During the festival last year, filmmaker Craig Packard seemed a little annoyed with me. I don’t think he cared so much about the fact that I said he was the longshot to win, but I don’t think he was too happy that I gave 10 to 1 odds on him. In retrospect it probably sounded pretty bad since only 7 teams were taking part in the Challenge. But the truth is that I meant it strictly as a money bet – one dollar should get you ten. I wasn’t saying that I thought he was such a shitty filmmaker that 3 teams that weren’t even entering would probably do better than him. Anybody who takes gambling advice from me should probably re-evaluate their life though as I routinely come back from Vegas having lost every dollar I can get my hands on. If Craig would have been able to bet on himself with those odds he would have probably been paid off with one of those giant checks though as he knocked it out of the park with Los Obreros.
They say that you can’t get blood from a stone, but Craig was sure able to put together a quality film with very little budget. He also had dome pretty humorous stories about shooting at the day labor stand in Belltown and you can tell he has a pretty good heart. Not only is really passionate about trying to help build bridges in the fractured Seattle film community, You could legitimately tell he felt a little bad after he realized that the ten dollars he paid one of his extras probably was invested in a crack-rock once the guy wandered back on his set. I can honestly say that that is sort of how I felt after I bought Amy Winehouse’s CD.
