A night with Jem, Scout & Atticus

This past summer I was challenged by one of my writer friends to read the novel "To Kill A Mockingbird". Somehow I managed to get through high school and college without ever being forced to read it, which is a good thing. I am one of those people who, if told to read something or do something, I will but I might not like it very much. This is how much of my high school reading transpired and why I read so many Danielle Steele novels instead. (Side note: I bought a new DS novel a few years back while on vacation and I couldn't get past page 2. Seriously. It made me sad. And happy, all at once.)

And while I put it off for a while, I eventually found an old high school copy in a used bookstore this summer. It has a few notes in it, a torn ear, etc. It felt very old school. And then I set to reading it. It took my all of five minutes to become engrossed. And I stayed up very late one night to finish it. I was in love.

Then this fall I got the movie from Netflix and Angela and I watched it on Thanksgiving night. What a treat - a movie that was a classic, that was beloved and lauded, and that held up. This is not usually the case for me. Since coming to L.A. and enrolling in film school I've watched 100s of movies, many of them made before I was born, and many of them have not lived up to the hype. ("Jaws" and "Casablanca" did. And then some.)

So when I heard that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was holding a 50th anniversary screening complete with digitally restored print and special guests, for $5.00 a ticket, I jumped at the chance. And what a night it was. Watching the movie with over 600 others, including people who were involved in it's creation, was pretty cool. And afterwards when Mary Badham, the woman who played Scout all those years ago, came on stage to talk about the film and the time period, it was fascinating. So worth the hassle of fighting Beverly Hills traffic at rush hour, missing dinner and sitting next to a woman who slept through the entire film, snoring and waking herself occasionally. So worth it.