think it
was getting replenished. But didn't yousay there was a particular shrimp or some
sort of There was like a littleinformation board about that, about a particular
shrimp. That's very specific to thewater at Bad Water Basin, which is
(09:33):
why I think it's called that.It's so salty that, you know,
one of the first pioneers that camethrough there, you know, wanted to
give their horse water and the horsewasn't drinking it because it was too salt.
It was bad water. Is thathow the name came about? Yeah,
yeah, because it was just likethere's no outlet for the water.
It's just kind of all collects there, all the sediment, all the salt.
(09:54):
Wait, was that on a plaquebecause memory, I told you them,
Like I am now of the agewhere I am fascinating if by reading
the plaques when I was younger,I'm like, screw that. I'm just
going to like get the view andget my photos, and now I'm like,
this is very interesting. I gotto read all the plaques. How
did I miss that? I don'tknow, maybe you were so struck by
the lake that they missed the plaque. Well, what did you like about
(10:15):
Dante's view as a sunset spot that? I think they're just something really amazing
about being up at a really highvantage just seeing so much of the National
Park and you can see just forI mean, what feels like hundreds of
miles from up there, and thenyou combine that with sunset and it's just
(10:35):
really really especially you get such agreat perspective of just place of the whole
National Park looking out to the easternSierra, and yeah, I don't know,
I mean just like you drive allthe way up to this little parking
lot and then from there, youknow, we hiked ten minutes up to
this other amazing view that just overlookedthat Badwater Base and all of Death Valley,
(11:01):
it felt like, and watching thesunset from up there was it felt
like one of those like once ina lifetime type of experience. I know,
It's like you feel small in agrand way, and then telescope peak
is like directly ahead of you,which is massive and huge, and so
the sun's kind of coming below thatand turning the sky like Barbie pink,
Barbie and then Barbie pink. That'sa that's a new that's a new color.
(11:24):
That's not a new color color.But now we just call Tiffany blue.
Yeah. And then with the lakethere, the mountains reflect on it
and it's like they're mirrored and it'sit's gorgeous and we have good photos of
that on our site on that DeathValley issue. Yeah. And then so
but going back to the dunes relationto dune and Mesquite flat sand dunes,
(11:46):
which is definitely one of our favorites. What like, what is it about
it for you the sand dunes?Yeah, I think it's partly there's something
really cool about going outdoors where thereisn't necessarily like trail. It's just kind
of like it's just vast openness andyou get to go check it out,
(12:09):
you know, and there's no trailwhen you're on the sand dunes. It's
just you're not going to get thatlost either. I mean you hike out
for a quarter of a mile orthe real ambitious types will go out half
mile or even a mile from whereyou park and to climb up a sand
dune. But it's you can justkind of make your own adventure happen.
Climb up to the tallest one ifyou want, or go to the one
that's closest to the car if youwant, or something in between. But
(12:31):
you find your own little sand duneand just like sit down and watch the
show. Yes, it's just reallyspecial. Yeah, it's like the parking
lot there can be filled, andyet you go out into the dune and
you'll find your own space, likevery easily. You'll just have all of
this privacy and walk to the topand I like bringing a picnic and a
(12:52):
little wine and yeah, I don'tknow if that's allowed there or not,
but I'm not telling anybody. Applejuice. Bring that apple juice. And
just like like you said, sittingand looking in the colors. I mean,
you know, even if you havea little bit of an overcast day,
it's still quite spectacular. It's justreally surreal, it is. It's
very It's like one of those verysimple things too, right, Like you're
not you're just walking out on asand dune at sunset, it's quiet.
(13:16):
Yeah, the quiet is really striking. Actually the whole park is quite quiet.
It is What did you think ofthe night sky there? Like they
have some terrific night sky programs anddeath values. You can find out about
it the Fernis Creek visitor Center.And we happened upon one just kind of
at random in the visitor center wheresomebody told us, oh, arrangers guiding.
(13:39):
It wasn't really guide. You showedup and this pathway was lit.
It was so cool, all red, and then you went up to this
little plateau and arranger was there talkingabout constellations and stars and it was very
cool. It was nice and short, like only an hour. You weren't
committed to like three hours of listeningto it, not that you know,
(14:00):
No, it was great. Ialways recommend going by the visitor center at
parks and just kind of seeing what'sI mean, if you have some time
seeing what's going on. Are thereany programs, any night programs? And
there happened to be that that stargazingnight program and just hearing somebody talk about
the constellations. Who knows their stuff. You know, they have one of
the little laser pointers and they're pointingup to this and that and the next
thing, and you're like, oh, yeah, right, I remember learning
(14:22):
about that way back in the day, and they're just kind of refreshing her
memory on it. Yeah, talkabout feeling small when you start looking up
at the stars and you can seeso many stars from Death Valley, because
I think the nearest big city islike Las Vegas, which is over a
two hour drive away, and youcan see it was interesting because you could
see a little bit of that domeof light really far away that was Las
(14:46):
Vegas. Yeah, the flush comingfrom Las Vegas. We could all see
it. It was the sphere.Yeah, right with you two in it
lighten everything up, Like they're notthere anymore. I think they're they're moving
on to like Dead and Company orfish or something. Well, anyways,
this fear is very cool. It'slike filled with lights and yeah, you're
right, you could see that dome. That was really wild. Yeah.
(15:07):
But you also saw and this wason a morning hike at Zabriski Point,
which is one of the best placesfor sunrise, is a brisky point,
yes, and you were like,hey, we could do this hike down
from Zabriski, which I didn't knowabout there's a trail head there that can
lead you on like a Marquee hike. Yeah, called is it Golden Golden
(15:30):
Canyon. Golden Canyon. It's likesix and a half miles around trap,
yeah, which we've done a coupleof times, but we've always started kind
of on the western entrance, themain entrance, Yeah, to Golden Canyon.
But there's a great trailhead that leavesright from Zabrisky Point, perhaps the
best sunrise spot in the park.So catch sunrise there and then grab your
(15:50):
backpack and head out on a sixmile hike. It's really I mean,
you really get down into that beautifulcanyon that you're looking at from Zabrisky Point.
You just right down in it onon the hike amongst it. So
it's it was it was cool.And we saw one of those like I
forgot about this, but I thinkthey do a lot of like uh,
flight training, military flight training aroundthe Death Valley Eastern Sierra. And we
(16:15):
saw one of those stealth bombers.They're like, you know, they kind
of look like something out of Batman, you know, like the little Black
like like looks like a Batman symbol, almost flying doing flybys. With a
plane trailing it. And my guesswas that they were doing like a video
shoot or a photo shoot, butthey were flying up and down Death Valley
that morning while we were hiking inGolden Canyon. I can't believe that.
(16:38):
That was so cool And you spottedthat? How did you know that's what
that was? Like? I wouldhave been like, oh, yeah,
that's cool. That's like a coolplane. It looks like a boomerang.
It's like one of those black boomeranglook. I mean it's very distinct.
And you knew it though, Yeah, well right away I was like,
oh my god, that something costs. I know, this seems crazy,
(16:59):
Like yeah, growing up, likeI think every thirteen year old had a
photo of that in their bedroom.Really the stuff bomber? Was it on
a movie poster? I don't know. It's just like a really badass plane
and it was like, oh coollike that and like a Lamborghini, Oh
my goodness with Christie Brinkley on it. Yeah totally. Oh that's so good.
Yeah. Well that was a goodeye. And as far as places
(17:22):
stay, I mean, you know, camping is always great in Death Allum,
and we were fortunate to be ableto stay at the Inn at Death
Valley, which was a little bitof a you know, it's that's a
little bit of a splurgized blurgy place. Yeah, that's the one that's kind
of up a little bit on thehill. Has a beautiful pool. The
one down below is the Ranch,and they have kind of like the a
few different restaurants. But the innis very nice. The pool is is
(17:45):
I think it's fed by a hotspring and they keep it at a certain
temperature. That's very refreshing while you'rein Death Alloy. Yeah, and they
have some good fire pits out front. A tip is I find the dining
room five, but sometimes those diningrooms feel a little bit like, you
know, they're formal, which isgreat if you like it. But we
got a good tip of like justeat out in the bar lounge area.
