From June 17th to 24th, 2013, I had the privilege to fly down to Palm Springs, California to take part in the Palm Springs International Shortfest. My short animated film Requiem for Romance was playing as part of the official selection at the festival.

The dry heat was scorching, over 100 degrees F. A plastic handle on the inside of one of the rental cars was melting off. But the air conditioning and the pool were perfect solutions to the heat.

The festival mostly took place inside the Renaissance hotel.

Oh, my poster!

Filmmakers from all over the world were here, including from places like Australia, New Zealand, France, UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Israel and India.

These girls were from Bolivia and were representing their film Aun.

Daniel Angeles and his film Days Like This a great piece, which had a lot of similar themes to my own film. Daniel, his producer Jeff and the film's lead actress Lizzy were some of the coolest people at the festival.

Palm Springs is a retirement community. There was always a really packed crowd in the screenings and tremendously supportive comments and questions in the Q&A sessions. Following the screenings, there were tons of festival evening pool parties. I met an aspiring singer based in LA who does dream pop under the name White Blush.

After my screening I unloaded a decent amount of merch in the form of DVDs and art prints.

My good friend Jason Lee won the top prize for documentaries at the festival for his film Letters from Pyongyang which documented his personal journey to travel to North Korea to find lost relatives who were separated from his family during the Korean War.

On the last night at the hotel, I hopped the fence and went for a swim under the stars. There were no clouds in the sky, the stars were really clear and it felt like I was floating in space.

A lot of great people, great conversations, and amazing vibe, this festival felt a lot like a vacation.