My second?, third time attending the Port Townsend Film Festival. Ta da! Ta da? So much talent. I guess I’ll wander through, pulling in quotes, anecdotes, and a view of a culture that sounds familiar until I get inside it. I have a screenplay (and know that I’m missing an opportunity to plug it up front) which legitimizes my attendance on a ‘professional’ basis. For me, it is also people watching, trend awareness, and cultural diversity of a sort.

So here I sit, in the attendees’ lounge typing this post. Shouldn’t I be participating? Yes. Yeah. And no need. I am 67. The urgency behind loglines, collaborations, and smoozing has faded. But. This is a learning experience; trends and such. It is a networking opportunity; smile and nod and hand out those business cards. It is a people and culture watching experience; rich v poor, urban v rural, east v west v PNW, international v USA.

Okay. I guess I’ll mention my screenplay. A longer description will reside on TomTheWriter.com . Sorry, logline fans, here’s the wandering description. It is a true story from the tall ship era. My great grandfather was enough of a brat that he looked forward to getting kicked out of the house at 14 in 1876. He ticked off his grandfather. He was told if he did that again, he’d get kicked out. Cool. Oops. Granddad had power. ‘Kicked out’ meant kicked out of the country. It was Wales, not a touchy-feely existence. On Monday morning he was a cabin boy on a tall ship traveling from Liverpool to Calcutta. He took notes. I have them. The screenplay is his story almost told his way.

I had to tell some of the adults’ stories. A tall ship meant the 1876 equivalent of a cargo ship, in this case, salt. Salt carried thousands of miles across salt water. There’s a colonial message. And a whale sneezed on him. And he was hazed and hazed them back. Then there was British-controlled India, colonialism as seen through the eyes of a 14-year-old. Economic imbalance, inherent racism, British chauvinism, and believe it or not, magic. And a soldier’s suicide. And a tsunami.

And on the way back to New York City, an unsolved murder on board. Imagine, a ship with a few dozen men, and one of them is a murderer. They never solved it, so they fired the crew – except for my great grandfather. Not a brat anymore.

Sorry, I guess that’s the longer version. I haven’t figured out the one sentence logline.

Film is a different industry. I learned that there’s a difference between film and movie. My screenplay is probably a movie (~$80 million) and hopefully entertaining. Film, at least as I can figure, is topics, advocacy, and non-fiction; and usually a few million at most. So, film isn’t directly applicable to my movie, but the festival is in town, and the language and culture are different enough from a mainstream existence. And the fashions are worth seeing. (I’m wearing basically bland, of course.)

So why mention all of this? For me, it is yet another way to view the world. The mainstream is worth knowing about, but the mainstream started as an off-shoot. As I sit here typing, there are a few conversations happening behind me. Passionate people may only see one issue; the world is described by that view. If they listened to each other, they’d expand their world without leaving this room.

For my personal finances, I reflect on other times of turmoil. World War II was terrible and is convenient to reference. Casablanca and To Have And Have Not are films filmed during the war. They didn’t know how the war would go. Who would win? Yet, they made the movies; an act of courage and not of ignorance. They provided insights into things like rationing and sacrifice.

Where are those movies for now? I hope to notice some of that here. Unfortunately, while politics is being advocated here in the lounge, the films being shown are social injustice, yet the news also mentions AI. At least climate change is represented.

Here is also an insight into the haves and have-nots. Even though this is not movie territory, there is a distinct cultural, fashion, and attitude difference between those who can fund films and those who can make them. Don’t upset the money. Don’t flaunt the money. Lots of delicate balancing acts, and evidence that we are not a class-less society.

Like I mentioned, I find such gatherings fascinating.

This is a film festival, so there are film showings. I am here to learn, so I attend the forums, the discussions about the process.

The lounge folk have found the switches for the background music. It must be time to post this and get a cup of tea. Hopefully I’ll find time tomorrow to describe my screenplay. The story about how the notes came to me are yet another story.

For now, post, tea, and learn. Those are all investments, too.