Yeah, right by the window.It was fantastic. I mean, it's
(18:07):
great. That was a good tip, but it was a great tip from
someone. And then you can alsosit outside. I think you can probably
eat out there. I'm not surethough, where they have the little fire
pits right out front. They're smallteringlike on either side. Yeah, and
then the ranch just below. We'vestayed there too. That's great. Yeah,
got a huge fireplace which I reallylike. The outdoor fireplace, yeah,
fireplace, yeah, I really likedit. And the saloon that was
(18:30):
bumping. Yeah. So yeah,it's great. No, And if you
know or you can camp. Theyhave great campgrounds in Death Valley as well.
Can we talk about Perump for asecond. Sure? So I love
Perump, I know you do.I've loved Proump since like we started going
to Death Valley in two thousand andnine, was my first time going there.
Well, you tell our listeners whatPerump is. Perump is a city
(18:51):
just outside of Death Valley. Isit a city? Yeah? Yeah,
And it's en route from Vegas intoDeath Valley and over the years it's just
growing and it's cool. I meanI haven't actually stayed overnight in Promp.
You just left and say Perump.And I think the people are super friendly
(19:15):
and they have a great marketplace calledthe Death Valley Marketplace, and it has
all kinds of really cool you knowme, I love like my touch keys,
but they have like all kinds ofdifferent sodas. They've got like an
amazing candy selection from like you know, including stuff from Mexico. It's just
(19:41):
really cool. They have all thesecool stickers, They have great t shirts.
They make these really actually nice bodylotions that are so everything's like handcrafted
handmaid and the owner's husband and wifeteam. I'm like, The New York
Times needs to come out and doa story on this marketplace in Perump.
There you go and make like amustop, because I really think it's a
fun mustop. It's good for themerch too, if you want to get
(20:04):
some good merch from not only Perumpbut Death Valley. They have all this
stuff. So why don't you giveus an update on what's going on with
the Eagles because we've been talking aboutthat, not the band, but Jackie
and Shadow. Oh my gosh,Jackie and Shadow. Oh well, Jackie
(20:25):
and Shadow are unfortunately this year,those three eggs that they laid are not
viable. Where were they? Wherewere they laying the eggs? And big
bear up and nests and they've captivatedeverybody. It's been a whole like you
know, drama to watch. Youcan watch the wet live webcam and they
are actually I think they said Jackieis twelve years old. I'm not sure
(20:47):
how old Shadow is, if he'solder or younger. But they're just this
beloved bald eagle pair who have hadsome successful chicks like hatches and chicks in
the past, and then they've hadsome that haven't worked out. It's kind
of everybody was so hopeful because theylaid three eggs this year and unfortunately there's
like a window in which there shouldbe quote a pip where the you know,
(21:11):
chick starts to hatch, and itjust isn't going to happen, unfortunately,
So it'll be I mean, Ithink there's still like sitting on the
eggs and then eventually they'll kind ofleave and start leaving the nest longer.
But the good news is I didn'tknow this that they are like they mate
for life and then also they livedto about thirty nine or forty and they
(21:33):
like can have viable eggs up untilthat age. Wow, so they've got
hopefully along, you know, hopefullythey stay healthy and good. I'm not
sure exactly the reasons. I mean, they kind of speculate about maybe weather
or wetness or just certain conditions.I mean, they're very capable of protecting
their eggs, but sometimes it justdoesn't work out. Yeah, So there
(21:55):
was a like a camera, likea video cam on them during the whole
process. Yeah, I think it'sI don't know if they'll keep it on,
but it was just so cool towatch them interact and like, yeah,
you know, it was really cool. So I'm a little bit sad,
but I'll get over it. I'mnot the only one. It's been
a saga. It's been a saga. Well that's too bad. Here's to
Jackie in Shadow for putting their besteffort on that. And maybe twenty twenty
(22:19):
five will be the year that theyhave some chicks. I hope. So,
although do they try again later oris it once a year? I
deal it might be. It seemslike it might be a once a year.
I didn't get any impression from whatI read that they would like,
oh, in a few weeks maybeagain. Yeah, I don't think.
So that's too bad to do adocumentary on those two. I'm sure that's
(22:41):
got to be in the works,a documentary. Speaking of, should we
get to our discussion with Jenny Creeker, Yeah, let's do it. We
are here with Snowa International Film FestivalExecutive director Jenny Kreeger. Welcome, Jinny.
It's so nice to have you onthe podcast. Thank you so much,
a pleasure to join you today.We're here to talk about what is
(23:03):
my favorite film festival? And I'mbiased, but I also go to a
lot of film festivals. So theSnowman National Film Festival is coming in hot.
It kicks off March twentieth to thetwenty fourth, five days of food,
wine, fabulous films. And youknow, last year's festival was such
a huge success. We had SirBen Kingsley, he came for Jewels the
(23:27):
movie, and I just feel likeit had you know, there were lineups
at the door, there was recordturnout, and I really feel like that
Sonoma's Festival has become like the Westbest film festival. Well, thank you
for saying that. We of courseagree with you. We're a little you
know, a little prejudice, maybeI think we deserve to be. So
(23:51):
what can somebody expect for if theirfirst time festival or so they're going to
get a ticket, what can theyexpect over the course of five days?
And they certainly don't have to gothe whole time, we know that,
but give us a little back.They can they can expect to see a
great line up again of films,that features regular feature films, documentaries,
and we also do a compilation ofshort films that we put in programs that
(24:18):
have a kind of a subject linerunning through them that makes them kind of
all fit together. What they canexpect is a really fun atmosphere that also
tries to highlight the best of culinarythings as well as well as pouring wine
(24:42):
at some of our film venues.Some places we can't do that, but
when we can, we will pourwine. Is that nice going in?
And I like to go to theI like all of them. I'll go
to them if you're not pouring wine, but I love having a glass of
wine and some popcorn and one ofyour great films go. And that's especially
(25:03):
available at the Sebastiani Theater, whichis one of the places that still sells
concessions as well as having wine that'sbored in the lobby before the film.
So I know that theater, SebastianiTheater. It's right on the plaza.
And one of the things I loveabout the festival is that all of the
venues are pretty much walking distance,so you're in you know, beautiful historic
(25:26):
Sonoma. I always call it thebest supporting scenery because Sonoma is absolutely gorgeous
and this time of year it's goingto be just green and have the wildflowers,
so you can walk to all ofthe festivals or excuse me, all
of the films with venues all aroundthe plaza. But the Sebastianic Theater special
it's historic and it also hosts openingnights. So can you talk a bit
about the opening night movie. Itlooks very intriguing Woodoo Cluco. Yeah,
(25:51):
The Widow Cleco is a film outof France starring Haley Bennett. I have
not seen the film. Oh,I haven't seen any films. Really,
I leave that to our programming team. They watch, they select, But
it's obviously based on the creation ofyou know, the Champagne under that very
(26:15):
famous label. So I really can'ttalk too much about Napper's film, but
we all I know that Carl,you know, selected this word an opening
night film for lots of reasons,for the scenery, for you know,
for the link to sparkling wine thatwe have here. So I know it's
(26:37):
going to be. I know it'sgoing to be a really nice opening film.
