More Scout’s Honor Madness

I spent last weekend in San Rafael, Calif., once again flogging Scout’s Honor. This time, the event was organized by The Sundance Institute, the folks who organize the Sundance Film Festival. It was a little documentary film festival, featuring The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Paragraph 175, among other great films. The only one I wanted to see which I hadn’t already seen was Sing Faster, a terrifically entertaining piece about a SF Opera production of Wagner’s Ring Cycle, as seen from the point of view of the stagehands.

Even though the Sundance Institute had sold out the house on the basis of RSVP’s, the crowd was smallish because the weather was spectacular the afternoon of the screening. Still it was fun doing the Q&A with people I hadn’t Q&A’ed before, like ITVS publicist Daven Gee and Tom Shepard’s community screening coordinator Michelle Sieglitz (cutest dyke in the world). The neatest part of the whole experience was meeting and schmoozing with Randy Barbato, director/producer of The Eyes of Tammy Faye. He’s a really fun guy — reminded me, somehow, of a slimmer, gay Robin Williams.

San Rafael itself was kinda cool, too. I thought I would be bored to tears being so far from San Francisco — after all, Marin County doesn’t have no gay nothin’ — but actually, downtown San Rafael is pretty hip, with a lot of nice restaurants, coffee shops, little boutiques, etc. None of it is aimed at tourists, really, just the hip/cool residents of the town.

Tonight is the Washington premiere of Scout’s Honor, and I’m pretty excited. I hope it’s a big crowd. Most of my friends are attending, anyway. Then tomorrow is the Congressional screening, which I’m planning on being disappointed by. Those screenings are mainly aimed at congressional staffers, and often even they don’t show up. On the other hand, this week Jesse Helms’s Defense of Scouting bill is being debated, so that may push up attendance.