Los Angeles film festival: from Star Trek to People Like Us

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/jun/18/los-angeles-film-festival

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Perched behind the hordes of red carpet press, Alex Kurtzman's mother-in-law stands precariously on a railing, trying to catch his attention. Looking as proud as punch, she waves emphatically in his direction, before stepping back on to the pavement. "He's talking to someone," she says with magnificent understatement. He is indeed. This is the Star Trek scribe's first outing as director, and he's busy working the carpet at the Los Angeles Film Festival's world premiere of People Like Us.

Starring Chris Pine and Elizabeth Banks, the film is about real people in real situations and not pointy-eared ones in spaceships. Then some Real Housewives arrive, signalling the end of the world as we know it, and also that it was time to start the movie.

Flashy doesn't always equate to irritating though. The Queen of Versailles, a fascinating documentary from Lauren Greenfield is about Jackie Siegel, a 43-year-old former beauty queen and mother of seven, who you think you hate, but actually grow to like. Or at least tolerate, like a small yappy dog. Her husband David Siegel made billions in timeshare, and the pair set about building the biggest single family home in the US, inspired by Versailles. It grew to 90,000 square feet during planning but the economic crisis kicked in and their American dream turned into the proverbial nightmare. Although, don't feel too sorry for them, they still have their "smaller" home. Greenfield summed it up nicely, "We could be a five-man crew in their 26,000 square feet house and still be a fly on the wall."

At the festival's cocktail reception, on the vertigo-inducing 42nd floor of the Ritz-Carlton (featuring stunning views over a hazy LA), the wine flowed and the mood among film-makers was buoyant. The indie scene is thriving and while you don't need millions, you do need to make it a family affair.

As Adi Lavy, director of Sun Kissed, about a Native American couple whose two children have a rare disorder that makes them allergic to the sun, says: "Film-making is a labour of love. You must have passion. It's like being a mother and giving birth to a child, then you forget the pain, and you find the strength to do it again"

And if you can't do that, at least find a supportive mother in law.