The Big DIFF

I received news that one of my best friends, Bintfilm, was arriving to Dubai along with a few other of my friends from Los Angeles. They were coming to promote their film, Alliance, at the Dubai International Film Festival. Naturally, I immediately proceeded to buy myself a ticket and book a hotel room with my friend, Misplaced, who happens to be an amazing [professional] actress.

I ended up flying there without Misplaced cause she had missed her flight (because Satisfied Nina was late in picking her up!). So She caught the next plane out.

Meanwhile, I had resigned myself to staying in over a splitting headache, and was about to doze off, when I got the call from downstairs.

"Hello MA"

"Hello..." (thinking who's this?!)

"I'm here, I'm downstairs"

"You are...? Who is this?"

"It's Misplaced!!"


3 Panadols later, we were on our way over to meet Bintfilm and friendly crew over at The Al-Qasr hotel.

Fantastic place! Truly a structural fait accompli. I felt like I was an ant standing infront of an Ancient Egyptian temple, or even a Mayan one at that, and that God was going to smite and destroy this huge palacial structure, as He had done with the previous empires. Retribution for our inflated egos and boastful vanity!

I met up with Bintfilm and our friend the Producer and took a boat ride to a restaurant for a late bite and coffee. Being with Bintfilm once again was truly a pleasure, and brought a sense of LA to me. We caught up on each other's life since the time I had left her, almost a year ago. Misplaced, Bintfilm and I headed back to our hotel room at approx. 3AM.

Following day: Bintfilm and I showered and took off back to the Festival site at Al-Qasr, while Misplaced slept in. Over breakfast, Bintfilm and I were accompanied by 2 Spanish filmmakers, Alberto y Maria, who are friends with Huweida Araf, the wife of a friendly acquaintance Bintfilm and I had dinner with some time back; Adam Shapiro, founder of the ISM. We discussed their documentary, which was an expose' on the IDF and the Palestinians who suffer under their occupation, entitled "Internationales en Palestina".


At the next table sat a very old friend I'd not seen in 20 yrs, Jillali Ferhati. He was there promoting his film "Memory in Detention", (Nothing to do with G'itmo). In addition to him, I also ran into the Moroccan film director Farida Benlyazid, another old friend I used to live with when I first moved to Morocco in '79. Her film there was entitled "The Wretched Life of Juanita Narboni". Again, I caught up on our lives, and reminisced about the old times.

Later on that day, Misplaced went to the festival's conference room so she could watch some of the submitted films in the library, while I hung out with Bintfilm and Producer at Trader Vic's for a late lunch. We then proceeded to happy hour at a luxurious circular lounge bar with open, airy spaces framed by billowing curtains. The place was fitted with comfy recliners and cushioned seating, as well as rug upon rug covering the floor, and birds flying through, and walking on the rugs, all I needed was a slave-man to feed me grapes... next to our table sat Terence Stamp with a couple of plastic-faced [bad surgery] friends, sans make-up.

Misplaced joined us after a few hours and drinks, then we headed out to the valet podium. As we walked up to the hotel front, we passed Lawrence Fishburn, who was casually sitting on a bench waiting for his ride.

Me: Hi Lawrence... how are you doing?" [friendly smile]

LF: Hi, good thanks, how are you?

Me: "Im good... see ya" [slight wave]

Played it cool, basically. I turned around and saw Misplaced in a state of shock and wide-eyed... "That's Lawrence Fishburn! Oh my god! It's Lawrence Fishburn!" So amusing!

Misplaced and I flew back, yakking all the way till touch down. I hope to go back again next year. I'm expecting Bintfilm and Producer to be there again to screen Driving to Zigzigland. In the meantime, I have my sights set on attending the Amnesty International Film Festival in Amsterdam. This would be my second Amnesty Film Fest. Im looking forward to it...