L.A. Story Meets Perry S. Chen of PerrysPreviews.com at LA Film Festival

One of the great opportunities I had while covering the Los Angeles Film Festival was meeting Perry Chen of PerrysPreviews.com and his mom, Zhu Shen.

I mentioned this 10-year-old film critic from San Diego in an earlier post, but I was able to meet him and Zhu in person during the festival, which was a real treat.

Perry is sharp, thoughtful and a big fan of his mom. In fact, Zhu is someone I really admire for her ability to challenge and support her son. What an amazing job she's doing!

While at the festival, I was able to catch two films with Perry and Zhu -- "Waiting for 'Superman'" (which Perry gave 4.5 Starfish; read his review here) and "Make Believe," an endearing family-friendly film from J. Clay Tweel about six young hopefuls from around the world who are preparing for the annual Teen World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas.

"Make Believe" won the Jury Award for Documentary at the festival. Another family-friendly entry, "Thunder Soul," which I mentioned in a previous post, won the festival's Audience Award for Documentary.