Guest Blogger: Kay Panabaker from 'Moondance Alexander'

Back to that whole "the people in Calgary are the best!" theme - this photo was taken when TJ Bews (who together with Kirk Jarrett owned and trained most of the horses in the film - and trained me!) had us over for dinner with his family - yep, that's where I want to retire!

Hi there! My name's Kay Panabaker and I play Moondance Alexander in the film called Moondance Alexander. For those of you who don't know me, I'm 17 and when I'm not acting I'm a history major at the University of California at Los Angeles. I've just started my senior year and when I graduate I hope to be a 4th or 5th grade teacher. Or I might want to do something that involves working with kids and animals, because I'm a really big animal lover.

For now, though, I'm enjoying my work as an actress. Last summer I went to Canada to shoot Moondance Alexander, and I was excited to go because I'd worked before in Canada and really liked the people. My very first job was in Vancouver and Victoria, on the west coast, and I'd visited Nova Scotia on the east coast, but this was somewhere I'd never been! I've visited all 50 states in the US, so now I'm thinking that I might have to try and visit all the provinces in Canada!Speaking of TJ and Kirk, that's the 3 of us getting ready to shoot the last scene of the film! I love how you can see forever from that hillside!

Alberta, Canada is BEAUTIFUL! When I was working up there, I kept telling everyone that I wanted to retire there. Half of the people told me not to wait until I retired (since that's going to be quite a while) and the other half reminded me that I hadn't spent a winter there yet, and it can get pretty cold! There was so much to see - rolling hills, beautiful sunsets (really late at night - like 9:30 - that was really strange!), mountains, a beautiful lake, incredible clouds against a blue, blue sky - I'm including some pictures so that you can see why I fell in love with the place.

We worked long days and I spent at least one day a weekend with the horses, so I didn't have a lot of free time, but I did get to see a little bit of the area. Although we flew into the Calgary airport, and I visited the Calgary Zoo and The Keg restaurant in Calgary (a must-do when we're in Canada!) we really spent all our time in smaller towns, like Okotoks (pronounced Oak-uh-toaks) where our hotel was, and High River where the production office was, and Longview where I spent my weekends riding. One weekend we drove up to the West Edmonton Mall, which is a HUGE indoor mall with 2 miniature golf courses, an IMAX theater, a skating rink, a penguin exhibit, an indoor waterpark, a seal and sea lion show - so much to do! (And Mary, who helped me with my outfits in the movie, sent me with bubble baths so that I could relax while we were there - isn't she the greatest?) Another time we drove over to the Lake Louise area of Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies, which was beautiful.

So that's a little bit about me and about why I'm involved with the Calgary International Film Festival. I am SO EXCITED to be heading back! I had hoped to go back this summer to work as a ranch hand for TJ Bews, who worked with the horses on the film and taught me to ride, but first I had another movie come up and then I had school, so I never made it. To be able to go back to an area I LOVE, to share a movie that I LOVED making, and hopefully visit with some of the LOVELY people that I worked with on it? Priceless!

If you're reading this, I hope you'll make plans to come to the Calgary International Film Festival on Sunday, September 23 at 1PM to see Moondance Alexander screened at the Eau Claire Market Cineplex Odeon. I'll tell you more about the film itself later, but let me just say now that you won't believe the beautiful scenery in the movie - you'll get to see some of those rolling hills and beautiful sunsets that I thought were so awesome. I think it's a great advertisement for Calgary - after seeing this film people are going to say "That's beautiful! I want to go there!" I'm going to be there for the screening on September 23, I'm hoping that a lot of the people who worked on it will be there, and I'd love to meet you there, too!

This is Lake Louise in the Banff National Forest. What a view!

We were driving home from work one day, and the sunlight was streaming down through the clouds over this farmhouse in the distance, and I said what a great picture it was, so our driver Kim pulled over so I could take the picture - the people in Calgary are the best!