Cameron Crowe

Based on his own youth, Almost Famous follows the perpetually uncool William Miller (newcomer Patrick Fugit) as he moves from the restrictive parenting of his mom (Frances McDormand) to falling for rock music and befriending the brilliantly crotchety music critic Lester Bangs (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to going on tour with a band in 1973, at age 15, and writing about it for Rolling Stone. Along the way he falls in love (and into a love triangle) with Penny Lane (Kate Hudson in a breakout role), who's had an on-going relationship with star guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup). Andy Spletzer caught up with Crowe in Seattle during the director's brief stopover in a small terminal at Seattle's Boeing Fieldd
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Bangkok is a Great Place to Observe

Pen-ek Ratanaruang, writer/director of 6ixtynin9, showing as part of the Midnight Madness at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival.
Ray Privett spoke with the Bangkok-born, U.S. educated writer/director in July at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic, where 6ixtynin9 was screening in the Independents' Forum. They subsequently refined the interview through email exchanges as he jetted around the world to show the film. Young, friendly, intelligent, and extremely talented, with a strong commitment to and grasp of film and Thai culture, Pen-ek Ratanaruang will surely be a leading director of Asian pop cinema for years to come.
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