You guys always have great opening films. You have great Marquee films and
just a great selection of films acrossthe board. But what what can people
expect if they just kind of wantto take a maybe some downtime, maybe
not go catch a film, butthey have their film pastors, want to
hang out for an hour or two, where would you hang out? Well,
(27:00):
besides, there's great lounges and restaurantsright here in Sonoma. At a
certain level, we are a passpacefestival, so we say, you know,
buy a pass and that will giveyou access to different levels of things
that we offer. So on alevel of pass that we call Soiree and
(27:21):
our patron pass, we outfit aVIP area lounge where we serve food and
drinks from eleven o'clock in the morningtill five o'clock in the evening. And
that certainly is an option for peopleat those levels to have some downtime.
And it's not just for those levelsof pass holders, it's also for our
(27:44):
media industry people filmmakers, So there'san opportunity at downtime just to relax and
meet other people, perhaps filmmakers.And this year it is going to be
at the Sonoma Community Center, wherewe also have a screening venue at Andrews
Hall. So there's a nice symmetrythere, I think between you know,
(28:08):
seeing a film, walking out ofa film if you have a little bit
of downtime, and enjoying the loungearea that this year, we're very lucky
with a local interior design firm aswell as retail place that they will be
putting their pieces of furniture and outfittingour lounge for us. So nice,
(28:33):
they're always I love them comfortable.I think it'll be comfortable and fun.
Yeah. Well, I think oneof the really cool things, having attended
the Film Festival in the past,is just how many people in the industry
and filmmakers attend this festival. So, I mean, on top of seeing
some great films that you might nototherwise, you're also just kind of hanging
(28:55):
out with and meeting people in theindustry, and I just find it really
enlightening and just like the creative forcesthat kind of like come into Sonoma for
a few days is so cool.Absolutely. I mean, I think number
one filmmakers seem to be extremely excitedabout having their film to showcase here,
perhaps even for the very first time. This could be the first festival they've
(29:17):
ever gotten into a lot of timesthat happens, especially with short films,
that we receive more short entries thanwe do anything else as far as entries
go. But you know, whenyou think about it does make sense that
there's a lot of festivals that reallydon't take short films. Yeah. So,
(29:41):
yeah, lots going on. Thereis lots going on, And I
really like the culinary aspect of thefestival, even like as you were saying,
the lounges. The food's always reallydelicious, the drinks are amazing,
and they do they also have youknow, non alcoholic drinks too, which
is great. And parties are superfun. You have a series of parties
through the nights. You have anopening night party and a Spanish theme party.
(30:06):
I believe we do have her openingnight party at the Sebastiani Winery and
that's open to all pass holders.Everybody is invited to that, so that's
very democratic. And then on Thursday, we have a special dinner that we
offer. It's a separate ticketed eventand this year we're honoring a woman by
(30:27):
the name of Susan Feniger, quitefamous. Yeah, she is very famous
from a ton of cookbooks that shehas written too. Yeah, Food Network
and so we will honor her.We're giving her a Culinary Excellence Award,
(30:48):
and she will be with her filmcalled Forked, which her partner is the
director of that film, and soshe and her partner will both be here.
We will see the film, wewill honor her, and then we
will have a curated dinner that shehas crafted the menu for that is being
(31:12):
catered by Park Avenue Catering, whichis a local catering company out of a
Katati, I believe, and theyhave they have done their chefs and shorts
for us in the past. Sothe food will be excellent and again just
that theme of Susan that she hasrecommended for the for the three course dinner,
(31:33):
and of course paired with wines ofcourse great, great, great wine
options. So you said it's apass based festival, but people can also
buy. Can you buy tickets toindividual films if you like see one in
particular, Absolutely yes. If youdon't have a pass, you are more
than welcome to buy tickets if they'reavailable. We you know, we have
(31:56):
a limited number that we put onsale, and everybody's certainly welcome to buy
a twenty dollars film pass film ticketif you, you know, if your
time or whatever doesn't allow you tobuy a pass, and you can do
that on sonomafilmfest dot org where youcan buy Our film schedule is up and
(32:16):
running since Friday. I saw thatthere's all kinds of ways that you can
kind of view the schedule. There'sa grid outline, there's a cover way,
extended views, there's all kinds ofways to look at our program as
well as clicking through on trailers ifthey're available, looking at the posters,
(32:40):
getting you know, a short synopsisof the film, seeing who's with the
film, kind of tagged areas,whether it's a documentary, whether it has
to do with a particular theme orwhatever. So there's a lot of there's
a lot of information that you canget right from our website on the films
(33:00):
and even if you even if youhave a past, you have the option
that you can go in and selectfilms and star them with a little star
and you can get your own kindof crafted program, if you will,
from going in and starring films.It's not like you're paying for them,
(33:22):
but you're starring those films that's justfor you. Once you log in with
your email and you've gone through itand say these are the films that I
really want to see, and youcan get a little print out of your
program that you've done. Oh isthat new this year? I love that
because I do this every year.I like obsess over when I'm going to
go to, what movie, whattime I can go. And that is
(33:45):
the perfect idea for me because I'malways looking and I do. I play
the trailers and then I try tomap out as bride I'll see me.
I'll be like, Okay, I'mcutting out of work because I want to
see this last bit and then theweekend exactly. Yeah, that's super cool.
I'm going to use that. Yeah, sorry, it's it's it's not
new, but it's not something Weprobably could have always done a better job
(34:09):
in promoting everything that you could dowith a click of a mouse or whatever,
but we try to encourage people todo that. Yeah, that's great.
So I know you're going to besuper busy during the festival, of
course, But is there anything thatyou've highlighted, any particular film that you've
(34:29):
highlighted that you're like, I amdefinitely going to check this out. No,
but there is a no, LikeI said, I mean there's a
couple of films that that we've beenlucky to get this year that have not
really gone the festival route, butthey have been highlighted at a couple other
(34:50):
festivals. And I mean, I'mI'm looking forward if I if I can
to see Wildcat, the Ethan Hawkefilm that stars that stars his daughter Maya
Cool Mayahawk. Yeah, that istotally on top of my list too,
Mayahawk of Stranger Things Fame. She'sin Stranger Things. And I'm a big
fan of Ethan Hawk. I likehis work a lot, and I liked
(35:13):
his novel. He wrote a novel. So I'm that's you and me.
Maybe I'll see you there maybe well, so yeah, we And if I
could just kind of give a plugas well to something new that we're doing
this year, and that is weare partnering with a group Restaurant Cares as
(35:39):
well as we have selected the RedwoodEmpire Food Bank, and we will be
asking for donations because of the foodinitiative. There's so many people even right
in our own county that are fooddeprived, and so we will be taking
cash donations from now all the waythrough the festival and also we will be
(36:06):
collecting non perishable items from from whomeverwho come to our box office and that
will go directly to Fish Friends andFriends in Sonoma Helping and they will man
that and everything. But the criticalpiece is that we will be taking cash
donations for an organization that is reallyoperating at a deficit right now, that
(36:28):
really does need the money in orderto get food into the hands of people
who really need it. There's agroup here called the Catalyst Fun and they
did a very very extensive, youknow kind of data look at people who
were in need of food, andin all of Sonoma County, one and
(36:52):
four people are food deprived. Isvery shocking, and so we're happy to
do that. We kicked it offa couple of days ago, so I'm
very hopeful we will be successful indoing that. And it winds up on
the Sunday, our last day ofthe festival. So we're gonna kind of
(37:15):
do a little open house if youwill at the Community Center for the end
of that that initiative, which alsohas a film showing called Food in two
at the Community Center, and soit's you know, it's a it's a
(37:36):
if you will, a package thatwe're promoting that people become aware of the
need. That's great. So ifif you wanted to donate non perishable food,
you're going to have just there's abin at the at the box office.
Our box office located at five pointthirty nine First Street West in the
(37:57):
in the little courtyard by the RedGreat Rest run. And again fish will
man that. That's that's up tothem. They will you know, empty
and place it back and do allthe manning of that. But again the
cash donations, we've selected the roadwind of our food bank for for all
the cash donations, which people cando right online. There's a donate button
(38:20):
right on the top of our website. That's great, people can just donate.
