Two nights ago I attended a party at the Beverly Hilton for the forthcoming Baja Int’l Film Festival (Wednesday, 11.14 thru Saturday, 11.17), and while I was there I spoke with the co-directors, Scott and Sean Cross. They also co-direct the Vail Film Festival (which I attended in April 2004) and the Colorado Film Institute. The brothers were hired by some big-wheel Baja businessmen to put Cabo on the film festival map, and so they lined up name-value board members (including Edward Norton, Carlos Reygadas and filmmaker/journalist Godfrey Cheshire) and put it all together.

Scott and Sean Cross, co-directors of the Baja Int’l Film Festival — Beverly Hilton hote, . (No offense but I don’t know which one is which.)

The festival lineup won’t be announced for another few days, but I’m hoping to see some interesting new films along with current faves (No, Post Tenebras Lux, etc.)

I had two reasons for attending. One, because some kind of special light and verve has been coming out of films made by south-of-the-border filmmakers (Pablo Larrain, Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Guillermo del Toro, Gerardo Naranjo) over the last several years, and I’d like to see a lot more films from this territory. And two, like any opportunistic freeloading journalist I’m always looking to prostitute my services cover any film festivals happening in any sort of exotic attractive location, and Cabo sounded like a good place to visit. They’re offering a festival pass and comped hotel rooms. Being a cheapskate I’m also looking for round-trip air fare, which runs about $350.

Here, again, is my mp3 with the Cross brothers. Best of luck to them and the festival, and I hope they meet and bond with Gerardo Naranjo, director of Miss Bala….with whom they haven’t yet had the pleasure.