Since AJ has charged me with writing the definitive BIG SKY recap, I will make my remarks here more informal. I’m now sitting at the Missoula airport, which is filled with wood, huge stuffed moose and eagles, electronic slot machines and poker games, and fireplaces. It resembles a Western lodge (or, as I texted Jordan, the Lodge from TWIN PEAKS) more than an airport. (And speaking of airports and plane travel, I am currently without an anti-anxiety pill, leaving me in my usual state of flying fear.) Last night, at our swanky and fun juror dinner (I highly recommend Montana syrah and Elk; not so much the bison, which is gamier), Brian Liu (my latest “new best friend” – sometimes I felt that we had become invisibly grafted at the hip during the fest), Damon Ristau (the wonderful festival director, who is stepping down from the Fest to focus on producing), and I had too many detailed extensive conversations about our knowledge of air traffic control, which does not help with my airphobia at ALL, but honestly, today I seem to be doing okay. I spent the plane flight (I’m now on a layover in Minneapolis) writing postcards, ripping ads out of Vanity Fair , and doing a crossword puzzle while the guy next to me (an adorable hip-hop type with a beautiful face) downed 3 screwdrivers and jammed to Ipod hip hop. And then, as I was circling all the places I’ve been on the airline magazine map, he struck up a very nice conversation with me about Missoula, Minnesota and how insane New Yorkers are.

Anyway, I digress. Where we left off, I was still on intense jury duty, and had about 3 more films to watch. Which I did. On Day Three, I rewatched one film, “Wild Horse Redemption,” in my hotel room as I did some stretching. Then I met Brian in the screening room, where we watched “River Ways” — a film that was actually the second best out of our competition, with an interesting and very complex issue at its heart and some amazing characters (and haircuts!). Then I ran into fellow juror Deborah Barkow , a wonderful editor and person, and we talked about all of the guilt issues of being a “judge” of films. Brian was stir-crazy at that point, so we took a walk over the big and scary bridge, where I revisited my college days of being dragged to record stores with vinyl geek boyfriends for three hours. We got an awesome, unhealthy snack at the so-called “healthy” Indian place, and then ended up at a lovely reception at a place called THE LOFT, where I met several cool filmmakers — but now, I must run to catch my flight! I will continue with this later!