I was just donate online. Yeah, that's one of the great initiative.
Great initiative. So that's that's reallygood. And you in the Film
Festival has always been behind really smartand just great initiatives. So that's happy
(38:42):
to see that. And you know, you were talking about some of the
some of the special events that aresurrounding all these you know, you have
over one hundred films that are goingto be playing over five days, right,
I mean, that's that's that's alot of choices. And at night
you have these these great parties.So you have the opening night party,
you have the Chefs and Shorts party. What are some of the other parties
(39:05):
that are going on? So rightafter the Fenneger dinner, as you said,
the chef dinner, we have aGayala g a y dash la party
over at Hot Monk, which isthe tavern here on Broadway from nine to
midnight, and so they will behosting that the next night, which is
(39:28):
Friday evening. We're earlier in theday for certain pass holders. We will
have a reception and it will beprior to honoring bow Bridges, who is
here for a Lifetime Achievement Award.Cool and we will do that followed by
the film one of his more famousfilms with his brother, The Fabulous Baker
Boys. Oh yeah, Michelle Pfeiffertoo, Yes, yes, And that
(39:53):
evening we're actually having our party ata Buena Vista winery. So we will
kick that off at their champagne roomthat they have on the first floor.
Wonderful, along with a live vocalsinger and pianist downstairs. It kind of
(40:15):
fits the thing we're trying to getit more thirties forties vibe. Yeah,
the lounge singer and serving small bitesdownstairs as well as wine and of course
champagne bubbles if you will. Andthen on the third floor that will be
for dancing with a DJ. There'sa fairly famous DJ coming named Rob Garza.
(40:40):
He will be spinning the tunes upstairs. It sounds like a good time
even before we start. Yeah,that sounds great. So if people want
to get tickets, they want tofind out more information, they want to
support any of your great nonprofit initiative, you can go to Sonomafilmfest dot org
(41:02):
and you can buy your pass anddo and can see what films are playing
and just kind of get a greatkind of overview. The dates again are
March twentieth to the twenty fourth.Is that correct? That is absolutely right.
I'm so excited and for the firsttime this year as well, because
(41:23):
the cinemas closed down, which arehere in Sonoma. There was a multiplex
here and they just couldn't make ago of it, and they did close
down immediately after the festival last year, and so again kind of thinking about
where we can show films, weare going to show films actually at the
High School this year. They havea place called the Little Theater and it's
(41:45):
a legitimate, you know, functioningtiered space where you can go and sit
and enjoy films, enjoy films there. Obviously we can't pour wine there,
but you can still see some goodfilms there inured on the High School.
But you can't. For one,it looks like you have a great lineup
(42:07):
of documentaries. So I am.I am looking forward to going to whatever
venue whenever to see these films andenjoy the parties. I really there are
a lot of fun. You guysdo such a great job, and I
really do encourage people to check outthe site and get some tickets and you
know, if you're going to bein Sonoma, pick it even just buy
a single pass if you just wantto see a couple of movies, select
(42:29):
a film and see what it's like. Yeah. Absolutely, some people,
you know, some people are youknow, not not quite in tune with
how a festival works or what kindof offerings there are that a festival has.
You know, we're we're not showingDoom, right, even though I
(42:50):
saw that it actually beat Barbie onopening night. But as far as money
goes. But oh yeah, that'sa big deal. Then movie yeah yeah
yeah, well anyway we are.You're having much better movies than dude.
Well, thank you so much,Jenny, if you really appreciate you taking
(43:13):
some time out to talk to usabout this now international film festival. Yeah,
thank you for your support and Ilook forward to seeing you in a
couple of weeks. Thanks Jenny.Okay, bye bye
Welcome to the Weekend Trip of podcastTake It Outside. I'm Brad Day,
I'm Holly Coulac, and we're recordingthis inside in the dark because we have
no power. We're having a windevent. It's a wind event, and
yeah, all the power is outin our neighborhood where we record the podcast.
So luckily this is a battery operatedpodcast machine, so we're doing it.
(00:43):
I just can't do cheat sheets,you know, I can't like look
something up really quickly. Right.Oh, well, we're just gonna when
the WiFi is out and the electricityis out, You're like, what is
going on? This is the Allthe Right Movies podcast because we're going to
be talking about movies in the greatoutdoors, including dunes and Death Valley,
and later in the podcast, we'llbe talking to Ginny Krieger, the executive
(01:04):
director of the Sonoma International Film Festival, which is coming up March twenty first
to the twenty fifth Great Film Festival. Yeah, it's a great conversation with
Ginny. Two, what is yourfavorite part of the film festival. I
mean the movies that you get tosee are typically ones that you want to
(01:25):
normally be watching because they get somekind of like under the radar stuff.
Yeah, and a lot of themare quite good. So that's fun.
And you do get to see someof the filmmakers or producers that come and
just get to hang out with them. The parties at night are a lot
of fun too. I like those. Yeah, they do a really good
(01:46):
job with that, so that Yeah, they really do it up. The
town of Sonoma comes to life forseveral days all about the movies, and
yeah, it's a lot of fun. What about you, same thing,
like you get the World premieres,So I'm excited to see Widow Kluco And
I know Ethan Hawk has a movie. I think it's called Wildcat with his
daughter. Yeah, and then Ilike the walkability. You know, everything's
(02:08):
kind of around the plaza. Sothe historics of Austianic theater, I mean
all venues and you can get wineat some of the venues, which I
kind of like. Yeah, Andso you can go online you'll hear much
more about it. We won't givetoo much away in the beginning. You
can listen for later in the podcast. But it's just it's my favorite mold
festival in the West. Yeah,No, it's great and uh and So
today we're going to be talking aboutsome movies and how you can partake in
(02:34):
the outdoors that inspired them. Iknow, kind of, I know.
But first to the news. Sothe Oscars happened. We're a little late
to the like discussion on But whatdid you think of it? Uh?
It was entertaining, actually, Uhit was you know, I thought Jimmy
Kimmel did a pretty good job.And uh, you know, I saw
a fair number of the movies thatwere up for up for awards, and
(02:57):
I didn't see poor Things. Ididn't see that one with Emma Stone and
she won Best Actress. But youknow, Oppenheimer, that was such a
good movie. It's strange because itseems like a lot of the movies that
do well at the Oscars are releasedkind of like late in the year,
and that was like a summer Yeah, totally, And but that was it
(03:19):
was so good. It was greatto see you know, Christopher Nolan get
was that his first Oscar? Yeah, I mean that's crazy. It's such
a good movie. Like I likedhow he got that. I mean,
all of his movies have been reallygood. But you know how sometimes like
a director or an actor will getan award for a movie that isn't there
like best. I get it.I get that, but it always bothers
(03:45):
me because I'm like, it's forthe performance of that year or the director
at whatever, you know, thescreenplay, it's all about that year,
and it just sometimes I'm like thatactor like Leonardo DiCaprio, he was so
good in so many films. It'slike, what's heed and Gilbert great?
Right? Was that the name ofthe movie? Yeah, so long ago?
But The Departed, like all ofthese great movies. And then he
gets it for the one where hegets attacked by the bear. Right has
(04:08):
hardly spoken, and like, that'sfine, the movie was fine, But
I'm like, you gave it tohim for So do you think that Robert
Downey Junior won it based off ofhis performance or body of work? Okay,
that's a great question. I honestlythink his performance in that case,
I thought he was outstanding. Imean, I think he could both.
Actually I think that was a mix. But I could live with that because
I'm like, I thought the performancewas really stellar. Yeah, but I
(04:30):
liked all the stuff this year.I haven't seen a couple of them either.
I haven't seen poor Things yet orThe Zone of Interest. I read
the novel The Zone of Interest.What was your favorite movie that I saw,
Oppenheimer, that I've seen. Yeah, I really really liked it.
