Big in Japan

[At the Indie Fest Awards with Sotu a.k.a. the CannibAlien, whose short "CannibAlien" also won]

I promised on the STM Facebook page that the next posting would be about the photo on this link:

http://ameblo.jp/cannibalien/image-10344096510-10255080138.html

I can't seem to copy & paste the pic, which sucks because I really love this pic! It is even better than the one above. Everything on the page is in Japanese, though, so I can't tell if there is a way to do it that I can't figure out.

Well, ALMOST everything is in Japanese. The caption of this photo reads "CannibAlien Can't Eat Rat". I was quite taken aback by this. I thought maybe Sotu thought it was a page I would never see and he was outright insulting me! This hurt my feelings, because he was very nice at the film festival and I talked to him several times. But finally I found that using one of the buttons that are in Japanese, I could scroll through other pictures of him with the mask at the awards night, and in all of them, he was pretending to eat some screaming person, and under each, the caption was, "CannibAlien Can't Eat Rat." Maybe it is a generalization about Americans, or maybe this is a ridiculously funny joke in Japan that just doesn't translate. Couldn't tell you.

Without rehashing everything I have already told you about Indie Fest and how weird it was to be in freakin' Disney Land by one's self, I do want to tell you a little about Sotu (as I only know a little about him). I believe he is the writer/director on CannibAlien, but I am not sure because his English was limited (though 100% better than my Japanese), and that is not the name on the credits.

I think Sotu was the only other filmmaker at the fest who was traveling by himself. The first day, he asked me where the sign-in table was and I pointed it out to him. The second night, I was standing in front of the theater waiting for the nightly Disney fireworks to start. He was nearby and kept looking at me. I knew he wanted to talk to me, but since for the first day and a half no one was really socializing, I was sliding dangerously deep into solitary mode. All these things were going through my stupid head,

Jeanie, for pete's sake, just talk to the poor guy, he obviously wants to talk to you, and I don't think it is in a hitting-on-me way at all, I am not getting that vibe, he's just alone, like you, in this weird place, which is even weirder for him because it is a foreign country, just give him the green light to say hello, you are probably looking like a stuck-up bitch right now, just SAY SOMETHING,

He kept lurking about and finally started talking to me, and I think we were both relieved. After that, it was all good and when we would run into each other at the fest we would smile and chat for a minute, and I was very happy for him when his short won because it was honestly REALLY good and he seemed to relax and have a lot of fun that night.

I just flipped back through the posts I wrote from Indie Fest, and I can't believe I didn't mention Bob Keiper. He is an actor who had a short in the fest. I met him at the Opening Night Party, while we were in line waiting to go into the ballroom at the Disney Hotel. He is an older gentleman, and asked if he could cut in line with me, his family was already inside. We exchanged vital movie-related stats while we shuffled slowly to the door, and once inside, he invited me to sit at the table with him and his wife and the director and producer of his movie, "A Dance of Two". Bob lives in Northern Virginia and we had a lot to chat about, and I spent a good bit of time talking to his very sweet wife, also. They both talked about how Bob was not usually very outgoing in a crowd of people that he doesn't know, so it is hard for him to force himself to network. Of course I said, me, too! Later, Bob and I walked around a little bit and did exactly that. It was easier to do it with someone who felt the same way. I've taken that walk sometimes with people who are VERY good at schmoozing and I can sometimes become a shrinking violet in that situation. But here was Bob, who has not only got a few years on me but is also SAG, and he is just as shy as I can be when I am out of my element! To have a compatriot in that situation made it a lot easier and a lot more enjoyable.

When I first got my feet wet in the biz, I thought I was the only one who felt that way, but in talking to a lot of filmmakers, I have found out that it is really the norm. We're all in the same boat. We are in an unfamiliar city, sometimes even in an unfamiliar country, putting ourselves on display via our films, waiting to be judged, hoping for the best and almost constantly just wishing someone would talk to us.

At the Heart of England Festival, my first, it was cool because everything was so contained, and none of the other filmmakers had brought a traveling companion, and most of them were American, so we just automatically hung out together. In Philly, I was a bit overwhelmed, it was much larger, much more spread out, social gatherings every night, and everyone was rabidly marketing themselves. Mikey was there with me, and in retrospect, I will admit I used him as a crutch and was not nearly as social as I should have been, though I did meet several people there with whom I am still in touch.

But Indie Fest really sealed the deal for me in a way, and it is frustrating to me now to not have another festival lined up because now I think I've got it. I met some people there who made some GREAT movies, and some of them had rather large groups with them, but they seemed really happy when I would make the rally call, "Let's go have a drink at the House of Blues!" Winning Best Director gave me more confidence in my abilities in that capacity, but attending these festivals has given me immeasurably more confidence in my self, and I am finding myself to be comfortable more and more often in situations that not that long ago would have completely stressed me out.

Some filmmakers put WAY too many expectations on the festival circuit, and others think it is a load of crap and there is little to be gained from it. The people who keep their respective faiths at those opposing extremes are missing much of the point and most of the fun, in my opinion. I went into this with no delusions of grandeur, and personally, I think they were worth every penny.