A 9am start to the festival after a 2am finish was a tad optimistic so I missed the first film, a documentary 'happy' that was apparently good. I stayed in my room working very hard to convince myself I did not have a hangover. On a scale of one to ten it was probably a three. A three requires plenty of water, not a lot of movement, and minimal critical thinking. A four or five is when you start reaching for panadol, and a six to eight requires a bucket, and eight to ten requires absolutely no critical thinking, a bucket, a bed, and a whole day for recovery. You can see why I was determined not to have a full scale hangover whilst away. I felt lucky and a little impressed with myself to escape with a three. But As the day wore on it did work it's way up to a five, and I had to take a break from sitting upright and reading subtitles - i was nodding off. So at about 4pm I headed back to my room for a nanna nap.
i thought it a little strange that it wasnt a given that all the award winners films were screened. Push Bike was not going to be screened because it had been entered into the screenplay competition and it wasn't a requirement that the screenplay had been produced. However, at the mixer the night before Voula (which I spelt wrong in an earlier blog) took my copy from me and said they would screen it. Unfortunately though the copy I had wouldnt play, so... No go. I agreed with the festival's choice for the only trophy of the festival, everyone else just received certificates. the winner was a comedy 'the shoes maketh the man' and I thought it deserved the win, it was one of my favorites, particularly the lead actor's performance.
My award for the dud of the festival went to... I'm trying to think of a good word to describe it but I'm sitting here in the airport shaking my head, at a loss to explain how monumentally crap it was on so many levels (sorry Voula). Perhaps if I just say it was funded by a church, had no live action, was way, way too long and was what seemed to be a not very accomplished exercise in photoshop. For example, the last sequence was saying He is in you, so we saw a whole string of images of people, all types from all over the world, and their faces would be Photoshopped out and jesus's face photoshopped in it's place - brilliant hey! all the while some sort of ugly synth music playing. Oh how I hate to be preached to in films or literature!! I was a little annoyed at myself for not walking out but I wasnt in my country, I was a visitor and I didn't want to offend.
The award ceremony followed, and it was lovely that all the recipients were allowed to make a little speech. here we found out that filmmakers from all over had traveled to be there. All parts of the US of course and Japan, Austria, Vancouver, and me from Oz. And then after the ceremony, guess what, more karaoke!
It was disappointing that so many were scared off and didn't come, I really felt for the organizers Voula and Karla. If it wasn't for their bright, warm and enthusiastic interaction with us all it could have felt like a real fizzer. But they rallied at every opportunity to make us all feel welcome and valued. And they wrangled us all together at karaoke, organized our drinks and they even bought me a breakfast and lunch! they made the difference between it being a non-event, or worse, to a time I will remember forever.
Mwuh girls xxxx
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