Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Hello, Dahlings!

Greetings from jolly olde England! Tamworth Library, to be exact. I've been here for two (gray, cloudy, sometimes rainy) days and am quite enjoying it. Festival attendance, as I feared, is negligible, but until Saturday the films are showing from 10am-5pm, and most people are at work. So it is mostly visiting filmmakers watching each others' films! Not that there's anything wrong with that. I have met some very cool people and the program director, Nick Hudson, is very hospitable. He arranged a LOVELY reception for the filmmakers at Tamworth Castle last evening, with wine, delicious canapes, and not only the Mayor, but three former mayors as well!I chatted it up with the current Mayor and guess what? I absolutely love this - he has a cousin in Baltimore. I am not making this up.

One of my fellow filmmakers also has relatives in Baltimore. His name is Kent, I am going to see his film this afternoon. It is called "Shotgun Jesus" and it is a documentary on truck stop evangelists. It sounds very interesting and I can't wait to see it.

I am glad to have met these other filmmakers (most of them are American) so I believe I will at least have a small audience for "Smalltimore". The event venue, the Csa Bar, which is sort of similar in size and layout to the Wind-Up Space, but it is more of a square than a rectangle and has a dozen leather sofas that are almost TOO comfortable. The manager there, Carl, is very nice and helped me to find a place to make some flyers to hopefully draw a few more people in. He also told me I might get a bit more of a crowd than some of the other screenings because there is a very important football (aka soccer) match that evening, so perhaps I will get some pre-gamers. Also my friends Matthew and Jim are coming up from London tomorrow to see it.

So, it is a mixed bag but I am enjoying it and now that I have met these other filmmakers, I definitely have something to look forward to each day, as their films are spread throughout the week. I can't remember all the names of them so I will try to check back here in a few days and tell you about them as I see them, perhaps Thursday. Tomorrow I will be busy with my London visitors and seeing one of my fellow filmmaker's screening that happens just before mine.

After the reception at the Castle last night, program director Nick treated half a dozen of us filmmakers to dinner at a very good Indian restaurant. Seated next to me was Amir, who lives in Berlin. I think his film shows on Friday. He seems a rather serious chap, but nice. I gave him a flyer for "Smalltimore". He looked at it for a moment and said quite bluntly, "This does not interest me. But you interest me, so I will see it, so that I can better know you."

Some people may have been offended by that, but I thought it was great, and I could say the same about some other movies. But from what little I have seen of each of these people I have met so far, even if the subject matter doesn't sound like I'd like it, I think I will be pleasantly surprised.

Last night was really nice. Sitting with these people, and realizing we are all in the same boat. Each traveling alone, putting our work in front of strangers, not really knowing what to expect of this week. There is a camaraderie in that.

And as I walked out of the Castle on our way to dinner, I snuck around onto the ramparts and took a few pictures of the beautiful green landscape below and the high stone wall that banks the path up to the Castle entrance. In between pictures I took a moment and a deep breath and looked out at this beauty with my naked eye, and I smiled and even had a little laugh to myself. Coming over here I was so worried about how many people would be seeing my movie. You know me, I HATE to have a small turnout, I am known for great parties! But here I was, in England, coming out of a reception held in the honor of me and my fellow filmmakers, in a thousand-year-old castle, with the Mayor. Who can complain?

2 comments:

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  2. 'He seems a rather serious chap, but nice. I gave him a flyer for "Smalltimore". He looked at it for a moment and said quite bluntly, "This does not interest me. But you interest me, so I will see it, so that I can better know you."'

    OK, so you have some dialogue for your next film....(An homage to '8 1/2'?)

    Sorry that your Berlin-based acquaintance sounded so...German.

    Sorry I'll be missing you...

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