Just a movie that challenged me andmade me think, and that like I've
only seen twice, but I couldsee a few more times and just always
be like, Okay, now I'mgoing to focus on this part of the
(04:53):
film and the message and you know, yeah, it's just such a fascinating
story. Yeah, No, itwas good. It was a great Oscars
and you know, the Ryan Goslingjust ken performance was pretty amazing. Like
that guy, it's ridiculous that thathas to be so much pressure to know
you're going to be going up anddoing a live number not only in front
of like all of Hollywood, butalso the entire world that's watching the Oscars.
(05:16):
And this guy is like so charmingand so good looking, and then
he has this like natural kind ofsinging, like charisma. You're like,
oh my god, this guy isjust a Swiss army knife of of of
Hollywood. Best ever. I knowwhen I first heard he was going to
before, I'm like, oh wow, like that's really cool. But that's
(05:36):
I don't know, I felt likeit was sort of risky. I don't
even know why, just like wow, like that's a lot of pressure and
mm hmm. And he just nailedit, like it was iconic. It's
just like one of my favorite inoscar history. Yeah, yeah, that
was that was good. So bringingthat into the outdoors, although it wasn't
(05:57):
nominated for an Oscar because it cameout twenty twenty four. But Dune the
movie too, Dune Too, whichwe saw and really enjoyed. Great,
great movie to go see in themovie theater, that's for sure. The
visual aspect of that movie was prettystunning. And we didn't even see it
in imax, but I mean it'sstill it was like it's an event.
It's kicking ass and taking names.It was really good. Yeah. Yeah,
(06:20):
so but and we you know thatthe novel that came out back in
the day was inspired by the dunesin on the Oregon coast. Yeah,
Oregon Dudes National Recreation Area, whichwe were at a few years ago and
have some great footage from it.And when you see the photos that you
took, you're just looking at thatthinking like that's cat. That's what it
(06:42):
looks like in the film. Imean, it's like, obviously the film
is remarkably shot and very visually stunning, but you see how that landscape inspired
this sci fi novel. It's soethereal is that the word like mystique,
and it's just really cool. Butother I mean, if the Oregon Dunes
are a little too far out foryou, there are some amazing dunes here
(07:06):
in California. One of our favoritesis Death Valley. And we just did
an entire issue of Weekend Chirpa thatcame out recently on Death Valley, So
check that out, and it includesgoing to the Mesquite Flat sand dunes,
and that's just one of the bestsunset spots in the entire Death Valley National
Park, although I think you're comingaround to maybe there being a better sunset
(07:30):
spot or at least one that ison par with the sand dunes like Death
Valley National Park. Just it's sobeautiful and it is the most one of
the most fascinating landscapes to me.And you had suggested, hey, let's
go. We had gone to aplace called Dante's View for sunrise, which
was cool, really cool. Itwas very cold the year that we went
(07:54):
in an overcast. Yeah, andovercast, but you said, hey,
let's go check it out at sunset, and so you drive up and they
do have like the parking area andthe viewpoint. But if you just walk
a short distance is it North HontariaNorth up the trail, a spur trail,
you get to this outcropping like tenminutes. Yeah, and this is
your idea. Ten minutes to thisgorgeous outcrop. I mean you can it's
(08:18):
beautiful from really any angle, butit's kind of special to just do a
short hike and then get to thatvantage where you just feel like you see
the world. Yeah, like thevalley, the mountains. I think you
can see as far as Mount Whitneyon clear day. Yeah, you can
see the Eastern Sierra, which isamazing. So you're looking at like the
tallest points in North America and you'relooking at the lowest point. Yeah,
(08:41):
bad Water Basin. It's very blowlake right now, Lake Manly. Yeah.
That I wasn't necessarily expecting that.I remember reading about that it's like
a while ago, and I waslike, I kind of forgot about it,
and then I was really just struckby seeing that this lake that is
at bad Water Basin that is justvery reflective, especially in the morning when
(09:07):
there's no wind. It's it's anamazing sight to have that in Death Valley.
And who knows how long it's goingto be there. I know it's
from the atmosphere river, so likethey kept coming, so I think it
was getting replenished. But didn't yousay there was a particular shrimp or some
sort of There was like a littleinformation board about that, about a particular
shrimp. That's very specific to thewater at Bad Water Basin, which is
(09:33):
why I think it's called that.It's so salty that, you know,
one of the first pioneers that camethrough there, you know, wanted to
give their horse water and the horsewasn't drinking it because it was too salt.
It was bad water. Is thathow the name came about? Yeah,
yeah, because it was just likethere's no outlet for the water.
It's just kind of all collects there, all the sediment, all the salt.
(09:54):
Wait, was that on a plaquebecause memory, I told you them,
Like I am now of the agewhere I am fascinating if by reading
the plaques when I was younger,I'm like, screw that. I'm just
going to like get the view andget my photos, and now I'm like,
this is very interesting. I gotto read all the plaques. How
did I miss that? I don'tknow, maybe you were so struck by
the lake that they missed the plaque. Well, what did you like about
(10:15):
Dante's view as a sunset spot that? I think they're just something really amazing
about being up at a really highvantage just seeing so much of the National
Park and you can see just forI mean, what feels like hundreds of
miles from up there, and thenyou combine that with sunset and it's just
(10:35):
really really especially you get such agreat perspective of just place of the whole
National Park looking out to the easternSierra, and yeah, I don't know,
I mean just like you drive allthe way up to this little parking
lot and then from there, youknow, we hiked ten minutes up to
this other amazing view that just overlookedthat Badwater Base and all of Death Valley,
(11:01):
it felt like, and watching thesunset from up there was it felt
like one of those like once ina lifetime type of experience. I know,
It's like you feel small in agrand way, and then telescope peak
is like directly ahead of you,which is massive and huge, and so
the sun's kind of coming below thatand turning the sky like Barbie pink,
Barbie and then Barbie pink. That'sa that's a new that's a new color.
(11:24):
That's not a new color color.But now we just call Tiffany blue.
Yeah. And then with the lakethere, the mountains reflect on it
and it's like they're mirrored and it'sit's gorgeous and we have good photos of
that on our site on that DeathValley issue. Yeah. And then so
but going back to the dunes relationto dune and Mesquite flat sand dunes,
(11:46):
which is definitely one of our favorites. What like, what is it about
it for you the sand dunes?Yeah, I think it's partly there's something
really cool about going outdoors where thereisn't necessarily like trail. It's just kind
of like it's just vast openness andyou get to go check it out,
(12:09):
you know, and there's no trailwhen you're on the sand dunes. It's
just you're not going to get thatlost either. I mean you hike out
for a quarter of a mile orthe real ambitious types will go out half
mile or even a mile from whereyou park and to climb up a sand
dune. But it's you can justkind of make your own adventure happen.
Climb up to the tallest one ifyou want, or go to the one
that's closest to the car if youwant, or something in between. But
(12:31):
you find your own little sand duneand just like sit down and watch the
show. Yes, it's just reallyspecial. Yeah, it's like the parking
lot there can be filled, andyet you go out into the dune and
you'll find your own space, likevery easily. You'll just have all of
this privacy and walk to the topand I like bringing a picnic and a
(12:52):
little wine and yeah, I don'tknow if that's allowed there or not,
but I'm not telling anybody. Applejuice. Bring that apple juice. And
just like like you said, sittingand looking in the colors. I mean,
you know, even if you havea little bit of an overcast day,
it's still quite spectacular. It's justreally surreal, it is. It's
very It's like one of those verysimple things too, right, Like you're
not you're just walking out on asand dune at sunset, it's quiet.
(13:16):
Yeah, the quiet is really striking. Actually the whole park is quite quiet.
