The film festival

Last weekend was the annual Hamptons Film Festival. The first thing I detest about this event is the name - I dislike the term "Hamptons" and nearly anything with that term attached to it starts off on the wrong foot for me. I don't know what exactly "The Hamptons" is, it's certainly not a place on the map and to lump all our wonderful little communities together under that umbrella does none of them justice. It implies they're all pretty homogeneous, which couldn't be farther from the truth. They are, in fact, as unique and special as the ornaments on a Christmas tree. All you need to do is show me a photo of any one of our little hamlets or villages on the East End and I can tell you which one it is with very little trouble at all.

Beyond the name, I have to honestly say I've never been to an event that's part of the Hamptons Film Festival. I'm not a fan of crowds and we rarely go to the movies between June and October for just that reason. If we do venture to the cinema it's for a late afternoon show, after a film has been in town for at least a week, when there are never more than a dozen people there. In general, I don't like jockeying for position, or standing in line, and I really don't like being jostled by people anxious to get ahead of me. So, the film festival is not my "thing" at all.

I'll admit to some amusement at the crowds that come here for it though. You can spot the out-of-towners a mile away because they're dressed all in black and have huge IDs hanging around their necks like hospital employees or other workers in secure facilities. They tend to roam around in packs and when walk down Main Street like large black blobs moving down the sidewalk. The crowds lining up at the theater and other venues all week-end made me happy to be driving by and not standing with them. I'm hopelessly "small-town" and not the least bit excited about celebrities, so mostly I ignore it all.

By today they'll be gone and once again East Hampton will revert to itself. No longer will we be part of "The Hamptons" for at least another seven months, but have become again the small town place that we love, where we'll happily live out the winter months in peace and tranquility while the more metropolitan crowd will wonder what in the world we do out here all winter long...