An evening with Peter Bogdanovich

The directors of the Omaha Film Festival (Jeremy, Jason and I) had an incredible opportunity to spend an evening with none other than legendary Hollywood Director, Writer and Actor, Peter Bogdanovich. If you don’t know who that is, first slap yourself, then look him up on imdb.com. Fans of Mr. Bogdanovich will certainly recognize such titles as “The Last Picture Show”, “Paper Moon”, “What’s Up Doc”, “Mask” and “They All Laughed” as well as dozens more, or more recently maybe you’ve seen him playing a psychiatrist on the popular Showtime hit “The Sopranos”.

The event was a part of the Lied Center for Performing Arts’ new series “An Evening With…” which should prove to be an excellent series for years to come.

So my general take on the evening. It’s one thing to hear stories about Alfred Hitchcock or John Ford or Orson Welles, it’s another thing altogether to hear first person stories (often in their voices) from someone who was great friends (and sometimes roommates) with each of them. The number of incredible anecdotes and direct connections to just about every great director and actor that’s lived through the golden age of cinema was mind blowing and extremely entertaining, to myself and to the hundreds that attended.

The highlight of the evening was the after party where we had the opportunity to personally sit and chat with Mr. Bogdanovich in a small (fewer than 30 people) setting. You get the sense that he could tell stories for hours (actually he did) and every one of them was an entertaining look inside the world of cinema.

It was also great to see other local filmmakers and film enthusiasts in attendance including film students Tori and Chris (who helped crew some of my short films), Jim and Mark from Apartment 101 Films, Mark from 600films and Rachel from Film Streams.

I don’t know if I’m more energized to watch more movies or make more movies. I just got done watching “They All Laughed”. I recommend it highly.