Selected excerpts only:

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Tomorrow, I leave for Europe. It will be my first time in another country. First time in a hostel. First time In Competition at the Int'l Film Festival of Rotterdam. My short film, The Adventure, is lucky enough to already be there. I took this photo the day I mailed it overseas.

I have butterflies in my stomach right now. At first I wanted to say, "I had a bunch of butterflies in my stomach", but then I thought mankind must have assigned a proper word for describing a group of butterflies, something akin to a school of fish or a pride of lions, but apparently no such word existed until recently. NABA, the North American Butterfly Association, called on its members a few years ago to solve this crisis and this list of candidates emerged. My favorites are the violent ones like 'an explosion of butterflies', and 'a riot of butterflies'. I also like the completely absurd 'an ascension of butterflies.' Adult butterflies live approximately one month, which is about how long I will be Europe unless the unthinkable happens and someone gives me a job directing Russian candy commercials.

I've never been so excited and anxious about anything...

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

It's opening night here in Rotterdam. I'm in a gorgeous theater that feels like the inside of a Godzilla sized lego. Lots of blocks protruding from the walls. It's huge. A place for symphonies and operas most likely. It's in the festival HQ building called De Doelen. It's night. People are dressed so fashionably. Kinda wish I had the white suit. Very kinda wish. Opening night film is about to start. Lights have dimmed. Lights have undimmed. Lights have dimmed again...for good. Haven't eaten dinner. Had a glass of champagne. I love the IFFR logo. It's sideways and the word 'Rotterdam' is cut off at the bottom. It's so damn cool. --scene missing-- I credit the boss IFFR messenger bag I've received. If you had any doubts about how grand this fest is, bear in mind my guest director badge has my picture on it and a bar code. I have a bar code! Rutger Wolfson is talking right now, thanking peeps and now he's introducing the Mayor of Rotterdam. There must be some royalty in the audience because they keep saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen and Your excellencies."

Friday, January 25, 2008

Well, I may have made my first festival friend. Guess what we talk about. That's right, movies...and culture. I find myself constantly saying Americans don't do this and don't do that. His name is Bartosz(pronounced Bar-tosh) and he's a Pole in film school in Munich. His film, Polska Roadmovie, plays before mine in the program and it's really good.

I've just realized I haven't spoken too much in detail about the [January 24] world premiere of The Adventure. I was a nervous Nellie and asked to see the projectionist and I wasn't able to tech the movie, but it was a flawless projection right out of the gate. I have seen only 1 tech issue so far and it was minor. I sat outside the entire time, except to make sure the film was okay. Sacha, a programme advisor, introduced us all at the beginning. All directors were present: Bartosz, me, and Kim Jong-Kwan from South Korea who doesn't speak that much English, but the festival has interpreters for everyone. You could speak Navajo and they wouldn't bat an eye. At the Q&A, no one asked me any questions which was disappointing, but Sacha said several people told her they didn't want to hear an explanation of the film, as if I would ruin the film with one! I do have a joke explanation saved up for my American premiere, whenever and wherever that happens to be.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Best of the fest so far for me is a short titled Dear Bill Gates. It made me almost cry. I love it. A young girl, twenty something, writes an email or two to Bill Gates and explores his Corbis project in which he's purchased over 11 million photographs of our US history and stored them 200 feet below the surface in a former limestone mine called Iron Mountain, which is in a small town in Pennsylvania that has been on fire for 40 years. About images, collective memory, photography's vulnerability, how no one really owns anything anymore or shouldn't and the pitfalls of said ownership. It's so personal and vulnerable and insightful. It's a wounded film.

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Feature Count: 26

Shorts Programmes Count: 15

I've told you about several of the short films and a feature or two of note that I saw here. A few more include:

Wonderful Town - This film is from Thailand and I saw it at 10am this morning and it is fantastic! There is a big difference between a 10am movie and a 930am movie. That half an hour makes all the difference. I was like a bird at a feeder for this film. It's going on to play Berlin. One writer once said there are only two kinds of stories; 1) A stranger comes into town. 2)I don't remember what this one is. Sorry. This was the first one. It's set in a small town in Southern Thailand that was destroyed by the 2004 tsunami. A love story and much more. Fabulous!

Trumbo - A documentary about the screenwriter and man of letters. Craig Zobel was the production manager. How about that? Kudos, Craig. If you like to write, you'll want to imitate DT and change your name to a much cooler one. He was blacklisted and went to prison for a year for contempt because he refused to answer the immortal question, "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist a Party?"

Limite - This is the Brazilian silent film with 3 intertitles, all of which are in Portugeuse and not subtitled. I was waiting for them the entire film. Wonderful movie. Feels like something that inspired Terrence Malick and was inspired by Murnau and the surrealists.

Der Verlorene - German for "The Lost One". Peter Lorre directed and stars in this. He went back to Germany to direct it. I once heard someone refer to his eyes as 'heavy-lidded'. It's true. He carries this film with the help of 1000 packs of cigarettes. Seriously, he puts one out, he lights one up. There is never a second when he is not smoking...or drinking. And he plays a doctor. I loved it because it's old and Peter Lorre isn't playing a sniveling little weasel, at least not throughout the whole movie. Very talkative.

Film - Samuel Beckett's only film. Buster Keaton is in it. Boris Kaufman shot it. It's quite funny, especially if you like Beckett. I loved it. It's a short.

Fujian Blue - A Chinese film. Great. Original in conception and execution.

Momma's Man - I really enjoyed it, but I take issue with the film not revealing that one nugget of information.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

I am staying in a small apartment near the Metro station Parmentier in the Arabic part of Paris, though I haven't seen all that many Arabs. Juliana and Jean-Michel are my hosts thanks to Andrea and they are as kind as Mother Theresa. She is an artist and he is a schoolteacher of physics and chemistry. They include me in everything they do. Today, I went to table tennis practice with Jean-Michel and then to dinner at a friend of theirs' home in Montmarte. His name is Sylvan and he is a math teacher. We ate fondue, drank a seemingly unending amount of wine and I tried my best to understand their conversations in French. It was like being in a New Yorker article.

I do the tourist things during the day and at night, I hang out with my gracious hosts. I could talk about the Eiffel Tower for an hour and I will say the best part is being underneath it. I love it so.

Tomorrow, I am Louvre-ing. Paris is huge and abstract and real. It is not just a place on a map anymore.

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