If you missed last weekend’s Tumbleweed Film Festival you missed a good one. That’s not to say they all haven’t been good, but it’s great to see the tradition started by my two good friends Geoff Klein and Mo Fine has landed on its feet under the direction of Daniel Klayton.

If Daniel’s name sounds familiar, it might be because he’s our A&E columnist. He also works part time at the library, is on the 490 North Artist Board and can be seen all over Oroville, helping out here and there. He really revived the Tumbleweed this year and can be credited with doing most of the work, including previewing hours and hours of short films and paring it down to two six film blocks for each night on Friday and Saturday.

Having been on the festival’s board since the beginning, I wanted to help out more, but as some of you may know, I had a major operation on my right foot. That hampered my contribution this year.

Anyway, with just a little help from me, some more help from my S.O. Dana McCoy and support from the hosts of the two venues, Vicki and Walt Hart at Vicki’s Unique Boutique and Linda and Steve Colvin at Esther Bricques Winery, the two evenings were almost flawless. Daniel ran the projector and Dennis Peterson volunteered his time with the audio, no false starts and no skips.

The movies were excellent and the audience picked Ground Zero the first night. It starts off with the disclaimer, “The following is inspired by a real company. NOT Amway. A totally different company.” Well, all I’ll say is that when I was in college, a cute freshman girl got both Geoff (yes, one of the film festival’s founders) and I to attend a meeting at the request of her dad. She too insisted it was NOT AmWay. It was pretty hilarious.

I’m not sure what was Best of the Fest the second night, but you couldn’t go wrong with Fool’s Day, another comedy that had us nearly exploding with laughter.

Did I say everything went smoothly, there were a few bumps. Next year we will have programs and remember to give everyone a ballot so they can vote on their favorite.

The festival could not have happened without the Oroville Chamber of Commerce, which was the major sponsor this year. Their support helped to bring back the festival and I think if we can convince Daniel to stay as director, we can indeed keep this “North Central Washington’s Premier Short Film Festival,” as he says.

I am also proud to say that the Gazette-Tribune and its parent company Sound Publishing which continue to be loyal sponsors of the TWFF.

Over 150 people attended the festival over the two nights. We have lots of repeat customers over the years. With such a loyal fan base and some new faces the festival can’t do anything but get better. I hope that among the many activities we have each year, like the Tumbleweed and the Rally at the Border Blues Fest (this weekend), along with the new art gallery, Oroville becomes one of the first place people think of in the region when they think Arts and Entertainment each summer.