Festival Diary - Day 11

Here it is, the last day. Much like the last day of term; there was no real structure to the day, so most people wandered around waiting for the clock to hit 6 o'clock so we could drink. After a delicious meal at Wagamama's, I caught the final hour of The People Vs. George Lucas, which was a mismatch of angry fans telling me how rubbish The Phantom Menace was. Sometimes amusing (mainly through clips from shows such as Spaced and South Park), but also severely schizophrenic - skipping from one opinion to the next without any real hesitation.

New York, I Love You was thankfully more consistent with it's message: love is nice. From the same producer as Paris, Je t'aime, comes another collection of short stories made by a variety of filmmakers, starring a whole bunch of fairly well-known actors, all set in New York. Overall the film works pretty well, with only a few shorts falling flat (the Shia Labeouf one is particularly wanky), and reaffirmed my love for Ethan Hawke and his ability to inapporpriately approach women.


After the film we went downstairs where we drank, did some mandatory dance moves ('the weatherman' was a new one for me), followed by some unnecessary whooping and yelling. All in all, a great evening to round off a great experience.

But I'm very glad I have the day off today :)

Festival Diary - Day 8 + 9 + 10

Ok, I'm getting lazy.

Days seem to blur now as the festival starts to draw to a close. Most activities involve mad dashes around town and nagging bloggers to post stuff about the festival. However, in between such riveting activities I have managed to catch a couple of films.

After lots of women ran around screaming how good Babies (or Bébés if you insist on calling everything by its original title), I had to see what all the fuss was about. A documentary about 4 babies growing up in 4 very different parts of the world (Namibia, Tokyo, Mongolia, and San Fransisco) had the potential of being an extended episode of Americas Funniest Videos. However, turns out it's a funny, emotional, and extremely well made documentary about the nature of growing up. Despite the vast differences in cultures, all the babies exhibit similar desires and needs: their mother's attention, exploration, mischief, tormenting animals. It obviously avoided all the worst parts of childhood - late night tantrums, nappy changing etc - but that wouldn't make for a very entertaining 90 minutes.


The next film was not so great. The Masks of Mer is a documentary about some guy going to some island and talking about aboriginal masks, blah blah blah. I was dragged in, and call me ignorant but it was fucking boring. Probably still better than Round Ireland with a Fridge though.

Festival Diary - Day 6 + 7

I was too busy/lazy yesterday to blog so I've lumped 6 + 7 together. Hope you don't mind.

So day 6 was same old - selling films that no one wants to see. I was asked to take some fliers out to all the oriental/asian markets around Cambridge. I didn't feel racist until I saw the flier was advertising a Kung-Fu movie.

Day 7 and things are sloooowing down. As there are less and less films to advertise there's less to do (for me anyway). Which meant I had time to sneak off and see a film! Unfortunately I chose very poorly - Round Ireland with a Fridge starring Tony Hawks (not the skateboarder). Not that I'm saying it's bad... just not my type of comedy. Should have known really, as it was the same director who made My Family. Anyway, they fed whiskey to the crowd so there was a good atmosphere.

The 2nd most famous Tony Hawks in the world introduces the film

Festival Diary - Day 5

Phew, nearly halfway through, but its taking it toll on some people. I might suggest 'nap time' tomorrow. After the heavy weekend it felt a little more subdued today, which was a nice change of pace.

Today I coordinated an interview between a journalist and a filmmaker, which was quite fun. As she hadn't seen the film that was being shown at the festival, I took the journalist to a screening room so we could both watch the short feature. We were quite enjoying the tense narrative and surprisingly good acting, but at the end of the film we turned to each other and almost simultaneously said "I don't get it". The open ending left so many questions! The journalist looked a bit terrified of how she was going to interview someone who's film she didn't quite understand - I wonder how she got on...

And my diet seems to be mainly caked-based at the moment:

Festival Diary - Day 4

The days are going so fast now! Already on day 4 (also known as 'Mark Kemode' day). Along with the usual flier making (getting pretty good at these), I was assigned 2 intros today. 2! First one was ok until a German woman shouted at me for not speaking loud enough; very off putting. Then the 2nd was the reissue of From Here to Eternity which had to be my biggest crowd yet, ie. more than 30 people. I got through it with my dignity intact. A fellow intern resorted to telling 'knock knock' jokes to fill in for a delayed performance, so could have gone worse.

Mark Kemode performed with his skiffle band, then did an impromptu introduction to Cronos. But the highlight of my day, however, was helping out on the Fitzwilliam outdoor screenings, which replaced the Magdalene Street Screenings this year. It was basically a free event of silent cinema with live musical accompaniment held on the Fitzwilliam lawns. It was great. Even though I was a lowly steward I got to watch the whole thing!

Working at a film festival, you really do cherish the things you get for free.

Festival Diary - Day 3

The weekends at Film Festivals are always notoriously busy and today was no exception. After battling with seperate printers, I finally had copies for our daily meeting at 12; where we were told which films needed the most plugging - all of them. So we got busy flier/poster making!

Today I was asked to do my first ever introduction to a film, which was extremely exciting. Only problem was I'd never heard of the director or the films they were showing - Roy Andersson Shorts (he's Swedish or somefink). So I did my research, then 5 minutes before the screening I was whisked off to perform in front of an astounding 20 people! I did a perfectly adequate introduction - even if I did a patronising little "hope you enjoy!" at the end. My day was then rounded off with the usual guarding a tent for 2 hours. Huzzah!

Didn't take a picture today so here's Lily Allen dressed in a panda costume.

Festival Diary - Day 2

Only on our 2nd day and already the festival feels like it's in full swing, with screenings starting before I'd even gotten into the office! Everyone seems very settled into their roles and look like they know what they're doing - glad someone does. Today consisted of more writing for fliers, printing, laminating (which I find strangely satisfying), and generally running around the cinema like a headless chicken. I was lucky enough to catch my first film of the festival - Stephen Fry's Wagner and Me, which was fantastic. I must admit, being the ignoramus that I am, I've never really bothered listening to Wagner but Fry's enthusiasm is infectious!

I've recently noticed that I'm becoming approached by more filmmakers to help promote their movies. This is both flattering and terrifying. Having only dealt with promoting films via a DVD box and a brief synopsis, it's great to finally meet the filmmakers themselves and talk about how they would like to expose their films to the British press. I was even chatting to a New York filmmaker about how good the American accents were in The Wire courtesy of the British actors. I felt proud. Plus there were CAKES!!!!

How can you eat a piece of art? Quite easily apparently

My last task of the day was slightly more humbling: being asked to guard a tent in a shopping centre for 4 and a half hours. Film Festivals, eh!?