Blueberry Mountain

926pm - Tuesday night 1/22/08



Sitting in Venster 3 waiting for My Blueberry Nights to start. Student ID came through for me. 5 euros. Saw a few interesting things today worth a line or two. I saw a crowd of people standing around a man with a bloodied face. He was sitting on the ground like at a sit-in and looked as still as glass. People were kneeling down to help him. Must have been a fight. OH, I saw two soldiers walking in lock-step through the Schipol Airport carrying machine guns which I thought would make my brother say "Cool." On my way to the theater, I saw a man and a woman in a tight embrace, the man's arms noticeably looser than the woman's. As I passed, I heard a quick, sniffling cry. But Rotterdam isn't all sadness, fights and automatic weapons.

945a - woensdag 23 jan - scene missing

8.05pm - woensdag 23 jan
Heath Ledger is dead. WTF. I went and saw Brokeback Mountain in order to eulogize him and wondering if it holds up on a 2nd viewing. It does. It's fantastic and heartbreaking. Why can't people who want to be together be together? It sucks but it's ubiquitous.

It's opening night here in Rotterdam. I'm in a gorgeous theater that feels like the inside of a Godzilla sized lego. Lots of blocks protruding from the walls. It's huge. A place for symphonies and operas most likely. It's in the festival HQ building called De Doelen. It's night. People are dressed so fashionably. Kinda wish I had the white suit. Very kinda wish. Opening night film is about to start. Lights have dimmed. Lights have undimmed. Lights have dimmed again...for good. Haven't eaten dinner. Had a glass of champagne. I love the IFFR logo. It's sideways and the word 'Rotterdam' is cut off at the bottom. It's so damn cool. --scene missing-- I credit the boss IFFR messenger bag I've received. If you had any doubts about how grand this fest is, bear in mind my guest director badge has my picture on it and a bar code. I have a bar code! Rutger Wolfson is talking right now, thanking peeps and now he's introducing the Mayor of Rotterdam. There must be some royalty in the audience because they keep saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen and Your excellencies."

840pm - Thursday jan 24
My film is world premiering right now. I just ate a spinach and goat cheese crepe from the festival crepe station set up inside the Lantaren/Venster. (scene missing)

Film Count: 5
Short Count: 15

So, let me give you a festival rundown. As a GD, or guest director, I receive free tickets to everything. You can only collect tickets to films the day before they screen, with a few exceptions. I have a director's dinner on Saturday night which I hope will be fun. All the short films are concentrated in one venue so that's more or less where I'll be all weekend mainly to see the other shorts in competition. Unfortunately, they've very spread out in programmes. I've seen two really good shorts so far, but I've yet to see a good narrative fiction one. Those two blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction and experimental. It's on us the audience to decide. A couple of Germans are in the hostel with me. One I later found out was French. One of them took my bed, so I'm now in a top bunk. Kinda sucks but I've never there. Richard, a location manager at IFFR, asked me if Georgia was near Texas and I told him it was a few states over and he was embarrassed. (scene missing about how the Dutch wear their scarves) It's about time to go into the Lantaren and check on The Adventure. Didn't have time to tech it so I hope it's okay. Everything else has been good so I'm not worried.

more later...sorry I can't do this more often, but I just want to watch movies all day.