The 30th Lone Pine Film Festival

What a wonderful long weekend at the 30th Lone Pine Film Festival!

We were in Lone Pine from the 10th through the 14th, with a busy schedule including a variety of activities.

My film tally was nine this year -- ten if I include one I watched at the hotel! -- which was down from last year's dozen titles, but on the other hand I went on three two-hour location tours this year, tripling last year's single tour.

We arrived in town bright and early and decided to explore Whitney Portal Road before lunch. We'd never taken Whitney Portal Road past the area of its intersection with Movie Road and the Alabama Hills, so this year we drove all the way up to the Mount Whitney trailhead, elevation 8365 feet.

The start of the trail to hike the highest mountain in the "lower 48 States" is rather fancy!

It turned out to be a nice coincidence we made the drive this year, as we watched KING OF THE KHYBER RIFLES (1953) at the festival a couple of days later and realized that the opening battle scene was filmed on the road.  The view in the film, looking down on the valley below, was rather like this -- minus the road signs!

After our drive we had our favorite lunch at the Alabama Hills Cafe, which is always great.

Soon it was 4:30 and time for the annual opening night buffet at the Museum of Western Film History.

As always, there was a nice crowd on hand outside the museum:

This year the live music at the gathering was provided by Jay C. Munns, who again this year also provided the accompaniment for the silent films screened at the festival. He always does a fantastic job.

Festival guests Lisa and Wyatt McCrea, along with some friends on horseback!

It's always great to be back in Lone Pine, with this view seen from our hotel doorway:

The evening screenings at this year's festival weren't of particular interest to me, and since our days were already so full I decided to skip them. As mentioned, despite skipping the nighttime screenings I still saw nine films at the festival.

I also streamed the Netflix film THE HIGHWAYMEN (2019) on my iPad, spread over a couple of nights, and I thought it was terrific. I'll be reviewing that in the near future along with the films seen at the festival.

Look for much more Lone Pine coverage here in the coming days, including film reviews, location tour photos, and parade photos. I'll also be writing about the very first "Hoppy" movie, HOP-A-LONG CASSIDY (1935), and its locations for Classic Movie Hub soon.

Previously: Preview of the 2019 Lone Pine Film Festival (for Classic Movie Hub); Off to Lone Pine!; Back From Lone Pine!

Additional 2019 festival posts: Tonight's Movie: The Way West (1967) at the Lone Pine Film Festival; The Lone Pine Film Festival: Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) Locations Tour; Tonight's Movie: A Demon for Trouble (1934) at the Lone Pine Film Festival; Tonight's Movie: Indian Agent (1948) at the Lone Pine Film Festival; Tonight's Movie: Mustang Country (1976) at the Lone Pine Film Festival; Hop-a-long Cassidy (1935) on Location in Lone Pine (for Classic Movie Hub); Tonight's Movie: King of the Pecos (1936) at the Lone Pine Film Festival; The Lone Pine Film Festival: Final Roundup.

Related link: Tonight's Movie: The Highwaymen (2019).

For complete coverage of past Lone Pine Film Festivals, including many photographs and film reviews, please visit these links for 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. Each of these annual overview posts contains links to several additional posts covering that year's festival.