our first award
best comedy feature
Some of you are new subscribers to this newsletter! Hello! Very likely you signed up on a clipboard at the Poppy Jasper Int’l Film Festival—where we won Best Comedy Feature last weekend 🙌🏼🏆
Where in the Hell played in a barn, and you guys it was a really good barn. It felt like a location straight out of the ghost town sequence in the movie. We even got some free effects: A window shutter high above the screen creaked open and slammed shut at several opportune moments. A real live crow outside contributed a perfectly-timed CAWWW that earned a laugh. Highly appropriate for a quirky comedy with just a hint of magical realism.
The mayor of San Juan Bautista ran our Q&A, and stuck around to take photos with us afterward. (She also recorded an on-the-fly movie review: “Everything was great about it. I loved the characters, I loved the dialogue, I loved the scenery…” We’ll start releasing those on Instagram shortly.)
A bunch of cast and crew came, some of you came ☺️, and we went for BBQ at The Smoke Point afterward, where we gabbed over brisket nachos and cocktails and huddled in emergency blankets as the wind kicked up, reminding us of the hella windy Yermo leg of the shoot. I wouldn’t change a thing.
Tomorrow we screen at NewFilmmakers LA. Tomorrow!! Saturday, April 19, 2025, at South Park Center downtown. Pre-reception at 7:45pm, screening promptly at 8:15pm, and then a quickie Q&A with me and the cast and we’ll head to a dive bar to hang out.
If you’re in town, please come!! Here’s the link to buy tickets.
I’m running on adrenaline at this point. R and I are thrilled to be taking Where in the Hell out into the world, and we’re making a big life change at the same time. We’re—um—we’re moving away for a bit, and we’ve gotta pack up our whole house. By Thursday.
I’ll have a lot to report next month.
*****
This month in print: I gulped down The Anthropologists, by Ayşegül Savaş, about a young(ish) couple grappling with ADULTHOOD as they tentatively house-hunt. It’s so lovely. It goes by too quick.
This month in tacos: The Poppy Jasper Film Fest is sprinkled across five towns in the South Bay, and Gilroy, where we stayed, has a wealth of taco options. Do not miss El Cabrito de Texcoco Taqueria, a tucked-away truck where my faves were the mushroom quesadilla and the asada mulita. The proprietor, Sergio, told us they get up early every morning to steam the sumptuous, house-made corn tortillas. They are not fuckin’ around.
This month in fashion: T, my dear friend from film school, bought me an amazing vintage circa-1980s? USC Trojans sweatshirt, an ironic nod to our alma mater. It’s so good it overcomes even my disinclination towards school spirit.
xoxo,
Laramie
p.s. As always, here’s your trusty taco map.