All of my life I have lived fascinated and loving movies.  I remember being a little girl in Puerto Rico and the first theatre experience.  My mother took me and my grandmother to watch The Poseidon Adventure.  I was too young to be able to read the subtitles in Spanish and I didn’t understand English.  But, we sat on the third row of a full movie theatre and I was mesmerized.  Every emotion from fear to shock went through me at age 5.  Watching the terror and the ship sink…I had nightmares for weeks.  The impact that the film left in me wasn’t so much about the story.  I watched magic on a screen.  That’s when my love affair with movies began.

When I was a mother of my two sons in my early twenties we would go to the movies every Saturday.  They watched everything.  If it was inappropriate I would close their eyes and tell them to put their hands over their little ears.  I think back now to the movies I saw with them and feel horrible for taking them to sit through them.  Today they thank me for it.  They say I enriched their “artistic passions.” Nelson’s first movie was when he was 6 weeks old which was Die Hard.  Patrick’s first movie, at a month old was Terminator 2.  They both love movies.  Nelson graduated from film school.  He is a cinematographer.  His girlfriend is also a graduate from film and has made a movie.  Patrick is my little Jim Carrey and I wish he went into acting.  Time will tell!

Living in Orlando, while Nelson attended college, my home was used for filming a commercial and a feature film by the students.  I am very aware of what it takes to create “magic” that touches so many of us.  When we moved to this little place in the mountains we found out that a few years ago a movie called All the Real Girls had scenes shot in this motel.  So, when a neighbor recently came to me to see if she could film scenes for her movie, The Box, I was delighted.  The crew is also staying here.

Today is the first day of filming.  As I write this, I am watching the crew set up for a scene outside my window.  The lighting is being installed, microphones situated, and all the cool gadgets that allow “magic” to appear in a screen.  It is exciting, fascinating and just great fun.  It takes a lot of people and a lot of preparation to make an everlasting documentation that makes for entertainment.

Movies allow for us to escape for a little bit.  They teach, guide and bring up all sorts of emotions.  They touch our psyche, psychology and emotional bodies.  I love them.  Just like a great book, a movie can touch places in your heart that mark a lifetime of memories: a first date, the last movie watched in a relationship, the first movie watched with your child, the last one watched with a parent, your first kiss, and so on.  Last year when The Hunger Games was shot in this area we were too busy to go to some of the sets.  Had Keanu Reeves been in the movie, I would have closed down the retreat center.  There has to be an exception to every rule.  Just sayin’!!!