It is What did you think ofthe night sky there? Like they
have some terrific night sky programs anddeath values. You can find out about
it the Fernis Creek visitor Center.And we happened upon one just kind of
at random in the visitor center wheresomebody told us, oh, arrangers guiding.
(13:39):
It wasn't really guide. You showedup and this pathway was lit.
It was so cool, all red, and then you went up to this
little plateau and arranger was there talkingabout constellations and stars and it was very
cool. It was nice and short, like only an hour. You weren't
committed to like three hours of listeningto it, not that you know,
(14:00):
No, it was great. Ialways recommend going by the visitor center at
parks and just kind of seeing what'sI mean, if you have some time
seeing what's going on. Are thereany programs, any night programs? And
there happened to be that that stargazingnight program and just hearing somebody talk about
the constellations. Who knows their stuff. You know, they have one of
the little laser pointers and they're pointingup to this and that and the next
thing, and you're like, oh, yeah, right, I remember learning
(14:22):
about that way back in the day, and they're just kind of refreshing her
memory on it. Yeah, talkabout feeling small when you start looking up
at the stars and you can seeso many stars from Death Valley, because
I think the nearest big city islike Las Vegas, which is over a
two hour drive away, and youcan see it was interesting because you could
see a little bit of that domeof light really far away that was Las
(14:46):
Vegas. Yeah, the flush comingfrom Las Vegas. We could all see
it. It was the sphere.Yeah, right with you two in it
lighten everything up, Like they're notthere anymore. I think they're they're moving
on to like Dead and Company orfish or something. Well, anyways,
this fear is very cool. It'slike filled with lights and yeah, you're
right, you could see that dome. That was really wild. Yeah.
(15:07):
But you also saw and this wason a morning hike at Zabriski Point,
which is one of the best placesfor sunrise, is a brisky point,
yes, and you were like,hey, we could do this hike down
from Zabriski, which I didn't knowabout there's a trail head there that can
lead you on like a Marquee hike. Yeah, called is it Golden Golden
(15:30):
Canyon. Golden Canyon. It's likesix and a half miles around trap,
yeah, which we've done a coupleof times, but we've always started kind
of on the western entrance, themain entrance, Yeah, to Golden Canyon.
But there's a great trailhead that leavesright from Zabrisky Point, perhaps the
best sunrise spot in the park.So catch sunrise there and then grab your
(15:50):
backpack and head out on a sixmile hike. It's really I mean,
you really get down into that beautifulcanyon that you're looking at from Zabrisky Point.
You just right down in it onon the hike amongst it. So
it's it was it was cool.And we saw one of those like I
forgot about this, but I thinkthey do a lot of like uh,
flight training, military flight training aroundthe Death Valley Eastern Sierra. And we
(16:15):
saw one of those stealth bombers.They're like, you know, they kind
of look like something out of Batman, you know, like the little Black
like like looks like a Batman symbol, almost flying doing flybys. With a
plane trailing it. And my guesswas that they were doing like a video
shoot or a photo shoot, butthey were flying up and down Death Valley
that morning while we were hiking inGolden Canyon. I can't believe that.
(16:38):
That was so cool And you spottedthat? How did you know that's what
that was? Like? I wouldhave been like, oh, yeah,
that's cool. That's like a coolplane. It looks like a boomerang.
It's like one of those black boomeranglook. I mean it's very distinct.
And you knew it though, Yeah, well right away I was like,
oh my god, that something costs. I know, this seems crazy,
(16:59):
Like yeah, growing up, likeI think every thirteen year old had a
photo of that in their bedroom.Really the stuff bomber? Was it on
a movie poster? I don't know. It's just like a really badass plane
and it was like, oh coollike that and like a Lamborghini, Oh
my goodness with Christie Brinkley on it. Yeah totally. Oh that's so good.
Yeah. Well that was a goodeye. And as far as places
(17:22):
stay, I mean, you know, camping is always great in Death Allum,
and we were fortunate to be ableto stay at the Inn at Death
Valley, which was a little bitof a you know, it's that's a
little bit of a splurgized blurgy place. Yeah, that's the one that's kind
of up a little bit on thehill. Has a beautiful pool. The
one down below is the Ranch,and they have kind of like the a
few different restaurants. But the innis very nice. The pool is is
(17:45):
I think it's fed by a hotspring and they keep it at a certain
temperature. That's very refreshing while you'rein Death Alloy. Yeah, and they
have some good fire pits out front. A tip is I find the dining
room five, but sometimes those diningrooms feel a little bit like, you
know, they're formal, which isgreat if you like it. But we
got a good tip of like justeat out in the bar lounge area.
Yeah, right by the window.It was fantastic. I mean, it's
(18:07):
great. That was a good tip, but it was a great tip from
someone. And then you can alsosit outside. I think you can probably
eat out there. I'm not surethough, where they have the little fire
pits right out front. They're smallteringlike on either side. Yeah, and
then the ranch just below. We'vestayed there too. That's great. Yeah,
got a huge fireplace which I reallylike. The outdoor fireplace, yeah,
fireplace, yeah, I really likedit. And the saloon that was
(18:30):
bumping. Yeah. So yeah,it's great. No, And if you
know or you can camp. Theyhave great campgrounds in Death Valley as well.
Can we talk about Perump for asecond. Sure? So I love
Perump, I know you do.I've loved Proump since like we started going
to Death Valley in two thousand andnine, was my first time going there.
Well, you tell our listeners whatPerump is. Perump is a city
(18:51):
just outside of Death Valley. Isit a city? Yeah? Yeah,
And it's en route from Vegas intoDeath Valley and over the years it's just
growing and it's cool. I meanI haven't actually stayed overnight in Promp.
You just left and say Perump.And I think the people are super friendly
(19:15):
and they have a great marketplace calledthe Death Valley Marketplace, and it has
all kinds of really cool you knowme, I love like my touch keys,
but they have like all kinds ofdifferent sodas. They've got like an
amazing candy selection from like you know, including stuff from Mexico. It's just
(19:41):
really cool. They have all thesecool stickers, They have great t shirts.
They make these really actually nice bodylotions that are so everything's like handcrafted
handmaid and the owner's husband and wifeteam. I'm like, The New York
Times needs to come out and doa story on this marketplace in Perump.
There you go and make like amustop, because I really think it's a
fun mustop. It's good for themerch too, if you want to get
(20:04):
some good merch from not only Perumpbut Death Valley. They have all this
stuff. So why don't you giveus an update on what's going on with
the Eagles because we've been talking aboutthat, not the band, but Jackie
and Shadow. Oh my gosh,Jackie and Shadow. Oh well, Jackie
(20:25):
and Shadow are unfortunately this year,those three eggs that they laid are not
viable. Where were they? Wherewere they laying the eggs? And big
bear up and nests and they've captivatedeverybody. It's been a whole like you
know, drama to watch. Youcan watch the wet live webcam and they
are actually I think they said Jackieis twelve years old. I'm not sure
(20:47):
how old Shadow is, if he'solder or younger. But they're just this
beloved bald eagle pair who have hadsome successful chicks like hatches and chicks in
the past, and then they've hadsome that haven't worked out. It's kind
of everybody was so hopeful because theylaid three eggs this year and unfortunately there's
like a window in which there shouldbe quote a pip where the you know,
(21:11):
chick starts to hatch, and itjust isn't going to happen, unfortunately,
So it'll be I mean, Ithink there's still like sitting on the
eggs and then eventually they'll kind ofleave and start leaving the nest longer.
