It's been an exhausting weekend, and none of us really feel like going to dinner or sticking around. (Partly, I'll admit, because I did think we had a chance to win. I know YOU didn't because I told you we wouldn't, but hey, there's always the disappointment when your number doesn't come up.) I sit down in the filmmakers lounge and try to write some semblance of an article down on my laptop from the ridiculously scattered and cryptic notes that litter my program.
So now, from the present, over a week later, trying to finish this thing with the deadline looming. Trying to really find its voice. This isn't a piece of hard hitting journalism, when all is said and done. But not all Gonzo is hard hitting. The good doctor himself didn't know when to stop ranting, after all. But to conclude, how does one do that? My festival cherry has been popped, to steal a phrase from the “Why We Wax” girls (and I do talk about them a lot, don't I?) and hanging out on the other side I can honestly say I don't think I've had that much fun in a weekend in quite a long time. Seeing it from the trenches, as someone actually in competition gave me an appreciation for the difficulties that face a filmmaker, for watching it with an audience.
To spend this time with filmmakers makes you realize that there are others like you, and that a festival can be their mecca.
Just another freak in the freak kingdom.
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David B. Grelck is a filmmaker and photographer. His first film, White Out, is being distributed on DVD worldwide, and the short film he wrote, produced and starred in “Gnome Man’s Land” is a web sensation. |
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