Last week, I travelled to Bentonville, Arkansas for the Bentonville Film Festival. It was a quick trip, so this is a quick trip report.
Part 3: Bentonville Film Festival
I came to the festival as a panelist for Google’s Science Speed Dating event.

See, there I am, surrounded by PhD’s who all have very professional headshots.
My fellow scientists/engineers and I gave quick talks to small groups of filmmakers. I told each group about my path in computer science, starting as a cheerleader in high school, pursuing a BS at UCLA while competing in hackathons, and my current job at Google/YouTube, where I recently worked on mobile autoplay.

After the science speed dating, we reconvened for a Q&A session. We had so many attendees tell us that the event was interesting and valuable. Living in SF, I take for granted the readily available access to scientists and engineers.

Other highlights from the festival:
- “Geena and Friends”, a table read where Geena Davis and her friends reimagined scenes that were all male into all female scenes. Hosted at the beautiful Crystal Bridges Museum.
- Meeting Nia Vardalos 😍
- Seeing Captain America: Civil War
- Seeing Maggie’s Plan
- Amazing Reel vs Real Diversity panel
- Ice cream store at the Walmart Museum that gives you a couple bites of ice cream for $0.50 (honestly, don’t you just want two bites of ice cream)
- Running into Science Speed Dating attendees all over the fest who were still excited and inspired after the event!
Other posts about Bentonville Film Festival: #bff2016