But the good news is I didn'tknow this that they are like they mate
for life and then also they livedto about thirty nine or forty and they
(21:33):
like can have viable eggs up untilthat age. Wow, so they've got
hopefully along, you know, hopefullythey stay healthy and good. I'm not
sure exactly the reasons. I mean, they kind of speculate about maybe weather
or wetness or just certain conditions.I mean, they're very capable of protecting
their eggs, but sometimes it justdoesn't work out. Yeah, So there
(21:55):
was a like a camera, likea video cam on them during the whole
process. Yeah, I think it'sI don't know if they'll keep it on,
but it was just so cool towatch them interact and like, yeah,
you know, it was really cool. So I'm a little bit sad,
but I'll get over it. I'mnot the only one. It's been
a saga. It's been a saga. Well that's too bad. Here's to
Jackie in Shadow for putting their besteffort on that. And maybe twenty twenty
(22:19):
five will be the year that theyhave some chicks. I hope. So,
although do they try again later oris it once a year? I
deal it might be. It seemslike it might be a once a year.
I didn't get any impression from whatI read that they would like,
oh, in a few weeks maybeagain. Yeah, I don't think.
So that's too bad to do adocumentary on those two. I'm sure that's
(22:41):
got to be in the works,a documentary. Speaking of, should we
get to our discussion with Jenny Creeker, Yeah, let's do it. We
are here with Snowa International Film FestivalExecutive director Jenny Kreeger. Welcome, Jinny.
It's so nice to have you onthe podcast. Thank you so much,
a pleasure to join you today.We're here to talk about what is
(23:03):
my favorite film festival? And I'mbiased, but I also go to a
lot of film festivals. So theSnowman National Film Festival is coming in hot.
It kicks off March twentieth to thetwenty fourth, five days of food,
wine, fabulous films. And youknow, last year's festival was such
a huge success. We had SirBen Kingsley, he came for Jewels the
(23:27):
movie, and I just feel likeit had you know, there were lineups
at the door, there was recordturnout, and I really feel like that
Sonoma's Festival has become like the Westbest film festival. Well, thank you
for saying that. We of courseagree with you. We're a little you
know, a little prejudice, maybeI think we deserve to be. So
(23:51):
what can somebody expect for if theirfirst time festival or so they're going to
get a ticket, what can theyexpect over the course of five days?
And they certainly don't have to gothe whole time, we know that,
but give us a little back.They can they can expect to see a
great line up again of films,that features regular feature films, documentaries,
and we also do a compilation ofshort films that we put in programs that
(24:18):
have a kind of a subject linerunning through them that makes them kind of
all fit together. What they canexpect is a really fun atmosphere that also
tries to highlight the best of culinarythings as well as well as pouring wine
(24:42):
at some of our film venues.Some places we can't do that, but
when we can, we will pourwine. Is that nice going in?
And I like to go to theI like all of them. I'll go
to them if you're not pouring wine, but I love having a glass of
wine and some popcorn and one ofyour great films go. And that's especially
(25:03):
available at the Sebastiani Theater, whichis one of the places that still sells
concessions as well as having wine that'sbored in the lobby before the film.
So I know that theater, SebastianiTheater. It's right on the plaza.
And one of the things I loveabout the festival is that all of the
venues are pretty much walking distance,so you're in you know, beautiful historic
(25:26):
Sonoma. I always call it thebest supporting scenery because Sonoma is absolutely gorgeous
and this time of year it's goingto be just green and have the wildflowers,
so you can walk to all ofthe festivals or excuse me, all
of the films with venues all aroundthe plaza. But the Sebastianic Theater special
it's historic and it also hosts openingnights. So can you talk a bit
about the opening night movie. Itlooks very intriguing Woodoo Cluco. Yeah,
(25:51):
The Widow Cleco is a film outof France starring Haley Bennett. I have
not seen the film. Oh,I haven't seen any films. Really,
I leave that to our programming team. They watch, they select, But
it's obviously based on the creation ofyou know, the Champagne under that very
(26:15):
famous label. So I really can'ttalk too much about Napper's film, but
we all I know that Carl,you know, selected this word an opening
night film for lots of reasons,for the scenery, for you know,
for the link to sparkling wine thatwe have here. So I know it's
(26:37):
going to be. I know it'sgoing to be a really nice opening film.
You guys always have great opening films. You have great Marquee films and
just a great selection of films acrossthe board. But what what can people
expect if they just kind of wantto take a maybe some downtime, maybe
not go catch a film, butthey have their film pastors, want to
hang out for an hour or two, where would you hang out? Well,
(27:00):
besides, there's great lounges and restaurantsright here in Sonoma. At a
certain level, we are a passpacefestival, so we say, you know,
buy a pass and that will giveyou access to different levels of things
that we offer. So on alevel of pass that we call Soiree and
(27:21):
our patron pass, we outfit aVIP area lounge where we serve food and
drinks from eleven o'clock in the morningtill five o'clock in the evening. And
that certainly is an option for peopleat those levels to have some downtime.
And it's not just for those levelsof pass holders, it's also for our
(27:44):
media industry people filmmakers, So there'san opportunity at downtime just to relax and
meet other people, perhaps filmmakers.And this year it is going to be
at the Sonoma Community Center, wherewe also have a screening venue at Andrews
Hall. So there's a nice symmetrythere, I think between you know,
(28:08):
seeing a film, walking out ofa film if you have a little bit
of downtime, and enjoying the loungearea that this year, we're very lucky
with a local interior design firm aswell as retail place that they will be
putting their pieces of furniture and outfittingour lounge for us. So nice,
(28:33):
they're always I love them comfortable.I think it'll be comfortable and fun.
Yeah. Well, I think oneof the really cool things, having attended
the Film Festival in the past,is just how many people in the industry
and filmmakers attend this festival. So, I mean, on top of seeing
some great films that you might nototherwise, you're also just kind of hanging
(28:55):
out with and meeting people in theindustry, and I just find it really
enlightening and just like the creative forcesthat kind of like come into Sonoma for
a few days is so cool.Absolutely. I mean, I think number
one filmmakers seem to be extremely excitedabout having their film to showcase here,
perhaps even for the very first time. This could be the first festival they've
(29:17):
ever gotten into a lot of timesthat happens, especially with short films,
that we receive more short entries thanwe do anything else as far as entries
go. But you know, whenyou think about it does make sense that
there's a lot of festivals that reallydon't take short films. Yeah. So,
(29:41):
yeah, lots going on. Thereis lots going on, And I
really like the culinary aspect of thefestival, even like as you were saying,
the lounges. The food's always reallydelicious, the drinks are amazing,
and they do they also have youknow, non alcoholic drinks too, which
is great. And parties are superfun. You have a series of parties
through the nights. You have anopening night party and a Spanish theme party.
(30:06):
I believe we do have her openingnight party at the Sebastiani Winery and
that's open to all pass holders.Everybody is invited to that, so that's
very democratic. And then on Thursday, we have a special dinner that we
offer. It's a separate ticketed eventand this year we're honoring a woman by
(30:27):
the name of Susan Feniger, quitefamous. Yeah, she is very famous
from a ton of cookbooks that shehas written too. Yeah, Food Network
and so we will honor her.We're giving her a Culinary Excellence Award,
(30:48):
and she will be with her filmcalled Forked, which her partner is the
director of that film, and soshe and her partner will both be here.
