inhale, deep breath

there was supposed to be a screening of my film Santa Ana today, as part of the gay & lesbian film festival. i had 7 friends show up at the theater, procured everyone's tickets and we went in to wait. the short film scheduled before mine played, then, tense with anticipation about my short starting, suddenly the opening credits of the feature film began. all my friends looked at me, confused, and i went outside to see what was going on.

well, the official line from the director of the festival, when i found her outside and ask what was up, was that the next feature screening didn't have a short with it, so they yanked mine out of its original program to put with that one. and no one had bothered to tell me. i was already fairly pissed about it, since i had people there, they had taken time out of their days to come see the movie, and driven all the way up to the Arbor, but there wasn't much i could do about it. so the feature it had been moved to was next, so collier and laura and i went to get lunch and come back. everybody else had stuff to do, so they all just had to leave.

so we arrive back at the theater. someone comes to find me to let me know that my short will be screening, but not until after the feature. what the fuck?!?? who shows shorts after the movie, when the credits have rolled and everybody's gone? i was spitting nails at this point, so i actually go and i find the projectionist who is lingering about in the lobby. i demand to know why they're doing this, and why they can't show it before. turns out the stupid fucker left the movie at home and actually has to go home and get it during the feature, so he can then show it afterwards. which also means that the line i got earlier about them just not having a short for that movie was a total lie to cover this douchebag's ass. needless to say, i kind of flipped out and told him how uncool that was and how angry i was, and he got very defensive and snotty in that way that people do when they know they've fucked up and don't want to take responsibility for it. he didn't even apologize, except to admit that he left it at home, which is as close to an apology as i got. so anyway, we went in circles for a bit, and i basically told him i didn't want anything from him except for him to do his job correctly, and we left.

i'm not done with this, though. i've called the director of the festival twice now and left her messages, and i'm going to pretty much demand that they show it again, in front of something big, that will draw a big crowd, and guarantee that lots of people will see my awesome movie. this happened 2 hours ago, and i'm still fairly fuming.

collier made me feel a lot better in the car driving home, though, by telling me that i was building up quite a karmic payback this summer, what with the breakup, all this stupid shit at work (which had a whole other layer added to it yesterday, which was very, very hurtful to me), and now this, and something really really great was bound to happen to me soon. i hope she's right, and it's not the other way around, where karma is now collecting its debt i owe to it. but how could that be? i haven't done anything that terrible. lately.

but on the plus side, collier and laura and i went to the opening night party last night, and it was really great for one reason. mum's the word, though, because i don't want to jinx it.