The Opening Night film for the Palm Springs International Film Festival was held at the Palm Springs High School Auditorium on Thursday, Jan 5th. This event is usually sold out weeks in advance. The film “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was shown with the Star of the show, Emily Brunt, walking the Red Carpet and speaking to the audience prior to the showing of the film.
The film is basically a love story with a sub plot of the dream of a Shiek from Yemen wanting to build something special for his country. A place for fishing salmon by building a dam and river for salmon. They had to deal with many set backs on the way to creating this dream.
They did the impossible by making this dream come true with millions of Dollars. The ending of the story was when terrorists from Yemen not understanding his dream and blowing it up. The people involved found they could rebuild the dream only with a different approach, They needed to convince the people of Yemen that this was a good thing for the country. Then the main characters acknowledged their love for each other. A quiet film with great acting and a message.
Opening night brought out all our local celebrities, Palm Springs Mayor and councilmen, Representative Mary Bono Mack and PSIFF Diginitaries and Staff
Ticket holders were invited to an after-party at the Palm Springs Art Museum. Hundreds of people arrived at the Museum to magnificent foods, desserts and drinks. Several tables held cheeses,fruit and crackers while another area served desserts. Bars were set up around the Museum for guests and Meats, salads, meat balls, buns etc. was served in 4 areas with tables for those that wanted to sit and other tables where they could stand and chat.
Movie goers also got a chance to enjoy all the fabulous art works at the Museum. They could mingle with others guests while walking from room to room checking out the displays. For some this was the first time they got to see all the different artists and their works in such a special venue.
Hundreds of films will be shown over the next 10 days with many different countries bringing entries to be shown at 4 Palm Springs Theatres. Some are in English and others have sub titles. After parties are held almost nightly and various nightclubs in Palm Springs. This is the third largest film festival in the world. We are the Film Festival capitol of the west and founder Sonny Bono would be very proud today.
All Photos by Pat Krause Copyright 2012
