Action!

The beach is good for many things, but culture is rarely one of them.

So after getting settled in and having dinner with a good friend on a patio where we saw three army planes fly overhead in formation, I was ready to be stimulated.

The James River Filmmakers Forum was just the ticket.

A bar, free popcorn and a roomful of talent ensured a stimulating way to spend the evening.

I even had company, sitting down next to a woman who told me she "lived on the bay."

And yet here she was on this Saturday night.

Surely there was a story there.

Further nosiness revealed that she lives in Whitestone, has no husband or boyfriend (so usually cooks Punjabi for herself) and drove in because she'd previously seen the work of Fabian Rush, one of the filmmakers screening tonight.

From me, she wanted to know what I thought of Deco, how often I came to the Northern Neck and if I was a filmmaker.

All this and popcorn gratis.

Tonight's event was dedicated to long-time James River Film Society volunteer James Parrish, not because he's dead but because he's moved on to other film-related projects.

His honey-coated southern drawl will be missed.

Screened first was Fabian Rush's "DWAM," which he described as resulting from making his nightmares into short, surrealistic films.

A horror film, in other words, that captured the mood and essence of a dream.

This one was about a woman who lives alone in the woods (always a bad idea) with a wolf/dog and what happens when she begins to hear demonic sounds at 3 a.m.

Nothing good, I can assure you.

For something completely different, we then saw an installment of the Dodd Brothers' web series, "The Drunk Skeptic."

Centered around two PBR-drinking guys (ergo, set in Richmond), this episode was called, "Pick Up Your F*cking Trash."

A slacker comedy, it involved one of the guys being hit by a car, only to have his head cut open and beer inserted.

On the plus side, they reattached the top of his head and he came back to life.

Just for the record, both of the first two films featured characters with nose rings.

I don't know if it means anything, but I thought it was worth noting.

Next up was "Anxiety Dream," an experimental film by Jeff Roll, organizer of the Filmmakers Forum.

He told us beforehand that the idea for the film came about because his apartment had been burglarized a decade ago, resulting in years of waking up and walking around thinking he'd heard something.

The dark and moody black and white film was his tribute to silent-era German Expressionist films.

Afterwards, to lighten the mood, he told us that the menacing figure in the film had been played by the guy who was now tending bar in the back of the room.

From there, we went to a documentary called "The Bugler's Statue" by Les Owen.

A musician in an army band, Les is also the video producer for the U.S. Army band in Washington.

His film concerned the creation of a statue of a bugler to go in the visitors' center at Arlington Cemetery to represent the Arlington experience.

The army chose an actual bugler who was sent to a studio in NYC where, over the course of a day, they made casts of his face (complete with pursed lips for bugle-blowing), legs (wearing tights), torso and hands (one of which they forgot to grease first, meaning when they removed the cast, it took the hair off his hand, too).

As much as I know about casting sculpture from art history classes, I'd never seen the process done and it was fascinating to watch.

One of the pieces in the studio was of Jefferson, the same one done for the Virginia State Capital, so there was even a hometown touch in the film.

We took a short break to mingle, visit the menacing bartender and regroup before seeing the final film, "The Coward," by far the longest movie we saw at 27 minutes.

Filmmaker Joe Duca said he'd been inspired to make a modern silent film because of his love for Impressionism and his lack of money for microphones.

It was abundantly clear by this point that in order to make films, one must have a sense of humor.

Set in 1945, the black and white film concerned a group of soldiers acting badly and the consequences of it.

At first, I thought the soldiers all looked impossibly young but it soon occurred to me that that's reality, especially back when men would lie about their age to enlist sooner.

A couple of times during the film, there was a glitch and the images froze for a second or two and you could feel the tension in the room as people held their breath to see what was next.

We kept hoping our hero would man up and take control, but, alas, it wasn't to be.

By the end of the screening, I'd been reminded of one thing.

The beach may feed my soul but I need the city to feed my head.

Taking the pulse of the filmmaking community made for a really good mind meal.

If only it could lull me to sleep like the waves.