Forever Fest 2014

By Jordan Gass-Poore’
Web Content Manager

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Forever (Fest) is a long time, but it’s worth waiting until November. The annual Austin-based festival, Forever Fest, drew the curtain on its second season Nov. 16 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar.

Highlights of the three-day fest that celebrates girlie pop culture: the 10-year anniversary of “Mean Girls” and the Nov. 15 closing night screening of “Amira and Sam,” about an army veteran who falls in love with an Iraqi immigrant on the verge of being deported. The movie stars Martin Starr (“Freaks and Geeks”), Dina Shihabi and Paul Wesley (“The Vampire Diaries”), all of whom were in attendance at the fest’s screening. The movie’s writer/director Sean Mullin was also in attendance for the screening of his feature-length debut.

Shihabi, a Dubai native, said she moved to New York to pursue hip-hop dancing and acting.

I grew up traveling and living in a lot of different places, […] so I immediately felt at home when I moved to New York.”

Mullin, a West Point alum, told an Austin Chronicle reporter that he didn’t like the two words “romantic” and “comedy” and wanted to come up with a new term.

I think Martin [Starr] just called it momantic romedy.”

Wesley dropped out of Rutger’s University to pursue acting full time with the promise of going back one day.

And I will never live up to that promise.”

“Amira and Sam” will have a limited theatrical, VOD and digital release on Jan. 30.