We will see the film, wewill honor her, and then we
will have a curated dinner that shehas crafted the menu for that is being
(31:12):
catered by Park Avenue Catering, whichis a local catering company out of a
Katati, I believe, and theyhave they have done their chefs and shorts
for us in the past. Sothe food will be excellent and again just
that theme of Susan that she hasrecommended for the for the three course dinner,
(31:33):
and of course paired with wines ofcourse great, great, great wine
options. So you said it's apass based festival, but people can also
buy. Can you buy tickets toindividual films if you like see one in
particular, Absolutely yes. If youdon't have a pass, you are more
than welcome to buy tickets if they'reavailable. We you know, we have
(31:56):
a limited number that we put onsale, and everybody's certainly welcome to buy
a twenty dollars film pass film ticketif you, you know, if your
time or whatever doesn't allow you tobuy a pass, and you can do
that on sonomafilmfest dot org where youcan buy Our film schedule is up and
(32:16):
running since Friday. I saw thatthere's all kinds of ways that you can
kind of view the schedule. There'sa grid outline, there's a cover way,
extended views, there's all kinds ofways to look at our program as
well as clicking through on trailers ifthey're available, looking at the posters,
(32:40):
getting you know, a short synopsisof the film, seeing who's with the
film, kind of tagged areas,whether it's a documentary, whether it has
to do with a particular theme orwhatever. So there's a lot of there's
a lot of information that you canget right from our website on the films
(33:00):
and even if you even if youhave a past, you have the option
that you can go in and selectfilms and star them with a little star
and you can get your own kindof crafted program, if you will,
from going in and starring films.It's not like you're paying for them,
(33:22):
but you're starring those films that's justfor you. Once you log in with
your email and you've gone through itand say these are the films that I
really want to see, and youcan get a little print out of your
program that you've done. Oh isthat new this year? I love that
because I do this every year.I like obsess over when I'm going to
go to, what movie, whattime I can go. And that is
(33:45):
the perfect idea for me because I'malways looking and I do. I play
the trailers and then I try tomap out as bride I'll see me.
I'll be like, Okay, I'mcutting out of work because I want to
see this last bit and then theweekend exactly. Yeah, that's super cool.
I'm going to use that. Yeah, sorry, it's it's it's not
new, but it's not something Weprobably could have always done a better job
(34:09):
in promoting everything that you could dowith a click of a mouse or whatever,
but we try to encourage people todo that. Yeah, that's great.
So I know you're going to besuper busy during the festival, of
course, But is there anything thatyou've highlighted, any particular film that you've
(34:29):
highlighted that you're like, I amdefinitely going to check this out. No,
but there is a no, LikeI said, I mean there's a
couple of films that that we've beenlucky to get this year that have not
really gone the festival route, butthey have been highlighted at a couple other
(34:50):
festivals. And I mean, I'mI'm looking forward if I if I can
to see Wildcat, the Ethan Hawkefilm that stars that stars his daughter Maya
Cool Mayahawk. Yeah, that istotally on top of my list too,
Mayahawk of Stranger Things Fame. She'sin Stranger Things. And I'm a big
fan of Ethan Hawk. I likehis work a lot, and I liked
(35:13):
his novel. He wrote a novel. So I'm that's you and me.
Maybe I'll see you there maybe well, so yeah, we And if I
could just kind of give a plugas well to something new that we're doing
this year, and that is weare partnering with a group Restaurant Cares as
(35:39):
well as we have selected the RedwoodEmpire Food Bank, and we will be
asking for donations because of the foodinitiative. There's so many people even right
in our own county that are fooddeprived, and so we will be taking
cash donations from now all the waythrough the festival and also we will be
(36:06):
collecting non perishable items from from whomeverwho come to our box office and that
will go directly to Fish Friends andFriends in Sonoma Helping and they will man
that and everything. But the criticalpiece is that we will be taking cash
donations for an organization that is reallyoperating at a deficit right now, that
(36:28):
really does need the money in orderto get food into the hands of people
who really need it. There's agroup here called the Catalyst Fun and they
did a very very extensive, youknow kind of data look at people who
were in need of food, andin all of Sonoma County, one and
(36:52):
four people are food deprived. Isvery shocking, and so we're happy to
do that. We kicked it offa couple of days ago, so I'm
very hopeful we will be successful indoing that. And it winds up on
the Sunday, our last day ofthe festival. So we're gonna kind of
(37:15):
do a little open house if youwill at the Community Center for the end
of that that initiative, which alsohas a film showing called Food in two
at the Community Center, and soit's you know, it's a it's a
(37:36):
if you will, a package thatwe're promoting that people become aware of the
need. That's great. So ifif you wanted to donate non perishable food,
you're going to have just there's abin at the at the box office.
Our box office located at five pointthirty nine First Street West in the
(37:57):
in the little courtyard by the RedGreat Rest run. And again fish will
man that. That's that's up tothem. They will you know, empty
and place it back and do allthe manning of that. But again the
cash donations, we've selected the roadwind of our food bank for for all
the cash donations, which people cando right online. There's a donate button
(38:20):
right on the top of our website. That's great, people can just donate.
I was just donate online. Yeah, that's one of the great initiative.
Great initiative. So that's that's reallygood. And you in the Film
Festival has always been behind really smartand just great initiatives. So that's happy
(38:42):
to see that. And you know, you were talking about some of the
some of the special events that aresurrounding all these you know, you have
over one hundred films that are goingto be playing over five days, right,
I mean, that's that's that's alot of choices. And at night
you have these these great parties.So you have the opening night party,
you have the Chefs and Shorts party. What are some of the other parties
(39:05):
that are going on? So rightafter the Fenneger dinner, as you said,
the chef dinner, we have aGayala g a y dash la party
over at Hot Monk, which isthe tavern here on Broadway from nine to
midnight, and so they will behosting that the next night, which is
(39:28):
Friday evening. We're earlier in theday for certain pass holders. We will
have a reception and it will beprior to honoring bow Bridges, who is
here for a Lifetime Achievement Award.Cool and we will do that followed by
the film one of his more famousfilms with his brother, The Fabulous Baker
Boys. Oh yeah, Michelle Pfeiffertoo, Yes, yes, And that
(39:53):
evening we're actually having our party ata Buena Vista winery. So we will
kick that off at their champagne roomthat they have on the first floor.
Wonderful, along with a live vocalsinger and pianist downstairs. It kind of
(40:15):
fits the thing we're trying to getit more thirties forties vibe. Yeah,
the lounge singer and serving small bitesdownstairs as well as wine and of course
champagne bubbles if you will. Andthen on the third floor that will be
for dancing with a DJ. There'sa fairly famous DJ coming named Rob Garza.
(40:40):
He will be spinning the tunes upstairs. It sounds like a good time
even before we start. Yeah,that sounds great. So if people want
to get tickets, they want tofind out more information, they want to
support any of your great nonprofit initiative, you can go to Sonomafilmfest dot org
(41:02):
and you can buy your pass anddo and can see what films are playing
and just kind of get a greatkind of overview. The dates again are
March twentieth to the twenty fourth.Is that correct? That is absolutely right.
I'm so excited and for the firsttime this year as well, because
(41:23):
the cinemas closed down, which arehere in Sonoma. There was a multiplex
here and they just couldn't make ago of it, and they did close
down immediately after the festival last year, and so again kind of thinking about
where we can show films, weare going to show films actually at the
High School this year. They havea place called the Little Theater and it's
(41:45):
a legitimate, you know, functioningtiered space where you can go and sit
and enjoy films, enjoy films there. Obviously we can't pour wine there,
but you can still see some goodfilms there inured on the High School.
But you can't. For one,it looks like you have a great lineup
(42:07):
of documentaries. So I am.I am looking forward to going to whatever
venue whenever to see these films andenjoy the parties. I really there are
a lot of fun. You guysdo such a great job, and I
really do encourage people to check outthe site and get some tickets and you
know, if you're going to bein Sonoma, pick it even just buy
a single pass if you just wantto see a couple of movies, select
(42:29):
a film and see what it's like. Yeah. Absolutely, some people,
you know, some people are youknow, not not quite in tune with
how a festival works or what kindof offerings there are that a festival has.
You know, we're we're not showingDoom, right, even though I
(42:50):
saw that it actually beat Barbie onopening night. But as far as money
goes. But oh yeah, that'sa big deal. Then movie yeah yeah
yeah, well anyway we are.You're having much better movies than dude.
Well, thank you so much,Jenny, if you really appreciate you taking
(43:13):
some time out to talk to usabout this now international film festival. Yeah,
thank you for your support and Ilook forward to seeing you in a
couple of weeks. Thanks Jenny.Okay, bye bye
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