Best Evidence - Big Screen Premiere

One hundred and eleven Haligonians, according to the official count by the Oxford Theatre staff, came out this evening to catch the screening of Best Evidence and Famous Monster at the historic Oxford, the last remaining non-big box, "cookie cutter" cinema in Halifax. That's roughly twice what the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation usually gets to these free screenings of local films. As was clear from the post-screening Q & A, as well as the number of calls fielded earlier in the day, most were there to see "the UFO film", which was certainly gratifying. They also saw a really good biopic of sci-fi uber-fan Forrest Ackerman by Mike MacDonald, which I think is going to do very well for him in the long run.

Stan Friedman was on hand as a special guest - he showed up at 6 pm sharp to set up his table in the lobby, and it was clear when people started to wander in at about 6:20 pm that a number of them had come to see him as well as the films. There was a steady stream of people who wanted to talk to him, shake his hand, buy a book or DVD (or two or three). As always, Stan was gracious with each and every one of them. Agree with him or disagree with him on cases, or the ETH, or the UFO phenomenon in general, but I don't think one can dispute that Stan puts on a good show, or that he's a heck of a nice guy, and he has a large base of devoted (and hard-earned) fans.

Also on hand were some of Halifax's brightest young cultural industry professionals, including filmmakers John Rosborough and Jason Eisener, my brother Jim (who co-produced the film), ace theatre critic Ron Foley MacDonald, actress Kris Lee McBride (that's her in the photo at left), who narrated Best Evidence (and saw the film for the first time this evening), and local theatre impressario David Connellan. Incidentally, Eisener achieved fame recently as the winner of the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez sponsored "Grindhouse trailer" competition at South by Southwest, for his trailer Hobo With a Shotgun. Apparently, Jason is a UFO aficionado as well as a up-and-coming young filmmaker. Also present was NSFDC CEO Ann MacKenzie, just back from Cannes, as well as Program Adminstrator Linda Wood (my fiance) and Abbi Hennigar, who organized the screening.

A great time was had by all, and there were still at least a half dozen questions waiting to be asked when we finally had to wrap up the Q & A at 9:00 pm because the crowd for the 9:30 screening of the regular movie was starting to arrive. I had a chance to chat with some folks in the lobby afterwards, as did Stan, and we probably could have gone into the wee hours of the morning talking about UFOs and the film. There was a great deal of interest in the film, and in the UFO phenomenon in general, which for me was really gratifying.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and made the evening a big success, and super kudos to the NSFDC for programming Best Evidence this time out!

Paul Kimball