The Real Life at AFI Film Fest

Unless you just crawled out from under a rock, you're probably aware of the AFI-Discovery Channel Documentary Film Festival this week at SilverDocs in Silver Spring. Highlights include the documentary on which the recent HBO movie, "Grey Gardens," starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, was based. I was both disturbed and haunted by the movie about the making of the documentary; actually seeing the Bouvier pair in their regal deshabille may take me over the edge. But unfortunately for me it's playing 11:15 Friday night! Not good. I'm already going earlier that same day to see "The September Issue," the real story of legendary Vogue editor Anna Wintour--the Prada-wearing devil played by Meryl Streep in "The Devil Wears Prada."I actually don't care what she's like to work with, to me, she's no devil. She painstakingly brings us a fashion aesthetic in which we can immerse ourselves through pages of haute couture presented in the most spectacular layout possible. That's why the film intrigues me so. I can't wait to see the creative director Grace Coddington in action. Vogue's pages have always been art and an inspiration to me. After all I did spend much of my childhood in costume pretending to be someone else. And that is what fashion brings me. It's all about the destination, the idea of who we think we really are. Oh and lest I digress, another filmfest highlight will be the world premiere of "The Nine Lives of Marion Barry." Oh yes, truth is always much, much better than fiction. And we finally have an opportunity to see the "shorts" we hear about on Oscar night, plus the U.S. premiere of "More Than a Game" about a group of basketball players from Ohio. Does the name LeBron James ring a bell? Fashion, athletes, eccentrics, meandering mayors... I can hardly wait.