Well, I have to say after just getting back from Berlin that I am in a little bit of shock still. I miss it already. The Berlinale is truly amazing. Not only because Berlin is such a great city, but the number of films in both the festival itself, and the market, is massive -- Plus all the programmers who go, the distributors to meet with and the parties to attend.
My days were non-stop and in a perfect way. The jet lag actually works to our benefit, as I didn’t get tired at night at all. So staying up for events was easy.
The city was freezing. I must be a wimp because it felt colder than Calgary at times. I must say too it definitely takes some time being there to really figure the festival all out, how to get tickets, the subway system, where the best baguettes are found, and how not to have a 12 EUR gin & tonic.
I met with over 15 distributors, saw a ton of great films, and grabbed enough catalogues that I couldn’t carry my suitcase any more.
…. Well, and a great pair of boots. Lets not forget the awesome Berlin shopping.
The theatres…. WOOOOOWWWW. Each new theatre I went to amazed me more than the last. They were huge, beautiful architecture and looked like they were made for the festival.
I had a couple screw ups though. I went to one that I was the most excited about and discovered no English subtitles at all. We had the best seats, and lasted 10-miuntes before we just gave up. Another one I had to wear a translator headset for the English. This was one of the lamest ways to listen to a film. Especially when the translator would leave the button pressed too long and you would hear blank static instead of the films soundtrack.
Some of my highlights were A WOMAN, A GUN AND A NOODLE SHOP (based off of the Coen Brothers Blood Simple, but in Chinese), A SOMEWHAT GENTLE MAN, (Norwegian film) and EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (a documentary on Banksey the world renowned graffiti artist)
