Tuesday, July 1, 2008

13Bit Triumphal Conquest of France

It has been a month since 13Bit has posted, but what a month it has been. We have been hard at work finishing up Quesadilla, we have started writing our next narrative feature Venezuela, and we have been to the 25th Annual Avignon Film Festival.

Meredith just ran out of gas, incredibly, after two sentences, so I am taking over. Actually, it's not so incredible since we are both a teeny bit jet-lagged, but I got two hours more sleep than she did today and will cut her slack. I have to ask her how Lian is doing.

Anyway, it went well. Shoot, I am now running out of gas. What to say? It was a wonderful place. Jerry Rudes really knows how to put on a good festival - the best part of it, aside from the movies, being the atmosphere he created that put all of us filmmakers together. We did what we so often have been spastic at in the past: we talked with people - "networking," if you really must use that odious modern parlance, but that word really makes it sound like some mechanical, robotic action completely removed from real human interaction. We hung out, made acquaintances, and talked shop. It was a lot of fun and, trite as it may sound, an important part of being any kind of artist - hanging with one's peers. Now my own jet lag is showing, so please excuse the bad English and horrid syntax.

We loved Paris - I forgot how much I loved Paris - and may spend a year there one of these days, making a movie. The south was splendrous, the food was stupendous and the place we rented was a gas. When we were not at the festival, watching films, doing panels, eating at the Cinema Vox Terrace or going to other events, Meredith and Lian sped around Provence in a Citroen sports coupe and I retraced the Tour De France route on my bicycle. Well, almost.

They DID drive around in a Citroen and took magnificent hikes and I did bicycle around Provence on a mountain bike.

Anyway, it was a great time. We didn't do the writing we had planned, but it was a very loose plan and the festival took up all of our creative energies.

Now, we must work. Maybe we'll post photos tomorrow.

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