CineVegas question and answer sessions (2006)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on June 14, 2007 @ Las Vegas Weekly.

So far I've attended Q&A sessions after three movies. They may be instructive.

The small theater was about half-filled for the showing of Bad Habits. The same theater had more of an audience for Loren Cass.

A larger theater was nearly at capacity for All God's Children Can Dance. It had a number of people who had participated in the making of the film. There was applause for even the menial in the credits. All God's Children certainly got their votes for Best Film—they stuffed the ballot box.

In their respective Q&A sessions Loren Cass and All God's Children only received two questions each. It was embarrassing because the directors were ready to talk.

The one highlight was the newcomer actor Jason Lew, the young lead in All God's Children, who was engaging as he told that his father is Chinese and his mother is Irish—"Chirish," he said playfully.

But these Q&A sessions were disappointing. The two movies had not stirred the audience to participate.

The Q&A session for Bad Habits was a strong contrast.

Immediately after the showing of that film the audience was anxious to ask questions of director/writer Simon Bross. Bross appeared especially delighted to be there and was lively and eloquent.

Unfortunately the first question was dopey. Someone actually asked, "Do you think the filmmaker should tell it as it really is?"

Go back to covering Paris Hilton, questioner.

Fortunately Bross was not nonplussed and used the inane question to talk about himself and his film.

"Seven years ago I got kidney cancer," he admitted. He survived, and that experience changed his life.

He contemplated "what you should do when life gives you another chance." He set out to make his first feature film. "I didn't care about budget or focus groups."

Bross was also affected by eating disorders. His grandmother was anorexic. "Two models I shoot in commercials—they die."

Bad Habits is "from the heart."

The session with Bross would have gone on much longer except it was truncated because the theater had to be emptied for another film.

If you judge Loren Cass, All God's Children Can Dance and Bad Habits by the Q&A sessions that followed them, Bad Habits was the clear winner. It engaged its audience in ways the other two movies could only envy.